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USA comparison
(lemmy.dbzer0.com)
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this post was submitted on 24 Jan 2025
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College is free, uni isn't
Not our fault just one country uses the word incorrectly
Uni is free if you live in a sane part of the UK
Scotland: the only part of the UK that consistently votes left of centre.
I feel like it depends on your translation and how you define “free”.
I like to compare it to the differences between expenses and costs. Which is something people often confuse. Expenses are talking about the outflow of money and costs are talking about the effect of it on the bottom line.
“Free” education is free, because it’s not an expense it can be considered and indirect cost. It might never be something that is paid if you never pay taxes for whatever reason.
People also consider their social security income free because they don’t need to do more for it than filling in a form often online
I think free is a great word for something you can rock up to and collect without paying, and you don't have to remortgage your house because your parent got cancer.
Yes I do get free hospitals. I live in the UK. Hospital visits are free and I don't pay for them. I pay for parking if I park on site, but I absolutely do not pay for the healthcare. The healthcare is free. My daughter gets it free, I get it free, unemployed people get it free, billionaires get out free, everyone gets it free, no one is charged for it. The government pays the whole bill. Unlimited healthcare based on need, no cost.
It's earning a salary that isn't free. That costs me 20% above a certain threshold. But, no, the hospitals are completely free.
You're twisting words to mean what you want them to mean. The healthcare is free but earning a salary is not. It's very simple. You don't pay for the healthcare, ever, no matter how often on expensive it is, but earning a salary is not free, and you get charged every time according to how much you get. The healthcare is free for everyone. Free. No charge. Unlimited. Free.
No, that's bending reality to suit your right wing narrative. The reality is that the healthcare is free, but earning a salary isn't. It doesn't matter how much tax (if any) someone has paid or will pay, it's a completely irrelevant number, because the healthcare is free for everyone.
I'm not upset, I'm just correcting you every time you try to claim that things that are free aren't.
When the waiter says you get free refills of your soda, do you start an argument saying "NO NO I PAID FOR THAT. IT'S NOT FREE. IT'S PAID FOR OUT OF THE OVERCHARGING YOU'RE DOING ON THE REST OF MY MEAL." No, because in the restaurant, you behave like a sane human being that accepts that free means you're not charged, not that somehow it was magically created without expense to anyone.
Healthcare is free in the UK because it's paid for by the government, who charge people taxes according to how much income they have, absolutely not in according to how much healthcare they get. The patient isn't charged. That's what free means. It doesn't mean no-one paid, it means the recipient didn't.
Stop trying to make free mean "no one anywhere spent any money at all" it's not what free means. Free means you didn't get charged. Buy one, get one free means you get the second one without paying. It DOESN'T mean the supermarket isn't making a profit. Stop correcting people for using words to mean what they mean. Free means no charge. Healthcare is free in the UK.
Yeah, everyone knows this. That's why healthcare is free in the UK - because of the NHS.
You're missing the point. They're saying it's not free, it's funded by the government/tax dollars.
Also languages develop regionally and sometimes use different words. It's so 2010 to assert regional differences are "wrong." Gag me with a spoon.