Is this gouging or what?

westernrvparkowner wrote:
The world would be a much better place if the government just subsidized everything. If you don't believe me, you can ask some of my Canadian friends when they come down to the states to get immediate medical treatment instead of waiting in line for care in Canada. And if you want even more proof that the government is the answer to all your needs, talk to someone in Venezuela. They have plenty of free time to expound on how great government subsidies work while they are waiting in line for hours to see if the local market has any toilet paper.

Have you tried to get immediate medical treatment in the US lately?! I sat in the ER waiting room for over 5 hours while they thought I was having a heart attack. I was right next to a woman in the throws of an appendicitis. She was laid over in cold sweats, shock, moaning. We were among a crowd with no sitting room left. The nurses routinely came out to make sure everybody was still alive though. Our system is no better than anyone else's, EXCEPT MAYBE Venezuela's. And the bill for waiting there was outrageous! Talk about gouging! Now back to your friendly RV banter.

JoeGood988 wrote:
Almost all special events have out of sight prices for lodging, food, camping & fuel...go to Sturgis, SD for bike week...$50 per night for tent camping, a $30 motel goes for over $200 a night...if you can't afford it, go someplace else for the week

X10
The sporting events I go to charge whatever they want for RV parking. I've paid $100 per night for nothing more than a spot on asphalt in a parking lot with no hookups.

Special events entail MANY people working to make it happen. And make it happen for a specific amount of days and special insurance costs, etc.

UNLIKE a CG that is a CG everyday of the week 365 days a year and does not have the overhead costs involved.

Almost all special events have out of sight prices for lodging, food, camping & fuel...go to Sturgis, SD for bike week...$50 per night for tent camping, a $30 motel goes for over $200 a night...if you can't afford it, go someplace else for the week

SoundGuy wrote:

westernrvparkowner wrote:
The world would be a much better place if the government just subsidized everything. If you don't believe me, you can ask some of my Canadian friends when they come down to the states to get immediate medical treatment instead of waiting in line for care in Canada.

Love it when an American starts spouting off about a topic they know nothing about and haven't had the personal experience of benefiting from health care systems such as we have here in Canada. Yes, I'm Canadian and yes we ourselves have benefited enormously from our own OHIP program here in Ontario, to the tune of hundreds of thousands $$$$$$, FAR beyond what we could have possibly afforded ourselves. No, not a perfect system but not anywhere near as flawed as uniformed Americans would have one believe. :M

You got that right. I travel extensively for work, and one thing I have never heard anyone from another country say is, "gee, I wish we had the American health care system". Truth is, the US pays twice as much of their GDP in healthcare as most of the other countries and yet has a shorter life expectancy and higher infant mortality rates than many of our peers. But what else can we expect when insurance companies are taking a cut, to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars, to pad their pockets.

westernrvparkowner wrote:

pigman1 wrote:
I suppose they can charge anything they want, but I can also decide to NOT participate (and I do).

The first time we went to Alaska through Canada (2006) we were somewhat shocked to find they charged $20 a night for dry camping in their western Provincial Parks. This was very high at the time for dry camping with no facilities. The two parks we stayed in had polluted water and neither dump sites were working. The real kicker was when DW found a pamphlet describing Provincial Parks. In it they clearly stated that the purpose of these parks was to generate province revenue, not provide recreation, protect resources, or any other goal, just produce revenue. We have been to Alaska 5 times since, and have not been in another Provincial Park. Their choice, my choice.

Really?? A pamphlet from the Canadian Park service that stated the camping facilities were only there to create revenue? That the provincial park system wasn't created to provide recreational opportunities and wasn't created to protect Canada's amazing natural resources? The parks are to be revenue sources only? And I though our government had some stupid people working for them. I wonder if the Canadian Government is equally forthcoming about everything. Things like when you fill out your income tax forms and you get to the line where you are supposed to fill in income you received via a cash payment that has no paper trail, do they tell you that if you don't actually put down that income there is probably less than a 1 percent chance you are actually going to be caught? Maybe when they publish annual government budgets and they get to the billions spent on defense, they include a disclaimer that if Canada was actually attacked by any of their neighbors (USA, Russia) the defenses would collapse in a matter of hours, so the Canadian armed forces really aren't that important.
Unless, of course, you are perhaps exaggerating, just a little bit.

Why should Canada spend anything on defense ? We spend more money on our defense budget then the next 6 country's combined. Most of whom are are allies. And, now we are going to spend even more

If I was Canada I would just set back and laugh at us.

