President Trump’s triumphant speech in front of the United Nations General Assembly yesterday, was a much needed dose of tough love and a reality check for the EU. Granted, Trump’s visit to the UN started off a bit shaky, as malignant saboteurs attempted to embarrass our President by stopping the escalator just as he and wife Melania attempted to board. Followed up by an pitiful attempt to shut down his teleprompter and lowering his microphone volume. So it would seem the cowards at the UN were trying to silence and embarrass Trump? No matter, he continued to deliver a magnificent performance.
Trump accurately and poignantly described how the EU has become an “unmitigated immigration disaster.” The French, along with several other European countries, have been overrun by hoards of millions of uneducated, poverty stricken migrants from the Middle East and Africa, leaving French culture in shambles. Perhaps this is now an ironic dose of penance for the French for the decades of colonialism, capped off by a murderous rampage in Algeria?
Who knows? What is clear is the only chance for the French to regain relevance and identity it would seem, is to elect conservative Marine Le Pen. Then again, that may be complicated as she has been indicted for embezzlement. Sound familiar?
So, the left (no matter what country) will conspire by any means necessary, in an attempt to silence conservatives by a variety of means; criminal indictments, assassination and yes, turning off the teleprompter!
If anything Charlie Kirk has taught us, we will not be silenced!
The turning off the elevator, teleprompter and microphone silliness is hard to believe. That’s 4th grade antics done by unserious adults. I would pull the US out of the lost mission UN due to unserious nature of the institution and the ridiculous childish behavior of the Management.
can’t believe you’re still believing & retelling the narratives…
PS, you forgot that they also turned off the sound in the auditorium where the speech was made. World Leaders, unless they used the interpreters' earpieces, couldn't hear a thing…
No need…still waiting on you to learn to read MSM ‘news’…inside out…
[They] rely on the MSM to keep the narrative going but tech is entrenching on their controls. They missed this in 2016 and desperately attempting to censor now due to CIA cash infusions. Does the CIA have operators inside the MSM?
What happens if exposed? MSM —> CIA counter-ops. Will all fall down.
Can’t help those that are lost in the mis/mal/disinformation…Remember, information is everything, the flow of information is no longer controlled by the MSM but by you/others…
Oh got it TJ, sure. I guess the teleprompter snafu and the mic volume were just mishaps. Why can’t you just be honest and admit you have no idea what you’re talking about?
Calla, our Cottage Hospital here now serves excellent meals. I know, I was there for seven weeks and I'm a pretty good home chef. It's my understanding that it was a Four Seasons chef who completely revamped the kitchen at Cottage. I believe it was due to donations and the young Chef Martin Frost (no relation) who was one of the key people responsible for this. (A sad note: he later died in a freak accident while diving.) But perhaps that's what you need in your part of France, some of your excellent chefs insisting on better hospital food. It didn't happen in Santa Barbara because of our government, God knows. It happened because of local people standing up for patients.
Oui Polly! When my husband was at Cottage Hospital 5 years ago, for 6 weeks, he thought the food was great! So, France needs a top chef to get ill and taste hospital food. As an aside, I was in The American Hospital with a broken leg in 1962 for 10 days and had American hotdogs and hamburgers every day, plus divine veggies and desserts. But, hélas, that was a long time ago. I hear that one still eats there and it's been under French ownership since we Yanks gave it to them! Calla
Very good Polly. I’ll second that. I was in Cottage a year or so ago and the highlight of my day was reading the menu and trying to decide what to order. Everything was so good!
I was in Los Robles Hospital for 28 days in 2018, and every dinner had burnt tasteless brussels sprouts as the veg. I haven't been able to face them since. My bill for neurosurgery was $2.5 MILLION, and although I had previously talked badly about Obamacare I am truly grateful that my out-of-pocket was $15,000 and I am able to walk, although awkwardly. While I am mildly interested to read about gourmet French hospital food, what is more important is how much was paid by the Government and by the Consumer for the care. And those little pesky details, like how I watched the staff enter my room wearing the same gloves they'd had on in the room next door, and yes they did infect me with troublesome C.diff that prolonged my stay. We pay the most for health care of any first world nation, but in the system increasingly overwhelmed by the burden of the free care given to the illegal immigrants the citizens who pay for it all are increasing squeezed out of care. We all know stories of friends who waited so long for diagnosis that their problems grew much worse. And now, thanks to the employees at Sansum/Sutter who chose to mock the patients with a TikTok video about poo stains on exam table papers, Santa Barbara is known for careless care. A truly sad state of affairs.
