cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/42020156
Can Canada create a food labeling system similar to this?
It’s confusing trying to buy Canadian with all the variations of made in, assembled in, grown in, packaged in, etc. Can we copy the Australian food labeling system, perhaps replacing the kangeroo with a maple leaf? I find this much clearer.
we call cultural events put on by the government free events, so i think it’s fair to say that if you go to hospital, get surgery, and leave without paying anything that’s considered free… it costs no more to you to use the healthcare system than not, thus free in many more senses of the word than the narrow definition of paid for in taxes
I don’t want to disagree but we also pay for public television, like a mandatory netflix subscription. You could say it doesn’t cost anything to watch a show, just like it doesn’t cost anything to go to the doctor but it doesn’t feel fair to me to call them free services because they are not gifts or something like that. We also don’t have free highways, free pensions or free education. If everyone would consider them free things you have the right to use because you are a citizen people will probably complain a lot more about taxes than when this people consider themselves taxpayers who organised themselves to get things done for a fair price.
idk about elsewhere but at least a portion of roads here (australia) are paid through vehicle registration which is why they wouldn’t be considered free, we don’t have pensions like elsewhere; we have super funds which i guess are more like 401ks - it’s your money, and most people would consider the public school system free education
we also have free public transport in some places, and that’s explicitly labelled as free
everyone is well aware taxes pay for it; there’s no need to label it as a paid service
If they say free public transport while it’s payed for by taxes than I’d say you’re right about healthcare being free as well. Glad we have different words to describe things that are freely available vs available at no extra cost vs actually free (like that discarded chair by the side of the road). Still feels disrespectful to me to call healthcare and education free tbh.
free doesn’t mean no or low value though… just like expensive doesn’t mean high value. services are valued by utility; not cost. i’m not sure i see the disrespectful angle
similar thing with airport lounges: you pay in some way for lounge access, but get practically unlimited food and drink at no cost… id say that constitutes free: you pay no more or less based on your use or non-use
Maybe I should expand my definition of free then. I know low cost is not the same as low value, but in my mind free is something that comes without giving anything in return. If something has high value, you’re not likely to give it away without getting something in return. So I think my opinion has to do with not appreciating something because you call it free, but I guess that’s just me.