Yes a farmer cares that his cattle is docile, produces a lot of milk or fattens quickly, etc.
A farmer does not want what's best for his cattle from the cattle's perspective, but from its own. So no, government is not to be trusted if one wants what's best for oneself.
I was thinking along those lines too, especially since today's cows have much more acidic stomachs than they naturally have.
"This particularly virulent strain of E. coli comes from the GI tracts of cattle that have been fattened with grain (particularly corn) instead of grass or other silage. Grains and corn are not the natural foods of cattle, and when cattle are fed nothing but in an effort to fatten them, they develop highly acidic GI tracts."
You're right, pre-packaged, refined low-carb snacks taste horrible and are most of the time equally bad for you than higher-carb crap. That's why one should avoid them, and eat natural, unprocessed low-carb foods that are home cooked.
Having lobster for dinner one night, pork chops the next, and a chicken ceasar salad the day after, is the opposite of bland, tasteless, bad-for-you food.
"Why do you think car insurance premiums are 5 times the 'going rate' for males between 16 and 25? Because statistically, the risk is MUCH greater of an accident in that age bracket."
Why does everyone consider that having more information in the case of teenage male drivers is a good thing while arguing that having more information on our genetic code is a bad one?
Suppose car insurance companies were forbidden to ask the age and sex of their customers. What would happen? Obviously everyone's premiums would go up to make up for the inadequate information about risk.
Actuaries do away with the information they have. In a free market, the more information they have, the more precise their estimates are, the more accurate premiums become. Insurance companies have to face competition like any other business.
"If they can figure out a way to pay zero claims, they'll do it."
Correction: if they can figure out a way to pay zero claims and retain their customers, they'll do it.
"The ideal solution would be to cover everyone based on a pool composed of everyone -- aka mandatory government funded insurance (or socialized healthcare, depending on how you want to look at it)"
The problem with this is that the premiums are usually not enough to cover all payouts if premiums are not reflecting the correct level of risk. Managers of such systems will prefer undercharging to overcharging for political reasons. Either way, without market forces there are no price signals guiding these managers.
Such funds thus require tax money to be diverted from other sources (e.g. transportation is usually a preferred target).
Hmm, no. Do you think that insurance companies now, as they don't have enough info to assess your risk level, simply say : "Oh well, too bad. We'll just charge him the same premiums we would if we knew he was low-risk."?
The total premiums would probably go down a little, but the distribution would be much more fair and efficient.
Risk is a concept that denotes a potential negative impact to an asset or some characteristic of value that may arise from some present process or future event. (my emphasis)
Something that might increase risk is itself risk, by definition.
Obviously they'll want to know about your condition beforehand!
Imagine if all cancer patients knew in advance they'd almost certainly have cancer, but not the insurance companies. The latter would all go bankrupt because their payout amounts would far exceed the premium payments collected.
You can't have your cake and eat it too and all...
Why would you want such a law passed? More information means more efficient market processes.
People with lower risk pay lower premiums, people with higher risk pay higher premiums.
This is what the insurance business is all about.
Insurance companies now have to charge high premiums because they're having a hard time assessing the individual risk levels. When more tools are available to help measure this risk, they'll be able to charge the right premiums, which will be on average lower than what they are now.
We have access to Vista for free, as well as a bunch of software from MS, like visio and project, through the MSDN Academic Alliance Program. I haven't heard of any Apple counterpart though.
It does, it's just not the price for the music. The price of the music is 0. This is the lowest price the seller is willing to accept.
Any amount paid to the band is not for the music itself, but rather for "goodwill". It's a donation, the same way giving money to your church is.
What makes you say it doesn't? I've been using Kestrel on my old laptop (running, guess what, XP with 256 MB ram) for a few days now and it's the fastest, most cpu and ram-friendly browser I've ever used.
It's a bit slow to start and close, but hey, Opera users don't really do either...
Slashdot Mirror
Yes a farmer cares that his cattle is docile, produces a lot of milk or fattens quickly, etc.
