I take it you have never been really sick. These people are already on their own, only a single payer system would help them. Employers will drop you if you can't work, either because you are sick or you are trying to take care of a sick person. Tying healthcare to employment is a travesty and it is a huge drag on the economy.
Several people were talking of mandating cars, I apologize if that is not your position. I have no problem with self driving cars, I would love a self driving car, but I think there are many problems that need to be addressed. I also think that people are too quick to give up their rights for a little fleeting safety or convenience.
I have over a year with more then 10k miles since my check engine light came on. I am driving a car that is over 15 years old and for most of last summer I had to add water to the radiator for every trip. I have since made some repairs but my tires are almost bald and my check engine light is on (bad oxygen sensor). The car runs fine and I drive it to work every day. I am not the only one with a car like this. Not everyone drives a car made in the last 5 years and/or perfectly maintains their vehicle. I can get where I'm going and it fits my budget. I know how to keep this best running and I will continue to drive it for as long as I possibly can. (actually not a beast, small minivan, probably throw some decent used tires on now that it is winter)
So you are going to let a law requiring your car to disable itself if it thinks it is malfunctioning go on the books just so you can have your precious self driving car? I see it on the interstates as an option, but people still drive stick shifts. There will never be the necessary buy in from the public to make mandatory self driving cars a reality.
This appears to be our generations jetpacks and flying cars. It ain't happening, and if it does it is at least 80 to 100 years away.
SS is not unemployment. It is designed for people who are unable to work. If you are able to work you should be working. There are other social safety nets for people unable to find employment that pays well enough to meet their basic needs. I have no problem with these programs and if anything, I think they should be expanded. We should not tacitly condone fraud, we should address real problems with realistic solutions.
Your straw man real problem is easily addressed and you can solve it today for about 1/2 that $100 rate you are willing to pay. $44.97 for up to 100 minutes a month. I am not affiliated in any way, this was found with a simple google search. Every greed small business wanna' be thinks he can find special case people who don't really need much money, but people need money.
For example, I want to hire you to stay at home and answer the phone (which I provide) once a week, at random business hours. Should I pay you $1,200/mo for four phone conversations totaling five minutes? It depends on how valuable the phone calls are too you. I would probably opt for an IP number that would forward to me so I could take the call or send it to voicemail and respond accordingly (in fact, this is what I do).
Independent programmers, consultants, Web designers should be making well above minimum wage. They may not have 40 hours, but if they are not making enough money they need an alternate income source. Anyone with the brains to run a business should be able to see this and plan accordingly. If you are doing extremely low rates on these services, you are harming the economy and probably aren't any good at what you are trying to do, I've seen it first hand.
You also seem to be advocating SS fraud. I think the risks for that outweigh the potential benefit, especially if you are working under the table. Any disability fraud is likely to be discovered and prosecuted sooner or later. I play by the rules and expect others to be held accountable when they cheat.
If you think you can live as well on SS as on any working salary you are woefully misinformed, or deliberately facetious. Avg. SSI for disabled is $1,111, a minimum wage job at $7.25 is about $1250 a month, or $1160 every 4 weeks (this is what you get to live on each month if you are paid bi-weekly). I suppose you will pay FICA taxes out of those, but the wealthy have informed me that doesn't count as taxes.
If you are making less then minimum wage owning a business, it's time to take in your shingle.
Not true, they will receive wages under unemployment insurance and have the time to look for a better job, possibly they will qualify for retraining expenses. In Indiana you can't put your kids on the state's health plan for kids if you get a massive pay cut, because they had and still qualify for existing coverage. However, if you get canned because your company closes your kids will qualify. You might qualify for some health program for adults in some states.
It's not like the union was unwilling to compromise, but this may be a better outcome then being stuck at a slowly failing company.
We've already mechanized much of our manufacturing. The US still manufactures more then almost any nation, we just don't employ that many people to do it.
Automating a production line that is understood and mature is easy. Developing a production method is costly and hard to do fully automated.
I wish we could have two parties in power, maybe some Goldwater Republicans will take back control of the party.
The current GOP is waging a scorched earth campaign. They push a bunch issues, lure some bipartisan support over, then torch those issues and retreat further to the right.
Violence is like duct tape, if it doesn't fix the problem you didn't use enough. It's also the root of all power.
I personally wear pants every day at gunpoint.
And while your at it, make the basement machine a linux workhorse. I always have access to a full linux desktop (via NX) or a simple console session. I get the privacy and security of a machine I own and control, and the anywhere access of the cloud.
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I take it you have never been really sick. These people are already on their own, only a single payer system would help them. Employers will drop you if you can't work, either because you are sick or you are trying to take care of a sick person. Tying healthcare to employment is a travesty and it is a huge drag on the economy.
An office cleaner is hardly a camp guard. In this case the camp guards appear to have been killed by their recklessness.
Several people were talking of mandating cars, I apologize if that is not your position. I have no problem with self driving cars, I would love a self driving car, but I think there are many problems that need to be addressed. I also think that people are too quick to give up their rights for a little fleeting safety or convenience.
