The US is 20th out of 21 nations for child welfare...

[Rakkasan]

I can bet that one of the factors used to determine these rankings was state run healthcare, a system that few of us would be happy with.

Having lived in Florida for several years (and current residents can back this up if they choose), the Canadian Snow birds travel to Florida for surgery in US hospitals, because with Canada's Universal Healthcare they would be put on a list and would get surgery based on their age and whether they have enough useful life to justify the cost. Open heart surgery for someone in their 70's in Canada is not likely. But it's cheap!!!!

 

It all about priorities. I have always had health insurance, paid for by me or my employer, but I never leave home without it. The high cost of health insurance is primarily due to hospitals having to shove the cost of caring for those who choose to purchase a PS3 and a new car over health insurance onto those who have insurance.

[Feathers268]

This is simple to me.

First, The US and GB just aren't socialist enough for the UN's liking and reporting on "the children" is the latest way of slaming us. We do not have children yet, but I promise you my child would never go to a state run pre-school.

Second, the state of parenting here took a major hit with the "me first" attitude of the baby boomers. All of my values and ethics come from my parents, not from anything I ever got from school, and no, I never attended pre-school. My first years were spent with Mom and Dad.

And I'm the same way, to me the UN is a useless buch of dictators and politicians who can't get past hearing their own voice. They are not worth more than a roll of the eyes and a chuckle.

[Randy W]

I can bet that one of the factors used to determine these rankings was state run healthcare, a system that few of us would be happy with.

Having lived in Florida for several years (and current residents can back this up if they choose), the Canadian Snow birds travel to Florida for surgery in US hospitals, because with Canada's Universal Healthcare they would be put on a list and would get surgery based on their age and whether they have enough useful life to justify the cost. Open heart surgery for someone in their 70's in Canada is not likely. But it's cheap!!!!

 

It all about priorities. I have always had health insurance, paid for by me or my employer, but I never leave home without it. The high cost of health insurance is primarily due to hospitals having to shove the cost of caring for those who choose to purchase a PS3 and a new car over health insurance onto those who have insurance.

 

 

During the short period of time I was in Canada, the papers there had a story every day about the virtues of the Canadian health care. The one I remember was about a truck driver who had been injured in an accident in the US and hitch-hiked back to Canada, rather than risk going through the US system.

 

You get plenty of propaganda at both ends.

 

Canadians come to Florida for heart surgery, we go to Canada and Mexico for drugs.

[jemmyell]

Translated, this means that children from a fatherless home are:

 

5 times more likely to commit suicide

 

32 times more likely to run away

 

20 times more likely to have behavioral disorders

 

14 times more likely to commit rape

 

9 times more likely to drop out of school

 

10 times more likely to abuse chemical substances

 

9 times more likely to end up in a state operated institution

 

20 times more likely to end up in prison

is this worldwide statistics or just for the US?

 

How are other countries doing where single parenting occurs... is it the same issue or are there local factors that cause what we see in the US?

 

There's nothing like tossing out some blind statistics in order to "prove" a point, whatever it is.

 

Mark Twain said: "There are Lies, Damned Lies, and then there are Statistics"

 

-James

[DMikeS4321]

I did not post blind statistics. The sources were shown. Here are some others. Additionally, the point being "KIDS NEED DADS". At the risk of repeating myself...

 

Right the F on, Rak. I'm sick of all this socialist, new world order mumbo jumbo.

 

Let's see... how many people in the world would rather raise their children here in the U.S. than in their home country? How many would trade their health care system for ours? How many of us would want our children to have MORE vaccinations? How many of us would trade our system of easy access to private transportation for a lower youth accident rate?

 

People vote with their feet and a lot of them wait a long time to come here (ring any bells for anyone here?).

 

Rak, Jim, and Mike, I am totally with you on this. The US is considered the NUMBER 1 country in the world by many. For some, to appreciate it, would have to go live in another country (Any country) for a while. I've said it before, it's like the rich kid from Beverly Hills who doesn't appreciate what he has, until he goes to boot camp..

 

You hear that Roger?

 

PS tell that to my step son who we enrolled in high school today, and was received with open arms. My wife tells me that teachers in China hit kids left and right, are always sour faced and right down nasty. She tells me this story about one teacher who tattooed the word 'Thief' (He 'stole' an eraser from another student) on one of the kids faces and the only retribution she suffered was lose her job. You won't hear that from the UN (A totally corrupt organization) would ya?

 

AMEN Brother!!

[rogerluli]

I did not post blind statistics. The sources were shown. Here are some others. Additionally, the point being "KIDS NEED DADS". At the risk of repeating myself...

 

Right the F on, Rak. I'm sick of all this socialist, new world order mumbo jumbo.

 

Let's see... how many people in the world would rather raise their children here in the U.S. than in their home country? How many would trade their health care system for ours? How many of us would want our children to have MORE vaccinations? How many of us would trade our system of easy access to private transportation for a lower youth accident rate?

