[Strangelet]

another dynamic in the states that I find interesting is our battered housewife relationship to government.

In canada I noticed that newspapers scream bloody murder at the emergence of levels of corruption that would simply just be shrugged off in the states. We tend to be more cynical and just act like that's the way governments are supposed to act.

Part of the reason universal health care works in places like the UK and Canada at all is that the people take on a level of ownership of government and take responsibility for who they elect. It is understood that you must consider a candidate's ability to not turn a government program as their own personal gravy train.

That's part of my reservation about single payer, universal healthcare in America. It will mean we have to take responsibility in our government, and participate in the management of its handlers by the democratic process, as opposed to just expecting it to work like a mcdonald's drive thru. We'll have to bag language like "track record" and "typical government waste" when dismissing the problems of government.

And all of this is so far removed from the way americans relate to their government currently, that I wonder if it isn't best kept in the hands of corporations that are just better regulated and forced to provide unconditional healthcare.

You can't vote out corporations, like you can a government that squandered health care and reduced the quality of service. That being said you don't have to work or put any effort into them either. just money.