Debate Over Socialized Police Heats Up!

Salon has a great article today showing how ludicrous is the debate over The Public Option for health care.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2009/06/30/police/

Now that the president and the Democrats in Congress have set a fall deadline for legislative action on universal police protection for all Americans, battle lines are being drawn on Capitol Hill. On the right are conservative defenders of America's system of for-profit, private mercenaries. The Democrats are divided among progressives who favor universal, publicly funded police who would protect all citizens against crime, and moderate and conservative Democrats who argue that any citizen security reform should leave America's existing system of soldiers for hire in place.

"Do we want long wait times when we call for the police, like people in countries with socialized police forces?" Sen. Russell Flack, R-Ga., asked during a floor debate yesterday. "Under our system, we can choose our own police officers, as long as we pay for protection out of our own pockets. Do we want some government bureaucrat choosing the police for us?"

Progressives, however, argue that the American system of privatized policing is no longer affordable. They point to data showing that the U.S. spends twice as much per capita on police protection as countries in Europe and East Asia, where police are public servants paid out of taxes. Although the U.S. pays twice as much for police as the average developed country, more than 40 million Americans remain without police protection because their employers do not pay for crime insurance and they cannot afford to purchase it on their own.

It's funny and to the point, but our current police system is already more socialistic than the most radical of health care options before us. Single-payer health care AKA Medicare-for-everyone only socializes payment - doctors and hospitals would be in private practice, and choice would be up to the consumer.

Just like it is in those scary socialistic countries like Canada and France.

America doesn't need a health insurance industry. We'd be much better off without one.