2016 Postmortem
Showing Original Post only (View all)People don't value what's free [View all]
I live in the UK. Healthcare is free here and university used to be free.
People go to the doctor for seriously ANYTHING here. They go to the doctor when they have a head cold, when they have a little cut, when their child has a cough for one day. The GPs talk about it in the media all the time. The amount of waste in the NHS is unbelievable. Now, I appreciate the NHS because I lived for years in the States without health insurance, but I don't waste my GP's time. The only time I go to the doctor is when I think what I have might kill me. I am in favour of making it cost £10 to go to the doctor here, fee waived if you are truly poor. That would eliminate SO MANY time wasters.
University is a bit different, because the requirements to get in to university here used to be a lot higher - that went hand in hand with the free tuition. But there were lots of kids here back then who messed around and didn't work hard at university because it was free, so who cares?
I'm NOT in favour of university costing as much as it does, either here or in the States, but it should cost SOMETHING. A university education has value, and it should BE valued. By having to pay for it. Again, fees waived for the truly poor. And lower the cost, and make the student loan fees easier to pay back.
But I think free=you don't really value what you get. Everything I have in my life that's worth anything, I've worked hard for. I'm happy to accept help, and I think as a society we should make it EASIER for people to be healthy and get an education. But not free.