Nice article!
Concerning Gerrymandering, I would love to see a law declaring a minimum area/perimeter^2 (must scale well), and perhaps a maximum variation between districts. There would have to be an exception for western Oklahoma, I suppose.:)
My favorite district is Florida's 16th.
Hope all is well in Cambridge/Watertown.
Also I should say that the market is the health insurance market, not the health care market itself. While there is a market there when it comes to insurers vs "in network" practitioners and covered goods/services, the health insurance market is the primary focus of the discussion.
I agree that the end consumer has no (or little) choice as to their own health in the short term (and largely in the long term, despite popular belief that risk factors are causal and manageable).
Free market refers to having a large enough number of consumers and merchants that there is a meaningful competition between the latter for the former. The only assumption in the word "market" is that somebody is in it. It does not imply a dichotomy.
Representational democracy was partially meant to solve the problems surrounding the tyranny of the majority [wikipedia.org] (coined by John Adams) by electing rational minds to temper swings in public sentiment.
It seems to me that popular votes are inconsistent and disruptive to the proper functioning of government. Just look at state ballot initiatives. Florida's state constitution, for instance, was recently modified to cover treatment of farm animals and slot machines. Imagine a US Amendment declaring killing kittens illegal. Such votes threaten to remove the tiered system of laws which is so useful for determining which laws are invalid.
Of course, representational democracy depends upon people electing reasonable people. Perhaps much larger houses are needed to push elections to a more local level. Part of the problem is that people don't know how much of an ass their representatives are. Perhaps state houses and senates should have proxies. At least you have a fair chance of having dinner with your state representative now and then.
Representational democracy was partially meant to solve the problems surrounding the tyranny of the majority (coined by John Adams) by electing rational minds to temper swings in public sentiment. It seems to me that popular votes are inconsistent and disruptive to the proper functioning of government. Just look at state ballot initiatives. Florida's state constitution, for instance, was recently modified to cover treatment of farm animals and slot machines. Imagine a US Amendment declaring killing kittens illegal. Such votes threaten to remove the tiered system of laws which is so useful for determining which laws are invalid.
Of course, representational democracy depends upon people electing reasonable people. Perhaps much larger houses are needed to push elections to a more local level. Part of the problem is that people don't know how much of an ass their representatives are.
Who ever claimed that is wrong. Descriminatory pricing for some things are being removed, but not politically unpopular "choices" like smoking.
Most of the supposed increase in premiums from Obamacare are from disallowing declining to insure those with preexisting conditions or writing those conditions out a plan. But many of the people who cannot afford care and are uninsured are just showing up at hospitals once the illness gets bad enough, so you are already paying for them, and the law would actually attempt to stop them from freeloading.
The way the law is supposed to prevent this from causing premium increases is by forcing people to buy insurance preemptively rather than waiting until they are already sick. The preexisting condition part of the bill turns into a total disaster if the mandate goes away. (There are some alternatives, but TBH they don't solve the problem of people walking into hospitals uninsured. You either have to decide to let people die, or find some way to force people to pay for the services they are recieving.)
Oh, and then there is the private funding of medical studies for new products, and the lack of full disclosure concerning all studies.
I forget who made the arguement, but it basically goes "If I flip a coin 100 times and selectively show you 50 of the results, I can convince you that the coin has only heads." This is being done with many products. Tamiflu comes to mind... From wikipedia: "A subsequent Cochrane review, in 2012, maintains that significant parts of the clinical trials still remains unavailable for public scrutiny, and that the available evidence is not sufficient to conclude that oseltamivir decreases hospitalizations from influenza-like illnesses."
*Every incentive assuming a free market. One problem is a lack of competition in the insurance market. But then, the negotiating that goes on with hospitals forces the formation of large interests.
Don't know where you live, but AFAIK all states allow insurers to charge for insuring smokers. You are not paying for their habit. The insurance company has every incentive to offer healthy people the best rates they can.
Your high premiums have more to do with soaring costs on the care delivery end, which have more to do with ever more expensive techniques being invented and used with no cost-benefit analysis. Hell, they don't even do benefit-benefit analysis (drugs are not compared to eachother to determine if the new one is even worth prescribing).
Or possibly a plank for election reform:
(N-1)-round single elimination elections.
Voters order their preference of candidates. Their vote rolls to their next choice upon elimination of their current choice.
