*throws off sheeps clothing*

So tell me again how many americans are without health insurance?

Should a government, whose function is enforcing the civil peace, emphasis on the -force-, really be in the business of selling insurance? Seems to this libertarian that it should really be done as part of the service industry portion of the private sector. There's too much of "the gov't oughtta this and oughtta that."

Government agencies are never as monetarily efficient as private-enterprise endeavors, so their functions should be confined solely to those endeavors a society considers necessary, but which no one really can manage to make a profit at. Most of these functions are protective of the society overall or coercive, largely both, as in military expenditures. This function is analagous to the horns on an antelope or a deer: they entail a cost to the productive metabolism of the body, but function for the protection or perpetuation of that body.

And the number of adult Americans without health coverage who could really make use of it is much much smaller than alleged by people who think the socialist model of health care is the perfect model of health care.

Hmmm... I don't recall anyone saying the socialist model of health care is perfect.

Yeah I'd noticed the Japanese structure of your name. Tora = tiger. no = possessive (roughly, 's). Kaze means wind. (As in Kamikaze actually means divine wind, and referred originally to typhoons that sunk fleets invading from China).
(Kami means god or godly. Thus Fuku no kame was probably fuku no kami.)

So I was wondering, Tora no Kaze ... why did you name yourself Wind of the Tiger? Tiger of the wind sounds poetic, but as it is it sounds like some serious feline flatulence.
Is that really what you meant?
Puzzled, of the Orient.

tigerfarts is an awesome name!

Someone in China is probably using Tigerfarts as an aphrodisiac.

Agreed. And I believe that healthcare is one area which shouldn't be dictated by profit margins.

From what i understand it can be both wind of the tiger, tiger of the wind, or windtiger

Either way it is my birth year and my moon element.

How about Fart of the Megacat? :p

I'm pretty sure (but not willing to bet my reputation) that the "no" indicates possession by the preceding noun.
I am an eigo-no-sensei, an Englishlanguage-'s-teacher. In the visa office I was Ostoraria-no-Zengum, Australia-'s-Zengum.
I'm pretty sure you are Tiger-'s-Wind.
I still think this is cool despite the fart reference.
You could be Kaze-no-Tora but that doesn't sound as good.
Maybe, ToraKaze, simply, TigerWind?

So trolls must be fucked hard then beaten :P

Says so much about one who gets a hardon to screw a troll. Maybe first try something a little easier like a corpse.

while there are some people motivated to work just for the hell of it, i would think greater efficiency and new innovation are found on the path to greater profits.

</cloaking device>

Troll?

Did somebody use the t-word?

Now, don' be hatin'... there's nothing wrong with a good troll every now and then. A well-written troll can be a thing of great beauty and delicacy.

Don't hate the troll; hate the troller who doesn't know how to use it properly. A troll is just a tool - like a chainsaw or a flamethrower. It all depends on the operator.

And that's where we disagree I think. The path to greater profit leads, in my experience, to rationalisation of the workforce, cutting corners and buried safety reports, less service for greater cost and inequity of access. If you're talking about selling televisions or a financial package then yes, the path to greater profit can drive a better service (although the subprime fiasco suggests even thenn it can lead to a great deal of inappropriate sales). If you're talking about medical care I believe the drive to greater profit reduces the level of service available to the whole whilst increasing the level of service available to the few. If you are attempting to change a universal healthcare system, paid for by general taxation and national insurance, attempts to crowbar in elements of a profit based system just leads to diverting those taxes away from the primary care givers/receivers and into the pockets of business and shareholders. Instead of, as has always been the case in the NHS, the money that is invested going straight into service provision, it is syphoned off to feed a third tier of the system.

Teachers generally work for a wage, they don't work to drive up profits. Nurses generally work for a wage, they don't work to drive up profits. Teachers and nurses work hard for a fixed wage, why would doctors be any different? Why are nurses, who deliver care, motivated by the needs of their job and a wage to cover their living costs and yet we only expect Doctors, as caregivers, to be motivated by the ability to increase their earnings through the business model?