Rights are defined in things like the constitution (called the Bill of Rights),
The ninth and the tenth amendment to the US Constitution disgree with you.
Technically, the rest of the Bill of Rights does, too, because it does not list which rights individuals have, but limits the power of the government to interfere with them.
This is where the "well-regulated" part of the 2nd Amendment should come in: gun ownership should come with an obligation of training and practice (including both gun safety and marksmanship) on a regular, ongoing basis.
Firearms safety and marksmanship training will (somewhat) help prevent stupid accidents (most of these happen because people ignore well-known safety rules out of laziness or inattention), but won't do anything about people acting in the heat of passion (I'd wager that marksmanship training will make such acts _worse_, if anything).
As an aside, do you know that it's easier, quicker, and more importantly, CHEAPER, to enter the US on a tourist visa, and "Oops, I know I said I wouldn't, but look here, I got married, can I stay anyway?" than it is to apply for a fiancee visa and go that route? (I come from a low risk country, Australia, and the process took 11 months pre-arrival, and 2 1/2 years post-arrival, and has cost, directly, around $10,000+ in fees and costs).
Well, you just gave the reason for fiancee visas - in some countries (i.e. countries that aren't part of the visa waiver program) it may be easier to get a fiancee visa rather than a tourist visa.
No, 'democracy' and 'republic' are two separate systems, though both involve an electorate.
Republic nowadays doesn't necessarily involve an electorate. It just means that the position of head honcho isn't inherited. Whether it is decided by an election, a fist fight or by drawing lots isn't relevant.
America tries to be a bastard hybrid of the two, but as soon as you elect a representative who then votes on various bills, rather than voting on them yourself, you're no longer a democracy.
You're in a democracy if you get to vote on stuff (and your vote actually matters). You're in an indirect democracy if you vote for representatives, or in a direct democracy if you get to vote on bills.
For example, a non-US Citizen cannot purchase US citizenship for even double the amount in taxes that you have paid over your life.
You can become a permanent resident through investment, and eventually a naturalized citizen. And there's no need to purchase anything, you'll get to keep your investment, too.
Bullets and bombs are the best products to sell. Think about it - they're use once. Additionally, once you use them, you generally need more. And the other guy is going to want some too. It's a wonderful system.
Drugs are even better. They don't erode the customer base as quickly.
Ya, except that pretty much all hospitals offer a cash discount. My local hospital offers a 48% discount on EVERYTHING if you pay cash. I hardly call that "fair game."
Even if they're offering a 99% discount - they're offering it on a number they just made up. If you were insured, the insurance would be paying them a completely different amount.
We must be living in backwords land - Hmmm - says here you are broke - therefore, No Job For You...
Well, it's just an updated version of "You're homeless, so we can't give you a job." and "You don't have a job, so you can't rent/buy a place to live.", really.
Sorry, I don't consider a system with holes big enough to drive a truck through sufficient. For someone used to living in a EU state, the US "system" is nonexistent, really.
Don't mod this too informative, please, there's a few inaccuracies in it.
As a non-EU citizen visiting the EU, if you require non-emergency treatment, such as a doctor's visit, you can only get it if you have medical insurance. You won't even get an appointment without it.
Not true. Any doctor in Germany, for example, would be happy to accept you as a private patient if you can prove that you can pay for it (insurance will help, but a wad of cash can do the same job). And you'll be charged by the same price list as any other private patient would be, which makes the cost very calculable.
If you are a European citizen, all hospital care within Europe is free.
Only if you're a member in the "public" plans of your home country. And only if that hospital accepts the "public" plans of their own country. Private hospitals are not common, but they do exist.
So if a poor person gets something that's random, unavoidable yet completely treatable, like breast cancer, the US government just lets them die, or just lets it get worse and worse until they're an emergency patient?
Yup.
I'm sorry but I simply don't believe that.
Geez. You're a coddled European and haven't been following the news on US healthcare politics lately. Or even any of the many slashdot threads in which the topic came up. Go and watch "Sicko" some time, it may be a bit sensationalizing, but it's not too far off the truth. The proposed health care reform is such a big deal exactly for this reason.
I may not know much about the USA but, never mind the moral view, surely that's not economically viable? Surely the economic costs of letting preventable diseases get worse to the point of requiring free emergency treatment, far outweigh the cost of preventative treatment?
