I was a member of the AFL-CIO, so, yes.. I have belonged to a union. I had no choice since to work at that company you had to join the union. Although we could opt out, we would still have had to pay dues, which is part of my reasoning that they really care a lot about dues and not much else. In fact, the only time we ever heard from them was when they were announcing that dues were rising. The only people in tech that I have ever heard talking about unions are those that barely hanging onto their jobs. The talented folks that can do the work can do a fine job negotiating wages and benefits and workplace safety and such all on their own.
The courts haven't always upheld that type of thinking. I forget the details, but there was a case in the mid-west US where caucasians had become the minority in an area and tried to make use of a "school choice" law to choose their children's school that was intended to send kids in poverty stricken areas to the "better" schools in more affluent areas. The court basically told them they couldn't claim to be minorities even though they were the actual minority in their district.
There's a lot of stuff hidden in the archives at the Vatican that very few will ever see. Secrecy is just as common within a religion as it is anywhere else.
Depends which prices you're quoting. At many health care facilities, the amount charged to insurers is way higher than the amount charged to individuals if they don't have coverage. It's very difficult to say whether or not care is expensive because so many of the figures are bogus.
The waiting lists aren't BS. The article you linked even says as much. General care you'll probably be fine with but many specialties do have long wait lists. My point is bigger than that though. If you nationalize it, you're stuck with the official waiting list. Right now, you can at least "shop around".
Our system really isn't that bad. There are things that could be done to improve it, things that should have been done instead of the AHA. Making it all the domain of the feds is the last thing you want to do. They couldn't even launch a website with years of preparation. They can't even keep the Veterans Administration out of the news for any length of time. They'd have to prove competency in something before a majority of Americans are going to want more federal intrusion in their lives.
My healthcare is between me and my doctor. Not the government.
You could always choose another insurer, you could choose to pay out of pocket.. you at least have some options. In a nationalized system that's rationing care, you have no options. I'll take having a choice to not having a choice, thanks.
Besides which, I don't know what kind of crap insurance you have, but I don't tend to have problems with claims. I can see a specialist within weeks whereas my not-so-far-away neighbors in Canada wait years depending on the specialist. I don't want that. You shouldn't either.
I get calls and emails from companies like that quite frequently, and even despite all the "perks", I still don't want to relocate to that part of the country. If tech companies want to improve their odds of recruiting talent, they need to spread out a bit. Not everyone wants to live in the big city and take the hit to cost of living and quality of life that it imposes. Not to mention CA's looming bankruptcy, the drought, and all the other nonsense going on.
A nationalized system isn't the paradise you think it is. Just wait until you end up on a two year waiting list because your system is nationalized and there's no incentive for them to do any better, and you have no other options.
Considering that bitcoins were new and so were the companies involved with them, how would the average individual have determined which companies were trustworthy and which weren't?
I get it, but even if the courts brought down the hammer on AT&T, that loss will just be passed on to their customers. You can't hurt a corporation, you can only hurt its customers. So it's really a self inflicted injury. At some point, the carriers are just going to stop honoring those grandfathered plans.
I like honesty in advertising too, but this really seems like a waste of the court's time. These types of contracts aren't even available from the top tier networks anymore, AFAIK. I'd rather see action in removing data caps or improving coverage or getting rid of contracts or something that would actually benefit all mobile phone users. This is pining over ancient contracts for the dwindling cellular elite.
Or T-Mobile and Sprint's subscriber base can balloon.
Trouble for consumers is that they have to put up with less coverage in the hopes that more will switch and generate enough revenue for them to improve their coverage.
Kind of like the tax/penalty for not having health insurance under the AHA? It was argued to the highest courts that it was a tax when it fit the argument, and at other times it was argued as a penalty when it fit the argument. The government got away with it, so why not business too?
Why? At least for mobile, most of the unlimited plans are grandfathered. The number of account holders that have them can only decrease. So now we'll all have advertised 3GB data caps. In the end, you still don't have quality service past the arbitrary threshold. It doesn't really improve anything for us.
Do we really want 20 ISPs all running their own cables all over town. And digging up every street to do it? That is something which is neither desirable nor practical.
