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Flu shots socialism?

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Wrong! | 1:33 a.m. Nov. 5, 2009
Here is what the author and others aren't willing to understand! Nothing from the government is free! Someone will pay for your flu shots or whatever! As long as you can shift the responsibility to pay your bills to someone else who cares, right? More red ink doesn't matter does it? Drowning our grandchilren in debt is their problem, right? How selfish can you get? Evidently pretty selfish! Enjoy your "free" flu shot much?
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John C. | 3:03 a.m. Nov. 5, 2009
To Seanna Williams, LCSW : Guess what…I’m an Obama naysayer (if you wish to call me that, because I believe in the constitution not socialism,) I haven’t gotten caught up in the H1N1 hysteria that some news agencies are calling a pandemic and gotten any shot free or other wise. Not all of us are buying everything that comes out of this administrations mouth. But if you like the hole hook line and sinker then feel free to swallow.

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Say what? | 3:34 a.m. Nov. 5, 2009
We also know what a bad job the government has done at getting us the vaccine.

By the way, stopping pandemics is what government should be doing. It serves everyone equally and everyone wants it. Contrast that to Obamacare that most people don’t want and that serves only a small segment of society. Stop confusing the issue by comparing it to Obama’s desire to place all control over human health in the country in the hands of our generally inept and too often corrupt government.
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The writer is deceived ! ! | 4:34 a.m. Nov. 5, 2009
If we would only let the market allocate access to flu shots, the first customers would be those with the means to get them, which would leave the poor (and many children) to fend for themselves, or get sick & die, removing themselves from the genepool, etc.

Jesus taught Social Darwinism... didn't he?
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Bingo | 5:42 a.m. Nov. 5, 2009
Great letter.
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JMT | 5:50 a.m. Nov. 5, 2009
Actually, so many people have NOT gone in to take the shots.

And if we must compare this issue to socialism we need look no further than the centrally planned governments inability to produce H1N1 Flu shots. The central plan was to have over 100 million doses ready. That was then shifted downwards to 60+ million, then shifted downwards again, and again.

Compare that to the free market and capitalism producing so many other vaccines with little to no problem. The big difference is that the H1N1 shot is run with all the efficiency of Cash 4 Clunkers. The others, the market handles. If people want the shot, they pay for it and get it. If they don't want it, they don't pay for it, don't get it.

Bottom line is that so much of the poverty around the world that the left wants to eradicate is associated with socialist, government planned economies. And the prosperity that the left wants to take and share with the poor is produced by capitalist methods of individual choice and economic liberty.

Socialism doesn't work. At best it's a very slow path to termination. H1N1 is another example.
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Not me... | 5:59 a.m. Nov. 5, 2009
None of my family is getting the H1N1 - free or not. I didn't even know they were offering a free shot anywhere. The whole H1N1 thing is so overblown, it is scarey. And I have to ask myself what is going on. If I follow the money, I'm left to conclude that 1) Obama is hyping this as a way to pay back his supporters in the pharmaceutical companies for their large contributions to his campaign, or 2) Obama is hyping this to lend support to the need for socialized medicine. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your point of view), with the HINI flu vaccine debacle, the Obama administration is just illustrating how incompetent government is at running anything. All this hype and no vaccine available. Consider this Obama's Hurricane Katrina.
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Highest bidder | 6:00 a.m. Nov. 5, 2009
I've been very frustrated by the constant "run" on vaccines at my local health department. They announce a supply online, but within hours, its gone. It's not easy taking off work, getting your kids out of school, and then waiting in line for the vaccine only to be turned away.

That's Obamacare folks!

What we need is to distribute the vaccines to the highest bidders. Start the price out at $100 per shot! That will slow the demand down and keep the riff-raff out!
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A Human | 6:04 a.m. Nov. 5, 2009
This is silly. The only place to get the H1N1 flu shot is from the government... If I could get it from another source I would. If the only place to get the shot is from the government then I am at it's mercy. That is socialism.

I got my regular flu shot without any trouble at my Doctors office... Insurance paid the full bill because they know it's cheaper to pay that than the consequences of not having the shot. That is Free Market health care.

I can't get the government H1N1 Flu Shot... hmmm. What works and what doesn't work?
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LCSW | 6:18 a.m. Nov. 5, 2009
"LCSW: Licensed Clinical Social Worker."

To some posters, "Social Worker" probably means you are a card carrying member of the Socialist Workers Party. Well I need get in my car and take a drive to Delta on some Socialist public roads that were built using "stolen" tax money.

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JR | 6:20 a.m. Nov. 5, 2009
Like everything else, how convenient to forget something like socialized medicine when it comes to your own selfish needs. Look how fast people have forgotten the past 8 years and are so easy to put all the blame on the new adminstrator of 9 months.
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Roland Kayser | 7:08 a.m. Nov. 5, 2009
People always seem to like socialism when it benefits them. Its only when it benefits "others" that they object. Seniors love their Medicare, farmers love their agriculture subsidies, automobile drivers like their subsidized roads, etc., etc.
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KM | 7:31 a.m. Nov. 5, 2009
You just made a very foolish argument. This stupid government just proved how wrong-headed and inept they are even in a small thing such as the delivery of flu vaccine to the people. Now we are to give the whole health care system to the same govt. that can't deliver even the shots on time.
Prepare yourself for rationing and waiting a long time for personal care.
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Anonymous | 7:31 a.m. Nov. 5, 2009
Flu shots equals socialism? Did proponents of this say the same thing when President Ford did the same in response to a flu epidemic in the mid-1970s? Of course not. The right wing is just unhinged now.
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Felix Urioste | 7:39 a.m. Nov. 5, 2009
This once great nation will be destroyed by socialism, such as civil rights, flu shots and flouridated water.
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Anonymous | 7:42 a.m. Nov. 5, 2009
Where else but Utah would the claim that flu shots, in the interest of public health, is socialism. This is crazy talk! I had no idea Utah was more ill informed and paranoid than the deep South.
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To John C. | 7:51 a.m. Nov. 5, 2009
"I believe in the constitution not socialism,)"

The Constitution does NOT specify system of economics. Socialism is a type of economics, not a type of government.
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Grover | 8:04 a.m. Nov. 5, 2009
How exactly would you treat a public health issue except with government intervention. If you are talking about a disease that can spread quickly from person to person regardless whether they can even spell "socialist", "free" markets couldn't address a problem like this until about half the population was dead. I propose a constitutional amendment to make flu shots a right for everyone!
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fools love conservativism | 8:57 a.m. Nov. 5, 2009
"centrally planned governments inability to produce H1N1 Flu shots"

You of course know that 'free market' companies are the ones manufacturing the vaccine, right? Or are you simply parroting some pea brained thing from your favorite talking head?

"What we need is to distribute the vaccines to the highest bidders. Start the price out at $100 per shot! That will slow the demand down and keep the riff-raff out!"

Now THIS is classic conservatism. Paraphrased, "the poor should just die already", just like Christ preached.
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jackhp | 9:00 a.m. Nov. 5, 2009
Those blaming the government for short supplies of the vaccine are barking up the wrong tree. Who do think MAKES the vaccine? PRIVATE pharmaceutical companies maybe . . .

The shortage in supply is not because the government isn't capable of delivering it, it's because the private companies aren't capable of making it fast enough.
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