A farmer does not want what's best for his cattle from the cattle's perspective, but from its own. So no, government is not to be trusted if one wants what's best for oneself.
I was thinking along those lines too, especially since today's cows have much more acidic stomachs than they naturally have.
"This particularly virulent strain of E. coli comes from the GI tracts of cattle that have been fattened with grain (particularly corn) instead of grass or other silage. Grains and corn are not the natural foods of cattle, and when cattle are fed nothing but in an effort to fatten them, they develop highly acidic GI tracts."
http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/2006/09/21/corn-eating-cow-crap-chuckin-up-your-insides-blues/
Especially since they're using the actual MS Office logo right on the home page...
What annoys me is low carb stuff tastes bad
You're right, pre-packaged, refined low-carb snacks taste horrible and are most of the time equally bad for you than higher-carb crap. That's why one should avoid them, and eat natural, unprocessed low-carb foods that are home cooked.
Having lobster for dinner one night, pork chops the next, and a chicken ceasar salad the day after, is the opposite of bland, tasteless, bad-for-you food.
"Why do you think car insurance premiums are 5 times the 'going rate' for males between 16 and 25? Because statistically, the risk is MUCH greater of an accident in that age bracket."
Why does everyone consider that having more information in the case of teenage male drivers is a good thing while arguing that having more information on our genetic code is a bad one?
Suppose car insurance companies were forbidden to ask the age and sex of their customers. What would happen? Obviously everyone's premiums would go up to make up for the inadequate information about risk.
Actuaries do away with the information they have. In a free market, the more information they have, the more precise their estimates are, the more accurate premiums become. Insurance companies have to face competition like any other business.
"If they can figure out a way to pay zero claims, they'll do it."
Correction: if they can figure out a way to pay zero claims and retain their customers, they'll do it.
"The ideal solution would be to cover everyone based on a pool composed of everyone -- aka mandatory government funded insurance (or socialized healthcare, depending on how you want to look at it)"
The problem with this is that the premiums are usually not enough to cover all payouts if premiums are not reflecting the correct level of risk. Managers of such systems will prefer undercharging to overcharging for political reasons. Either way, without market forces there are no price signals guiding these managers.
Such funds thus require tax money to be diverted from other sources (e.g. transportation is usually a preferred target).
Hmm, no. Do you think that insurance companies now, as they don't have enough info to assess your risk level, simply say : "Oh well, too bad. We'll just charge him the same premiums we would if we knew he was low-risk."?
The total premiums would probably go down a little, but the distribution would be much more fair and efficient.
Exactly. Prisoner's dilemma in action.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risk
Risk is a concept that denotes a potential negative impact to an asset or some characteristic of value that may arise from some present process or future event. (my emphasis)
Something that might increase risk is itself risk, by definition.
Obviously they'll want to know about your condition beforehand!
Imagine if all cancer patients knew in advance they'd almost certainly have cancer, but not the insurance companies. The latter would all go bankrupt because their payout amounts would far exceed the premium payments collected.
You can't have your cake and eat it too and all...
Why would you want such a law passed? More information means more efficient market processes.
People with lower risk pay lower premiums, people with higher risk pay higher premiums.
This is what the insurance business is all about.
Insurance companies now have to charge high premiums because they're having a hard time assessing the individual risk levels. When more tools are available to help measure this risk, they'll be able to charge the right premiums, which will be on average lower than what they are now.
I'm in ur server roomz, spying your shitz.
We have access to Vista for free, as well as a bunch of software from MS, like visio and project, through the MSDN Academic Alliance Program. I haven't heard of any Apple counterpart though.
I'd personally use dead bodies, but that's me...
It does, it's just not the price for the music. The price of the music is 0. This is the lowest price the seller is willing to accept. Any amount paid to the band is not for the music itself, but rather for "goodwill". It's a donation, the same way giving money to your church is.
What makes you say it doesn't? I've been using Kestrel on my old laptop (running, guess what, XP with 256 MB ram) for a few days now and it's the fastest, most cpu and ram-friendly browser I've ever used. It's a bit slow to start and close, but hey, Opera users don't really do either...