We had a lot of choices when modems were the best we had. They all shared the same lines.
The government has the constitutional right to control all economic relationships.
Where exactly in the Constitution are you finding that? The feds have limited powers to protect interstate commerce and anything crossing the national border, but they certainly have no authority to control anything and everything to do with commerce.
Were the right wingers the ones that had the feds saying that possessing a Gadsden flag was a sign of domestic terrorism? The real right wingers want to shut down most of the federal government, or did you miss that part? The right does generally support a strong military, but the NSA isn't supposed to be military.
The supposed right wing politicians are the ones that support this crap, along with the left wing politicians who renewed the "Patriot" Act. I would bet you the actual people of the right detest the federal police state just as much as the crackpots on the left. The trouble is, the assholes we vote for do whatever the heck they want once in office. The campaign rhetoric is the only thing different amongst politicians. Stop supporting a strong federal government and return the majority of the power back to the states and local governments. That's the only place the people can be heard, it's the only place where we can possibly have consent of the governed and a say in our government. Federal power corrupts, always.
Why? You want everyone to socialize with contractors just because you happen to have one living across the street from you? That argument makes no sense. For many, this is just another thing to deal with. Get estimates, pick one and try to find out if they're scumbags or not, hire them, have them do the work. It's similar to having the furnace cleaned or having major work done on a vehicle. I want decent people to do the work, but I don't want to sit down and have a meal with them. The quicker the whole process can be completed, the better. If Amazon can make finding and hiring a contractor easier, so be it.
What you're proposing doesn't scale well. I'm sure the contractors would prefer to get in and do the work quickly and efficiently too. The less time they waste, the more jobs they can do, the more they earn. They're probably about as excited about socializing with potential customers as the customers are with them.
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I was a member of the AFL-CIO, so, yes.. I have belonged to a union. I had no choice since to work at that company you had to join the union. Although we could opt out, we would still have had to pay dues, which is part of my reasoning that they really care a lot about dues and not much else. In fact, the only time we ever heard from them was when they were announcing that dues were rising. The only people in tech that I have ever heard talking about unions are those that barely hanging onto their jobs. The talented folks that can do the work can do a fine job negotiating wages and benefits and workplace safety and such all on their own.
The courts haven't always upheld that type of thinking. I forget the details, but there was a case in the mid-west US where caucasians had become the minority in an area and tried to make use of a "school choice" law to choose their children's school that was intended to send kids in poverty stricken areas to the "better" schools in more affluent areas. The court basically told them they couldn't claim to be minorities even though they were the actual minority in their district.
Unions stand up for union dues. They don't give a shit about you beyond that.
There's a lot of stuff hidden in the archives at the Vatican that very few will ever see. Secrecy is just as common within a religion as it is anywhere else.
Not ahead of a trial, they wouldn't.
Depends which prices you're quoting. At many health care facilities, the amount charged to insurers is way higher than the amount charged to individuals if they don't have coverage. It's very difficult to say whether or not care is expensive because so many of the figures are bogus.
The waiting lists aren't BS. The article you linked even says as much. General care you'll probably be fine with but many specialties do have long wait lists. My point is bigger than that though. If you nationalize it, you're stuck with the official waiting list. Right now, you can at least "shop around".
Our system really isn't that bad. There are things that could be done to improve it, things that should have been done instead of the AHA. Making it all the domain of the feds is the last thing you want to do. They couldn't even launch a website with years of preparation. They can't even keep the Veterans Administration out of the news for any length of time. They'd have to prove competency in something before a majority of Americans are going to want more federal intrusion in their lives.
My healthcare is between me and my doctor. Not the government.
You could always choose another insurer, you could choose to pay out of pocket.. you at least have some options. In a nationalized system that's rationing care, you have no options. I'll take having a choice to not having a choice, thanks.
Besides which, I don't know what kind of crap insurance you have, but I don't tend to have problems with claims. I can see a specialist within weeks whereas my not-so-far-away neighbors in Canada wait years depending on the specialist. I don't want that. You shouldn't either.
