A very common argument with my wife goes something like this:
"Mark my words honey: I will have a DeLorean DMC-12 before I die!"
"Where the hell are you going to find one?"
"Uhhh" [tries to think of creative time-traveling solution]
Thank you Slashdot. I think I may have finally won a fight!
Bringing the total score to 1-189,203. Yes!
Now, let's see if you bastards can handle 90...
a business with some very interesting technical challenges. Ideally, they should be challenges that no one else has tackled yet, and still relate to your business
I agree 100%. I would rather work on something challenging and relevant than at an office where I can play Street Fighter and watch TIVO- I'd rather do that stuff at home or with friends anyway. I work freelance, and I will actually bid lower for interesting work. Especially when its a resume builder.
You are also dead-on about web v. software development. Two very different animals, two very different career paths. I never learned C in HS or college, and now, in my stubborn old age, I doubt I ever will. I love what I do (web development, go LAMP!) but it is an insanely competitive environment, and most "old school" businesses don't even realize what we're capable of yet (which is a LOT more than "web pages" or "blogs" btw).
I for one am fed up with this company. I've been holding some YHOO since '97 (should have sold it all back in '00). If this company refuses to provide us with any significant gains, refuses to listen to shareholders, and continues to sell-out human rights for market share in China, I will be all too pleased to see it purged from my portfolio.
I would really love to sell these shares for a penny each, if only to tank the stock as hard as possible. I know this is a pipe dream, but I'm angry, and I feel betrayed by a company I've supported since their beginning.
Riddle me this: why would anyone want this stock? Ethics aside, why is YHOO a smart investment? Am I missing something?
I was going to reply to you with a long-winded rant. Then I realized that debating politics on/. is futility defined. Short answer: Ron Paul (R) & Mike Gravel (D) are the ONLY two candidates who even know what the meaning of truth is.
I offer a candidate from "both sides" in the hopes that I will not be accused of being a partisan hack.
Tip: anyone who describes Hillary Clinton or John McCain as "honest" is clearly a pathological liar, lobbyist, or college student.
Here here! My favorite thing about Vonngeut is his casual style, broken up into digestable paragraphs- makes for great beach or train/bus reading. All together, there are less than 5,000 pages of published Vonnegut, and I've read every page at least twice.
A few cautions for new readers:
Kurt loves certain words and names more than being consistent. As a result, be prepared to meet a few different Tralafamadorians and a few different Diana Moon Glampers, none of whom are the same as the prior incarnation.
Kurt loves non-linear storytelling (and so do I). Some people find it confusing.
Do not read Vonnegut for "hard" SciFi; he is in love with ideas, not engineering. Think "Star Wars" v. "Star Trek".
Read "God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater" and "Hocus Pocus" before you die. These are considered some of his "lesser" works, but I think they contain some of Vonnegut's most relevant, scathing and self-aware social criticisms.
Finding Vonnegut is like finding "Pink Floyd" for the first time; sure DSOTM and "The Wall" are great, but the *best* Pink Floyd doesn't get radio play- you have to go find it.
Try and find "Slaughterhouse Five" next. I've been sitting next to my copy for the past few hours, skimming through a few of my favorite scenes.
Part of me is very sad today. Vonnegut was, without a doubt, my favorite author of the modern age. However, the more I think about it, the less sad I feel.
Listen: Kurt Vonnegut has come unstuck in time. I can open the book and listen to him cry about his bad breath and drunk phone calls, or skip to the end and watch Dresden be destroyed through the eyes of Kurt as an innocent, naive GI. I can flip over to a scene in which the Tralafmadorians applause Billy for taking a piss, or another in which he shoots sperms into his gigantic wife. These stories are no longer Kurt Vonnegut's; he has no further use for them. Now, they belong to us, and exist beyond the limits of time.
This sounds an awful lot like the Bong Hits for Jesus prank, currently headed to the Supreme Court. I expect the principals to loose in both cases for one simple reason: these pranks are occuring beyond the jurisdiction of the school, so long as these pranksters are running things from a non-school PC.
