Chavez - Genius or Madman?

[D C]

It's an okay route for short term investment, but I would not give my money to an ETF for longer than a month or two at most unless there was a very good reason (think me being convinced that the market is about to tank) to take on the risk. And I actively trade ETFs mind you.

Time is something I didn't mention, but should have. My investment horizon in the current markets is always daily or weekly, anything longer is straight gamble unless you're Buffett. Good luck with your trading

 

[AlanComan]

Joel, I didn't respond to you because you can't be convinced. My time is precious.

You didn't say anything about the Canadian vs US system. Just beating around the bush.
And Canadian system is not cheap at all. If I remember correctly, apart from US and Switzerland (and Norway), the Canadian system is fourth expensive per capita and the last in bang for the buck category (in OECD).
In 1997 they spent 77 billion CAD and they were spending 181 (2009) and 192 billion (2010) billion...I bet they'll crack 200 billion this year (GDP is less than 1.7 T). Has the system improved in any way? Has the access to doctors improved in these years? How many Canadians have no doctor to go to? Why do you defend the indefensible?

Let me give you some quotes:

The report also notes in 2010, Canadians on average saw an 18.2 week wait between an appointment with a family doctor and receiving treatment from a specialist, up 9.3 weeks from 1993.

link:

http://money.canoe.ca/money/business/canada/archives/2011/04/20110418-082936.html

Now, do you see a relationship between waiting times and cancer outcomes????

Your comment about the poor "having nothing to lose" was played over and over from Marx on. Are you talking about the roughly 50% of inhabitants who don't pay a dollar in income taxes?

 

[rajanS]

how in the world did you guys manage to go from chavez to canadian health care system. kudos and hats off to ya.

 

[joel_b]

Joel, I didn't respond to you because you can't be convinced. My time is precious.

You're still avoiding my direct question about Jack Layton, just admit you mis-spoke already. A guy who was already making funeral arrangements before he even stepped down from the party after the election, that you said would '90% still be alive if he was in the US. ' I wouldn't have gotten into this if you hadn't made such a misinformed statement.

Typically you will just avoid this and address a different aspect of the conversation, like a politician.

And Canadian system is not cheap at all.

No kidding, I same the exact same thing in my post above

Healthcare is ridiculously expensive, and Canada's system is backed up because they can't afford it, at least not in the spirit of access to care.

Canadian gov't can't afford the healthcare system if it were to operate with tolerable wait times etc. I don't think the system works either as it stands.