Seizing this well-articulated column about "too much socialism" in France, I would like to repeat the following Community Calendar announcement so we too can individually work to keep from falling into a similar fate.
Volunteer to walk voting precincts to defeat Gavin Newsom's ruinous Prop 50 - to gerrymander virtually all GOP representation in Congress out of this state. While Democrats and Newsom scream Trump is....... the authoritarian fascist.
Mark these dates, and do the right thing - fight, fight, fight this brazen Democrat power grab:
NO ON PROP 50 ______________________________***********
"Community Calendar:
Seize Your Chance to Make a Difference!
We need 100 volunteers to reach 300 homes in Santa Barbara County by Nov 6th to distribute literature for the Special Election. Urge Registered Republicans to vote NO on Prop 50 to stop gerrymandering and protect fair elections!
Call Barbara at 805-895-5545 to RSVP and learn more.
Training: Sat, Sept 27, 9:00-10:30 AM
55S La Cumbre St, Suite 4
Your moment to act is NOW!"
NO ON PROP 50 ________________________________*********
A few years ago I read that there were 60 million illegal immigrants, which is about the population of France, invading Europe. Since the EU removed the barriors between nations entry in one place is entry to all, and some countries, such as Spain, were welcoming them. They have, and will, change the economies and cultures of most countries. The song lyric "What now my love" illustrates the issue facing European countries.
I don't know how illegal immigrants got into this conversation, but here is a thought. Yes, it is true that many legal immigrants have valid social security numbers and file tax returns. But millions of them gain access to Earned Income Tax Credits (EITC) of up to $7,830 per year at the federal level, if their documented incomes are below $31,950 a year. But we also know that a lot of jobs done by immigrants are for cash
Undocumented immigrants are not eligible for Federal EITC benefits.
However, some states have a state-level program EITC program. In California this is known as CALEITC. People using this program usually have an ITIN number. ITINs are used primarily by immigrants who are ineligible for a social security number.
This program started in 2020.
In Tax year 2020, 4.1 million applied. In tax year 2021,3.6 million applied. in 2023 by March almost 1.5 million had applied. NOTE. These numbers depend on the date the data was captured, so they do not accurately reflect the final actuals.
CALEITC pays up to $294 if you are a qualifying adult with no children. If you are a family with 3 or more qualifying children, your maximum credit would be $3,644.
However, it is important to add that many Undocumented Immigrants do contribute substantially to California's economy and public finances according to an AI source. They paid nearly $8.5 Billion in state and local taxes as of 2022. Additionally, undocumented workers are reported to generate nearly 5% of California's GDP.
DH: Long proven illegals take far more than they return to the economy, primarily in 13 years of free K-12 along, with at least $46 billion going to Mexico every year alone in remittences. One needs to also explore how much of their "return to our economy" passes through the Chumash Casino.
Paying sales taxes when they buy things in the US does not pass for "paying taxes", since even legal visitors to the US "pay US taxes" every time they by a souvenir.
How many people do you know who file the required IRS Schedule H forms and pay into their social security for their even legal house cleaners or gardeners, let alone illegal ones?
I took that data from ChaptGPT. I think reporting statistics can sometimes be biased, I have found that before. It very much depends upon how one asks the question and then checks the answer. In some instances both answers can be true but incomplete. I am aware of the huge amounts of money sent back to Mexico and other South American countries by both legal and illegal immigrants. I suspect that more is sent by legal immigrants than by illegals. Nevertheless, your point is well taken. DH
Socialized medicine has been a failure wherever it has been tried. France is definitely not the worst because their system hasn't been totally socialized yet like England and Canada. We are unfortunately moving in that direction. You can see it right here in Santa Barbara where the wait times for routine treatments and appointments with doctors are getting much longer. This is the telltale sign of a socialized medical system.
Someone once said, "That a country cannot afford both Guns & Butter".
France introduced a limited health service in 1945 for a selected portion of the population and extended it in 1974 and again in 2000 to provide universal coverage.
