That is a 'condensed' version of reality. And like many other condensed versions, it leaves out many details.
One has to ask who is the big anti-WalMart propaganda organ, and what their motivations are. It is the Labor Union movement, and they are very threatened by WalMart. Enough so that they've spread very distorted views of WalMart, to the point where someone like you can trot out 'Amost nobody' and 'Many, many companies' lines quite readily.
It's always more complicated than well funded campaings, both pro- and anti-WalMart, try to make it.
The american textile industry was jump-started by stiff tariffs on imports,
Right. And the tariffs encouraged development of manufacturing capabilities, so that the US wasn't just shipping the raw cotton off over the sea and paying high prices for the finished goods shipping back.
It's how the US became a viable country, not just another gathering of colonial plantations.
Good parenting involves helping your children make choices. Not saying 'it it completely up to you' and setting them loose. You (apparently) turned out all right, but please don't imply a direct cause-effect relationship.
He's an AC. He could be Richard Stallman. He could be Bill Gates. He probably can't be Saddam Hussein. But the list of who he definitely isn't is rather a lot smaller than the list of who he might be.
I work at Microsoft, too.
Or, I could say so, if I wanted to check off that box down there that says 'Post Anonymously' for some reason.
And Canadians come south and pay cash when they really need healthcare that the 'bureaucrats' up north won't provide.
But not if people like you have their way. You want that regime imposed everywhere, so there's no place for the best providers to immigrate to. Remember when highly qualified professionals were held inside the Soviet Union by an 'iron curtain?'
Or are you going to deny history?
And don't feed us that 'human dignity' crap. Go hang out in a Gulag for awhile them come back and explain what the hell you meant.
Fortunately, health care has no relationship whatsoever to other commercial industries. Customers don't shop for health care.
Bullshit. Complete and utter bullshit. I and my wife were able to 'shop' for our insurance plan, since we each had several options provided by our employers. We chose one of the health plans at her employer and the dental plan from my employer. And we can pick and choose which actual provider we go to for our care, within certain constraints imposed by the insurance provider.
When companies are in the 'opt in' period and their employees are deciding which health plan to elect to enroll in, big catalogs that list all the clinics and docters 'within the various plans' are handed out, and those and other considerations become factors in choosing which plan to enroll in.
So you're feeding us a complete line of utter bull, and it isn't necessary for me to read further into that big wordy comment you made.
That depends in part on how you define the term 'efficient.'
An industrial meat grinder is more 'efficient' than a leather upholstered sofa at certain things. Don't mistake the two if you're wanting to just relax.
An 'efficient' health care system can and in some instances DOES mean one that offers lower cost care, but with a higher attrition rate. To government bureaucrats, and enthusiasts of socialist government, this is a 'cost' they are willing to accept. But that isn't compatible with the idea called 'freedom.'
It is still a government-granted monopoly. If the government started allowing, say, the customer counter at supermarkets to issue motor vehicle licenses (possibly just updates and renewals, leaving the testing and initial issuing to more 'controlled' entities) the supermarkets would all compete to make it a fast efficient transaction.
I bought a Gruen wristwatch at WalMart. It has an all stainless steel case, not plated base metal like cheap watches. It was made in Switzerland. It has a 14 year warranty.
Actually, words and language evolve, in a social process. One guy doesn't generally sit in a room and 'invent' words. Except in the modern era of trademarks and mass communications, and even then it's the exception not the rule.
That metaphor can be stretched to fit some really non-democratic and downright un-free things, you know. The 'Wild West' was a place where only people highly skilled with weapons could even get around. In those 'westerns' the regular townspeople generally had to cower in their houses whenever anything 'interesting' was going on.
Not that the mythical 'Wild West' ever existed outside Hollywood, except for a few very exceptional short periods at a few very local places.
Slashdot Mirror
That is a 'condensed' version of reality. And like many other condensed versions, it leaves out many details.
One has to ask who is the big anti-WalMart propaganda organ, and what their motivations are. It is the Labor Union movement, and they are very threatened by WalMart. Enough so that they've spread very distorted views of WalMart, to the point where someone like you can trot out 'Amost nobody' and 'Many, many companies' lines quite readily.
It's always more complicated than well funded campaings, both pro- and anti-WalMart, try to make it.
The american textile industry was jump-started by stiff tariffs on imports,
Right. And the tariffs encouraged development of manufacturing capabilities, so that the US wasn't just shipping the raw cotton off over the sea and paying high prices for the finished goods shipping back.
It's how the US became a viable country, not just another gathering of colonial plantations.
health care has no relationship whatsoever to other commercial industries.
That was the ludicrous thing you said. And you haven't un-said it.
Whichever doctors haven't left the profession or emigrated south to get better pay in the US, that is.
And you neglect to mention the waiting lists. It takes MUCH longer to get an MRI scan in Canada than it does in the US.
