Health care is so expensive because people use it for anything and everything. Think of it like this...
If you used your car insurance for everything dealing with your car (like we use health insurance for everything dealing with our body) you'd be able to claim routine maintenance bills on your car insurance like you claim doctor's visits and checkups. You'd be able to claim oil changes and tire replacements on your car insurance... people wouldn't care what the cost was because it's paid for. The tire companies and oil companies would slowly raise prices on their goods, mechanics would get more wages (because the customer doesn't care about the bottom line... they have monthly fees)
It would be the same situation with the car industry as it is with health care. It's even scarily similar in that health insurance and car insurance both have network providers.
I just calculated my paycheck right now: 30.98% taxes deducted (not including my benefits deductions.) That's money I could be using on a daily basis, or money I can be paying in monthly health care insurance. Figuring your taxes on how much mortgage interest/children you deducted doesn't apply to everyone. For someone that's single, with no children and no mortgage interest, medical payments, etc. to write off, I'd get nowhere near 17% annually.
You got ripped off... I take it this was on insurance (higher cost) and not out of pocket (MUCH cheaper)? For a simple fracture, the cost, including X-Rays, etc. can be as low as $700-1000. For very complex breaks that need special bracing, return visits, and the like... you'd be paying as much as you did.
Don't use your Insurance paperwork for your pricing. Those numbers are not actual out of pocket cost. Next time you are at your doctor, ask him/her how much the visit will cost if you pay it out of pocket. Most will be a lot cheaper... you may even reconsider having insurance pay for it. Every claim you make increases the cost for everybody.
Bailed out? They practically bought GM! As much as I understand the idea of "buy American, give American's jobs", GM needed to be punished, not bought.
I'm not saying if it's right or wrong, but if we cut our military budgets and let other countries fend for themselves, we might just even the field a bit, don't you think? I mean, the world complains about our military outreach, but they don't thank us for not having to maintain a lot of that cost themselves.
The US is more than 20% taxed... unless you are below "poverty" you are likely being taxed around 30%.
I didn't say it was reasonable, but it's certainly affordable, and not something that would bankrupt a family. I got that number from 2003, and it included follow up therapy, so it may be more or less now.
A broken arm will cost you around $2500. Sure, something like open heart surgery is going to hurt, but a broken arm is hardly a bankruptcy worthy event.
If you paid more for it than that, then you/your insurance got ripped off.
Universal health care is not the problem! Having 30%+ of your paycheck taken out every month is. Even if you got half of that back a month you could spend that "income" money as you wanted instead of how Obama/Bush/et al. want. You'd easily be able to afford your own health care, possibly/preferably without needing insurance to do it.
Ubuntu Linux will install without needing to touch the commandline and have working video (with 3D support), sound, and Wifi... from all major/well-known manufacturers and playing an MP3 is as simple as accepting the legal warning when you open said file. The same applies for DVDs... Blu-Ray however I have not checked recently, so I "plead the fifth" on that.
You can also put a new ROM on your phone...nobody is really stopping you from doing this either. It will invalidate any warranty you have (just as installing a new version of Windows will invalidate most of your support for your PC) but let's be honest here, people buy a phone for the features that are available on it at the time of purchase (pretty much the same as a PC.) If they get something new a year later they feel privileged. Right or wrong, the general populace of phone shoppers are this way. I'd love for it to be different, but it's not. I responded to someone above about devices selling today with outdated Android builds, so I won't argue that point here, but you can't really blame Google for Sony/HTC/etc. shipping an old OS.
Ah, but the issue is going and buying, say, the new Xperia x10 (which is about to come out, months/after/ the Droid and Nexus One) and then discovering that some app which works on the Droid does not work on the x10, because while the Droid is on 2.0.1, the x10 is on a heavily-modified 1.6. To use your analogy, this is like someone going to go buy a new gaming computer, and then discovering your new system only has a DirectX 8.0 card in it.
So you are essentially blaming Google (Microsoft) for what Sony (Dell) ships on their device? If Dell were still shipping Windows 98 and it were still selling, would you be blaming Microsoft for not providing compatibility? I realize there a great time span between those, but that's totally irrelevant, IMHO. You should be telling Sony how much you dislike that the new phone they are releasing has an old version of the OS. That's not really Google's problem.
Yes, you can upgrade your own ROM. I was able to put 2.1 features on my Droid (quite easily, I might add.) You invalidate your warranty (just like you would invalidate the warranty on your HP, Dell, etc. because they will only support your machine running their build of Windows.)