I am more familiar with the UK version and will use that in my example. The UK post-war Labour government introduced a national health service for all in 1948. While it was a noble intent, there was little attention paid to the long-term affordability of a free health-care service for the lives of the whole population.
Compare 1948 with 2025.
In 1948, the UK population was 50 million. The average life expectancy was 66 years for men and 77 years for women.
In 2025, the population is 69.6 million and expected to be between 69.9 million & 70.0 million by the end of 2025. The life expectancy in 2025 is an average of 79.1 years for men and 83.1 years for women.
France will have a similar pattern in population. In both countries, population growth has been substantially driven by immigration from the third world after the crumbling of both the French and British colonial empires.
Between 1948 and 2025 in the western world, medical sciences have grown and improved gigantically, along with stupendous cost increases in diagnosing medical issues and providing modern drugs and other medical treatments.
In general, modern western countries are having difficulties in funding national health services, along with funding other government-funded social programs and the essential protections provided by governments both nationally and locally.
Growth in GDP has not been able to keep up with the total growth of current costs and the future unfunded liabilities. The USA is a prime example, even though healthcare in the US is paid for by the patients, patient-funded healthcare insurance and Medicare premiums.
For example, he UK Debt to GDP ratio has grown to 101% in September this year and is expected to grow to about 103.95% by the end of the year. The current UK government will be forced to borrow more money and increase taxes by that time.
By comparison, in 2025, the French GDP to Debt ratio was somewhat worse at 113%.
The USA has a very much larger economy, but its debt to GDP ratio has reached 124%. By contrast, in the year 2000, it was only 56.08%.
Along with a high debt to GDP ratio, the US has much higher unfunded liabilities that will soon have to be resolved.
It is surprising to me that with all the high costs of medical services, patients in hospitals are not required to pay for their food from independent suppliers.
Unaffordable government programs always start to fail, before they are addressed. the result is a deterioration in the services provided. Poor tasting food is only the tip of the iceberg
You’re delusional, and prove it with each comment. The notion that 10 of millions of illegals has not impacted our social services, public health, education and national security is a fairy tale told by left, woke lunatics.
Great outline, Derek. Especially the GDP vs. National Debt Ratio. No wonder economies around the world are struggling to pay for austerity measures. It should come as no surprise that when you spend more than you produce, you go broke! When you add in 10 of millions of migrants requiring social services, total collapse of the system is not far behind. Only in the minds of woke leftists does this ever make sense.
Healthcare, like any other commodity thrives in capitalism. The reward of huge profits, allows entrepreneurs to imagine, produce and innovate miracles in science.
Which of the recent 20 million uninvited new US residents will be the Black Swan that will provide the answer to what is now purely a math problem (Expenses exceed revenues).
Few saw the digital revolution from Silicon Valley at a time when we were also facing similar fiscal crises. That was the Black Swan that saved us from the post Vietnam War expenses outs-stripping revenues.
The current flailing revenue to expense ratio in the US cannot be papered over. Who, what, when, where and how will this finally be confronted.
It will manifest with ever high tax and creative new “fees”. As that’s always the answer to lack of funds. Never is a study done to see how people actually live and or need to live. I understand one of the reasons ~2000 year long Roman Empire failed when people of lesser means (many) voted for more taxation on the of means (fewer).
That is a horrendously inaccurate jab at immigration. It assumes that migrants do not add to the GDP.
Here, in the US, migrants get ITIN numbers, pay into social services (SS), and are not allowed to use them. So they ADD revenue with no offsetting expense.
Only in the hatred mindset of the conservatives do they have a blank check for anything war-related and have alligator arms when it comes to spending anything on the citizens.
US Medicare suffering from the same statistics compared to its first projections.
Waiting to learn from Generation Zombie how they will tackle this since it dumps directly on their laps?
A personal Plan B is necessary for everyone now, even those who thought they had secure lifetime government pensions and/or benefits. How well does Gen Z and Alpha know what was done in their names?
The piling on of this debt continues, as we witness even locally with our own city council spend and tax and tax some more just to cover present fiscal recklessness.
MC: What will be the Black Swan to fix this, that none of us can see right now? Do you go to bed with "criminals" or incompetents. Or start growing quinoa in your back yard.
Trump is dragging America, kicking and screaming, out of its post WWII global domination, Lady Bountiful fantasies. Are you on board or not?