(unless you're Poor in the US, of course. But it's all about the redistribtuion of wealth, in the end??)
Ah, but it doesn't increase the purchasing power of Trade Union Bosses at the International Headquarters.
Haven't you wondered before that the big anti-WalMart campaigns always seem to involve Labor and Trade Union organizations??
It's one set of bosses fighting another.
I bought a 1958 LawnBoy mower at an auction last summer. It runs great.
I've seen the owner's manual for it sell on eBay for more than I paid for my mower WITH the manual. Hmmm...
Maybe I should sell it on eBay and use part of the money to buy a Snapper....
Steve Jobs literally has been a coke dealer at times in the past, ya know...
Good parenting involves helping your children make choices. Not saying 'it it completely up to you' and setting them loose. You (apparently) turned out all right, but please don't imply a direct cause-effect relationship.
He works wherever you care to place him.
He's an AC. He could be Richard Stallman. He could be Bill Gates. He probably can't be Saddam Hussein. But the list of who he definitely isn't is rather a lot smaller than the list of who he might be.
I work at Microsoft, too.
Or, I could say so, if I wanted to check off that box down there that says 'Post Anonymously' for some reason.
Get it?
We need choices beyond 'friend' and 'foe.' I don't consider you a foe.
But I want to be able to tag you 'ignorant' so I can set things up so I never again have to read any of your comments.
In the United States, I can get out my checkbook and go to whichever doctor I choose. Wouldn't that be illegal in Canada?
And Canadians come south and pay cash when they really need healthcare that the 'bureaucrats' up north won't provide.
But not if people like you have their way. You want that regime imposed everywhere, so there's no place for the best providers to immigrate to. Remember when highly qualified professionals were held inside the Soviet Union by an 'iron curtain?'
Or are you going to deny history?
And don't feed us that 'human dignity' crap. Go hang out in a Gulag for awhile them come back and explain what the hell you meant.
Fortunately, health care has no relationship whatsoever to other commercial industries. Customers don't shop for health care.
Bullshit. Complete and utter bullshit. I and my wife were able to 'shop' for our insurance plan, since we each had several options provided by our employers. We chose one of the health plans at her employer and the dental plan from my employer. And we can pick and choose which actual provider we go to for our care, within certain constraints imposed by the insurance provider.
When companies are in the 'opt in' period and their employees are deciding which health plan to elect to enroll in, big catalogs that list all the clinics and docters 'within the various plans' are handed out, and those and other considerations become factors in choosing which plan to enroll in.
So you're feeding us a complete line of utter bull, and it isn't necessary for me to read further into that big wordy comment you made.
That depends in part on how you define the term 'efficient.'
An industrial meat grinder is more 'efficient' than a leather upholstered sofa at certain things. Don't mistake the two if you're wanting to just relax.
An 'efficient' health care system can and in some instances DOES mean one that offers lower cost care, but with a higher attrition rate. To government bureaucrats, and enthusiasts of socialist government, this is a 'cost' they are willing to accept. But that isn't compatible with the idea called 'freedom.'
It is still a government-granted monopoly. If the government started allowing, say, the customer counter at supermarkets to issue motor vehicle licenses (possibly just updates and renewals, leaving the testing and initial issuing to more 'controlled' entities) the supermarkets would all compete to make it a fast efficient transaction.
I bought a Gruen wristwatch at WalMart. It has an all stainless steel case, not plated base metal like cheap watches. It was made in Switzerland. It has a 14 year warranty.
The OSS ecosystem is healthier with two viable desktop systems to choose from, rather than just Linux.
There are more than two. Considerably more than two.
I use NetBSD, for instance.
And in a glance, they would have discovered a carefully concealed exploit. . .
And you have a reference citing that these closely-knit bands of sharpshooters ever existed in history?
But this is awfully tangental.
In a universe where Integers are the most important numbers, the numbers 355 and 113 (355/113) quickly become the most important numbers.
I had watched too much Star Trek by the year 1985.
(only remember watching one episode in the original broadcast, though)
I dragged my hard drive icon to the trash can and it didn't spit it up out of the case onto my lap!
People who don't know how to clear all of their cookies will not know how to format their hard drive.
Possibly they could destroy the drive, but 'reformat' implies an orderly process.
Actually, words and language evolve, in a social process. One guy doesn't generally sit in a room and 'invent' words. Except in the modern era of trademarks and mass communications, and even then it's the exception not the rule.
what we would lose; the Wild West.
That metaphor can be stretched to fit some really non-democratic and downright un-free things, you know. The 'Wild West' was a place where only people highly skilled with weapons could even get around. In those 'westerns' the regular townspeople generally had to cower in their houses whenever anything 'interesting' was going on.
Not that the mythical 'Wild West' ever existed outside Hollywood, except for a few very exceptional short periods at a few very local places.
But anyway. . .