 

People vote with their feet and a lot of them wait a long time to come here (ring any bells for anyone here?).

 

Rak, Jim, and Mike, I am totally with you on this. The US is considered the NUMBER 1 country in the world by many.

You hear that Roger?

 

 

 

Wow you guys spent the whole night beating up this report... Sorry I don't do evenings... Obviously Rak has some pretty strong feelings on it and I respect all your opinions...

 

But let me ask just one question??? Why is it that so many people from other "less-devloped" countries would like to come to the US???

Is it at all possible that the only thing they have on their minds is...$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Yes as everyone all over the world KNOWS... In the US the streets are paved with gold...Everyone is GIVEN $4,000/month by the benevolent government (this is what laopo was told by people in her hometown who know all about it... ).

[DMikeS4321]

This is simple to me.

We do not have children yet, but I promise you my child would never go to a state run pre-school.

 

All of my values and ethics come from my parents, not from anything I ever got from school, and no, I never attended pre-school. My first years were spent with Mom and Dad.

 

And I'm the same way, to me the UN is a useless buch of dictators and politicians who can't get past hearing their own voice. They are not worth more than a roll of the eyes and a chuckle.

 

Good post.

 

I pay $3500 per year to send my 12 year old son to private (oh my... CHRISTIAN!!!!!) school, on top of the outrageous property taxes I pay to fund public "schools" in my area. I wonder why every grade in my son's school is testing AT LEAST 2.5 years ahead of the same grade in public school, particularly in light of the $13,500 per year the State of California spends on each public school child???

 

We need to wake up, and we can start by booting the U.N. out of our country. Let them sit in some third world ghetto and debate the evils of U.S. society and culture rather than doing it while ensconced in a New York City high rise while being entertained by high dollar prostitutes, eating caviar and drinking champagne.

 

Best Regards

[DMikeS4321]

During the short period of time I was in Canada, the papers there had a story every day about the virtues of the Canadian health care. The one I remember was about a truck driver who had been injured in an accident in the US and hitch-hiked back to Canada, rather than risk going through the US system.

 

You get plenty of propaganda at both ends.

 

Canadians come to Florida for heart surgery, we go to Canada and Mexico for drugs.

 

What risk was he concerned about? The mountain of red tape he would be buried under to satisfy U.S. Government regulations? The risk that his government wouldn't reimburse him for care received in the U.S.?

 

As for drugs, they may be cheaper in Canada because their drug safety and approval system is faster and less thorough than ours. I think our FDA goes way overboard on drug approval, but how many in this country want to speed it up at the risk of another Thalidomide disaster? By the way, Canada's "Universal Healthcare" program ONLY covers drugs adminisitered in a hospital; if you aren't in the hospital, you pay for your own.

 

The U.S. pays a higher percentage of it's GDP on healthcare by ONE THIRD than Canada pays, 6.5% through public funding versus 6.4% through public funding for Canada, but we pay a whopping 7.4% of GDP through private funding versus only 2.8% for Canada. Should we spend more? If so, the free market will make that determination and that is as it should be. It is hard to argue that more government involvement will bring more efficiency (see my above post about public school funding). To top it, Canadian private funding for healtcare is growing at a 50% faster rate than that in the U.S. It seems that the piper will be paid, regardless.

 

Say what you will, one isolated anecdote doesn't really prove anything. There are still very, VERY few people who would leave the U.S. to find better health care elsewhere (alternative treatments, maybe, but not general healthcare), and medical care in most countries is better because of research and technology developed in the U.S. (thank you, free market!!).

 

By the way, what IS the last major medical technology developed in Canada? When was the last time Canada contributed a major pharmaceutical breakthrough to the world??

 

Best Regards

 

P.S. I tried to answer my own ending question above and here is what I found:

 

"A major difference between the Canadian and American health spending is on investment in technology. For example, in terms of medical equipment such as MRI scanners per million people, America ranks first in the world with 19.5 per million people; Canada ranked 13th, with 4.6 MRI scanners per million people. In terms of CT scanners per million, America ranked third in the world with 29.5 per million while Canada was ranked 16th, with 10.3 per million [8]." "The lack of the most recent technology is one of the most common causes of Canadians crossing the border to seek treatment in the United States."

From Wikipedia

 

More regarding Canada's Universal Healthcare System:

 

"Complaints of long waiting lists for some services are also common. For example, in a survey of hospital administrators conducted in Canada, the United States, and three other countries, 21 percent of Canadian hospital administrators admitted that it would take over three weeks to do a biopsy for possible breast cancer on a 50 year old woman. Less than one percent of American administrators made this claim. according to the same survey, fifty percent of Canadian administrators versus none of their American counterparts stated that it would take over six months for a sixty-five year old to undergo a routine hip replacement surgery [2]."