Free treatment would be socialism to a political influential group in the US, and socialism is bad, and therefore there's massive resistance against any plans introducing any such system.
I must admit, I've always taken travel insurance when visiting the US just so my laptop is covered for theft, but... maybe I'll check the medical section of the insurance policy a bit closer next time. Is five million dollars of cover + repatriation enough or should I switch my travel insurance provider?
Yes, if you're only travelling there, that should be enough. It should pay for treating anything that prevents you from leaving the country and going back to a place with saner prices.;)
If you intend to live there, 5 million is, well, not all that much, something you'll find out if you develop something either chronic or costly and start hitting the lifetime maximum of your health insurance policy (let me guess, you don't believe there's such a thing as a lifetime maximum?).
Surely there's a system similar to EHIC within the North America, that provides a baseline level of healthcare across states and nations?
No. Especially not for travellers.
Medicaid. Isn't that it?
The, erm, difficulties qualifying for medicaid have already been mentioned elsewhere in this thread, and of course it's not connected to any other system outside the US.
First, no one is taking unpaid bill X and adding a portion directly to the bill for patient Y.
Of course not. I never said they're doing it openly. It's hidden in things like $20 band-aids and $30 aspirin pills, operating room usage fees, and whatnot. Usually, this practice is limited by any deals the insurance companies have with the hospital, but if you're uninsured or your insurance company doesn't have a deal with that particular hospital, you're fair game.
Sorry, are you saying that there are no state-funded hospitals in the US?
No, I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that any hospital will try to bill the patient, regardless of who built it and runs it.
Where do people go who can't afford private healthcare?
The emergency room, mostly. Of course, they'll still be billed, and if they can't pay, the hospital tries to recoup these losses by charging all the other patients more. Since that's more difficult if the patient actually has health insurance (due to contracts/agreements with the insurance provider), they'll mostly do that to anyone who's uninsured.
If the answer is "nowhere", how can that system possibly work?
See above.
It sounds like your healthcare system needs fixing,
I don't live in the US, but man, have you been completely out of the loop on US politics? Sorry to ask so bluntly, but...
Do most countries provide free health care (hell, even low cost care) to foreign travelers?
No, but you won't get a bill that has some other patients unpaid bills tacked on to it, either. Also, in _most_ countries, medical services are signficantly cheaper than in the US (and not necessarily worse).
It is true that it might further push people into a downward spiral, but it also unfair to expect a company to hire a person that carries a great risk of under performing (and potentially be a negative factor in a team).
That's what probation is for. You know, where they can actually see how well the new hire performs, instead of just getting a nebulous "Oh, he may carry some risk of not performing."?
It drained on my productivity, I lost almost a decade on my ability to go back to college (and thus lost all my work towards my MS degree), it affected my mood, my emotional well being and for quite a while my capacity to act professional and be productive.
So just because it had some negative effect on you, it must affect everyone else in exactly the same way?
I'm aware that the US provides significantly less state-funded medical care than most European states, but surely there is a minimum baseline system that they run?
Err... no?
I've visited the US many, many times, and I didn't see the streets crowded with leprous scabious tramps.
That's because you haven't looked in the right places. Granted, you'll not find many victims of leprosy, which usually requires extended contact with another infected person plus a few other factors. But if you look at the homeless population, you'll easily find signs of less than ideal medical care.
If you get picked up in an ambulance and taken to the emergency ward, they can't expect you to pay for that, surely?
Oh yes they can. They'll bill the heck out of you. And of course they'll make that bill high enough to pay for all the other people who couldn't pay their bill before you. If you can't pay, they'll do the same to the next person and your credit gets shot to hell. If you're not insured but can pay, you'll probably end up bankrupt. If you're insured, well, have fun fighting with your insurance company over what's covered and what not.
Moral of the story: Don't visit the US without travel health insurance. Ever.
Because the habitable zone will end up close to Jupiter, so we'd have to move it out of the way. Which, due it it being several times the mass of Earth, is a slightly bigger challenge than just moving Earth.
Question: is it possible/not/ to have a credit report to your name ?
You can have one that's empty. Expect to have every application for any serious loan denied due to "insufficient credit history". Same goes for jobs from employers that do credit checks.
Can you go through life without one ?
