tiggum wrote on 08/10/18 at 09:25:09:
But I wonder..........OK, so healthcare costs are covered by a system set up by the State. What about personal property? Say some guy totally in the wrong hits you and causes severe damage to you and your vehicle. Does the State pay for your healthcare to recover and also to repair your vehicle even if the guy was in the wrong? That would seem as if the government was going a bit too far, guaranteeing the citizenry when someone else was at fault.
Hi Tiggum, if some guy ends up pasting me and my bike here, the state will take care of mine (and his if he needs a bit of psychological counseling) health care but my bike will be covered only by vehicle insurance. If he was at fault his vehicle insurance would pay for it, if he wasn't insured my insurance would pay for it and charge him or take him to court, if neither of us had vehicle insurance I guess we'd have to either sort it out between us or I get a lawyer and take him to court for vehicle costs. So yeah, not totally a good deal!
Kookaburra wrote on 08/10/18 at 06:49:57:
New Zealand is such a great model of how a civilised society can be.- Serious gun control, socialised medical care, universal aged pension and a treaty with its native peoples. Whilst not perfect (nothing ever is) what is there not to like?
Thanks Kookaburra, like Tiggum said that's serious praise from an Aussie! It's nice to hear some positive trans-Tasman banter for a change
Yeah, I too think New Zealand is an enjoyable, safe and tolerant country whose government goes to lengths to honour the Treaty in a modern way. Indigenous Maori were ripped off after co-signing the Treaty with the British govt in 1840 with the British 'colonisers' wrongly taking Maori land, so serious effort to support Maori culture, land repatriation and re compensation has occurred over the past 30 years.
The publicly funded health system mostly works well except when large scale disasters occur, because private companies can hide behind the fact that public liability is covered by the state... This has caused problems recently when the private Pike River Coal Mine on the West Coast had an explosion, 29 miners died and despite an abysmal record of safety it was deemed the state mine authority did not enforce it's standards on the mine enough to prosecute
Another example occurred in my own city, during a string of devastatingly shallow earthquakes in the district. Cordons were placed around unsafe buildings after the first quake hit, a 7.1M 40km away from the city. 5 months later a 6.3M hit almost underneath the city and most of those buildings with cordons around them fell apart over the cordons and killed people. The local council largely copped the blame for not having larger cordons (reason: bad for business in the CBD), or not enforcing building owners to fix or demolish, therefore no one was held directly accountable and charged. A couple of modern buildings collapsed also and killed 130 poor souls. Once again no one directly charged, not enough evidence for intent. I think because social health treated and payed for all the injuries, casualties etc there were no corporate liabilities which would make it easier to apportion accountability. After these two examples, corporate manslaughter is likely to become a new chargeable offence. Kinda the way we work here!
Good road trips for bikes too
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