Topic: Random Rants/Health Care (Read 34134 times)

Joe Sixpack · « **Reply #150 on:** November 10, 2009, 05:11:01 PM »

You probably don't even take time to remove your tophat and monacle.

Demosthenes · « **Reply #151 on:** November 10, 2009, 05:25:14 PM »

Or bother to get down off of your seat made of piles of bags of cash, each with a big "$" on it.

ivan · « **Reply #152 on:** November 10, 2009, 05:58:08 PM »

I believe I have crossed some crucial line and have plunged headlong into insanity: I have decided, for some frighteningly perverse and self-destructive reason, to explain our socio-economic conundrum in terms of dieting.

Government is like the human body. When it is young, as ours was around, say, 1780, it tends to be fit. But with age it tends towards bloatation. It does not want to die, so therefore it consumes resources, but left to its own devices it will consume more than it needs to merely survive and thus begins to expand in an unseemly and repulsive way.

Now, there are still those who love it dearly, and understand that if its overindulgence continues it will eventually die, and not before making everyone who depends on it completely miserable. So everyone tries to come up with a diet plan.

First, there's the Socialist diet: Eat as much as you want, but work it off. The goal is an athletic government that has the strength, energy, will and resources to accomplish any task and make everyone happy. The problem with this diet is that... well, it's hard. Not the eating part -- that's easy. The work part. You see, government is inherently lazy, especially if it's starting out fat in the first place, and when you let it eat whatever it wants it becomes even more lazy. It will try to do some good work at first, and in the short term it might make a lot of people happy, but soon it will become overfed and begin to stagnate and, eventually, die.

The Anarchist diet is not so much a diet as forced starvation. No one seriously thinks it's a good idea, even if you do go out in a blaze of glory looking like Twiggy.

The Libertarian diet is different. It's the Atkins diet of socio-economic diet allegories. You see, by feeding government only certain things, and only enough to survive, you trick the government into being efficient, just like an all-protein diet tricks your liver into raging ketosis. On a libertarian diet, government would lose fat quickly and become spry and wiry, and accomplish amazing things for its weight. The problem, however, with the libertarian diet (aside from the ketosis-induced bad breath), is that it has to be adhered to rigirously without deviating. Just one bite of carbs will ruin everything and send the government spiraling back into obesity. And there is not one government in the history of mankind that did not want to take that one bite of carbs.

So, that leaves us with the try-everything diet. Eat a little less, excercise a little more, and don't have high expectations. Government will not wake up one day looking like a runway model. Ain't gonna happen.

Ok, now I will flip a coin. Heads, I click on the Post button. Tails, I don't.

ivan · « **Reply #153 on:** November 10, 2009, 05:58:23 PM »

Oh, look at that: heads.

Min · « **Reply #154 on:** November 10, 2009, 06:13:44 PM »

Aaaaand, we've come full circle.

Here's a picture of our government.

ivan · « **Reply #155 on:** November 10, 2009, 06:24:49 PM »

Maybe she's a rich entrepeneur who gives generously to charities and employs thousands of single mothers and who just HAPPENS to like scooters and cheeseburgers. You can't tell by looking.

Min · « **Reply #156 on:** November 10, 2009, 07:07:32 PM »

Who DOESN'T like scooters and cheeseburgers?

But I wasn't commenting on her as a person (this time). I was commenting on her as a government body. Our government isn't any of those things you mentioned...except for a fan of scooters and cheeseburgers. Of course.

ivan · « **Reply #157 on:** November 10, 2009, 07:12:50 PM »

Of course.

Probie · « **Reply #158 on:** November 11, 2009, 07:43:39 AM »

Quote

try-everything diet.

But isn't this whole thread about not wanting to try something new? I don't like getting taxed as much as the next person and I strongly believe that the purse strings need to be tightened in many areas, governments often have a spend money and ask question later attitude and I'm not saying it's right. But ever since I was old enough to watch E.R I have always thought not having accessible medical care for people without the funds to pay for it was terrifying.

I'm also not suggesting that welfare should look after everyones needs, but on the matter of medical care I think it's important that funds are set up from the tax money to ensure treatment for people who can't pay.

I read the article *facepalm*

Let's imagine for a second that not all working class people are state sponging doll scrum who are trafficking heroin to your unsuspecting children. Most working class want jobs, I'm hearing on the news every day UK and American citizens who are desperate for a job, but during the down turn can't so much as get a job in walmart/ASDA. What are they supposed to do if they get ill?

Myself and a few other around here where made redundant lately, I've had a job since I was 15 years old. I appreciate that people's social expectations are different from one country to the next...but surely it would be reassuring to know that in a miserable time of your life when you have been fired from a job you deserved and worked hard at, that at least if you are ill, you wont have to worry about the fact that you couldn't pay the medical insurance last month because rent was due?