Free market view for farm policy:
Remove policies which favor large farms.
Make corn cost what corn costs. (Stop artificially pushing certain crops. Let the market decide who grows what. This also yields major health benefits by removing unsound incentives for corn syrup and factory raised animal products.)
Tarrifs on crops subsidized by foreign governments.
Possibly insurance against short-term (1-2 year) price fluctuations in crop prices.
I never determined whether the weather website knew about the terrorist group when they chose that name. It seems like a strange reference to make, but it also seems like a strange name to select in a vacuum.
On a serious note, And "this sort of attack, aimed at killing and injuring indiscriminately is the hallmark of ALL TERRORISTS". FTFY. Refer to Irish Troubles, Tamil Tigers, Shining Path, etc.
Pretty much the only terrorist groups I can think of that avoid civilian casualties are the anti-corporate flavor (Weather Underground).
Here come the bleeding hearts to tell me I need to pass a background test before I buy 100 lbs of ball bearings and 500 lbs of fertilizer. I need them for hunting, and for maximum-retaliation-style self defense.
A war, a draft, and 10 million dead teenagers would pay for about 15 years of solidarity. A real war, of course, with an enemy willing to sacrafice a similar number of teenagers.
The other option is to fundamentally change the human mind. Otherwise we're just a screaming bunch of apes looking for some "other" to shit on.
Do colleges actually have official dances? If mine did, I was sincerely unaware. All the dancing I knew of was at house parties or club events. (Club as in a group of students with a common interest, not a loud, sweat bars with limited personal space. Though I'm sure those had some dancing too.) Then again, I went to a University with 35,000 undergraduates, so we didn't even have one graduation. Maybe the Liberal Arts kids got to have dances.:)
I was under the impression that some were just more equal than others.
I'm sort of curious which axe gp is grinding... Because I can't quite put my finger on it. Creationism? Or just general feelings of superiority and/or rejection from university?
This one statement makes clear that you didn't take a decent economics course when you were in college.
This one statement makes it clear that you didn't learn the purpose of economics when you were in college. Economics is a model of the real world, not system by which the real world functions. Magical Mr. Market does not wave a wand and produce jobs for everyone. Your dismissal is silly. His point was that there are currently a large number of applicants for job openings. It's a pretty well defined macro concept that industry booms and busts independent of the size of the working population...
AMD has definitively said that they will not be releasing 8000 series GPUs this quarter, or possibly not even this year.... No need for "several unofficial remarks"....
No, it was a victory of one pack of fucking moron filth voting for one alpha sociopath over another pack of fucking moron filth voting for another alpha sociopath, and both sides thinking themselves angels and the other side demons.
(golf clap) You're part of the problem, AC. I hope you and the rest of your useless ilk are fucking proud of yourselves.
I never realized how superior you were! Quiet_Desperation 2016!
Sounds like you are making everyone out to be demons. Are you an angel?
And what magical sort of governance do you propose?
The argument could be made that salmon is salmon is salmon. The majority of consumers could not tell the difference between Atlantic vs Alaskan, etc. But if you control all salmon, that is a monopoly, even if there is some tuna on the market. The typical consumer could very well tell the difference.
It seems to me that the differences between iOS vs Android vs Win8 are much more than just variations of the same fish. In fact, Apple's patent action enforces these differences. If there is a barrier to OS migration, antitrust action seems possible. In the context of hardware which you cannot run the other OS on, this becomes even more compelling.
A good counter argument might be a movie theater that only sells its own brand of candy. Especially if your local theaters split movies, so certain movies only play at one theater or the other. I think this applies better than the fishes debate:)
There is no magical way to internally mitigate a strong DDoS... If they can flood your entire pipe, you need to filter upstream (ie not within your own system). This costs big $$$, because AT&T etc need to install very expensive equipment to filter every packet before delivery.
The fact that the DDoS worked means that the OP was on a second class server. Rackspace must have first class (insured) accounts on a seperate, protected pipe. The cost overhead of the protection is probably enough that they don't pay for it on all of their server space. Even ignoring the cost of filtering, a tech would have to transfer the site to the first class server and update the DNS.
$3000 still sounds very cheap to me for what ammounts to buying insurance while your house burns.
