Their discount is 20 times less than unmarried people or something? You could change the number to be 10 times higher, and the math would still not work out.
Ultimately, one way or the other, each citizen of Canada would've had to pay a little under $5000 US last year on average, either directly or indirectly.
Very true. He could do that, join a freelancers union, form his own company etc...
I know independent photographers, a small appraisal company owner, an independent architect, etc... all of them manage their coverage just fine.
Yes things are unnecessarily difficult for true freelancers... and that's something that should be addressed in a REAL health reform bill. Unfortunately it's unlikely that such a beast would ever make it through US Congress. Instead, we'll get not-really-universal coverage via vast inflation of costs, and robbery of the middle class... including the very freelancers that need real reform.
I know plenty of people who have their own businesses... who have excellent health insurance coverage.
Perhaps it is because they understand that this cost is a necessary component of running a business, and don't spend their time whining about how it comes out of their "disposable" income.
It's not "disposable" any more than your business liability insurance is... or even more disposable than your grocery bill.
Why is it that you feel fine paying for food, but seem to expect healthcare for "free". If you aren't happy with paying for insurance, don't. Nobody says you can't pay out of pocket.
Finally, the state of Western medicine in EU, CA, and UK, is largely subsidized by the fact that they can license procedures and drugs from the US. In fact, the US is effectively subsidizing our socialist brothers abroad. And we don't mind so much... but we'd prefer it if you wouldn't badmouth us while we do it.
and enjoy universal health care for about $100 per month for a family of 4, unless you can show economic hardship, and then it's free.
This drivel is modded "informative"?
Seriously? I don't know who's a more deluded, the OP, or the people who modded him.
Let's see - at $25/person/month , that's $25*12* 33'000'000 (population of Canada) = $9.9 billion US ~ $10 billion US
Total healthcare spending in Canada last year was $160 billion or so. So $10 billion was paid by the people, and the other $150 billion was magically wished into existence by healthcare fairies... that only grace the "good" countries with their presence.
There are plenty of problems to be addressed within the healthcare system of the US to be sure... but every time someone from Canada or UK (or more frequently, a troll from the US) buts into a conversation, droning on about "free" healthcare, I feel like smashing their face in with an accounting ledger.
Just like when planning for a very large purchase, be thorough and methodical in researching your options. Firstly, dismiss the plans that do not offer sufficient coverage. Secondly, dismiss plans that have yearly or total lifetime limits that are too low. Thirdly, read reviews, opinions, and small print on whatever plans are left. Finally, pick whichever fits your budget, preferably from a company whose last quarterly statement is not deep in the red, since the latter is sure to raise rates or compromise coverage.
Finally, remember that long-term disability is an absolute necessity in addition to life insurance (and possibly even more important). Make sure it's a policy with a completely different company.
If you go about it in a cool, organized manner, you will find the coverage you need... but don't be alarmed when you have to pay at least $15'000/year for it.
It isn't fraud. It's risk pooling, just like all insurance.
if the ratio of unfavorable to favorable event is 1:9, you have a 10% chance of having to purchase the product again. If purchasing the product again is too financially burdensome, you buy insurance, whereby you pay $(10%+expenses+margin) over an X period of time. For many people, they would prefer to pay say 20% of the price of the item to protect themselves from a 10% chance of having to pay 100% the price of the item.
This isn't fraud... it's a SERVICE. If the store didn't ask people to buy the extended coverage, the price of the item would be much higher, reflecting the proportion of the store's margins that are comprised by the profit from the extended warranty.
The only time it's fraud, is when the store sells an extended warranty that is so limited by its terms as to be entirely useless.
I think the problem is that people expect a single decisive solution to a complex planet-wide problem.
Let me save everyone time and effort: unless we develop fusion-based power production, there isn't going to be one.
