Montreal writer Thoth Harris has an interesting question about health care in light of Michael Moore’s Sicko: Why not copy the system used in Taiwan?
As Harris explains it, Taiwan’s health care system is cheap, universal and available. The main reason he cites is that Taiwan’s system is more “egalitarian” (*cough*communist*cough*), and doctors make about the same salary as other workers there.
I don’t know if that’s the whole story, or if it would help here. Though I do think if our legislature was more like theirs it would be pretty fun to watch.
Communist? Huh? Until the late 80s Taiwan was ruled by a right-wing dictatorship.
I’m not sure what degree of humour you were intending to inject when you went “cough…communist…” but as Christopher DeWolf says, until recently (when KMT’s Leng Teng-hui helped to democratize Taiwan, followed by the current, DPP leader, Cheng Shui-Bian), Taiwan was ruled by a dictatorship.
President Lee allowed a multi-party democracy, which is not (unlike what you facetiously imply) communism. Taiwan is not China, unlike what mainland China (which is Communist and is called the People’s Republic of China) and the current Bush/Rice/Gates-run state department would like us to think.
Ironically, with the notable exception of expats and ex-expats like me, Michael Turton (http://michaelturton.blogspot.com), etcetera, it is usually only extreme neo-conservatives, like those who frequent the Western Standard, Michelle Malkin’s blog, and Catherine Coulter who defend Taiwan’s independence against mainland China.
Sad, really, that you are not only attacking me, but attacking Taiwan when you are not even bothering to read what you write, or what you read for that matter. Is it that you only want to defend Taiwan when it’s run by Chiang Kai-Shek?
I think your commentary is a tad silly, if you are intending to make me or Taiwan, or the bit I say about health care look bad. It’s possibly a bit extremist. I mean, really, c’mon!