Yes, if you never take out any kind of loan, line of credit, etc.
Slashdot Mirror
If the other students and teachers were armed, well I doubt they'd have even bothered showing up to try to shoot up the school.
Why, because they might get killed?
Rights are defined in things like the constitution (called the Bill of Rights),
The ninth and the tenth amendment to the US Constitution disgree with you.
Technically, the rest of the Bill of Rights does, too, because it does not list which rights individuals have, but limits the power of the government to interfere with them.
This is where the "well-regulated" part of the 2nd Amendment should come in: gun ownership should come with an obligation of training and practice (including both gun safety and marksmanship) on a regular, ongoing basis.
Firearms safety and marksmanship training will (somewhat) help prevent stupid accidents (most of these happen because people ignore well-known safety rules out of laziness or inattention), but won't do anything about people acting in the heat of passion (I'd wager that marksmanship training will make such acts _worse_, if anything).
As an aside, do you know that it's easier, quicker, and more importantly, CHEAPER, to enter the US on a tourist visa, and "Oops, I know I said I wouldn't, but look here, I got married, can I stay anyway?" than it is to apply for a fiancee visa and go that route? (I come from a low risk country, Australia, and the process took 11 months pre-arrival, and 2 1/2 years post-arrival, and has cost, directly, around $10,000+ in fees and costs).
Well, you just gave the reason for fiancee visas - in some countries (i.e. countries that aren't part of the visa waiver program) it may be easier to get a fiancee visa rather than a tourist visa.
Republic nowadays doesn't necessarily involve an electorate. It just means that the position of head honcho isn't inherited. Whether it is decided by an election, a fist fight or by drawing lots isn't relevant.
America tries to be a bastard hybrid of the two, but as soon as you elect a representative who then votes on various bills, rather than voting on them yourself, you're no longer a democracy.
You're in a democracy if you get to vote on stuff (and your vote actually matters). You're in an indirect democracy if you vote for representatives, or in a direct democracy if you get to vote on bills.
You can become a permanent resident through investment, and eventually a naturalized citizen. And there's no need to purchase anything, you'll get to keep your investment, too.
Yup. You forgot "Sucks to be you.", though.
Drugs are even better. They don't erode the customer base as quickly.
Even if they're offering a 99% discount - they're offering it on a number they just made up. If you were insured, the insurance would be paying them a completely different amount.
Uh, did Pope Benedict really write something about Catholicism being incompatible with evolution? I thought he stated quite the opposite.
Well, it's just an updated version of "You're homeless, so we can't give you a job." and "You don't have a job, so you can't rent/buy a place to live.", really.
Sorry, I don't consider a system with holes big enough to drive a truck through sufficient. For someone used to living in a EU state, the US "system" is nonexistent, really.
As a non-EU citizen visiting the EU, if you require non-emergency treatment, such as a doctor's visit, you can only get it if you have medical insurance. You won't even get an appointment without it.
Not true. Any doctor in Germany, for example, would be happy to accept you as a private patient if you can prove that you can pay for it (insurance will help, but a wad of cash can do the same job). And you'll be charged by the same price list as any other private patient would be, which makes the cost very calculable.
If you are a European citizen, all hospital care within Europe is free.
Only if you're a member in the "public" plans of your home country. And only if that hospital accepts the "public" plans of their own country. Private hospitals are not common, but they do exist.
Investors don't just expect a rate of return, they expect some say in how the business is run. Otherwise they're just creditors.
Yup.
I'm sorry but I simply don't believe that.
Geez. You're a coddled European and haven't been following the news on US healthcare politics lately. Or even any of the many slashdot threads in which the topic came up. Go and watch "Sicko" some time, it may be a bit sensationalizing, but it's not too far off the truth. The proposed health care reform is such a big deal exactly for this reason.
I may not know much about the USA but, never mind the moral view, surely that's not economically viable? Surely the economic costs of letting preventable diseases get worse to the point of requiring free emergency treatment, far outweigh the cost of preventative treatment?
Free treatment would be socialism to a political influential group in the US, and socialism is bad, and therefore there's massive resistance against any plans introducing any such system.
I must admit, I've always taken travel insurance when visiting the US just so my laptop is covered for theft, but... maybe I'll check the medical section of the insurance policy a bit closer next time. Is five million dollars of cover + repatriation enough or should I switch my travel insurance provider?
