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Keraunos I'm going to sound blunt (partly because it's getting late) but "public health PR work — of the kind done in Finland". it is not rocket science. I doubt there is any literate person past the age of 10 that does not know that fresh vegetables, real meat, water, fruit etc and decent exercise are needed to be healthy. And that Mcdonalds, energy drinks and biscuits are bad for your health. Does anybody ever think "ooh I put on a bit of weight, it must be the lettuce/running"? I dont think awareness is an issue at all. I think the issue is people caring enough in a world where we can just walk to the supermarket and get all the food we can eat, do a desk job that doesn't require a 100% healthy body, and plenty of people who pretend that being obese is fine.
I dont think the SUV analogy quite fits. Imagine there was socialised fuel, but rather than measure each person's share by litres of fuel, it was just however much it took to fill your car, and you get refills as soon as the fuel is over. Now imagine some people decided to drive in the most fuel inefficient way possible, and then still demand the same share as the more careful drivers.
" Is it corporate lobbyists such as the Chamber of Commerce, who have managed to reduce the total corporate contribution to the U.S. tax pool from 23% to 7%" That's only because when you tax someone who makes their money producing a product or service they will cover that tax by upping their price.
To me, it is not so much an issue of who specifically took that money, more that the money was taken against that person's consent. If said person does not agree to have a certain portion of his labour seized, he will be physically forced into a small cell for an extended time. Yet this person has not infringed on the safety or property of any other person. And socialism and government is just an idea, government does not actually produce anything. It takes from the labour and property of individuals. Individuals require their own labour and property to be able to contribute to society. The less they have, the less they can contribute. Eventually it collapses, I believe. Everything becomes expensive to cover the cost funding the different services, covering the records of all the taxes, all the regulations, and the tax gatherings. The productive then become less independent and then require more social services, which require more taxes and after a while everyone gets dragged down to the same low level.
And even that aside, the attitude I get when I talk to socialists. The attitude is always "I dont understand money, i cant be bothered to, and I dont want to take risks so ill get the government to do money things for me. But that also means they have to do the money things for other people who might want to learn how to manage their own money". And this subcontracting of their thinking quickly moves to other areas.There are so many socialists I know where you can't really have an interesting conversation about anything. And I mean anything. Any kind of thought about some science idea? "leave it to the experts", any thought on films? "leave it to the experts", everything just becomes a contracting of all thoughts to some authority. In every thing. Literally all you can discuss is "the weather is nice, I enjoyed that burger" or things directly related to their job. I swear some socialists dont even think through what you've told me, they are just socialists because they want someone else to do their thinking.