So now the argument is that Google is working too fast? (ie: Windows versions have been 10 years old before a new one can rightfully take it's place... but upgrading a free OS every 6 months is too much?)
Except that you have to use one of only three(iPhone, iPad, iPhone GS?) devices that can run said applications... none of which have physical keyboards or alternative hardware. I think Android is doing just fine with what it's doing.
In your example, you'd have to wait for Apple to update their browser as well or use a third party browser (also available in Android from the market.)
Android apps can come in the form of APK files that you can download and install just like an EXE... take for instance: http://droidmod.org/news/droidmod-updater-released/ You simply click that link from your phone and it will download the APK and give you the option to install it.
It's the typical trait found on the Internet today. You find a command line for a Windows problem and people hail it as the second coming awesome/easy solution but look at a command line fix for things in Linux and instantly jump on the "ZOMG! Linux has to use the command line!" bandwagon.
You never know... if some kid were to be scrounging around in the sewer and picked that up to eat it, you may have some sort of disease that the kid is vulnerable to and monetary compensation from the illness or loss of the child may be in order. How dare you leave that waste where some kid can get a hold of it.
Ooh, another barrier for entry... having to pay to become a LLC or Corporation to have something to dissolve when you lose your patent fight to high priced lawyers.
Simply do your animations on mouseDown and activate it on mouseUp like most sane people. I've also been doing flash (consequently, on 40,000 mobile devices for the company I work for) and I've been able to make flash work on a touch screen mobile device. I agree with your statement about being defeatist. It sounds like a rigid thinking programmer who took a course on how to do something and can't wrap their heads around alternative solutions.
Slashdot Mirror
http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=10/03/01/0536236 Enjoy... and learn to search next time.
Health care is so expensive because people use it for anything and everything. Think of it like this...
If you used your car insurance for everything dealing with your car (like we use health insurance for everything dealing with our body) you'd be able to claim routine maintenance bills on your car insurance like you claim doctor's visits and checkups. You'd be able to claim oil changes and tire replacements on your car insurance... people wouldn't care what the cost was because it's paid for. The tire companies and oil companies would slowly raise prices on their goods, mechanics would get more wages (because the customer doesn't care about the bottom line... they have monthly fees)
It would be the same situation with the car industry as it is with health care. It's even scarily similar in that health insurance and car insurance both have network providers.
I just calculated my paycheck right now: 30.98% taxes deducted (not including my benefits deductions.) That's money I could be using on a daily basis, or money I can be paying in monthly health care insurance. Figuring your taxes on how much mortgage interest/children you deducted doesn't apply to everyone. For someone that's single, with no children and no mortgage interest, medical payments, etc. to write off, I'd get nowhere near 17% annually.
You got ripped off... I take it this was on insurance (higher cost) and not out of pocket (MUCH cheaper)? For a simple fracture, the cost, including X-Rays, etc. can be as low as $700-1000. For very complex breaks that need special bracing, return visits, and the like... you'd be paying as much as you did.
Don't use your Insurance paperwork for your pricing. Those numbers are not actual out of pocket cost. Next time you are at your doctor, ask him/her how much the visit will cost if you pay it out of pocket. Most will be a lot cheaper... you may even reconsider having insurance pay for it. Every claim you make increases the cost for everybody.
Bailed out? They practically bought GM! As much as I understand the idea of "buy American, give American's jobs", GM needed to be punished, not bought.
I have, and it costs me less than $75/month. Here's a site that's easy enough to find your own rates: http://www.ehealthinsurance.com/
I'm not saying if it's right or wrong, but if we cut our military budgets and let other countries fend for themselves, we might just even the field a bit, don't you think? I mean, the world complains about our military outreach, but they don't thank us for not having to maintain a lot of that cost themselves.
The US is more than 20% taxed... unless you are below "poverty" you are likely being taxed around 30%.
I didn't say it was reasonable, but it's certainly affordable, and not something that would bankrupt a family. I got that number from 2003, and it included follow up therapy, so it may be more or less now.
A broken arm will cost you around $2500. Sure, something like open heart surgery is going to hurt, but a broken arm is hardly a bankruptcy worthy event.
If you paid more for it than that, then you/your insurance got ripped off.