Bitcoins, tax breaks for billionaires, automatic COLA and defined benefit pensions for government employees, super-funding the medical-industrial complex?
Where are the Trump investment bargains. Let everyone be able to invest like Nancy Pelosi. Don't just take snide pot shots and leave hanging for your insider information. This is an information-sharing forum.
Are you serious? His net worth jumped 3 billion in one year. It’s not because he’s a business genius. He’s a criminal genius? Here’s a quote from Forbes. “ President Trump just had the most lucrative year of his life. But percentage-wise, members of his immediate family, including sons Eric, Don Jr. and Barron, did even better.” Google it. Took me 2 minutes.
How did you take the 2 minute leap from this recitation of business success to automatically being a "criminal operation"? It was all done with full transparency.
You trash Trump for being a business failure and now you trash Trump for being a business success. You have the problem, not Trump. Celebrate America for still being the land of opportunity. No wonder so many keep beating down our doors, legally and illegally.
I was just answering your question about sharing information. I thought we were talking about Trump's investments. Now you're changing the subject. This is a typical cult maneuver.
As a person who has a contract to purchase property in Sarlat, not too far from where you are, I think you put a LOT of misleading information in there.
Stating you live in Burgundy to people in the US is akin to saying you live in Miami or Santa Barbara or Las Vegas. You live in the Burgundy region. That is very misleading. I could have said that I have a property under contract in Dordogne, France and people would infer that it is a city. Dordogne and Burgundy are regions and the equivilant to the US would be more akin to a county. These regions can be small or HUGE. IIRC there are 30+ regions in France.
So if you are complaining about the hospital size, availability, why not put it in perspective that an American can understand? You do not live in a town the size of LA. You do not live in a town the size of Bakersfield. Chances are you live in a town that is less or equal in population to Goleta. And that town is not an ancillary town to a large city. Chances are you are in a RURAL area.
I know that Sarlat, which is one the 'large' cities in the Dordogne region, has a population of less than 10k. Expecting health care to be the same there as here is the same as expecting the same here to be that of Los Angeles. That makes no sense.
Again, I am assuming you are not in Dijon, so the issues that you are describing are the SAME issues that RURAL America has. Heck, Cambria has the same issues. Arguing about the food quality in a hospital, as an American, is comical. The whole 'hospital food' phrase implies that it is not the best. It implies that it is bland, soft, and includes Jello!
As a person who claims that her husband spent a lot of time at Cottage, why did you omit that the amount that was spent on your husband while at Cottage and compare that to what you paid in that hospital in France? Wouldn't that give the reader perspective? Wouldn't that give the reader the impression that you are whining about not having a 3 star michelin meal sound like a whining person who paid very little for that time in the hospital, whereas your husband's medical bills, if having to be paid out of pocket, would have bankrupted the average US citizen, but hey, they got some slightly better food for it.
To me, I get it, you think the food was messed up there, some of the service was a little slower. Blaming that on the system is a reach IMO. Had you had an issue in Marseille or Paris, I suspect the outcome would be much different, but your complaining may not have changed.
Glad to hear you’re out of your torturous stay in a French hospital and the assault to your palate. I’m sorry, but most of your commentaries really seem to be so elitist. It seems you should be writing into Gourmet Magazine, or some other food magazine. Why do you put in words that need translation? If you mean vineyards just say vineyards, you won’t need a translation, as with disgusting, plain and simple again, no translation needed. I’m sure some people enjoy your commentaries, but for the few of us peasants out here, I’m with Jimmy Kimmel and stand for free speech, whether I like it or not.
President Trump’s triumphant speech in front of the United Nations General Assembly yesterday, was a much needed dose of tough love and a reality check for the EU. Granted, Trump’s visit to the UN started off a bit shaky, as malignant saboteurs attempted to embarrass our President by stopping the escalator just as he and wife Melania attempted to board. Followed up by an pitiful attempt to shut down his teleprompter and lowering his microphone volume. So it would seem the cowards at the UN were trying to silence and embarrass Trump? No matter, he continued to deliver a magnificent performance.