However, in the context of a world where squeezing the last bit of energy from dwindling resources is important, biofuels do have a role... as yet another technology that allows us to recycle what would otherwise be waste. Solar, geothermal, wind, and tide power... NONE of the above is THE solution to the world's energy problem. Neither is nuclear power, and neither are biofuels. A combination of ALL of the above on the other hand, could keep us going, without completely destroying what's left of our natural resources, long enough that we could develop new methods of power generation.
- to ensure no further remakes are made out of shame? - to strengthen the eye muscles of anyone who'd read the book by either rolling their eyes or attempting to close them after they've already been shut? - to harvest a few gigawatts of electricity from the wild dynamo of Frank Herbert rolling in his grave?
Before they made that movie they should've considered whether they needed to add any more disgrace to the Herbert estate. Hasn't Brian Herbert done enough damage already?
Education - teachers and college professors get paid barely enough to literally survive, when they get paid at all. After the exodus of the Jewish scholarly elite, and the subsequent evacuation of any non-Jews that had academic credentials, Russian education is barely starting to recover...
Healthcare - hospitals are in shambles. If I remember correctly, you would have to bribe every nurse and orderly in turn to get clean(er) sheets and non-expired medication. Better to bring your own, bought on the black market.
Housing - it is not lacking in strength, but it's barely above the level of trailer parks in amenities
Moscow and St. Petersburg city centers are not a good indicator of the conditions in Russia. They are about as sophisticated as the West, at Western (or higher) prices. Given that a chief physician of a large hospital makes about $1000-1500/month while paying New York prices for groceries and only about 1/2 as much for housing, it should give you a lot of pause before making these ridiculous comparisons.
The chronic problem of the West is using the logic they learned in their own countries when analyzing Russia. Russia was never good to its citizens, and it was hardly ever not on the brink of national bankruptcy. But that rarely stopped it from making new weapons... that were largely more robust, if less sophisticated, than their western counterparts.
Getting into another arms race with Russia is a recipe for the US bankruptcy as much as it is for Russian... and while overspending on defense in the US would causes political instability, Russia is quite happy to make new weapons while its population starves.
ASUS's solution is different because it's user-transparent; even a novice user will get the fullest possible benefit because the laptop itself is deciding when to switch. The same principle applies to the dynamic CPU clocking.
So what they mean is that the laptop will be deciding when it should be fast or slow, with no input from the user? How's this different than the gazillion power management settings we have now (except switching between GPUs of course)?
I am also not sure I like the sentiment of "user-independent" is somehow more beneficial to the user. It sounds too much like the drivel from the RIAA/MPAA: "we will enhance customer value by increasing the price and decreasing what they can do with it."
They aren't going to sit down, do 8 straight hours of work, then go home. You'll burn out even trying. People work better with short, frequent breaks taken at their own rate.
I see you're not familiar with the concepts of: "biomedical graduate student / postdoc" or "medical resident"... I have not had a single day off since Thanksgiving... which means it's my 37th consecutive work day... and you better believe that they're EACH longer than 8 hours. As a matter of fact, I have previously done 3 months without a single day off... doing 60-80 hour weeks (more sometimes). Healthy? No way... but nobody gives a damn. We are technically entitled to 3 weeks of vacation per year... but I know a couple of people who tried to exercise that right... Hell - I've had people who have direct control over the outcome of the last 10 years of my life's efforts flat out tell me that I should not get married, and that my work should be far more important to me than getting married and going on a honeymoon.
* - Yes, I understand there are, really, genuinely crazy people denying global warming. However, there are also well-reasoned arguments calling into question the connection between burning fossil fuels and global temperature (for example, we can only account for about half of the carbon burned as fossil fuels; it's going somewhere, but it's not staying in the atmosphere...)
It dissolves in the oceans, and acidifies them? Is that really the mystery here?
Frankly I am sick and tired of this practice of demonstrating one's fake sophistication on Slashdot by criticizing everything under the sun as being "unoriginal". It is nothing but a circle-jerk of self-important dilettantism.
I don't know what your expectations were when you walked in to watch "Avatar", but mine were both pretty clear and pretty low. I was pleasantly surprised by both the plot, and its execution, including acting mind you.