Email me, I can build these all day out of Alix boxes and pfsense. They would be in the $150 range.
I have over a year with more then 10k miles since my check engine light came on. I am driving a car that is over 15 years old and for most of last summer I had to add water to the radiator for every trip. I have since made some repairs but my tires are almost bald and my check engine light is on (bad oxygen sensor). The car runs fine and I drive it to work every day.
I am not the only one with a car like this. Not everyone drives a car made in the last 5 years and/or perfectly maintains their vehicle. I can get where I'm going and it fits my budget. I know how to keep this best running and I will continue to drive it for as long as I possibly can. (actually not a beast, small minivan, probably throw some decent used tires on now that it is winter)
...and how many cars are on the roads in the US? Wikipedia says over 254,000,000 so you are talking about at least 20 such incidents statistically.
So you are going to let a law requiring your car to disable itself if it thinks it is malfunctioning go on the books just so you can have your precious self driving car? I see it on the interstates as an option, but people still drive stick shifts. There will never be the necessary buy in from the public to make mandatory self driving cars a reality.
This appears to be our generations jetpacks and flying cars. It ain't happening, and if it does it is at least 80 to 100 years away.
SS is not unemployment. It is designed for people who are unable to work. If you are able to work you should be working. There are other social safety nets for people unable to find employment that pays well enough to meet their basic needs. I have no problem with these programs and if anything, I think they should be expanded. We should not tacitly condone fraud, we should address real problems with realistic solutions.
Your straw man real problem is easily addressed and you can solve it today for about 1/2 that $100 rate you are willing to pay. $44.97 for up to 100 minutes a month. I am not affiliated in any way, this was found with a simple google search. Every greed small business wanna' be thinks he can find special case people who don't really need much money, but people need money.
For example, I want to hire you to stay at home and answer the phone (which I provide) once a week, at random business hours. Should I pay you $1,200/mo for four phone conversations totaling five minutes?
It depends on how valuable the phone calls are too you. I would probably opt for an IP number that would forward to me so I could take the call or send it to voicemail and respond accordingly (in fact, this is what I do).
Independent programmers, consultants, Web designers should be making well above minimum wage. They may not have 40 hours, but if they are not making enough money they need an alternate income source. Anyone with the brains to run a business should be able to see this and plan accordingly. If you are doing extremely low rates on these services, you are harming the economy and probably aren't any good at what you are trying to do, I've seen it first hand.
You also seem to be advocating SS fraud. I think the risks for that outweigh the potential benefit, especially if you are working under the table. Any disability fraud is likely to be discovered and prosecuted sooner or later. I play by the rules and expect others to be held accountable when they cheat.
If you think you can live as well on SS as on any working salary you are woefully misinformed, or deliberately facetious. Avg. SSI for disabled is $1,111, a minimum wage job at $7.25 is about $1250 a month, or $1160 every 4 weeks (this is what you get to live on each month if you are paid bi-weekly). I suppose you will pay FICA taxes out of those, but the wealthy have informed me that doesn't count as taxes.
If you are making less then minimum wage owning a business, it's time to take in your shingle.
The market has had plenty of time to work. Why do you still believe gov. sanctions are not necessary?
Not true, they will receive wages under unemployment insurance and have the time to look for a better job, possibly they will qualify for retraining expenses. In Indiana you can't put your kids on the state's health plan for kids if you get a massive pay cut, because they had and still qualify for existing coverage. However, if you get canned because your company closes your kids will qualify. You might qualify for some health program for adults in some states.
It's not like the union was unwilling to compromise, but this may be a better outcome then being stuck at a slowly failing company.
Too bad I used up my mod points earlier.
We've already mechanized much of our manufacturing. The US still manufactures more then almost any nation, we just don't employ that many people to do it.
Automating a production line that is understood and mature is easy. Developing a production method is costly and hard to do fully automated.
yeah, don't be a vag, and don't be vague either.
I wish we could have two parties in power, maybe some Goldwater Republicans will take back control of the party.
The current GOP is waging a scorched earth campaign. They push a bunch issues, lure some bipartisan support over, then torch those issues and retreat further to the right.
How many of your neighbors work at, or have family who work at Sears, Radio Shack, or Best Buy? How many work at Amazon?
Now tell me who is local. Sure there are small local businesses, but a local big box does add to the community much more then Amazon.
Wait until his neighbors figure out where to do their hurricane preparedness.
Ahhh, the better days argument...
;)
We will just have to agree to disagree, until I get to that age too.
The Gingrich congress doubled earmarks and perfected obstrucionism.
Thank god there are at least two people on Slashdot that understand this issue.
Undoing all my mods to say,
Whoa!? Did you really say you want a Gingrich style congress!?? His era was the tipping point that got us where we are today.
Violence is like duct tape, if it doesn't fix the problem you didn't use enough. It's also the root of all power.
I personally wear pants every day at gunpoint.
You imply that Apple is not tracking you.
And while your at it, make the basement machine a linux workhorse. I always have access to a full linux desktop (via NX) or a simple console session. I get the privacy and security of a machine I own and control, and the anywhere access of the cloud.
I also keep a windows machine around for gaming.