Why the U.S. Spends So Much More Than Other Nations on Health Care

Re:Why the U.S. Spends So Much More Than Other Nations on He... by threatofrain on Wednesday January 03, 2018 @08:08AM (#16060651)

There are lots of organizations that do good in people's lives. I don't see why that needs to be tied with bigotry. I hope we don't accept a concept of a moral debit card, like a doctor who can save many lives, so we should tolerate a little abuse. When we can't stop abuse, we will endure it, but when we can, we ought not.

I find it also surprising that the Christian muscle in this country is immense, they could move mountains, but for over 20 years the only issues which has captivated their national attention have been sexual ones. And now there's this transgender business.

Is there no Christian political consensus to be had on the poor? Why was there national discussion on a constitutional ban for gay marriage during the presidential elections? Did the thought of stopping gay marriage rally the base?

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Re:Why the U.S. Spends So Much More Than Other Nations on He... by meri_dian on Wednesday January 03, 2018 @09:49AM (#16061375)

Social issues like marriage that can be easily legislated about are much easier to deal with than systemic problems like poverty, therefore people will give more attention to the social issues. It's just an example of bike-shedding. Talk about the small scale things you can control rather than the large complex issues that are more intimidating.

But attitudes about marriage and sexuality are really very small and insignificant aspects of religion as a whole. Politics and culture war have inflamed certain issues in America, but those issues will resolve themselves in time.

Once they do people will have less of a reason to be mad at religion. What I'm cautioning against is conflating frustration towards religious attitudes about particular things that are slowly changing in the present with thr idea that there is something fundamentally wrong about religion itself.

If you made a mistake about something, I wouldn't automatically assume you yourself are broken. I would just help correct you then wish you the best.

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Re:Why the U.S. Spends So Much More Than Other Nations on He... by acdha on Wednesday January 03, 2018 @08:28AM (#16060754)

Two bits of history which helped me understand that more:

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/05/religious-ri...

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/17/books/review/one-nation-u...

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