I went to see it for the aesthetics... because unlike the super sophisticated crowd, I remember that film is a VISUAL art... and I found the world of "Avatar" with the high-tech humanity superimposed on the magical jungle to be absolutely beautiful. "Avatar" was a moving picture, a painting created by hundreds of true artists working for years... an achievement of visual art that the lot of you seem to dismiss in one sentence.
The plot was no more recycled than 99% of other plots. We're not nearly that original as a species, and given that we've already had a couple thousand years of written history, I'll bet you that there is nothing truly original left... only original interpretation of the same kinds of events happening to various people in various situations. It is the execution of the old formula that makes it original or not (see: "Batman Begins" for an example within the realm of cinema).
As a recycled plot, "Avatar" did pretty well. It was compelling on a brute emotional level, and if you bothered to consider that it was condemning everything that made it possible it was actually rather sarcastic.
A shot with a large weapon to your arm would kill you. Realism? Not exactly, but you certainly weren't permitted to stroll merrily through a hail of fire.
A 5.56 round through your arm will do one of the following:
1. not hit any dense tissues and pierce straight through, provided the path is 6-8 inches, leaving you with little more than a 3-4mm pinprick wound that will probably not even hurt too much when you're hyped on adrenaline 2. hit bone or dense connective tissue, or simply come in obliquely and yaw... in which case it will shred or completely remove the said limb. Without an expert medic next to you (and even with, oftentimes), that's a fatal shot... and if not it is immediately disabling.
P.S. It can do #1 and hit your brachial artery... in which case you'd likely bleed to death in a few minutes.
That's a very good point. I'd like to hear an attorney's view. Certainly there are enough on Slashdot.
But that's not the first time I see this. Hell, even Law and Order has episodes where they go through the suspect's address book. I guess putting everything under encryption would work, as you could probably plead the 5th and not share the password.
All the executives at my company get a plan that is double mine in cost.
I have no problem with that.
For example, 2 grand annual physicals that check *everything* as opposed to our $300 physicals that test a lot of things.
But you just said they pay more for these plans? They may also drive cars that cost $200'000 as opposed to $30'000. Should we punish them for that too?
However, I share jefferson's view of many mildly wealthy people over the current view of 1% of the population having most of the wealth and a majority of the income.
What's "mildly wealthy"? The number corresponding to that definition has been dropping like a rock, to the point where a family making $200k per year is now "rich". Seriously? It's just greed and envy, and not only have we stigmatized wealth, we've now defined is as "anyone who has more than me". As someone who is intimately familiar with that psychology I can tell you that we're a few inches away from a Bolshevik party.
I think that much concentration is *bad* for our country's political and judicial processes and I'm fine with raising taxes to 50 to 70% on income over a dozen million a year.
As recent legislative efforts have shown, that's not what's happening, and rather taxes are being raised across the board on families earning $150k or more. Considering that the truly wealthy have a...wealth... of resources that allow them to minimize their tax burden, it is easy to see that this is only going to hurt the middle and upper middle class.
Specifically, our current Democratic administration will continue the efforts of the previous Republican administration in eliminating not just the upper middle class, but the very concept of being able to earn wealth through work... not only through taxation, but also through eliminating the concept of high-paying salaried positions (such as doctors).
There are people who can't afford to purchase extended warranties for their devices. Therefore, they deserve to have the extended warranties given to them. To do that we will tax the better extended warranties 40%, and will also penalize people who choose not to purchase them.
Slashdot Mirror
Their discount is 20 times less than unmarried people or something? You could change the number to be 10 times higher, and the math would still not work out.
Ultimately, one way or the other, each citizen of Canada would've had to pay a little under $5000 US last year on average, either directly or indirectly.
Very true. He could do that, join a freelancers union, form his own company etc...
I know independent photographers, a small appraisal company owner, an independent architect, etc... all of them manage their coverage just fine.