Trump accurately and poignantly described how the EU has become an “unmitigated immigration disaster.” The French, along with several other European countries, have been overrun by hoards of millions of uneducated, poverty stricken migrants from the Middle East and Africa, leaving French culture in shambles. Perhaps this is now an ironic dose of penance for the French for the decades of colonialism, capped off by a murderous rampage in Algeria?
Who knows? What is clear is the only chance for the French to regain relevance and identity it would seem, is to elect conservative Marine Le Pen. Then again, that may be complicated as she has been indicted for embezzlement. Sound familiar?
So, the left (no matter what country) will conspire by any means necessary, in an attempt to silence conservatives by a variety of means; criminal indictments, assassination and yes, turning off the teleprompter!
If anything Charlie Kirk has taught us, we will not be silenced!
The turning off the elevator, teleprompter and microphone silliness is hard to believe. That’s 4th grade antics done by unserious adults. I would pull the US out of the lost mission UN due to unserious nature of the institution and the ridiculous childish behavior of the Management.
It seems that both the escalator and teleprompter issues were caused by White House staff. So unless Trump is hiring commie-dems.....
RELEASE THE EPSTEIN FILES!!! (If only to distract us from this calamitous, nation-rending "Escalatorgate"!)
https://x.com/gdalton64/status/1970662288479920610/photo/1
can’t believe you’re still believing & retelling the narratives…
PS, you forgot that they also turned off the sound in the auditorium where the speech was made. World Leaders, unless they used the interpreters' earpieces, couldn't hear a thing…
No need…still waiting on you to learn to read MSM ‘news’…inside out…
[They] rely on the MSM to keep the narrative going but tech is entrenching on their controls. They missed this in 2016 and desperately attempting to censor now due to CIA cash infusions. Does the CIA have operators inside the MSM?
What happens if exposed? MSM —> CIA counter-ops. Will all fall down.
Can’t help those that are lost in the mis/mal/disinformation…Remember, information is everything, the flow of information is no longer controlled by the MSM but by you/others…
No link to an X post? I'm suspicious that someone hacked your account and is pretending to be you.
It must get old being the continual water boy and hall monitor for the loony left?
I'm 100% sure you're older than me.
Oh got it TJ, sure. I guess the teleprompter snafu and the mic volume were just mishaps. Why can’t you just be honest and admit you have no idea what you’re talking about?
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn76kyxp6epo.amp
I'll admit you're as bad as a highschool cheerleader. https://apnews.com/article/trump-un-escalator-teleprompter-ddfc0875301f29d71625b353f2c2f832
All the leaders want to kiss his ass. He did fine without the prompter and what not.
Calla, our Cottage Hospital here now serves excellent meals. I know, I was there for seven weeks and I'm a pretty good home chef. It's my understanding that it was a Four Seasons chef who completely revamped the kitchen at Cottage. I believe it was due to donations and the young Chef Martin Frost (no relation) who was one of the key people responsible for this. (A sad note: he later died in a freak accident while diving.) But perhaps that's what you need in your part of France, some of your excellent chefs insisting on better hospital food. It didn't happen in Santa Barbara because of our government, God knows. It happened because of local people standing up for patients.
Oui Polly! When my husband was at Cottage Hospital 5 years ago, for 6 weeks, he thought the food was great! So, France needs a top chef to get ill and taste hospital food. As an aside, I was in The American Hospital with a broken leg in 1962 for 10 days and had American hotdogs and hamburgers every day, plus divine veggies and desserts. But, hélas, that was a long time ago. I hear that one still eats there and it's been under French ownership since we Yanks gave it to them! Calla
Here's the Great Chefs write-up of Martin Frost:
https://greatchefs.com/chef/martin-frost-1958-2015/
Merci for chef Frost story. Calla
Very good Polly. I’ll second that. I was in Cottage a year or so ago and the highlight of my day was reading the menu and trying to decide what to order. Everything was so good!
I was in Los Robles Hospital for 28 days in 2018, and every dinner had burnt tasteless brussels sprouts as the veg. I haven't been able to face them since. My bill for neurosurgery was $2.5 MILLION, and although I had previously talked badly about Obamacare I am truly grateful that my out-of-pocket was $15,000 and I am able to walk, although awkwardly. While I am mildly interested to read about gourmet French hospital food, what is more important is how much was paid by the Government and by the Consumer for the care. And those little pesky details, like how I watched the staff enter my room wearing the same gloves they'd had on in the room next door, and yes they did infect me with troublesome C.diff that prolonged my stay. We pay the most for health care of any first world nation, but in the system increasingly overwhelmed by the burden of the free care given to the illegal immigrants the citizens who pay for it all are increasing squeezed out of care. We all know stories of friends who waited so long for diagnosis that their problems grew much worse. And now, thanks to the employees at Sansum/Sutter who chose to mock the patients with a TikTok video about poo stains on exam table papers, Santa Barbara is known for careless care. A truly sad state of affairs.
