"Middle-class families shouldn't pay higher taxes than millionaires and billionaires,

[hillbilly]

Originally Posted by simi

I hear you Rob.. In Germany they take half your paycheck.. but they also give you healthcare and child care... Well worth the price..

I've heard of Fritz and seen one or two pieces, but never looked into him..

Affordable health care we could use, provided we have a choice.

Child care. I was very picky about who spent time around my kids when they couldn't be with myself or my wife. My mother inlaw was the only one I ever let watch my kids when a job didn't permit me to let them tag along. For the most part, they spent their days handing me tools while I done mechanic work, and also for about two years of their life they took all day picknicks in the woods while I was logging. When they were in school, I'd drop what I was doing and drive all the way to the school in the middle of nowhere and pick them up, and they'd return with me while I finished up for the day. Alot of people had to pay God knows who to watch their kids while they were at work as we don't have day-care in five towns. My kids were/ARE lucky they got to learn a few things about living 'hands on' that a baby sitter was never taught. My teenage son AND 'Daughter' too, can handle anything from a chainsaw & skidder to an air ratchet or torque wrench. And most important, they don't cry when you ask 'em to help hold a horse down so the critter doesn't beat his eyes out in the dirt when it comes time to cut his nuts out.

[Rex E.]

Originally Posted by simi

I hear you Rob.. In Germany they take half your paycheck.. but they also give you healthcare and child care... Well worth the price..

I've heard of Fritz and seen one or two pieces, but never looked into him..

They also get three months a year for vacation, correct? I'm all for health care, child care and three months vacation for just a small percentage more than I am paying now.

[whell]

Originally Posted by Rex E.

They also get three months a year for vacation, correct? I'm all for health care, child care and three months vacation for just a small percentage more than I am paying now.

"let them eat cake..."

[merrylander]

"The necessaries of life occasion the great expense of the poor. They find it difficult to get food, and the greater part of their little revenue is spent in getting it. The luxuries and vanities of life occasion the principal expense of the rich, and a magnificent house embellishes and sets off to the best advantage all the other luxuries and vanities which they possess. A tax upon house-rents, therefore, would in general fall heaviest upon the rich; and in this sort of inequality there would not, perhaps, be anything very unreasonable. It is not very unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expense, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more than in that proportion." Adam Smith

For them as collects quotations.

[piece-itpete]

I've been fortunate enough to spend some time in merry old England. They too have additional benefits. Last I was there my Aunt was about to get her 6 weeks of vacation - at 30 days. In many ways their life is more comfortable than ours.

The big difference I saw was, they didn't have as much pocket money. Everything is 'dear' and by golly unless you're doing pretty bloody well you'd better watch your tup'pence.

Me Gran had to wait a year for her cateract appointment, and another year for surgery.

Pete

[merrylander]

Well to counter all the BS about waiting in Canada, my 86 year old sister was rushed into hospital with pancreatitis. Turned out she had a benign cyst on the pancreas. Unfortunately she picked up some bug in the hospital so the doctors are waiting until an absolutely clean blood test before releasing her.

I always said hospitals are no place for sick people, you have to be healthy as a horse to survive them.