Yes things are unnecessarily difficult for true freelancers... and that's something that should be addressed in a REAL health reform bill. Unfortunately it's unlikely that such a beast would ever make it through US Congress. Instead, we'll get not-really-universal coverage via vast inflation of costs, and robbery of the middle class... including the very freelancers that need real reform.
I know plenty of people who have their own businesses... who have excellent health insurance coverage.
Perhaps it is because they understand that this cost is a necessary component of running a business, and don't spend their time whining about how it comes out of their "disposable" income.
It's not "disposable" any more than your business liability insurance is... or even more disposable than your grocery bill.
Why is it that you feel fine paying for food, but seem to expect healthcare for "free". If you aren't happy with paying for insurance, don't. Nobody says you can't pay out of pocket.
Finally, the state of Western medicine in EU, CA, and UK, is largely subsidized by the fact that they can license procedures and drugs from the US. In fact, the US is effectively subsidizing our socialist brothers abroad. And we don't mind so much... but we'd prefer it if you wouldn't badmouth us while we do it.
and enjoy universal health care for about $100 per month for a family of 4, unless you can show economic hardship, and then it's free.
This drivel is modded "informative"?
Seriously? I don't know who's a more deluded, the OP, or the people who modded him.
Let's see - at $25/person/month , that's $25*12* 33'000'000 (population of Canada) = $9.9 billion US ~ $10 billion US
Total healthcare spending in Canada last year was $160 billion or so. So $10 billion was paid by the people, and the other $150 billion was magically wished into existence by healthcare fairies... that only grace the "good" countries with their presence.
There are plenty of problems to be addressed within the healthcare system of the US to be sure... but every time someone from Canada or UK (or more frequently, a troll from the US) buts into a conversation, droning on about "free" healthcare, I feel like smashing their face in with an accounting ledger.
Just like when planning for a very large purchase, be thorough and methodical in researching your options. Firstly, dismiss the plans that do not offer sufficient coverage. Secondly, dismiss plans that have yearly or total lifetime limits that are too low. Thirdly, read reviews, opinions, and small print on whatever plans are left. Finally, pick whichever fits your budget, preferably from a company whose last quarterly statement is not deep in the red, since the latter is sure to raise rates or compromise coverage.
Finally, remember that long-term disability is an absolute necessity in addition to life insurance (and possibly even more important). Make sure it's a policy with a completely different company.
If you go about it in a cool, organized manner, you will find the coverage you need... but don't be alarmed when you have to pay at least $15'000/year for it.
This isn't news. People's houses are cleared out regularly due to their Facebook status.
It isn't fraud. It's risk pooling, just like all insurance.
if the ratio of unfavorable to favorable event is 1:9, you have a 10% chance of having to purchase the product again. If purchasing the product again is too financially burdensome, you buy insurance, whereby you pay $(10%+expenses+margin) over an X period of time. For many people, they would prefer to pay say 20% of the price of the item to protect themselves from a 10% chance of having to pay 100% the price of the item.
This isn't fraud... it's a SERVICE. If the store didn't ask people to buy the extended coverage, the price of the item would be much higher, reflecting the proportion of the store's margins that are comprised by the profit from the extended warranty.
The only time it's fraud, is when the store sells an extended warranty that is so limited by its terms as to be entirely useless.
I think the problem is that people expect a single decisive solution to a complex planet-wide problem.
Let me save everyone time and effort: unless we develop fusion-based power production, there isn't going to be one.
However, in the context of a world where squeezing the last bit of energy from dwindling resources is important, biofuels do have a role... as yet another technology that allows us to recycle what would otherwise be waste. Solar, geothermal, wind, and tide power... NONE of the above is THE solution to the world's energy problem. Neither is nuclear power, and neither are biofuels. A combination of ALL of the above on the other hand, could keep us going, without completely destroying what's left of our natural resources, long enough that we could develop new methods of power generation.
Wasn't the SciFi network mini-series good enough?
Good enough to do what:
- to ensure no further remakes are made out of shame?
- to strengthen the eye muscles of anyone who'd read the book by either rolling their eyes or attempting to close them after they've already been shut?
