I remember this, I believe daffy duck in the cartoon Duck Amuck pulled the ripcord. He got an anvil

Obama pulled the rip cord and also gave us and anvil instead of a parachute. Thats what you get when you depend on government. Now were worse of than ever.

THANK-YOU, THANK-YOU , THANK-YOU.....LOVE THEM ALL....YOU SPEAK THE TRUTH !....pat duffy

I never heard of this jerkoff Fiore. Now I see why-he is a far left c--ksucker.

Told you your parachute wouldn't work.

Dude!! This is really good stuff. Seriously.

As I've said before, I favour universal healthcare as a matter of efficiency. It works extremely well here in Canada.

But, the military in Canada works well too. It isn't a huge, money-sucking deficit monster. In the US, it is.

And our national pension plan works in Canada. Fully-funded, able to pay out claims for many years to come. In the US, social security is utterly bankrupt.

Our national housing programs work in Canada. Very much in the black. Same as in Norway and Sweden--other socialist bastions. In the US, Freddie, Fannie and Ginnie are $4.3 trillion in the hole this year alone.

Our elections are run start-to-finish in a few weeks for about $100 million. For the US, it's years of multi-billion dollar nonstop campaigns.

Out banking system is still solvent. In the US, banks are not only insolvent and monopolistic, they're 'too big to fail'. The US taxpayer is on the hook yet again.

The point of all this is: pointing at Canada, Norway, Sweden, Denmark as a socialist 'success stories' very likely has more to do with the fact that we're (less than) a tenth the size of the US. 'Big government' here isn't anywhere near the same thing as 'big government' in the US. In fact, in terms of sheer monolithic bureaucracy, the US government is already tenfold as big (some might conjecture 'tenfold as socialist').

This doesn't 'prove' that socialized healthcare in the US is a bad idea. I'm merely pointing out: because of its size, the US has failed absurdly at several 'socialized' institutions that work perfectly well for smaller nations. On that note, is it wrong for a man to question if US healthcare is going to become yet another Freddie/Fannie/military/Goldman Sachs/social security?

Perhaps Mr. Rabid Right in the toon realizes that the parachute packs are full of lead? :)

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Most Americans do not seem to understand that the choice is not between that of evil big government and less government but rather that of evil big government vs. greedy big insurance companies.

Our nation's health care problem is that a huge percentage of the amount of money spent goes to pay people who have nothing to do with actually physically providing health care--insurance company employees, insurance brokers, medical billing specialists, company benefits plan managers, etc. That constitutes a huge amount of economic inefficiency, and, consequently, real socialized medicine has proven to be less expensive in other nations than our current system.

Right now the U.S. is spending about 16-17% (a number that is growing) of its GDP on health care while leaving tens of millions of Americans uninsured or under-insured with everyone else living in terror of losing their jobs and their health insurance. The U.S. also suffers from hundreds of thousands of medical bankruptcies each year and businesses and would-be-entrepreneurs are saddled with insurance costs and concerns.

In contrast, other nations spend a much smaller percentage of their GDPs on health care while having 100% coverage, almost zero medical bankrupticies, and an economy and businesses that are not burdened by health insurance concerns. That evil big government socialized medicine just seems to have proven to be far more economically efficient and less expensive in other nations. Ironically, it would probably be a boon for business and entrepreneurship.

Here is an article in Forbes that cites an Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development report that claims that the other nations spend a smaller percentage of their GDP on health care:

http://www.forbes.com/2009/07/02/health-care-costs-opinions-columnists-r...

I found this article (first hit) while doing a Google search for

health care "percentage of GDP"

Quote:
The problem of health care spending growing faster than incomes is also a problem that plagues the private sector, which explains why total spending on health care in the economy has doubled over the last 30 years to a current level of about 16% of GDP. CBO estimates that this percentage will double again over the next 25 years to 31% of GDP.

Americans widely believe that while the our health system is expensive it is nevertheless the best in the world. However, a new report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development suggests otherwise.

According to the OECD, the U.S. spends 5% of GDP more on health than France, the nation with the second highest level of health spending among the 30 wealthy countries in the organization. The average for all OECD countries is 8.9% of GDP. We spend $7,290 per person on average versus $2,964 among all OECD countries.Norway, the nation with the second most expensive health system on a per capita basis, spends $4,763. (Currency conversions based on purchasing power parity.)