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Nice article! Concerning Gerrymandering, I would love to see a law declaring a minimum area/perimeter^2 (must scale well), and perhaps a maximum variation between districts. There would have to be an exception for western Oklahoma, I suppose. :)
My favorite district is Florida's 16th.
Hope all is well in Cambridge/Watertown.
Also I should say that the market is the health insurance market, not the health care market itself. While there is a market there when it comes to insurers vs "in network" practitioners and covered goods/services, the health insurance market is the primary focus of the discussion.
I agree that the end consumer has no (or little) choice as to their own health in the short term (and largely in the long term, despite popular belief that risk factors are causal and manageable).
Free market refers to having a large enough number of consumers and merchants that there is a meaningful competition between the latter for the former. The only assumption in the word "market" is that somebody is in it. It does not imply a dichotomy.
DC != federal government.
Representational democracy was partially meant to solve the problems surrounding the tyranny of the majority [wikipedia.org] (coined by John Adams) by electing rational minds to temper swings in public sentiment. It seems to me that popular votes are inconsistent and disruptive to the proper functioning of government. Just look at state ballot initiatives. Florida's state constitution, for instance, was recently modified to cover treatment of farm animals and slot machines. Imagine a US Amendment declaring killing kittens illegal. Such votes threaten to remove the tiered system of laws which is so useful for determining which laws are invalid. Of course, representational democracy depends upon people electing reasonable people. Perhaps much larger houses are needed to push elections to a more local level. Part of the problem is that people don't know how much of an ass their representatives are. Perhaps state houses and senates should have proxies. At least you have a fair chance of having dinner with your state representative now and then.
Oops, wrong parent. Good thing there is no delete button ;)
Representational democracy was partially meant to solve the problems surrounding the tyranny of the majority (coined by John Adams) by electing rational minds to temper swings in public sentiment.
It seems to me that popular votes are inconsistent and disruptive to the proper functioning of government. Just look at state ballot initiatives. Florida's state constitution, for instance, was recently modified to cover treatment of farm animals and slot machines. Imagine a US Amendment declaring killing kittens illegal. Such votes threaten to remove the tiered system of laws which is so useful for determining which laws are invalid.
Of course, representational democracy depends upon people electing reasonable people. Perhaps much larger houses are needed to push elections to a more local level. Part of the problem is that people don't know how much of an ass their representatives are.
Who ever claimed that is wrong. Descriminatory pricing for some things are being removed, but not politically unpopular "choices" like smoking.
Most of the supposed increase in premiums from Obamacare are from disallowing declining to insure those with preexisting conditions or writing those conditions out a plan. But many of the people who cannot afford care and are uninsured are just showing up at hospitals once the illness gets bad enough, so you are already paying for them, and the law would actually attempt to stop them from freeloading.
The way the law is supposed to prevent this from causing premium increases is by forcing people to buy insurance preemptively rather than waiting until they are already sick. The preexisting condition part of the bill turns into a total disaster if the mandate goes away. (There are some alternatives, but TBH they don't solve the problem of people walking into hospitals uninsured. You either have to decide to let people die, or find some way to force people to pay for the services they are recieving.)
Oh, and then there is the private funding of medical studies for new products, and the lack of full disclosure concerning all studies.
I forget who made the arguement, but it basically goes "If I flip a coin 100 times and selectively show you 50 of the results, I can convince you that the coin has only heads." This is being done with many products. Tamiflu comes to mind... From wikipedia: "A subsequent Cochrane review, in 2012, maintains that significant parts of the clinical trials still remains unavailable for public scrutiny, and that the available evidence is not sufficient to conclude that oseltamivir decreases hospitalizations from influenza-like illnesses."
*Every incentive assuming a free market. One problem is a lack of competition in the insurance market. But then, the negotiating that goes on with hospitals forces the formation of large interests.
Don't know where you live, but AFAIK all states allow insurers to charge for insuring smokers. You are not paying for their habit. The insurance company has every incentive to offer healthy people the best rates they can.
Your high premiums have more to do with soaring costs on the care delivery end, which have more to do with ever more expensive techniques being invented and used with no cost-benefit analysis. Hell, they don't even do benefit-benefit analysis (drugs are not compared to eachother to determine if the new one is even worth prescribing).
Or possibly a plank for election reform: (N-1)-round single elimination elections. Voters order their preference of candidates. Their vote rolls to their next choice upon elimination of their current choice.