- to harvest a few gigawatts of electricity from the wild dynamo of Frank Herbert rolling in his grave?
Before they made that movie they should've considered whether they needed to add any more disgrace to the Herbert estate. Hasn't Brian Herbert done enough damage already?
I don't know about you, but i bring my 300 MW pocket laser pointer to pop baloons.
You must be kidding.
Education - teachers and college professors get paid barely enough to literally survive, when they get paid at all. After the exodus of the Jewish scholarly elite, and the subsequent evacuation of any non-Jews that had academic credentials, Russian education is barely starting to recover...
Healthcare - hospitals are in shambles. If I remember correctly, you would have to bribe every nurse and orderly in turn to get clean(er) sheets and non-expired medication. Better to bring your own, bought on the black market.
Housing - it is not lacking in strength, but it's barely above the level of trailer parks in amenities
Moscow and St. Petersburg city centers are not a good indicator of the conditions in Russia. They are about as sophisticated as the West, at Western (or higher) prices. Given that a chief physician of a large hospital makes about $1000-1500/month while paying New York prices for groceries and only about 1/2 as much for housing, it should give you a lot of pause before making these ridiculous comparisons.
The chronic problem of the West is using the logic they learned in their own countries when analyzing Russia. Russia was never good to its citizens, and it was hardly ever not on the brink of national bankruptcy. But that rarely stopped it from making new weapons... that were largely more robust, if less sophisticated, than their western counterparts.
Getting into another arms race with Russia is a recipe for the US bankruptcy as much as it is for Russian... and while overspending on defense in the US would causes political instability, Russia is quite happy to make new weapons while its population starves.
Pshaw. It works both ways. Perhaps you could coin a "Palin effect" considering how she gets liberals all worked up in leather. C'mon, admit it!
Ok, ok I admit it... Palin in leather. Now that's a candidate I can get behind...
ASUS's solution is different because it's user-transparent; even a novice user will get the fullest possible benefit because the laptop itself is deciding when to switch. The same principle applies to the dynamic CPU clocking.
So what they mean is that the laptop will be deciding when it should be fast or slow, with no input from the user? How's this different than the gazillion power management settings we have now (except switching between GPUs of course)?
I am also not sure I like the sentiment of "user-independent" is somehow more beneficial to the user. It sounds too much like the drivel from the RIAA/MPAA: "we will enhance customer value by increasing the price and decreasing what they can do with it."
They aren't going to sit down, do 8 straight hours of work, then go home. You'll burn out even trying. People work better with short, frequent breaks taken at their own rate.
I see you're not familiar with the concepts of: ... I have not had a single day off since Thanksgiving... which means it's my 37th consecutive work day... and you better believe that they're EACH longer than 8 hours. As a matter of fact, I have previously done 3 months without a single day off... doing 60-80 hour weeks (more sometimes). Healthy? No way... but nobody gives a damn. We are technically entitled to 3 weeks of vacation per year... but I know a couple of people who tried to exercise that right... Hell - I've had people who have direct control over the outcome of the last 10 years of my life's efforts flat out tell me that I should not get married, and that my work should be far more important to me than getting married and going on a honeymoon.
"biomedical graduate student / postdoc"
or
"medical resident"
* - Yes, I understand there are, really, genuinely crazy people denying global warming. However, there are also well-reasoned arguments calling into question the connection between burning fossil fuels and global temperature (for example, we can only account for about half of the carbon burned as fossil fuels; it's going somewhere, but it's not staying in the atmosphere...)
It dissolves in the oceans, and acidifies them? Is that really the mystery here?
Frankly I am sick and tired of this practice of demonstrating one's fake sophistication on Slashdot by criticizing everything under the sun as being "unoriginal". It is nothing but a circle-jerk of self-important dilettantism.
I don't know what your expectations were when you walked in to watch "Avatar", but mine were both pretty clear and pretty low. I was pleasantly surprised by both the plot, and its execution, including acting mind you.