Seizing this well-articulated column about "too much socialism" in France, I would like to repeat the following Community Calendar announcement so we too can individually work to keep from falling into a similar fate.
Volunteer to walk voting precincts to defeat Gavin Newsom's ruinous Prop 50 - to gerrymander virtually all GOP representation in Congress out of this state. While Democrats and Newsom scream Trump is....... the authoritarian fascist.
Mark these dates, and do the right thing - fight, fight, fight this brazen Democrat power grab:
NO ON PROP 50 ______________________________***********
"Community Calendar:
Seize Your Chance to Make a Difference!
We need 100 volunteers to reach 300 homes in Santa Barbara County by Nov 6th to distribute literature for the Special Election. Urge Registered Republicans to vote NO on Prop 50 to stop gerrymandering and protect fair elections!
Call Barbara at 805-895-5545 to RSVP and learn more.
Training: Sat, Sept 27, 9:00-10:30 AM
55S La Cumbre St, Suite 4
Your moment to act is NOW!"
NO ON PROP 50 ________________________________*********
A few years ago I read that there were 60 million illegal immigrants, which is about the population of France, invading Europe. Since the EU removed the barriors between nations entry in one place is entry to all, and some countries, such as Spain, were welcoming them. They have, and will, change the economies and cultures of most countries. The song lyric "What now my love" illustrates the issue facing European countries.
Yes once in the EU no ID needed between countries. Maybe that was a mistake.
I don't know how illegal immigrants got into this conversation, but here is a thought. Yes, it is true that many legal immigrants have valid social security numbers and file tax returns. But millions of them gain access to Earned Income Tax Credits (EITC) of up to $7,830 per year at the federal level, if their documented incomes are below $31,950 a year. But we also know that a lot of jobs done by immigrants are for cash
Undocumented immigrants are not eligible for Federal EITC benefits.
However, some states have a state-level program EITC program. In California this is known as CALEITC. People using this program usually have an ITIN number. ITINs are used primarily by immigrants who are ineligible for a social security number.
This program started in 2020.
In Tax year 2020, 4.1 million applied. In tax year 2021,3.6 million applied. in 2023 by March almost 1.5 million had applied. NOTE. These numbers depend on the date the data was captured, so they do not accurately reflect the final actuals.
CALEITC pays up to $294 if you are a qualifying adult with no children. If you are a family with 3 or more qualifying children, your maximum credit would be $3,644.
However, it is important to add that many Undocumented Immigrants do contribute substantially to California's economy and public finances according to an AI source. They paid nearly $8.5 Billion in state and local taxes as of 2022. Additionally, undocumented workers are reported to generate nearly 5% of California's GDP.
DH: Long proven illegals take far more than they return to the economy, primarily in 13 years of free K-12 along, with at least $46 billion going to Mexico every year alone in remittences. One needs to also explore how much of their "return to our economy" passes through the Chumash Casino.
Paying sales taxes when they buy things in the US does not pass for "paying taxes", since even legal visitors to the US "pay US taxes" every time they by a souvenir.
How many people do you know who file the required IRS Schedule H forms and pay into their social security for their even legal house cleaners or gardeners, let alone illegal ones?
https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-schedule-h-form-1040
I took that data from ChaptGPT. I think reporting statistics can sometimes be biased, I have found that before. It very much depends upon how one asks the question and then checks the answer. In some instances both answers can be true but incomplete. I am aware of the huge amounts of money sent back to Mexico and other South American countries by both legal and illegal immigrants. I suspect that more is sent by legal immigrants than by illegals. Nevertheless, your point is well taken. DH
Would "legal" immigrants sending money lawfully back to their home countries with US taxes fully paid, only use non-government Western Union?