Universal health care is not the problem! Having 30%+ of your paycheck taken out every month is. Even if you got half of that back a month you could spend that "income" money as you wanted instead of how Obama/Bush/et al. want. You'd easily be able to afford your own health care, possibly/preferably without needing insurance to do it.
void?
Or people who want an app for XP that's only available on Windows 7... but upgrading to Windows 7 might require a hardware upgrade.
Ubuntu Linux will install without needing to touch the commandline and have working video (with 3D support), sound, and Wifi... from all major/well-known manufacturers and playing an MP3 is as simple as accepting the legal warning when you open said file. The same applies for DVDs... Blu-Ray however I have not checked recently, so I "plead the fifth" on that.
When was the last time you used Linux?
You can also put a new ROM on your phone...nobody is really stopping you from doing this either. It will invalidate any warranty you have (just as installing a new version of Windows will invalidate most of your support for your PC) but let's be honest here, people buy a phone for the features that are available on it at the time of purchase (pretty much the same as a PC.) If they get something new a year later they feel privileged. Right or wrong, the general populace of phone shoppers are this way. I'd love for it to be different, but it's not. I responded to someone above about devices selling today with outdated Android builds, so I won't argue that point here, but you can't really blame Google for Sony/HTC/etc. shipping an old OS.
Ah, but the issue is going and buying, say, the new Xperia x10 (which is about to come out, months /after/ the Droid and Nexus One) and then discovering that some app which works on the Droid does not work on the x10, because while the Droid is on 2.0.1, the x10 is on a heavily-modified 1.6. To use your analogy, this is like someone going to go buy a new gaming computer, and then discovering your new system only has a DirectX 8.0 card in it.
So you are essentially blaming Google (Microsoft) for what Sony (Dell) ships on their device? If Dell were still shipping Windows 98 and it were still selling, would you be blaming Microsoft for not providing compatibility? I realize there a great time span between those, but that's totally irrelevant, IMHO. You should be telling Sony how much you dislike that the new phone they are releasing has an old version of the OS. That's not really Google's problem.
Yes, you can upgrade your own ROM. I was able to put 2.1 features on my Droid (quite easily, I might add.) You invalidate your warranty (just like you would invalidate the warranty on your HP, Dell, etc. because they will only support your machine running their build of Windows.)
So now the argument is that Google is working too fast? (ie: Windows versions have been 10 years old before a new one can rightfully take it's place... but upgrading a free OS every 6 months is too much?)
Except that you have to use one of only three(iPhone, iPad, iPhone GS?) devices that can run said applications... none of which have physical keyboards or alternative hardware. I think Android is doing just fine with what it's doing.
In your example, you'd have to wait for Apple to update their browser as well or use a third party browser (also available in Android from the market.)
1. Someone writes an app to take advantage of Droid hardware or uses the newest Android API.
- Someone complains that that app won't work on their G1.
2. Someone writes a game to take advantage of the latest DirectX11 video card.
- I complain that that game won't work on my old DirectX8 Video card.
3. Someone writes an application that uses .NET3
- Why can't I run it in Windows 2000?
See?
Are you telling me that my new DirectX11 game doesn't come with all the things I need to play it on my 8800GT in XP? Crap!
Android apps can come in the form of APK files that you can download and install just like an EXE... take for instance: http://droidmod.org/news/droidmod-updater-released/ You simply click that link from your phone and it will download the APK and give you the option to install it.
It's the typical trait found on the Internet today. You find a command line for a Windows problem and people hail it as the second coming awesome/easy solution but look at a command line fix for things in Linux and instantly jump on the "ZOMG! Linux has to use the command line!" bandwagon.
You never know... if some kid were to be scrounging around in the sewer and picked that up to eat it, you may have some sort of disease that the kid is vulnerable to and monetary compensation from the illness or loss of the child may be in order. How dare you leave that waste where some kid can get a hold of it.
it was cheaper for amazon to sign an agreement, rather than spend the next ten years in court?
Therein lies the problem. It's apparently what makes IP holding a profitable venture.
Ooh, another barrier for entry... having to pay to become a LLC or Corporation to have something to dissolve when you lose your patent fight to high priced lawyers.
Simply do your animations on mouseDown and activate it on mouseUp like most sane people. I've also been doing flash (consequently, on 40,000 mobile devices for the company I work for) and I've been able to make flash work on a touch screen mobile device. I agree with your statement about being defeatist. It sounds like a rigid thinking programmer who took a course on how to do something and can't wrap their heads around alternative solutions.