Yes, if you're only travelling there, that should be enough. It should pay for treating anything that prevents you from leaving the country and going back to a place with saner prices. ;)
If you intend to live there, 5 million is, well, not all that much, something you'll find out if you develop something either chronic or costly and start hitting the lifetime maximum of your health insurance policy (let me guess, you don't believe there's such a thing as a lifetime maximum?).
Surely there's a system similar to EHIC within the North America, that provides a baseline level of healthcare across states and nations?
No. Especially not for travellers.
Medicaid. Isn't that it?
The, erm, difficulties qualifying for medicaid have already been mentioned elsewhere in this thread, and of course it's not connected to any other system outside the US.
Of course not. I never said they're doing it openly. It's hidden in things like $20 band-aids and $30 aspirin pills, operating room usage fees, and whatnot. Usually, this practice is limited by any deals the insurance companies have with the hospital, but if you're uninsured or your insurance company doesn't have a deal with that particular hospital, you're fair game.
Oh, and you have to pay money in order to get insight into the record they keep on you.
At least for the Schufa, that's not true. You can have a look at the data they keep on you for free if you ask at one of their offices.
No, I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that any hospital will try to bill the patient, regardless of who built it and runs it.
Where do people go who can't afford private healthcare?
The emergency room, mostly. Of course, they'll still be billed, and if they can't pay, the hospital tries to recoup these losses by charging all the other patients more. Since that's more difficult if the patient actually has health insurance (due to contracts/agreements with the insurance provider), they'll mostly do that to anyone who's uninsured.
If the answer is "nowhere", how can that system possibly work?
See above.
It sounds like your healthcare system needs fixing,
I don't live in the US, but man, have you been completely out of the loop on US politics? Sorry to ask so bluntly, but ...
No, but you won't get a bill that has some other patients unpaid bills tacked on to it, either. Also, in _most_ countries, medical services are signficantly cheaper than in the US (and not necessarily worse).
It is true that it might further push people into a downward spiral, but it also unfair to expect a company to hire a person that carries a great risk of under performing (and potentially be a negative factor in a team).
That's what probation is for. You know, where they can actually see how well the new hire performs, instead of just getting a nebulous "Oh, he may carry some risk of not performing."?
It drained on my productivity, I lost almost a decade on my ability to go back to college (and thus lost all my work towards my MS degree), it affected my mood, my emotional well being and for quite a while my capacity to act professional and be productive.
So just because it had some negative effect on you, it must affect everyone else in exactly the same way?
Not hospitals. Health insurance programs.
They're available to all, surely?
Yes. And they'll bill you for their services.
Other than the taxpayer footing the bill, there isn't much else to it.
The taxpayer only foots the bill if you can't pay. Or, even worse, they'll slap the cost of your bill on the bill of the next patient.
Err ... no?
I've visited the US many, many times, and I didn't see the streets crowded with leprous scabious tramps.
That's because you haven't looked in the right places. Granted, you'll not find many victims of leprosy, which usually requires extended contact with another infected person plus a few other factors. But if you look at the homeless population, you'll easily find signs of less than ideal medical care.
If you get picked up in an ambulance and taken to the emergency ward, they can't expect you to pay for that, surely?
Oh yes they can. They'll bill the heck out of you. And of course they'll make that bill high enough to pay for all the other people who couldn't pay their bill before you. If you can't pay, they'll do the same to the next person and your credit gets shot to hell. If you're not insured but can pay, you'll probably end up bankrupt. If you're insured, well, have fun fighting with your insurance company over what's covered and what not.
Moral of the story: Don't visit the US without travel health insurance. Ever.
Would an employer really want to employ someone who couldn't even work out how to pay their bills?
Yes. Desperate people aren't as quick at changing jobs, and will usually put up with a lot more abuse.
Because the habitable zone will end up close to Jupiter, so we'd have to move it out of the way. Which, due it it being several times the mass of Earth, is a slightly bigger challenge than just moving Earth.
Question: is it possible /not/ to have a credit report to your name ?
You can have one that's empty. Expect to have every application for any serious loan denied due to "insufficient credit history". Same goes for jobs from employers that do credit checks.
Can you go through life without one ?
Yes, if you never take out any kind of loan, line of credit, etc.