Socialized medicine has been a failure wherever it has been tried. France is definitely not the worst because their system hasn't been totally socialized yet like England and Canada. We are unfortunately moving in that direction. You can see it right here in Santa Barbara where the wait times for routine treatments and appointments with doctors are getting much longer. This is the telltale sign of a socialized medical system.
Someone once said, "That a country cannot afford both Guns & Butter".
France introduced a limited health service in 1945 for a selected portion of the population and extended it in 1974 and again in 2000 to provide universal coverage.
I am more familiar with the UK version and will use that in my example. The UK post-war Labour government introduced a national health service for all in 1948. While it was a noble intent, there was little attention paid to the long-term affordability of a free health-care service for the lives of the whole population.
Compare 1948 with 2025.
In 1948, the UK population was 50 million. The average life expectancy was 66 years for men and 77 years for women.
In 2025, the population is 69.6 million and expected to be between 69.9 million & 70.0 million by the end of 2025. The life expectancy in 2025 is an average of 79.1 years for men and 83.1 years for women.
France will have a similar pattern in population. In both countries, population growth has been substantially driven by immigration from the third world after the crumbling of both the French and British colonial empires.
Between 1948 and 2025 in the western world, medical sciences have grown and improved gigantically, along with stupendous cost increases in diagnosing medical issues and providing modern drugs and other medical treatments.
In general, modern western countries are having difficulties in funding national health services, along with funding other government-funded social programs and the essential protections provided by governments both nationally and locally.
Growth in GDP has not been able to keep up with the total growth of current costs and the future unfunded liabilities. The USA is a prime example, even though healthcare in the US is paid for by the patients, patient-funded healthcare insurance and Medicare premiums.
For example, he UK Debt to GDP ratio has grown to 101% in September this year and is expected to grow to about 103.95% by the end of the year. The current UK government will be forced to borrow more money and increase taxes by that time.
By comparison, in 2025, the French GDP to Debt ratio was somewhat worse at 113%.
The USA has a very much larger economy, but its debt to GDP ratio has reached 124%. By contrast, in the year 2000, it was only 56.08%.
Along with a high debt to GDP ratio, the US has much higher unfunded liabilities that will soon have to be resolved.
It is surprising to me that with all the high costs of medical services, patients in hospitals are not required to pay for their food from independent suppliers.
Unaffordable government programs always start to fail, before they are addressed. the result is a deterioration in the services provided. Poor tasting food is only the tip of the iceberg
You’re delusional, and prove it with each comment. The notion that 10 of millions of illegals has not impacted our social services, public health, education and national security is a fairy tale told by left, woke lunatics.
Great outline, Derek. Especially the GDP vs. National Debt Ratio. No wonder economies around the world are struggling to pay for austerity measures. It should come as no surprise that when you spend more than you produce, you go broke! When you add in 10 of millions of migrants requiring social services, total collapse of the system is not far behind. Only in the minds of woke leftists does this ever make sense.
Healthcare, like any other commodity thrives in capitalism. The reward of huge profits, allows entrepreneurs to imagine, produce and innovate miracles in science.
Which of the recent 20 million uninvited new US residents will be the Black Swan that will provide the answer to what is now purely a math problem (Expenses exceed revenues).
Few saw the digital revolution from Silicon Valley at a time when we were also facing similar fiscal crises. That was the Black Swan that saved us from the post Vietnam War expenses outs-stripping revenues.
The current flailing revenue to expense ratio in the US cannot be papered over. Who, what, when, where and how will this finally be confronted.
It will manifest with ever high tax and creative new “fees”. As that’s always the answer to lack of funds. Never is a study done to see how people actually live and or need to live. I understand one of the reasons ~2000 year long Roman Empire failed when people of lesser means (many) voted for more taxation on the of means (fewer).
That is a horrendously inaccurate jab at immigration. It assumes that migrants do not add to the GDP.
Here, in the US, migrants get ITIN numbers, pay into social services (SS), and are not allowed to use them. So they ADD revenue with no offsetting expense.
Only in the hatred mindset of the conservatives do they have a blank check for anything war-related and have alligator arms when it comes to spending anything on the citizens.
US Medicare suffering from the same statistics compared to its first projections.
Waiting to learn from Generation Zombie how they will tackle this since it dumps directly on their laps?
