The News Thread

[rms]

swedes/scandinavians should be more upset at the outrageous VAT's and the crazy high price of alcohol. how dare you over tax that beautiful drink to the point where no one can afford to get drunk anymore?

spending ~2wks in scandinavia was so fucking expensive

 

[Einherjar86]

It's like the reverse of the new health care bill the Republicans are proposing.

Instead of having access to health care but not being able to afford it (yet our lower classes can afford alcohol easily), in Sweden people have access to alcohol but can't afford it, but almost everyone has health care.

 

[rms]

It's like the reverse of the new health care bill the Republicans are proposing.

that shit is such a joke on every level. i don't know how anyone can really talk politics of this administration anymore

 

[CiG]

America is the new upside-down land?

 

[Dak]

Prices aren't magically high. So far no one seems to have a better idea on how to reduce costs than price controls - which are a terrible idea and do nothing to address the actual problems.

One of the two main areas blamed for price hikes is technology, yet consumer technology gets better and cheaper on a year to year basis...... Something healthcare and postsecondary education share in common is administrative bloat. Both HC and PsE have seen tremendous cost increases. Both are also highly subsidized. Something there to unpack.

But what we need are price controls and free shit because Venezuela can't happen here.

 

[CiG]

So in 2005, Trump made $150 million, paid $38 million in taxes.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Prices aren't magically high. So far no one seems to have a better idea on how to reduce costs than price controls - which are a terrible idea and do nothing to address the actual problems.

One of the two main areas blamed for price hikes is technology, yet consumer technology gets better and cheaper on a year to year basis...... Something healthcare and postsecondary education share in common is administrative bloat. Both HC and PsE have seen tremendous cost increases. Both are also highly subsidized. Something there to unpack.

But what we need are price controls and free shit because Venezuela can't happen here.

There's an extremely easy solution: don't create indefinite monopolies on drugs long out of patent. Free markets don't see skyrocketing product costs when supply is increasing at the same time.

 

[arg]

ryancare sort of makes sense when you watch his powerpoint, i hope it works

 

[Dak]

Penalty for coverage lapses is worse than the previous slow-rolled mandate. The bottom line is that the entire health insurance model is broken, and no one deserves endless care simply for breathing. Chronic disease and acute trauma/illness care must be separated in coverage, and there's no rational argument for subsidizing all of the cases of diabetes and heart disease. These are almost entirely lifestyle diseases.

Edit: If we want to subsidize something, subsidize prevention, not aftercare.

 

[Mort Divine]

Your lack of empathy is amazing sometimes.

 

[CiG]

Empathy is pretty useless in policy making.

 

[Dak]

Your lack of empathy is amazing sometimes.

Yeah, I sacrifice a couple dozen hours a week (as in, over and above the normal 40 hour work week) and potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars in income to go into a helping profession because I lack empathy. Your lack of empathy, personal and systemic awareness, and general ignorance should be amazing - but it isn't.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Fat people die without a tear shed for them. Nothing more disgusting than a pile of lard eating away tax dollars.

 

[rms]

and there's no rational argument for subsidizing all of the cases of diabetes and heart disease.

I think this opens a diffilcult distinction with sports related injuries. Both are rooted in the same types of 'cause,' doing something you know could or will be harmful, but obviously we draw the line at some sort of 'criminal' negligence.

I'm with ya that the sugar lovin' diabetes and obesity are not(edit) diseases in the purest sense of the word, but i think we can already see the logical loopholes made here. political distinctions are my favorite <3

 

[arg]

nobody should subsidize anybody's disease or injury, whether it was the sufferer's fault or not.

I shouldn't be forced to help a hamburger eating fatass, nor a child that got cancer by bad luck.

Cuz I had nothing to do with either case

 

[crimsonfloyd]

By that logic, let's defund the VA. I never told anyone to risk their body and mind by following orders for the sake of destabilizing countries in the developing world. Bad decision on their part. Why should I have to pay for their medical and psychological treatment?

(For the record, I'm not actually for defunding the VA, but it's compatible with the positions being expressed on here).

 

[rms]

Why should I have to pay for their medical and psychological treatment?

well, it's quite different. All the "incentives" that come up with signing up for the military is to entice people to join instead of establishing a draft.

It's "hey, if you join you get covered for life with any disability you get, good housing loans, 4 years free college etc"

Diabetes or obesity is quite different

 

[arg]

By that logic, let's defund the VA. I never told anyone to risk their body and mind by following orders for the sake of destabilizing countries in the developing world. Bad decision on their part. Why should I have to pay for their medical and psychological treatment?

Um yea I'm in complete agreement with that. Blow money on useless wars, blow money on the refugees it creates, blow money on injured vets. None of that shit has anything to do with me yet I look at each of my paychecks and more than 1/5 has been shaven off to fund it

 

[Dak]

In short I agree with rms response to things like the VA. States require a defense force, which require members, and those members will incur damages. That the US mis-uses its military in the minds of many (myself included) doesn't negate the prior reality. Also, care for things like loss of limb or TBI might be long term, but the cause is not due to a repeated series of poor choices stretched out over years.

It's not uncommon for people with diabetes to fail at managing their illness even after acquiring it, and the same for heart disease. To over simplify, there are better uses of public funds than to subsidize poor outcomes in people who, in the face of mountains of PSAs and evidence to the contrary, refuse to alter self-destructive behaviors - behaviors which have zero upside other than very short lived individual hedonistic pleasure.

 

[CiG]

I'd rather fund the VA, not particularly interested in being drafted.