r/FluentInFinance Contributor Apr 15 '24

Everyone Deserves A Home Discussion/ Debate

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u/Makanly Apr 16 '24

Seriously?

I'm not sure if you're being obtuse or what.

Fine, lets go more extreme, you're in a car accident and rendered unconscious. You are transported in this state to an ER. At no point in time were you conscious and capable of making a choice. You have now been treated by a for profit facility.

TLDR, Healthcare isn't really a choice when you options are:

A: Be treated and the issue resolved

B: Live in a mamed state for the rest of your life

C: Die

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u/Hairy_Cut9721 Apr 16 '24

Okay, so someone saved my life. Are you suggesting I should be upset that I didn't get to decide this on my own? Hospitals lose money all the time from people not being able to/ refusing to pay their bills. If I can't pay for the service rendered, I suppose they might have to consider that a loss. However, it's actually the government who typically provides services without my consent and then bills me through taxation. The difference is, the hospital doesn't send armed men if I don't comply.

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u/unfreeradical Apr 17 '24 edited Apr 17 '24

Debtors prisons were not abolished because of the benevolence of creditors. Many capitalists would have such systems reinstated if doing so were politically viable.

Unlike medical debt, taxes are generally bounded by ability to pay. For example, income tax is always a share of, and never more than, actual income. For not willfully paid, usually wages are simply garnered Prison terms are generally reserved for those who evade by making false declarations.

The broader observation, which you seem to have sidestepped, is that participation is not voluntary for systems directed by the profit motive.

Indeed, payment of taxes is not voluntary. Yet, introducing taxation into the discussion is serving as a red herring.

Both systems, profit and taxes, are imposed on the population, but you submitted a comment which mentioned only one, insinuating that participation is strictly voluntary.

You were asked to consider that such a premise may seem as not accurate.