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Blogger Loses Unemployment Check Because of Ads
Techdirt is reporting that one unfortunate, unemployed New York lawyer recently had her unemployment benefits greatly reduced because of the incredible $1/day she was earning via ads on her blog. "The whole thing sounds like a bureaucratic nightmare, with NY State asking her to get a form from her new 'employer' who didn't exist. Then NY Department of Labor started giving her all sorts of contradicting information, and eventually an 'investigation' into her 'business' — during which time her unemployment benefits were stopped entirely. She's now pulled the Google AdSense from her blog (total earned over the life of the blog $238.75)."
Goatse benefits are meant to help people whose anuses are still tight.
Others are getting much more than $238 for posing naked. Should they be running for unemployment benefits too?
You think this was bad!? Welcome to the future of your health care benefits if you hand it over to the government!
The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'
- Ronald Reagan
We all know that nobody on /. reads TFA. But it is an interesting new trend that some don't even read the fscking summary anymore.
The problem isn't that government run health care is inherently bad, the problem is that Republican and some Democrat senators are in the pockets of the heatlh care companies, so we'll never get a decent health care plan passed that has a public plan to keep the insurance companies honest.
We're the only first world country with third world health care. Hell, I think some third world countries take better care of their people than we do. Shameful.
"What do ya mean you can't give me a colon exam?"
"You're only 25 - come back when you're 40."
"But my dad died of colon cancer when he was only 24, and my brother got it when he was only in his thirties."
"Too bad. The government has to cut costs."
Later I develop colon cancer at age 26. (This is based on an actual story from the UK where the "NICE" organization routinely denies preventative medicine, and a citizen developed cancer at a young age which could have been prevented.)
BTW -
- when I asked my HMO for a colon exam age 30, the doctor said it's not necessary but gave it to me anyway - only cost me $20. Who says HMOs are not customer friendly?
That's all well and good... But it doesn't really mean anything.
I'm sorry the anecdotal cancer victim didn't get his colonoscopy when he needed it. And I'm glad you did get one when you asked for it.
But here in the US we've got plenty of people of all ages who can't get any kind of medical treatment - regardless of whether they just want it or if they genuinely need it.
If you've got a million people who die because the waiting list is too long or because the manual says no colonoscopy until 40... And I've got a million people who die because they can't get treatment at all... I don't see where you're any worse off than I am.
A lot of the opponents of the current attempt to "reform" healthcare in the US like to point out these horrible tragedies from other countries with government-run medicine... But I'm just not impressed. We've got plenty of tragedies here on our own soil.
"Work is the curse of the drinking classes." -Oscar Wilde
Do you really believe that ER is cheaper than preventive care for USA as a nation? You want the taxpayer to cover ridiculous ER costs but not cover routine exams and cheapo generic drugs which will, in a majority of cases, prevent the ER scenario from ever materializing? Your position is stupid no matter how you look at the issue: it denies poor people health care until they are almost dead, while the overall bill is bigger.
we do not have poor people dying in the streets because they are kicked to the curb from hospitals because they can't pay.
This is false. You may want to rephrase it and say that "we don't have as many curbside deaths as UK", and you may as well be wrong. It seems that no matter how they rank the health care, USA keeps coming up way low, while spending the most. Try referring to real statistical data before formulating your argument.
These are great straw men you keep demolishing. Are any of them related to reality in any way?
Support SETI@home
Leave the city and your problems go away, just out in the country you better have somthing to do and know enough people to keep together. Make sure you are near a source of water, a good tree line for wind control, an expanse of shrubs or small dense forest for animal refuge, and combat-offensive technique and survival gear just in case. Back before 1861 the way to go was a township with your friends, but now the United States since after Civil War just goes around installing dictators in every civil position like a strip-mining operation. A mountain is great because it limits access to a ground invasion, but then what's the use when this planet has the United States anywhere.