As much as I hate it, this *is* the MySpace generation (born circa '88). In fact, my neighbor's son recently did the same thing, posting info about his principal's criminal record via a fake MySpace account. As you would expect, the principal screamed and threatened, but it was all hot air. At best, he might have tried a defamation civil suit, but being that the criminal record was accurate, he had no way to prove any damages. It was already public info to anyone who knows how to Google.
Psuedo-legality aside, my Psych 101 classes taught me that the best response to a MySpace prank is to ignore it. These kids *want* attention, *want* to stir up trouble. The more "the system" screams and yells, the more excited the pranksters become. And once the legal prescedent is set, that school administrations have no control over what kids do on MySpace, I expect the "fake principal page" will become a staple at high schools nationwide- if it isn't already.
And, to be fair to the schools, this prescedent is in their best interests too. Once it has been established that they can't stop kids from "MySpacing", it also must be accepted that they cannot be held liable either. As a tax payer, I don't want to end up on the recieving end of a multi-million dollar lawsuit against our local high school, especially not because some kid went on MySpace and did something stupid; like met a stranger or shared personal info like an address or phone number.
If you have teens at home, make sure to include the "MySpace talk" along with the "sex talk" and "drugs talk". All bullshit aside, it could save their life.
Great article, but I think we are talking about two separate issues, both of which are summed up in the cliche: "26 is the new 21".
On the one hand, the earning power my dad enjoyed at age 21 with a B.S. would now require an M.S., thus requiring more time to get those credentials, if not some time to work and pay for it too (including books, food, dorm/appartment, etc). Taking another 5 years to reach this pay level is not totally ridiculous.
On the other hand, I have many, many friends who required 4, 5, even 6 years to earn a basic B.S. degree. Assuming the pattern holds, they will certainly be 26 (or older) before receiving an M.S. or PhD, assuming they continued their education (most didn't).
So yes, I will agree that we now demand more from middle-class adults, and so, they require a few extra years to mature. That said, I have also seen an overabundance of laziness, apathy and entitlement in the younger generation- many of these people are in no hurry to mature, and it shows.
Here here! I got my first appartment at age 16, and can still remember the nightmare of lies I needed to spin together in order to "qualify" for a 40+ hour job, bank account and lease. At 16 I was ready, willing and able to go out and start my life- the Dickensian laws created to protect me only stood in my way.
On the other hand- I have a brother who is currently 17, and he is not ready to leave the nest, not by a long shot. Even basic stuff like laundry and cooking simple meals totally confounds him (Easy Mac doesn't count- at least Romen requires you to learn how to boil water).
Like any lawyer will tell you: it depends.
When I was about 12 I spent a summer with a cousin who really loved throwing his pocket knives at animals- squirrels, frogs, other kids, etc. He didn't own a computer or NES, didn't play violent video games. Is anyone suprised to learn that he was eventually sent to prison for beating up a girlfriend? Something was very wrong there, but no video game can be blamed.
On the other hand, at 12 years old I used my pocket knife to fillet fish all the time. I never used it as a weapon, I considered it a tool. I only cut up fish I caught, and only to eat them (mmm-mmm, Manitoba walleye).
I would be tempted to say "I had good parents", but I didn't. Like most of you, my parents split up when I was very little. So why did I learn self-reliance while my cousin and brother did not? Honestly, I can't be sure.
But I would wager my love of "Faxanadu" for the NES had very little to do with it.
I disagree. Am I the only one around here who remembers the round-the-block lines for Windows 95 back when it first came out? Compared to that degree of "Star Wars-esque" popularity, Vista is a flop.
bmo already had an excellent response, but I want to chime in as a person living 3 blocks from the Atlantic Ocean, now about 3 months from the start of hurricane season.
I agree with you. 100%.
I am happy to pay higher insurance premiums and taxes to live in a prime area. These costs were factored into my final budget, along with an emergency fund to be used in the event of an evacuation. I am not rich, not even upper-middle-class really, but I take responsibility for myself and my family, as this is the cost of freedom.
