IMHO our medical industry is in fine condition. We have the best state of the art medical equipment, better doctors, research and development and more access points to them than most countries in the world. What mucks it all up is the greedy, exploitive, inflationary, predatory, over-complicated concept of insurance...An industry that does not produce one damn physical product. Take insurance out of the equation and it would be easy to repair any damage already done by this type of out of control avarice. One should be able to see how this is true of anything that exists in the current American system of "business as usual". If I am a contractor I am mandated by law to possess all kinds of insurance, too numerous to list them all, from liability to workman's comp and not to mention an insurance rider on any piece of equipment or tool (human or non-human) I may need to run an effective business. In order for me to pay for all this, as I see unnecessary crap, I have to pay my employees less and charge my customers more to try and eek out a living. Why should I pay a good percentage of my income to some jerk sitting at a desk somewhere pushing a pencil in a high-rise building surrounded by the trappings of wealth to not produce one damn viable product but manages through a ridiculous game of chance to grab the entire economy by the balls ?. You will find this ludicrous and inflationary trend in any and all business and private arena's. My jaw dropped when auto insurance was made mandatory by penalty of law. The fact that there are millions of people out there that in their wildest dreams simply cannot afford it just seems to whoosh over people's heads. What are they supposed to do with the paltry wage that most employers pay their minions ?. Live in a box , don't eat, but pay that insurance extortion.
I was trying to think of something that has not been approached as insurable by these predators and the only thing I could think of that insurance has not exploited YET (insert drum roll)... is a Fart. Of course I am sure that if, some representative of this heavily marketed seemingly so necessary non-product producing industry reads this, they are probably thinking about having Britney Spears or Paris Hilton fart in a bottle and cap it so they can insure it for a million bucks. Our health care is fine folks, the problem is all the greedy government lobbied and sanctioned profiteering hands holding the door closed between the people and their health care. Imagine a world where one simply pays for whatever product or service that is offered. It's a slippery slope and Massachusetts has one foot on the downhill with the insurance industries lobbies hands on their back.
The "parent more" argument is a useful tool for people with agendas, but it has no logical stopping point. Why should the state have battery laws? Shouldn't parents teach their kids how to avoid fights? How about laws against gang activity? Shouldn't parents tell their kids to avoid gangs and vandalism? By this logic, simply "raising" your kid would solve the problem, but obviously it doesn't.
Your absolutely right...it doesn't. But does setting up another army of laws to adress what ever hot topic immoral to someone somewhere issues and enforcing them solve these problems...obviously it doesn't. Conversely, where does this circular logic stop ?. In whomevers' agenda can be met or whose pockets can be lined with the punitive results of that enforcement. The 3300 DUI laws on the books and the boat load of money made by the legal industry, insurance company's and your good old govt will attest to to that. There has been little if any decline in the instances of people being arrested and convicted of that victimless crime. A point to be made about sexual predation...I have had sexually active teens tell me how easy it is to manipulate and exploit older people through sex. Who is the predator here ?. The lonely old man hoping to fulfill a fantasy with what he thinks to be a woman of legal age?...or the sexually precocious, socially misguided, parentally challenged youth? Myspace, IMHO, is one of the least harmful options for today's youth. If you think about it we give them very little choice in this nanny state outside of scheduled and monitored activity. To allow the powers that be to step in regulate other barriers to free expression will just turn the internet into another madison avenue multicorporate shilling agency.
It boggles my mind how the greed of this whole industry has missed the fact that all these supposed evil pirates have been freely advertizing their content to market numbers they couldn't reach with an advertising budget as large as the GNP. Maybe all these downloaders should send them a bill for the free marketing they have provided thus far. With lobbied averice the current accepted approach I am not surprised that this behind the times ambulance chaser stuffed organization (read riaa) doesn't purchase a law to make this "piracy" retroactive to include cassette tapes and all of that past lost revenue.
