Health Care Utopia?

To start I think this topic on health care is a great topic for us to be learning about especially for me seeing as health care could be a problem in the future. It opened my eyes to what is available out there and soon enough like it or not as students we are all going to have to get our own insurance in the next coming year or two. Now if I was a clean slate the “Sicko” documentary would have driven me out of the United States the next day to begin a new life in Canada or France because of their Utopian health care system. When Moore shows people that have preexisting health problems like myself who get turned down by insurance companies in the U.S. and then just over seas he shows citizens getting treated for what they say is no cost to them at all. Well then why would we even think about living in this country?
With a Michael Moore documentary we can never take exactly what he says as the whole truth without doing some more research. What we don’t see is how the free health care in other countries take a huge hit on their taxes; which makes total sense as the “Beige Bomber” document tells us the money has to obviously come from somewhere. This document agrees with Moore in saying there is definitely a problem with our health care system and I agree too, but what in this world is perfect? Absolutely nothing. “People tend to use things more frequently when they are free” - (Beige Bomber). This is of course the truth I mean why not take advantage of something free, but this is also the problem; it is easy to see this would fill the hospitals fast and in comes the huge waiting list as mentioned in the “Dead Meat” documentary. For simple yet crucial things such as an eye surgery as referenced in the documentary isn't priority so therefore is set back on the list. I know I wouldn’t want to wait to get treated I would much rather pay the money for instant gratification, which seems to be the motto of people in the U.S. Another thing I find wrong with government controlled health care system that I found in the “Beige Bomber” is just that, government controlled. It would take away from my ability to decide what I need to be seen for instead they choose what is or isn't important, not my vision of a utopian health care system. For people that are on the fence about what is a better health care system I would leave them with this: Take your pick, spend money to get what treatment is needed today or keep your money and wait to see if you get the chance to get treated.
Also taking my future into account, I want to become a doctor and yes “Sicko” showed that one doctor had a pretty good life but nothing special; it seemed sketchy that they only showed one doctor. After years and years of schooling I want my job to have great reward by making more than enough to not have to worry about any expenses. I would definitely stay in the U.S. and deal with health insurance here than go to another country’s crooked utopia.

Preidential Advisor

When we read the first couple chapters of The Prince it was hard to understand why Machiavelli was writing about the different types of Princedoms, but then in class when we discussed how his tactics compared to more current years that we as students know made reading all the more clear. After reading the entire book it is clear to me The Prince is almost the unofficial guide book to rulers of a country, it would be interesting to see how the book may change if there were the same type of book written about the leaders in the past decade from the current year.
My three lessons to the President as his advisor are as follows:

1. In chapter XV Machiavelli touches on the relationship between a leader and his subjects. It is obvious that a leader should try his hardest to stay on their good side because in places like the United States we as citizens can almost as easily terminate a leader as he was elected. Now besides being on good terms with one’s subjects he must find the line of being loved and being feared. It is better to be feared than loved in the words of Machiavelli because being feared has power whereas love can only hurt one in the long run by others that take advantage of your love. By being on good terms with one’s subjects he can be more secure of himself as their leader.

2. “Two ways of contending, one in ordinance with the laws, the other by force.” In other words maintaining peace in a state are either maintained by the laws of that state or the ruler can take it into his own hands and deal with it by force. The advice here is to learn when one must let the law take action or to take matters into one’s own hands. Things such as keeping the peace among one’s subjects the written laws of the state may not always be enough which is when the ruler must use the power he has to make things obedient among them. This will make things throughout the ruler’s time run everything smoothly by not having to deal with unimportant complications by his subjects.

3. The last lesson I would give to our new president is not one that was specifically discussed in the book but more the theme of the entire book; one that we discussed in class, “Ends justify the means” and do whatever it takes to get the job done. After discussing this I realize how many perceive Machiavelli as evil seeing as this can be a drastic measure where as not only one’s subjects but the entire world can hate him for. The “ends” are what kind of society we want and the “means” are how we are going to get there. Examples of presidents who have lied to the people to get things done such as Watergate, was only for the better good and is exactly what Machiavelli means by the ends justifying the means, the ends are what kind of society we want and the means how will we get there. This is the biggest advice to give; by following this rule it will either make or break the President because it will give him the power to do whatever he must to better society, which is the important key, to better society.

Bomb Iran?

We all know that terrorism has been at high risk the past few years post the 9/11 attacks but there is a huge difference between paranoid and plain stupid. I do not completely agree with either side but I do agree with some main points of Edward Luttwak in saying not to bomb Iran yet. Mario Loyola makes his main point around getting rid of potential danger to keep ourselves safe and that Iran is moving fast and will become more assertive and aggressive as time goes on. He gives no proof there is intention for Iran to harm us and he wants the U.S. to bomb another country based on suspicion, look where that got us last time.
Luttwak definitely has the better argument in this issue mostly because he goes into great depth on his side as to why we should wait to bomb Iran. He makes a good point when talking about how Iran cannot even drill their own oil which leads us to think what they can really even be capable of. Luttwak isn’t completely against the bombing, but he does believe we should wait and see what happens before we go and step our big foot in the door again. “For the long-term consequences of any American military action cannot be disregarded. Iranians are our once and future allies.” This passage makes reference to another reason we will be hated as a country if we were to go and bomb another country in the Middle East as if we weren’t in deep enough. I believe we should lay low for a while and if the time comes where we absolutely have to take military action there is no doubt in my mind we will which may or may not be the best but only time will reveal what lies ahead.