To share the costs of our hurricane damages throughout a Federal fund is unfair to the 99% of Americans who aren't right next to the beach, and it artificially disguises the true cost of my home.If I were forced to pay the full premium of potential hurricane damage, that might change my budget, might force me to pick another area. So long as true costs remain hidden, even those who want to be personally responsible, like me, cannot truly be so.
Oh, I'm sorry, we can't accept that answer. Pick another category?
What?! But the 2nd Amendment clearly states: "A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."
That's correct, but you have a bit of a chicken-an-egg fallacy going on. Without armed and trained private citizens, what exactly would that militia be composed of? Do you expect the government should authorize a militia before allowing them arms? Doesn't that sort of invalidate the 'ole "necessary to the security of a free (as in beer) State" clause?
Let's try: "20th Century Dangers" for $2,000
The answer is: This force was responsible for more deaths than any other throughout the entire 20th Century.
At the risk of being pedantic, yes, all music is data, but only very recently (circa 1990) did binary data become the norm. Some music lovers still perform it from an analog source.
Read: some of us old fogies still love our records and listen to them every evening because we feel they sound far superior to you punk kids and your newfangled iPods.
You shed cells all the time and grow new ones. At what point (if any) do you stop being the "old you"?
Good analogy. I would also accept that a hard drive, video card, NIC, etc might be considered peripheral. However, once you have replaced the motherboard, I argue that you have a "new" computer, all other semantics aside.
To return to your biology analogy, the motherboard serves as the central nervous system of a PC, connecting all of the organs (components). Without the motherboard, there is no computer. Without a video card, or hard drive, or CDROM, etc, there is still a computer, albeit a limited one.
It seems to me that sometime around the year 2000, after the immense tech goldrush of the 1990's, a good chunk of Americans started to feel left out. Those who hadn't gone to college, hadn't gotten the "good jobs", hadn't invested in those awesome tech stocks, etc. It seems to me a lot of these people feel bitter that they were "missing out" on the future, and so, in a typical childish fashion, they prefer to have no future at all.
And then came 9/11, and suddenly racial bias was acceptable, religious war inevitable, and collectivley, America began walking, and then running, backwards. It was the one of the worst days in American history, and worst yet, it was our leaders, not our attackers, who did the most damage.
America is my home, and of course I will always root for the home team. But so many of my fellow countrymen are so stupid, so easily distracted, and so easily cheated that I would almost rather forgo the advantages of socialism if it means avoiding the inevitable disasters these programs may create.
Sorry for the late reply. Let me give you my p.o.v. in a nutshell.
I am currently 26, born in 1980, American. I have been told my entire life that social security will not exist when the time comes for me to retire. Yet, despite this mantra of a doomed social security net, for my entire working life (~10 years now) I have seen a chunk of my paycheck, my labor, my LIFE, go to this system. At the same time, I hear horror stories of old people eating catfood to survive, and retirees working part-time to maintain their status of living. As I understand it, the average U.S. retiree living soley on social security is living well below the poverty line.
To recap: the most heroic people in our society, the so-called "Greatest Generation" is being forced to live in squalor and poverty, DESPITE the fact that I, and millions of other working Americans, have paid into the system designed to protect them and their (IMO well-deserved) standard of living.
My father was a collections attorney who worked to collect debt for hospitals. It is a disgusting profession which resulted in an equally disgusting person. I have NO PITY for the current system, and agree 1000% that it is DISGUSTING that a child or elderly person should be forced to suffer an emergency before being allowed healthcare, except for the lucky few who are covered by health insurance. For example, I myself do not have health insurance, cannot see a doctor without either a) paying a gross amount or b) suffering an emergency first. All the while, I work full time, pay my taxes, take out the trash and mow my lawn (i.e. I do what has been asked of me by the system in which I operate). To make matters more ironic, I am currently engaged to an RN who works at our community hospital, and hear first-hand the horror stories and tales of the disgusting, corrupt scumbags who profit from the status quo at the price of the health of children.