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F: Don't buy their highly flawed, over hyped, problematic product.
IMHO our medical industry is in fine condition. We have the best state of the art medical equipment, better doctors, research and development and more access points to them than most countries in the world. What mucks it all up is the greedy, exploitive, inflationary, predatory, over-complicated concept of insurance...An industry that does not produce one damn physical product. Take insurance out of the equation and it would be easy to repair any damage already done by this type of out of control avarice. One should be able to see how this is true of anything that exists in the current American system of "business as usual". If I am a contractor I am mandated by law to possess all kinds of insurance, too numerous to list them all, from liability to workman's comp and not to mention an insurance rider on any piece of equipment or tool (human or non-human) I may need to run an effective business. In order for me to pay for all this, as I see unnecessary crap, I have to pay my employees less and charge my customers more to try and eek out a living. Why should I pay a good percentage of my income to some jerk sitting at a desk somewhere pushing a pencil in a high-rise building surrounded by the trappings of wealth to not produce one damn viable product but manages through a ridiculous game of chance to grab the entire economy by the balls ?. You will find this ludicrous and inflationary trend in any and all business and private arena's. My jaw dropped when auto insurance was made mandatory by penalty of law. The fact that there are millions of people out there that in their wildest dreams simply cannot afford it just seems to whoosh over people's heads. What are they supposed to do with the paltry wage that most employers pay their minions ?. Live in a box , don't eat, but pay that insurance extortion.
I was trying to think of something that has not been approached as insurable by these predators and the only thing I could think of that insurance has not exploited YET (insert drum roll)... is a Fart. Of course I am sure that if, some representative of this heavily marketed seemingly so necessary non-product producing industry reads this, they are probably thinking about having Britney Spears or Paris Hilton fart in a bottle and cap it so they can insure it for a million bucks. Our health care is fine folks, the problem is all the greedy government lobbied and sanctioned profiteering hands holding the door closed between the people and their health care. Imagine a world where one simply pays for whatever product or service that is offered. It's a slippery slope and Massachusetts has one foot on the downhill with the insurance industries lobbies hands on their back.
The "parent more" argument is a useful tool for people with agendas, but it has no logical stopping point. Why should the state have battery laws? Shouldn't parents teach their kids how to avoid fights? How about laws against gang activity? Shouldn't parents tell their kids to avoid gangs and vandalism? By this logic, simply "raising" your kid would solve the problem, but obviously it doesn't. Your absolutely right...it doesn't. But does setting up another army of laws to adress what ever hot topic immoral to someone somewhere issues and enforcing them solve these problems...obviously it doesn't. Conversely, where does this circular logic stop ?. In whomevers' agenda can be met or whose pockets can be lined with the punitive results of that enforcement. The 3300 DUI laws on the books and the boat load of money made by the legal industry, insurance company's and your good old govt will attest to to that. There has been little if any decline in the instances of people being arrested and convicted of that victimless crime. A point to be made about sexual predation...I have had sexually active teens tell me how easy it is to manipulate and exploit older people through sex. Who is the predator here ?. The lonely old man hoping to fulfill a fantasy with what he thinks to be a woman of legal age?...or the sexually precocious, socially misguided, parentally challenged youth? Myspace, IMHO, is one of the least harmful options for today's youth. If you think about it we give them very little choice in this nanny state outside of scheduled and monitored activity. To allow the powers that be to step in regulate other barriers to free expression will just turn the internet into another madison avenue multicorporate shilling agency.
It boggles my mind how the greed of this whole industry has missed the fact that all these supposed evil pirates have been freely advertizing their content to market numbers they couldn't reach with an advertising budget as large as the GNP. Maybe all these downloaders should send them a bill for the free marketing they have provided thus far. With lobbied averice the current accepted approach I am not surprised that this behind the times ambulance chaser stuffed organization (read riaa) doesn't purchase a law to make this "piracy" retroactive to include cassette tapes and all of that past lost revenue.