A personal Plan B is necessary for everyone now, even those who thought they had secure lifetime government pensions and/or benefits. How well does Gen Z and Alpha know what was done in their names?
The piling on of this debt continues, as we witness even locally with our own city council spend and tax and tax some more just to cover present fiscal recklessness.
Sounds like this country; the far left is incompetent and the far right is criminal.
MC: What will be the Black Swan to fix this, that none of us can see right now? Do you go to bed with "criminals" or incompetents. Or start growing quinoa in your back yard.
Trump is dragging America, kicking and screaming, out of its post WWII global domination, Lady Bountiful fantasies. Are you on board or not?
Unfortunately, I don’t see any Black Swain. I do see Trump making a fortune for him and his cronies.
Lay it out, MC. Specifics, please.
Bitcoins, tax breaks for billionaires, automatic COLA and defined benefit pensions for government employees, super-funding the medical-industrial complex?
Where are the Trump investment bargains. Let everyone be able to invest like Nancy Pelosi. Don't just take snide pot shots and leave hanging for your insider information. This is an information-sharing forum.
Are you serious? His net worth jumped 3 billion in one year. It’s not because he’s a business genius. He’s a criminal genius? Here’s a quote from Forbes. “ President Trump just had the most lucrative year of his life. But percentage-wise, members of his immediate family, including sons Eric, Don Jr. and Barron, did even better.” Google it. Took me 2 minutes.
How did you take the 2 minute leap from this recitation of business success to automatically being a "criminal operation"? It was all done with full transparency.
You trash Trump for being a business failure and now you trash Trump for being a business success. You have the problem, not Trump. Celebrate America for still being the land of opportunity. No wonder so many keep beating down our doors, legally and illegally.
I was just answering your question about sharing information. I thought we were talking about Trump's investments. Now you're changing the subject. This is a typical cult maneuver.
As a person who has a contract to purchase property in Sarlat, not too far from where you are, I think you put a LOT of misleading information in there.
Stating you live in Burgundy to people in the US is akin to saying you live in Miami or Santa Barbara or Las Vegas. You live in the Burgundy region. That is very misleading. I could have said that I have a property under contract in Dordogne, France and people would infer that it is a city. Dordogne and Burgundy are regions and the equivilant to the US would be more akin to a county. These regions can be small or HUGE. IIRC there are 30+ regions in France.
So if you are complaining about the hospital size, availability, why not put it in perspective that an American can understand? You do not live in a town the size of LA. You do not live in a town the size of Bakersfield. Chances are you live in a town that is less or equal in population to Goleta. And that town is not an ancillary town to a large city. Chances are you are in a RURAL area.
I know that Sarlat, which is one the 'large' cities in the Dordogne region, has a population of less than 10k. Expecting health care to be the same there as here is the same as expecting the same here to be that of Los Angeles. That makes no sense.
Again, I am assuming you are not in Dijon, so the issues that you are describing are the SAME issues that RURAL America has. Heck, Cambria has the same issues. Arguing about the food quality in a hospital, as an American, is comical. The whole 'hospital food' phrase implies that it is not the best. It implies that it is bland, soft, and includes Jello!
As a person who claims that her husband spent a lot of time at Cottage, why did you omit that the amount that was spent on your husband while at Cottage and compare that to what you paid in that hospital in France? Wouldn't that give the reader perspective? Wouldn't that give the reader the impression that you are whining about not having a 3 star michelin meal sound like a whining person who paid very little for that time in the hospital, whereas your husband's medical bills, if having to be paid out of pocket, would have bankrupted the average US citizen, but hey, they got some slightly better food for it.
To me, I get it, you think the food was messed up there, some of the service was a little slower. Blaming that on the system is a reach IMO. Had you had an issue in Marseille or Paris, I suspect the outcome would be much different, but your complaining may not have changed.
Glad to hear you’re out of your torturous stay in a French hospital and the assault to your palate. I’m sorry, but most of your commentaries really seem to be so elitist. It seems you should be writing into Gourmet Magazine, or some other food magazine. Why do you put in words that need translation? If you mean vineyards just say vineyards, you won’t need a translation, as with disgusting, plain and simple again, no translation needed. I’m sure some people enjoy your commentaries, but for the few of us peasants out here, I’m with Jimmy Kimmel and stand for free speech, whether I like it or not.