the lounge

Ok. I'll try to respond to ejtnt.
"Coming back to the healthcare topic. Healthcare is not free in Europe. That is a very big misconception. We pay for it through taxes. There are a few different variations of it within the EU with varying degrees of state involvement each with each own benefits and drawbacks."

Exactly. People think everything the government gives you is free and with no strings attached. Like you said, you will pay for it through taxes. The Socialized medicine, it doesn't give you the option that you need. It also allows someone else to dectate what medical attention is best for you, and it isn't your doctor.

On another note, democrats use to call republicans socialists. However, democrats seem to be the ones pushing for socialistic ideas.

"If you ask me, the right to access to healthcare should be universal. Healthcare ensures that people stay alive, healthy and with high life quality even at a higher age which from a macroeconomic point of view means that people can remain highly productive for a longer time which should help the economy. Sure, there are some demographic problems arising but this an entirely different topic."

This is 100% accurate. However, this is not what ends up happening. We are told this is the plan, but once we vote it in, the rules start to change. Nobody reads the fine print. For example, how long to people with socialized medicine have to wait to see a doctor, regardless of the reason? In the US, you can get in within a day or two. When it comes to age, you can be a 90 yr old low income person and still get the same treatment as a 30 yr old high income person.

"I also believe that healthcare should be a mostly non-commercial/competitive sector and mostly controlled by government."

I believe you might have this belief because you have not had it another way.

With competition, you don't end up with a monopoly. This causes companies to compete and offer better service. You said it yourself, you don't trust any government, so why would you want them to control your access to health. What would happen if there was only one car company? We would be at their mercy, and they would be extremely more expensive with less features.

Also it was mentioned before that if US citizens don't like the conditions, they should move to another country. First of all, why not try and improve on the aspects they do not like? Is the country impervious to criticism and improvements? These really are the foundational blocks of progress.

People say "America is the worst" are just looking for attention and or wanting to complain. They have no intentions on moving and never will. They just want people to feel sorry for them and make changes to help just them. People need to realize they are not the only individuals in this country. The changes they want might work out great for people in their area but can be devastating in a different area. The world is too hung up on "What about my needs."

While the previous administration took some very important steps towards the correct direction, especially in terms of certain economic measures, that helped the economic growth, it seemed that it could have done even better if they would have pushed a bit further. Unfortunately they focused on the measures that were popular with the public opinion (e.g. tax cuts, reduce immigrations) and underdelivered on the more complicated and less popular topics (decrease the deficit, improvement negotiations of trade agreements etc.) This strategy made sense from the perspective of the re-election but it could have been better.

This is not accurate. The big economic push was for more industry. Trump brought back a lot of industry to the US. This was after Obama said "Manufacturing, in the US, is gone. You can't just wave a magic wand and have it return."

Where they really dropped the ball was on the field of international relations. The US withdrawal from international agreements and institutions became the hallmark of foreign policy, as did the criticism of America’s European and Asian allies

Internationally, the US is treated like a bitch. Everyone was dogging the US while asking for help. The US saved Europe, the UK, etc... from being taken over. What do we get for it? They look down on us like we are less than them.

Those institutions are overly corrupt. The US sends billions with no return. Trump wouldn't pull out if they provide him documents on the money's going. He was denied those documents. Being the highest providers, for these institutions, shouldn't the US get to see where that money is going? He pulled out because he knew the money was being laundered through other countries and not being used for what it was intended for.

coziness with authoritarian leaders.

What funny about this, Obama was hailed as being the greatest for being cozy with Castro.

You ever heard the term "keep your friends close and your enemies closer?" Trump mentioned this multiple times when asked why he associated with Kim. Besides, do you really think the best thing to do with a trigger-happy maniac is to ignore him and piss him off? During the Obama administration, Kim kept taunting us by launching missiles our direction. They got closer and closer. That stopped under Trump.

Just take a look at this new article from NBC... YES! It's from NBC.
Trump deserves a Nobel Peace Prize for Israel-Bahrain-UAE deal. It's more than Obama did. (nbcnews.com)

A lot of people have criticised the previous administration on how they handled the whole COVID situation but I honestly doubt if the results would have been considerably different with a different party in power.

Umm... what?
In March of 2019, Trump put the international travel band in place and the democrat berated him for it. Saying he's overreacting and is y doing this because he's a control freak. Democrats shut down the country
If you remember right, Trump kept saying that this virus came from a lab Fauci knows all about it. The democrats kept shutting him down and saying he's a liar and is just trying to start a fight. We are finding out Trump was right and the media was hiding it.

As for the involvement in the war in Ukraine, the previous administration was quick to provide support. If it wasn't for Trump trying to get leverage against Biden through this whole issue, there would have probably been more support.

For decades, Russia had threatened to invade Ukraine. It was Trump who told Putin to back off, so he did. Trump has nothing to do with Biden's involvement. He has sent them billions as well and ammo and weapons. We can't put boots on the ground because that would be full out war and lead to Putin hitting the button. Why isn't the UK doing more? Again, why is everyone questioning how much we are putting in? The biggest question is, how is it that Zelensky seems to be getting richer during a war? In order for Ukraine to win this war, someone like Trump needs to be back in office. Ukraine is losing badly.