Hello Ellis,
Our elected officials listen, but it kinda rolls around in their head and fades away. If you want to get attention here you have to write it on a check. I say that jokingly, but it is really sad.
I noticed an item you mentioned to Ric about the Welfare System in Australia. The problem we have with the system here is it is abused and the administrative cost is staggering. I don't have the current figures but about 7-8 years ago for every $1.00 put into social services about .17 of it went to the recipients. the rest went to the adminstrative end or dispersing the money by government employees. Not enought is done to catch the cheaters or lets be more specific-nothing is done to catch the cheaters. And like I said earlier, a teenager has a baby and gets a check. If she has another one she gets another check. They get all kinds of money to go to school and get a decent education and squander that. We have educated out the ying yang.
Now, I am going to tell you why nobody does anything about it. If you run for public office and tell someone you are going to take their check they don't vote for you. Ellis, 60% of the people in the county I live in get some kind of check from local, state or Federal govenments. We put out the money in this country but it is badly mismanaged. the plan was to pull the poor up, but what has happened is the middle class has been pulled down and steadily adding to the problem. On top of that we have the illegal Mexicans now to feed and furnish health care to. If we had a national health care plan ran like our welfare program you would be sending Care packages to this country in 10 years because we would be broke. I am glad you have a plan you like and it is cost effective, but we have some factors here in the US you don't have in Australia that make things a little more complicated. Anyway, thank you for thoughts, like an old geometry teacher told me once, you must consider every angle.
odin1