From Wikipedia

 

More:

 

"In the United States, the majority of citizens have health insurance that is related to employment or purchased directly.[7] The federal government does not guarantee universal health care to all its citizens, but certain publicly funded health care programs help to provide for the elderly, disabled, and the poor[8][9] and federal law ensures public access to emergency services regardless of ability to pay.[10] Those without health coverage are expected to pay privately for medical services."

From Wikipedia

 

And more:

 

"included in the uninsured (in the U.S.) are about 3 million children who are eligible for Medicaid but who have not been enrolled by their parents. [4]

 

A number of free clinics also exist that provide free or low-cost non-emergency care to poor, uninsured patients. The National Association of Free Clinics claims that its member clinics provide $3 billion in services to some 3.5 million patients annually. [5]"

From Wikipedia

[rogerluli]

Yes the US has a wonderful health care system...for those of us lucky enough to get employer-provided benefits...

 

The bad news is...HEALTH INSURANCE IS ERODING FOR WORKING FAMILIES

 

http://www.epinet.org/content.cfm/bp175

 

For 2005 the numbers of uninsured Americans rose significantly for the 5th year in a row to 46.6 million people...

 

Yes, yes...everything is hunky dorry in America as long as you keep your eyes closed and live in a "gated community"...

[Ron&Sasa]

When talking about about child care and divorce.

 

Our laws cater to the woman, I am a Dad with custody of 2 girls. The laws still cater to the woman.

[Randy W]

. . . And the reason the guy went back to Canada? I believe it was because the Americans couldn't figure out what to put in the blank for insurance coverage. It's hell to not be able to prove that you're not poor.

[Robert S.]

Yes the US has a wonderful health care system...for those of us lucky enough to get employer-provided benefits...

 

The bad news is...HEALTH INSURANCE IS ERODING FOR WORKING FAMILIES

 

http://www.epinet.org/content.cfm/bp175

 

For 2005 the numbers of uninsured Americans rose significantly for the 5th year in a row to 46.6 million people...

 

Yes, yes...everything is hunky dorry in America as long as you keep your eyes closed and live in a "gated community"...

Roger, I agree with your points of view.

 

Also I think people need to wake up and realize the America they think they know is quickly disappearing. But we are not supposed to be discussing politics here on Candle anyway so I will say no more.

[david_dawei]

is this worldwide statistics or just for the US?

 

How are other countries doing where single parenting occurs... is it the same issue or are there local factors that cause what we see in the US?

These numbers are US numbers. How other countries fair would depend on how and what they track or their ability to track this information. That is the Apples and Oranges part of the equation. That is what Mr. Horn was saying "I think when you try to compare nations in a report like this, you tend to ignore so many other factors specific to those nations that the comparison becomes somewhat meaningless,"

This just tells me that the issue isn't 'kids without dads'... it's much bigger. There are kids without dads around the world; I'm not convinced that it boils down to one issue.

 

 

PS tell that to my step son who we enrolled in high school today, and was received with open arms. My wife tells me that teachers in China hit kids left and right, are always sour faced and right down nasty. She tells me this story about one teacher who tattooed the word 'Thief' (He 'stole' an eraser from another student) on one of the kids faces and the only retribution she suffered was lose her job. You won't hear that from the UN (A totally corrupt organization) would ya?

A four year old girl in the US was suspended from pre-school for hugging her teacher.. Too bad that what comes natural to children is purged from their system as early as possible... One difference in, say china, is natural law is more prevalent and in the US, societal law.

[rogerluli]

is this worldwide statistics or just for the US?

 

How are other countries doing where single parenting occurs... is it the same issue or are there local factors that cause what we see in the US?

These numbers are US numbers. How other countries fair would depend on how and what they track or their ability to track this information. That is the Apples and Oranges part of the equation. That is what Mr. Horn was saying "I think when you try to compare nations in a report like this, you tend to ignore so many other factors specific to those nations that the comparison becomes somewhat meaningless,"

This just tells me that the issue isn't 'kids without dads'... it's much bigger. There are kids without dads around the world; I'm not convinced that it boils down to one issue.

 

 

PS tell that to my step son who we enrolled in high school today, and was received with open arms. My wife tells me that teachers in China hit kids left and right, are always sour faced and right down nasty. She tells me this story about one teacher who tattooed the word 'Thief' (He 'stole' an eraser from another student) on one of the kids faces and the only retribution she suffered was lose her job. You won't hear that from the UN (A totally corrupt organization) would ya?

A four year old girl in the US was suspended from pre-school for hugging her teacher.. Too bad that what comes natural to children is purged from their system as early as possible... One difference in, say china, is natural law is more prevalent and in the US, societal law.

 

"The first thing we do, kill all the lawyers."

 

William Shakespeare...Henry IV

[Rakkasan]

 

"The first thing we do, kill all the lawyers."

 

William Shakespeare...Henry IV

Years ago I read a SiFi book in which any lawyer who brought a case before the court and lost was executed along with his client...not a bad thought.