Free market view for farm policy: Remove policies which favor large farms. Make corn cost what corn costs. (Stop artificially pushing certain crops. Let the market decide who grows what. This also yields major health benefits by removing unsound incentives for corn syrup and factory raised animal products.) Tarrifs on crops subsidized by foreign governments. Possibly insurance against short-term (1-2 year) price fluctuations in crop prices.
I never determined whether the weather website knew about the terrorist group when they chose that name. It seems like a strange reference to make, but it also seems like a strange name to select in a vacuum.
I was going with Octo-mom, myself.
On a serious note, And "this sort of attack, aimed at killing and injuring indiscriminately is the hallmark of ALL TERRORISTS". FTFY.
Refer to Irish Troubles, Tamil Tigers, Shining Path, etc.
Pretty much the only terrorist groups I can think of that avoid civilian casualties are the anti-corporate flavor (Weather Underground).
Here come the bleeding hearts to tell me I need to pass a background test before I buy 100 lbs of ball bearings and 500 lbs of fertilizer. I need them for hunting, and for maximum-retaliation-style self defense.
A war, a draft, and 10 million dead teenagers would pay for about 15 years of solidarity. A real war, of course, with an enemy willing to sacrafice a similar number of teenagers.
The other option is to fundamentally change the human mind. Otherwise we're just a screaming bunch of apes looking for some "other" to shit on.
See everyone tomorrow. Ah, the one day each year when all news sites grind to a halt.
Do colleges actually have official dances? If mine did, I was sincerely unaware. All the dancing I knew of was at house parties or club events. (Club as in a group of students with a common interest, not a loud, sweat bars with limited personal space. Though I'm sure those had some dancing too.) Then again, I went to a University with 35,000 undergraduates, so we didn't even have one graduation. Maybe the Liberal Arts kids got to have dances. :)
I was under the impression that some were just more equal than others.
I'm sort of curious which axe gp is grinding... Because I can't quite put my finger on it. Creationism? Or just general feelings of superiority and/or rejection from university?
This one statement makes clear that you didn't take a decent economics course when you were in college.
This one statement makes it clear that you didn't learn the purpose of economics when you were in college. Economics is a model of the real world, not system by which the real world functions. Magical Mr. Market does not wave a wand and produce jobs for everyone.
Your dismissal is silly. His point was that there are currently a large number of applicants for job openings. It's a pretty well defined macro concept that industry booms and busts independent of the size of the working population...
AMD has definitively said that they will not be releasing 8000 series GPUs this quarter, or possibly not even this year.... No need for "several unofficial remarks"....
No, it was a victory of one pack of fucking moron filth voting for one alpha sociopath over another pack of fucking moron filth voting for another alpha sociopath, and both sides thinking themselves angels and the other side demons.
(golf clap) You're part of the problem, AC. I hope you and the rest of your useless ilk are fucking proud of yourselves.
I never realized how superior you were! Quiet_Desperation 2016!
Sounds like you are making everyone out to be demons. Are you an angel?
And what magical sort of governance do you propose?
The argument could be made that salmon is salmon is salmon. The majority of consumers could not tell the difference between Atlantic vs Alaskan, etc. But if you control all salmon, that is a monopoly, even if there is some tuna on the market. The typical consumer could very well tell the difference.
It seems to me that the differences between iOS vs Android vs Win8 are much more than just variations of the same fish. In fact, Apple's patent action enforces these differences. If there is a barrier to OS migration, antitrust action seems possible. In the context of hardware which you cannot run the other OS on, this becomes even more compelling.
A good counter argument might be a movie theater that only sells its own brand of candy. Especially if your local theaters split movies, so certain movies only play at one theater or the other. I think this applies better than the fishes debate :)
There is no magical way to internally mitigate a strong DDoS... If they can flood your entire pipe, you need to filter upstream (ie not within your own system). This costs big $$$, because AT&T etc need to install very expensive equipment to filter every packet before delivery.
The fact that the DDoS worked means that the OP was on a second class server. Rackspace must have first class (insured) accounts on a seperate, protected pipe. The cost overhead of the protection is probably enough that they don't pay for it on all of their server space. Even ignoring the cost of filtering, a tech would have to transfer the site to the first class server and update the DNS.
$3000 still sounds very cheap to me for what ammounts to buying insurance while your house burns.