-----------

Even more significant is the fact that despite spending vastly more on health than any other country, the U.S. has little to show for it in terms of key measures of health resources. For example, we have fewer physicians per capita than most other OECD countries: 2.43 per 1,000 population versus an OECD average of 3.1. Austria, Belgium, Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands and Norway all spend at least a third less of GDP on health than the U.S. yet have almost four doctors per 1,000 population.
Note that we probably have more insurance company CEOs and executives, more insurance brokers, more benefits plan managers, and more medical billing specialists per capita than any of those other nations! It's good to be first in something, I guess.

I really hope that conservatives and anyone else who supports free market health care will take those facts into account and question the dogmatic notion that capitalism is always the best system for everything. Also, here is an excellent video about how health care works in other nations:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sickaroundtheworld/

Just click on "Watch the Full Program Online" in the upper right.

Ground softening corporations?

Yeah, those corporations are getting it good with the socialist stimulus bill. Bonuses for them, layoffs and poverty for us.

We do have the tools ready to go IE: The communist manifesto, gulags, dissident camps, government black lists ETC.

So in other words, to stop the death plummet of America, give up our personal and economic freedom and bend over for big government and higher taxes.

They pulled the rip cord in Germany in 1932. Instead of a parachute they ended up with a violent socialist dictatorship. The same can also be said for Russia, Chille, Vietnam, Cambodia and China. Not to mention Nicaragua and now its coming here. Let government take care of everything and it will be alright. Yeah right! THe porkulus bill comes to mind.

Instead of a socialist parachute use a parachute based on the principles that the founding fathers gave us. They work.

His parachute and the Democrat's parachute didn't.

@vid

The main problem is that your entire premise (and that of the democratic liberals) that we are in a death plummet is completely and utterly false. I know there are a lot of people without health insurance (I am one of them) and I know you'd like to believe that we really are in a crisis and about to "ker-splat", but the fact of the matter is that WE'RE NOT! The notion that everyone in this country NEEDS what the government is trying to cram down our throats is a pipe-dream and will not be tolerated by the populous.

~andrew

So right you are

Loved it! Good job, Mark.

A revised version of this cartoon might also feature the two characters wasting time bickering over abortion and gay marriage.

Unfortunately, the Democrats are just as bad as the Republicans when it comes to economic policy, so indeed, the "parachute" would not work. Feel-good band-aid plans such as stimulus bills are not going to address this nation's real economic problems--foreign outsourcing, foreign work visas (such as the H-1B and L-1), mass immigration, and population explosion. Even the Democrats' pathetic attempt at health care reform will not address the real problems with health care (expensive insurance company and related middlemen).

I used to love your videos, now when I watch your ones related to economy I find my self very annoyed.
I'm from Canada, and when I look at the United States the polititions on the right and left know nothing about economics and there's two economic schools fighting each other, keynesian vs. Austrian.

Keynesian believe that stimulating the economy is essential for growth and they are backed by the government because it gives it them excuse to grow in power. Austrian is the opposite, they believe a very small government is best because it lowers the burden on the economy. Austrian economics is coming back on the right because Keynesian economics has failed. However, majority of polititions lack the understanding and can't explain it so they just blame socialism.

Only politition know that can explain it is Ron Paul. I follow Austrian economics. If the current policies are followed the United States will destroy their dollar most likely within a few years.

LOL!

Mark did it again!

Ground-softening corporations!

WOW!

@Vid
I'd rather just smack into the ground and get it over with, at least it would be a quick death. That's better than four broken limbs and being crippled.

Hit the bullseye again, Mark.

"Told you your stupid parachute wouldn't work." That about sums it up.

that is great!

It's over. I wonder If we will be a province or a Territory when China comes to annex the states after we refuse to pay off our debts...

I suppose the skinny guy is supposed to be the "obstructionist/Party of No" Republican.

Why couldn't they get anything done back when they had the Democratic supermajority?

We're screwed.

After a bout of Dengue Fever, and thanks to the talented voice actor John Taylor, the new animation is up and running. Whew!

-MF