So there's my dilema: on the one hand, I understand the social ideal, and agree in moral principle that a human being is entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, which occasionally demands a tylenol, an x-ray or an operation. On the other hand, I think back to my old boss who was fond of asking (in his broken-English way): Who gonna pay? Who is going to pay for socialized healthcare in America? More important- what will we get for our money?
True, social security is another animal altogether, but to me it represents what happens to our social ideals when placed in the hands of the U.S. Government. And Republican or Democrat, it makes little difference to me- throughout the past 50 years both teams have looted and corrupted the system beyond the worst nightmares of a rational person.
So there is my perspective. I am happy to lose a part of my paycheck, my effort, my life, if it means a higher standard of living for all, including myself. I am also happy to keep my own money and effort, and take care of my own healthcare and insurance needs. However, this half-ass "pay for the cake but don't get to eat it" bullshit is the epitome of unfair. To give a concrete example, I paid about $10,000 USD in taxes in 2006, and yet, besides roads, I did not consume a single public service. Even my student loans have been privatley financed, and paid for by myself.
I fear that my nation will soon demand nationalized, socialized healthcare, and do so without considering cost as we so often do. But what then? How high can our national debt grow before China (et all) cash in those bonds and greenbacks for a more stable currency? And what then? Will my children's children think back to a time when grown men and women ate catfood as the "good ole' days"?
I like Canada, and find Canadians to be especially polite and friendly. I spent a summer in Manitoba when I was 13, and loved every minute of it. However, I fear many here in the US are looking over the fence to a greener pasture, without first considering the immense cultural differences, not the least of which is a ~30 million v. ~300 million population. Not that we can't learn a lot from each other- we can- but it remains an Apples-to-Oranges comparison.
Thank you for the thorough reply. As an American I am finding myself very leery of socialized healthcare, if only because of the quagmire my Government has made out of social security. However, I think you raise a valid point that socialized healthcare does not nullify free market advantages, such as suppliers competing on price, and private practices innovating new procedures.
From a personal perspective, how do you rate your local healthcare? Have you ever been treated in America? If so, how do the two systems compare?
Follow up question: is it fair to assume that Neoliberals and Libertarians agree on the issues of individual liberty and human rights? i.e. pro-gay rights, pro-drug legalization, etc?
Slashdot Mirror
You and us Americans both. Solidarity, brother.
I'm not sure how to respond this law...
Oh wait- yes I do. With a satircal video of New Zealand's Parliament.
Power to the people, my Kiwi brothers.
A very common argument with my wife goes something like this: "Mark my words honey: I will have a DeLorean DMC-12 before I die!" "Where the hell are you going to find one?" "Uhhh" [tries to think of creative time-traveling solution] Thank you Slashdot. I think I may have finally won a fight! Bringing the total score to 1-189,203. Yes! Now, let's see if you bastards can handle 90...
Weer in teh interwebs, haxing teh news corp!
+1, Insightful
My wife loves her MacBook, and enjoys sitting on the porch and checking her email.
I love not having to troubleshoot her PC every 15 minutes.
If your gal is pc-adverse, get her a mac laptop. In three months she will be a geek.
a business with some very interesting technical challenges. Ideally, they should be challenges that no one else has tackled yet, and still relate to your business
I agree 100%. I would rather work on something challenging and relevant than at an office where I can play Street Fighter and watch TIVO- I'd rather do that stuff at home or with friends anyway. I work freelance, and I will actually bid lower for interesting work. Especially when its a resume builder.
You are also dead-on about web v. software development. Two very different animals, two very different career paths. I never learned C in HS or college, and now, in my stubborn old age, I doubt I ever will. I love what I do (web development, go LAMP!) but it is an insanely competitive environment, and most "old school" businesses don't even realize what we're capable of yet (which is a LOT more than "web pages" or "blogs" btw).
I for one am fed up with this company. I've been holding some YHOO since '97 (should have sold it all back in '00). If this company refuses to provide us with any significant gains, refuses to listen to shareholders, and continues to sell-out human rights for market share in China, I will be all too pleased to see it purged from my portfolio.