I went to see it for the aesthetics... because unlike the super sophisticated crowd, I remember that film is a VISUAL art... and I found the world of "Avatar" with the high-tech humanity superimposed on the magical jungle to be absolutely beautiful. "Avatar" was a moving picture, a painting created by hundreds of true artists working for years... an achievement of visual art that the lot of you seem to dismiss in one sentence.
The plot was no more recycled than 99% of other plots. We're not nearly that original as a species, and given that we've already had a couple thousand years of written history, I'll bet you that there is nothing truly original left... only original interpretation of the same kinds of events happening to various people in various situations. It is the execution of the old formula that makes it original or not (see: "Batman Begins" for an example within the realm of cinema).
As a recycled plot, "Avatar" did pretty well. It was compelling on a brute emotional level, and if you bothered to consider that it was condemning everything that made it possible it was actually rather sarcastic.
So please stop. You're not fooling anyone.
A shot with a large weapon to your arm would kill you. Realism? Not exactly, but you certainly weren't permitted to stroll merrily through a hail of fire.
A 5.56 round through your arm will do one of the following:
1. not hit any dense tissues and pierce straight through, provided the path is 6-8 inches, leaving you with little more than a 3-4mm pinprick wound that will probably not even hurt too much when you're hyped on adrenaline
2. hit bone or dense connective tissue, or simply come in obliquely and yaw... in which case it will shred or completely remove the said limb. Without an expert medic next to you (and even with, oftentimes), that's a fatal shot... and if not it is immediately disabling.
P.S. It can do #1 and hit your brachial artery... in which case you'd likely bleed to death in a few minutes.
So THAT's why we're going to have digital medical records...
Please tell me how I can make it so that my name, profile picture, and friends list would not be publicly available (short of quitting facebook).
kthnxbye
That's a very good point. I'd like to hear an attorney's view. Certainly there are enough on Slashdot.
But that's not the first time I see this. Hell, even Law and Order has episodes where they go through the suspect's address book. I guess putting everything under encryption would work, as you could probably plead the 5th and not share the password.
All the executives at my company get a plan that is double mine in cost.
I have no problem with that.
For example, 2 grand annual physicals that check *everything* as opposed to our $300 physicals that test a lot of things.
But you just said they pay more for these plans? They may also drive cars that cost $200'000 as opposed to $30'000. Should we punish them for that too?
However, I share jefferson's view of many mildly wealthy people over the current view of 1% of the population having most of the wealth and a majority of the income.
What's "mildly wealthy"? The number corresponding to that definition has been dropping like a rock, to the point where a family making $200k per year is now "rich". Seriously? It's just greed and envy, and not only have we stigmatized wealth, we've now defined is as "anyone who has more than me". As someone who is intimately familiar with that psychology I can tell you that we're a few inches away from a Bolshevik party.
I think that much concentration is *bad* for our country's political and judicial processes and I'm fine with raising taxes to 50 to 70% on income over a dozen million a year.
As recent legislative efforts have shown, that's not what's happening, and rather taxes are being raised across the board on families earning $150k or more. Considering that the truly wealthy have a ...wealth... of resources that allow them to minimize their tax burden, it is easy to see that this is only going to hurt the middle and upper middle class.
Specifically, our current Democratic administration will continue the efforts of the previous Republican administration in eliminating not just the upper middle class, but the very concept of being able to earn wealth through work... not only through taxation, but also through eliminating the concept of high-paying salaried positions (such as doctors).
... and what have you done about the millions dying in Africa?
I think I will go ahead and let them help themselves to everything you own, sans what you absolutely need to survive.
Deal?
Exactly.
There are people who can't afford to purchase extended warranties for their devices. Therefore, they deserve to have the extended warranties given to them. To do that we will tax the better extended warranties 40%, and will also penalize people who choose not to purchase them.
Let's start with FTL or at least relativistic-speed conventional propulsion instead.
If we have FTL travel, finding a habitable planet becomes a fairly trivial task.