I get calls and emails from companies like that quite frequently, and even despite all the "perks", I still don't want to relocate to that part of the country. If tech companies want to improve their odds of recruiting talent, they need to spread out a bit. Not everyone wants to live in the big city and take the hit to cost of living and quality of life that it imposes. Not to mention CA's looming bankruptcy, the drought, and all the other nonsense going on.
A nationalized system isn't the paradise you think it is. Just wait until you end up on a two year waiting list because your system is nationalized and there's no incentive for them to do any better, and you have no other options.
Considering that bitcoins were new and so were the companies involved with them, how would the average individual have determined which companies were trustworthy and which weren't?
I get it, but even if the courts brought down the hammer on AT&T, that loss will just be passed on to their customers. You can't hurt a corporation, you can only hurt its customers. So it's really a self inflicted injury. At some point, the carriers are just going to stop honoring those grandfathered plans.
I like honesty in advertising too, but this really seems like a waste of the court's time. These types of contracts aren't even available from the top tier networks anymore, AFAIK. I'd rather see action in removing data caps or improving coverage or getting rid of contracts or something that would actually benefit all mobile phone users. This is pining over ancient contracts for the dwindling cellular elite.
Or T-Mobile and Sprint's subscriber base can balloon.
Trouble for consumers is that they have to put up with less coverage in the hopes that more will switch and generate enough revenue for them to improve their coverage.
Go prepaid. Half the cost, same networks.
Kind of like the tax/penalty for not having health insurance under the AHA? It was argued to the highest courts that it was a tax when it fit the argument, and at other times it was argued as a penalty when it fit the argument. The government got away with it, so why not business too?
In the end, the people always get screwed.
Why? At least for mobile, most of the unlimited plans are grandfathered. The number of account holders that have them can only decrease. So now we'll all have advertised 3GB data caps. In the end, you still don't have quality service past the arbitrary threshold. It doesn't really improve anything for us.
Here's the problem:
Do we really want 20 ISPs all running their own cables all over town. And digging up every street to do it? That is something which is neither desirable nor practical.
We had a lot of choices when modems were the best we had. They all shared the same lines.
The government has the constitutional right to control all economic relationships.
Where exactly in the Constitution are you finding that? The feds have limited powers to protect interstate commerce and anything crossing the national border, but they certainly have no authority to control anything and everything to do with commerce.
The market did this, not the feds. So the market does work, if you let it.
Didn't take long to Godwin. Not surprised.
I'm not surprised you don't understand a person willing to sacrifice their life for someone else or why those that do deserve respect.
Got your reservation for the new iWatch yet?
I don't know anyone that worships either. Hyperbole much?
Were the right wingers the ones that had the feds saying that possessing a Gadsden flag was a sign of domestic terrorism? The real right wingers want to shut down most of the federal government, or did you miss that part? The right does generally support a strong military, but the NSA isn't supposed to be military.
The supposed right wing politicians are the ones that support this crap, along with the left wing politicians who renewed the "Patriot" Act. I would bet you the actual people of the right detest the federal police state just as much as the crackpots on the left. The trouble is, the assholes we vote for do whatever the heck they want once in office. The campaign rhetoric is the only thing different amongst politicians. Stop supporting a strong federal government and return the majority of the power back to the states and local governments. That's the only place the people can be heard, it's the only place where we can possibly have consent of the governed and a say in our government. Federal power corrupts, always.
The moralistic unemployed. Time to become a whore darling, you can't mooch forever.
What's "soon"?
Pale Moon is built from the Extended Support branch, and we wont see another ESR branch come down from release until later this year.
And that's a good thing. Many of us don't need or want a new web browser every day.
Why? You want everyone to socialize with contractors just because you happen to have one living across the street from you? That argument makes no sense. For many, this is just another thing to deal with. Get estimates, pick one and try to find out if they're scumbags or not, hire them, have them do the work. It's similar to having the furnace cleaned or having major work done on a vehicle. I want decent people to do the work, but I don't want to sit down and have a meal with them. The quicker the whole process can be completed, the better. If Amazon can make finding and hiring a contractor easier, so be it.
What you're proposing doesn't scale well. I'm sure the contractors would prefer to get in and do the work quickly and efficiently too. The less time they waste, the more jobs they can do, the more they earn. They're probably about as excited about socializing with potential customers as the customers are with them.