Edit: I keep reopening this thread typing a paragraph and then getting bored. But surely who you are as a person should have inflections on how you believe the government should be structured?

reimero · « **Reply #159 on:** November 11, 2009, 09:10:36 AM »

A big part of the problem is that in the interests of "affordable" health care, those who are "good risks" have to shoulder a disproportionately heavy load for those who are "bad risks." That is, part of the goal is to have it such that the person who pays the most doesn't pay more than twice what the person who pays the least pays. On paper, it sounds good, until you realize that the math completely doesn't work. A person who exercises, eats right, doesn't smoke and generally tries to lead a healthy lifestyle will, on average, have much, much, MUCH lower medical bills over his/her lifetime than will an obese smoker who doesn't even try to live well and can't be bothered to take care of his/her body.

In a very real sense, the government is taxing you for being responsible, ostensibly in the name of "fairness." But there's nothing fair about it.

Clear_Runway · « **Reply #160 on:** November 15, 2009, 04:07:42 PM »

I don't want health insurance period. it's too expensive, and i'm too healthy to need it. yes, I am playing the odds, but the odds are really good in my case.

xolik · « **Reply #161 on:** November 16, 2009, 09:46:26 AM »

Quote from: Clear_Runway on November 15, 2009, 04:07:42 PM

I don't want health insurance period. it's too expensive, and i'm too healthy to need it. yes, I am playing the odds, but the odds are really good in my case.

What if you fall and land on a dirty soup spoon and catch AIDS? THEN WHAT?

ivan · « **Reply #162 on:** November 16, 2009, 12:47:45 PM »

Then he goes to emergency and gets the best healthcare in the world and then he gets billed for a gazillion dollars and then he declares bankruptcy and then we pay for his healthcare through increased medical and insurance fees.

xolik · « **Reply #163 on:** November 16, 2009, 01:34:34 PM »

Quote from: ivan on November 16, 2009, 12:47:45 PM

Then he goes to emergency and gets the best healthcare in the world and then he gets billed for a gazillion dollars and then he declares bankruptcy and then we pay for his healthcare through increased medical and insurance fees. sues the maker of the soup spoon for not printing a warning about the possibility of catching AIDS by falling on it.

FTFY

ivan · « **Reply #164 on:** November 16, 2009, 01:50:04 PM »

...and the soup spoon manufacturer is either forced out of business, in which case society bears the burden of increased unemployment and reduced business tax revenues, or the soup spoon manufacturer is forced to raise prices, in which case we pay for his healthcare every time we buy a soup spoon.

Either way, society bears the burden, and the russian roulette hotshots who think they don't need catastrophic health insurance are costing all of us more than if they'd just buy some goddam insurance, even if it's subsidised.

12AX7 · « **Reply #165 on:** November 17, 2009, 12:14:16 PM »

Injured uninsured more likely to die in ER

ivan · « **Reply #166 on:** November 17, 2009, 12:26:08 PM »

See? By forcing you to buy health insurance under penalty of fines and imprisonment, the House Bill is SAVING LIVES!

xolik · « **Reply #167 on:** November 17, 2009, 03:12:13 PM »

Whelp, I'm convinced that under Obamacare there will be NO DEATHS at all of any kind.

And a Unicorn factory on every block.

h4wt_b3t4 · « **Reply #168 on:** November 17, 2009, 08:01:05 PM »

Quote from: xolik on November 17, 2009, 03:12:13 PM

And a Unicorn factory on every block.

Finally, one good thing that will come from the Obama administration.

pbsaurus · « **Reply #169 on:** November 17, 2009, 08:06:19 PM »

Just wait until the unicorns start using their power for evil.

Min · « **Reply #170 on:** November 17, 2009, 08:10:15 PM »

Yeah, I'm going to have to pay for a unicorn that I never wanted in the first place.

ivan · « **Reply #171 on:** November 17, 2009, 08:13:47 PM »

We are all already paying for the unicorns anyway. A public unicorn option would be more efficient.

pbsaurus · « **Reply #172 on:** November 17, 2009, 08:14:38 PM »

Come to think of it, this is an american factory, government funded. The unicorns powers will never quite work right, so there are no worries. And since Barry O is a protectionist, he'll keep the tariffs high to keep well engineered unicorns from abroad out of our market.

ivan · « **Reply #173 on:** November 17, 2009, 08:16:39 PM »

Yes, let's not outsource our unicorns to India. That would be nice.

BizB · « **Reply #174 on:** November 17, 2009, 08:22:54 PM »

The nice thing about outsourcing unicorn production to India is that they will make them exactly as they're ordered. The horrible thing about outsourcing unicorn production to India is that they will make them exactly as they're ordered - ignoring all opportunities to add value along the way.

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Author Topic: Random Rants/Health Care (Read 34134 times)

12AX7