Besides, who wants to attack them ? They are peaceful, happy, friendly, welcoming, peoples.

As long as you don't have police record that is. Which really hurts the Canadian tourism industry. After all down here 41 percent of the young men that graduate from high school this year will spend at least one night in jail before they are 23. So 41 percent of the men in the U.S. can not visit Canada. Those numbers are going to get worse in the next few years too.

gbopp wrote:
Maybe Americans are tired of having their hard earned tax dollars being handed out freely to the entitlement people?

That may be why we have a difference of opinion? :)

Agreed! By the time we finish handing out discounts to retirees, vets, disabled, the rest of us end up paying a bundle for camping. Truth is one person's discount is another person's price increase. Would not bother me if they eliminated all discounts to state and fed parks.

SoundGuy wrote:

westernrvparkowner wrote:
The world would be a much better place if the government just subsidized everything. If you don't believe me, you can ask some of my Canadian friends when they come down to the states to get immediate medical treatment instead of waiting in line for care in Canada.

Love it when an American starts spouting off about a topic they know nothing about and haven't had the personal experience of benefiting from health care systems such as we have here in Canada. Yes, I'm Canadian and yes we ourselves have benefited enormously from our own OHIP program here in Ontario, to the tune of hundreds of thousands $$$$$$, FAR beyond what we could have possibly afforded ourselves. No, not a perfect system but not anywhere near as flawed as uniformed Americans would have one believe. :M

Just saying, no government can provide everything to everyone for at no cost. I have several Canadian friends who have used US doctors and the US healthcare system and paid a lot of hard earned money to get what they felt was vital care because they could not get quick access to that care in their home Province. Things like immediate radiation and chemo for cancer and a pacemaker for their heart.
But I game the system as well. I buy my prescription glasses and have my dental work done in Mexico. And while I am there, there is no shortage of Canadians doing the same thing.

pigman1 wrote:
I suppose they can charge anything they want, but I can also decide to NOT participate (and I do).

The first time we went to Alaska through Canada (2006) we were somewhat shocked to find they charged $20 a night for dry camping in their western Provincial Parks. This was very high at the time for dry camping with no facilities. The two parks we stayed in had polluted water and neither dump sites were working. The real kicker was when DW found a pamphlet describing Provincial Parks. In it they clearly stated that the purpose of these parks was to generate province revenue, not provide recreation, protect resources, or any other goal, just produce revenue. We have been to Alaska 5 times since, and have not been in another Provincial Park. Their choice, my choice.

Really?? A pamphlet from the Canadian Park service that stated the camping facilities were only there to create revenue? That the provincial park system wasn't created to provide recreational opportunities and wasn't created to protect Canada's amazing natural resources? The parks are to be revenue sources only? And I though our government had some stupid people working for them. I wonder if the Canadian Government is equally forthcoming about everything. Things like when you fill out your income tax forms and you get to the line where you are supposed to fill in income you received via a cash payment that has no paper trail, do they tell you that if you don't actually put down that income there is probably less than a 1 percent chance you are actually going to be caught? Maybe when they publish annual government budgets and they get to the billions spent on defense, they include a disclaimer that if Canada was actually attacked by any of their neighbors (USA, Russia) the defenses would collapse in a matter of hours, so the Canadian armed forces really aren't that important.
Unless, of course, you are perhaps exaggerating, just a little bit.

westernrvparkowner wrote:
The world would be a much better place if the government just subsidized everything. If you don't believe me, you can ask some of my Canadian friends when they come down to the states to get immediate medical treatment instead of waiting in line for care in Canada.

Love it when an American starts spouting off about a topic they know nothing about and haven't had the personal experience of benefiting from health care systems such as we have here in Canada. Yes, I'm Canadian and yes we ourselves have benefited enormously from our own OHIP program here in Ontario, to the tune of hundreds of thousands $$$$$$, FAR beyond what we could have possibly afforded ourselves. No, not a perfect system but not anywhere near as flawed as uniformed Americans would have one believe. :M

I suppose they can charge anything they want, but I can also decide to NOT participate (and I do).

The first time we went to Alaska through Canada (2006) we were somewhat shocked to find they charged $20 a night for dry camping in their western Provincial Parks. This was very high at the time for dry camping with no facilities. The two parks we stayed in had polluted water and neither dump sites were working. The real kicker was when DW found a pamphlet describing Provincial Parks. In it they clearly stated that the purpose of these parks was to generate province revenue, not provide recreation, protect resources, or any other goal, just produce revenue. We have been to Alaska 5 times since, and have not been in another Provincial Park. Their choice, my choice.