Do you believe if healthcare was free that you would actually get the care you need in that set up? Just because its free does not garentee you care. Ever hear the horror stories of this free care?
Like Canada, Australia has free healthcare. If you pay a small fee into an ambulance fund, even if you have no insurance of any kind, in an emergency, you will be transported to the nearest public hospital and receive the best care available in that public system....and it won’t cost you a cent, except for perhaps some follow up medication which is mostly subsidised by the government as well.
There is a Medicare levy that is taken from all wage earners to support the system. No one is turned away because they can’t afford medical assistance or hospital stays.
Is it a flawless system? By no means....but we have optional health insurance which is taken out by choice if you can afford it. This will guarantee treatment in a private hospital under the best doctors who charge ridiculous fees for their services, because they can. Private hospitals too, can charge ridiculous fees for those who can afford it.....because like America the health industry here is all about the money....you can get anything if you can pay for it.
Australia is consistent in that it pays a living wage even for unskilled workers. But economically the whole world is getting harder to live in. We too have our homeless problem but nothing of the magnitude in once wealthy and prosperous America. Very few in Australia are working, and many are drug addicts and alcoholics.
No one should have to work 3 jobs just to exist.
But one thing that hasn’t been mentioned, that is a problem in all nations, is the military budget......no expense is spared on ways to kill “the enemy”, whilst ignoring the plight of ordinary citizens who are just trying to keep a roof of sorts over their heads, and food in their bellies. Imagine if the money spent on taking lives was spent on saving them....!?....was spent on giving children a quality of life that is not only open to the rich....and even then, how many wealthy and famous people are truly happy, or contribute to the well being of others?
This is why no nation on earth with blood on their hands can ever be called “Christian”. (Isa 1:15)
“Thou shalt not kill” is part of the 10 Commandments.....so why was it that Israel could have a military force and take the lives of their enemies back in Bible times?
In a word....”sanction”.
Israel was sanctioned by God to protect the land that he had specifically gifted to them. Foreign nations wanted that very good, productive land for themselves, and Israel could have kept it and been blessed if only they had not disobeyed their Creator for the whole of their history.
God’s blessing was conditional as it is to this day. We can receive it “IF” we obey the laws that God laid down. Israel never did, and those who claim to be “Christians” in our day haven’t either. They too have unsanctioned blood on their hands. All their conflicts are about national pride, corrupt politics and greed for resources....never is God in the picture except to help them kill others for their own selfish gains. Would he be part of that? Who is ruling the world? (1 John 5:19)
God has not gifted the present nations with their land, which many took by force and with much bloodshed and even attempted genocide for the original inhabitants.
The Bible told us what would take place in this time of the end.....in the ride of the four horsemen of the apocalypse, it says.....
“When the Lamb broke the third seal, I heard the third living being say, “Come!” I looked up and saw a black horse, and its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard a voice from among the four living beings say, “A loaf of wheat bread or three loaves of barley will cost a day’s pay. And don’t waste the olive oil and wine.” (NLT)
FWIW. that is where we are headed right now.....and nothing the nations do, will fix what is broken.....only God can.
So you are right...”grocery prices are not the problem”.....it goes much deeper than most people imagine.