I’ve often been told that I have the face for radio. In fact, during my first stab at college I was briefly employed as a DJ in a Top 40 radio station in a neighboring town. Actually, I was employed for one whole day. I was hired to man the dials for the early morning shift on a Saturday mornings. Unfortunately, the Friday night before my first shift had been a pretty heavy one – a big fraternity party – and I’m pretty sure I was still a bit drunk when I turned up for work. I got through the shift all right but on the way home around midday I rear-ended a car and totaled my truck. Upstate South Carolina is known for a lot of things, but public transportation isn’t one of them. Since I couldn’t find someone who was willing to wake up at 5 a.m. on Saturday mornings to take me to work, my budding radio career ended right there on U.S. Highway 76.

Probably a good thing, as the day of the DJ is long gone and I don’t really have the stomach to be a talk radio host. You see, after a week spent listening to Savage and Levin, I was all prepared to come out today guns a-blazing in my best impression of a talk jock. I was ready to spew vitriol and poorly researched opinions masked as fact. I was poised to skewer the American health care disaster, was itching to tear down the lies that have been spread surrounding tax rates in countries with socialized health care, was formulating a conceit about the mythical ‘Middle Class’ in America.

But then as I was walking to catch the bus this morning I asked myself “What’s the point?”

When I write political rants I basically only get myself upset. For the most part I’m preaching to the choir and if you disagree with me I’m not arrogant enough to believe that you’re going to change your mind. What’s the point? Post another picture of the boy and move on.

I mean, I know that I pay a lower tax rate in Australia (26% versus 28% plus) then I would (and did) in the US. It’s hard to gauge the quality of health care, but I know that the infant mortality rate is lower in Britain (4.8 per 1,000) and Australia (4.4) than it is in the US (6.3). I also know that life expectancy is higher in Britain (77.7) and Australia (79.8) than it is in the US (76.1). I know that, if you’re an American taxpayer, you’re getting screwed – that most of your taxes are going to pay for a ridiculously bloated and largely unnecessary military rather than the basic necessities for your survival. I know that I’ve gotten outstanding, compassionate medical care in all three countries. I know that the only difference is that in Australia and Britain I don’t pay for it and they make house calls.

I know all these things because I’ve experienced all three systems. I know what I prefer and I know that I wouldn’t even consider moving back to my homeland unless they sorted out the health care mess. I would much rather pay taxes that get reinvested in the health care system than pay insurance premiums that just line the pockets of insurance company executives. I can’t imagine going back to the States and relying on the fickle rules of some insurance company or my employment status for my son’s well being.

It’s not just health care – there’s education. In the Western European style social democracies, one of the responsibilities of the government is to offer affordable tertiary education to those who desire and have earned the opportunity. Therefore, university costs are heavily subsidized. In fact, a university education was free until very recently in the UK.The cost of a college education has skyrocketed in the last couple of decades in the U.S., pricing a lot of people out of the market and leaving the rest massively in debt after four years. I know from first-hand experience. It’s important to me that my kids have a shot at a university education, but another reason I would be reluctant to return to the States is that we should have started saving about five years ago in order to pay for it.

Let’s assume, as Dr. O’C prays, that Boy Z becomes a scholar. What would it cost to send him to the finest higher education institution in the three countries under discussion? We’ll focus on public institutions*, assume resident tuition and include all estimated living costs (food, housing, etc. all in U.S. dollars). To get a Bachelor’s degree from Oxford University would cost us about $45,000. The same degree from the Australian National University in Canberra would leave us about $41,000 poorer. But, if Boy Z decided to head to the Sodom of the Left Coast and got his degree from UC Berkeley, we’d be $114,000 in debt.  Even if he went to my alma mater, the finest university in the South – The University of Georgia, we’d still be down $68,000.

I’ve gone further with this than I intended – but with less ranting than originally planned at least. And this is where I ask again – what’s the point? If you’re reading this and aren’t living in Britain or Australia (or Canada or Sweden or France or Germany or Latvia or basically any other industrialized country) and you’re now convinced that a touch of socialism is a good thing, chances are you’re not packing your bags.

I guess the point is that the people who are telling you that socialized medicine doesn’t work are either liars or idiots. Or both. The people who are teabagging and telling you that higher taxes will break the back of the middle class are either dangerously deceitful or morons. The fact of the matter is that you, those of you who are residents of the US, are getting the shaft.

To be 100% honest, I really don’t think it’s going to change. This idea – that taxes and government are bad – is so ingrained in the American psyche that I don’t believe even the new administration with Democratic majorities in both houses is going to be able to sort it out. I did the same thing that a lot of you did – 52% in fact – voted for Obama and hoped that he would be able to change what is a broken system. I know it’s early, I know he has a year or so to take the big steps that need to be taken before the 2010 congressional races start up.

But listening to these guys on the Right and listening to the people that call in to their shows, I just don’t think it is going to happen.

Well, there’s some upbeat Friday reading for you, gentle readers. Y’all have a good weekend, you hear?

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* Just for kicks, I checked out Harvard – $208, 000.

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