I would really love to sell these shares for a penny each, if only to tank the stock as hard as possible. I know this is a pipe dream, but I'm angry, and I feel betrayed by a company I've supported since their beginning.
Riddle me this: why would anyone want this stock? Ethics aside, why is YHOO a smart investment? Am I missing something?
>Not all religions promote falsehoods either.
>>Name one.
Scientology!
I was going to reply to you with a long-winded rant. Then I realized that debating politics on /. is futility defined. Short answer: Ron Paul (R) & Mike Gravel (D) are the ONLY two candidates who even know what the meaning of truth is.
I offer a candidate from "both sides" in the hopes that I will not be accused of being a partisan hack.
Tip: anyone who describes Hillary Clinton or John McCain as "honest" is clearly a pathological liar, lobbyist, or college student.
A few cautions for new readers:
Kurt loves certain words and names more than being consistent. As a result, be prepared to meet a few different Tralafamadorians and a few different Diana Moon Glampers, none of whom are the same as the prior incarnation.
Kurt loves non-linear storytelling (and so do I). Some people find it confusing.
Do not read Vonnegut for "hard" SciFi; he is in love with ideas, not engineering. Think "Star Wars" v. "Star Trek".
Read "God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater" and "Hocus Pocus" before you die. These are considered some of his "lesser" works, but I think they contain some of Vonnegut's most relevant, scathing and self-aware social criticisms.
Finding Vonnegut is like finding "Pink Floyd" for the first time; sure DSOTM and "The Wall" are great, but the *best* Pink Floyd doesn't get radio play- you have to go find it.
Adhemar: Here I am!
Zaphod2016: So glad you are!
Try and find "Slaughterhouse Five" next. I've been sitting next to my copy for the past few hours, skimming through a few of my favorite scenes.
Part of me is very sad today. Vonnegut was, without a doubt, my favorite author of the modern age. However, the more I think about it, the less sad I feel.
Listen: Kurt Vonnegut has come unstuck in time. I can open the book and listen to him cry about his bad breath and drunk phone calls, or skip to the end and watch Dresden be destroyed through the eyes of Kurt as an innocent, naive GI. I can flip over to a scene in which the Tralafmadorians applause Billy for taking a piss, or another in which he shoots sperms into his gigantic wife. These stories are no longer Kurt Vonnegut's; he has no further use for them. Now, they belong to us, and exist beyond the limits of time.
This sounds an awful lot like the Bong Hits for Jesus prank, currently headed to the Supreme Court. I expect the principals to loose in both cases for one simple reason: these pranks are occuring beyond the jurisdiction of the school, so long as these pranksters are running things from a non-school PC.
As much as I hate it, this *is* the MySpace generation (born circa '88). In fact, my neighbor's son recently did the same thing, posting info about his principal's criminal record via a fake MySpace account. As you would expect, the principal screamed and threatened, but it was all hot air. At best, he might have tried a defamation civil suit, but being that the criminal record was accurate, he had no way to prove any damages. It was already public info to anyone who knows how to Google.
Psuedo-legality aside, my Psych 101 classes taught me that the best response to a MySpace prank is to ignore it. These kids *want* attention, *want* to stir up trouble. The more "the system" screams and yells, the more excited the pranksters become. And once the legal prescedent is set, that school administrations have no control over what kids do on MySpace, I expect the "fake principal page" will become a staple at high schools nationwide- if it isn't already.
And, to be fair to the schools, this prescedent is in their best interests too. Once it has been established that they can't stop kids from "MySpacing", it also must be accepted that they cannot be held liable either. As a tax payer, I don't want to end up on the recieving end of a multi-million dollar lawsuit against our local high school, especially not because some kid went on MySpace and did something stupid; like met a stranger or shared personal info like an address or phone number.
If you have teens at home, make sure to include the "MySpace talk" along with the "sex talk" and "drugs talk". All bullshit aside, it could save their life.
Great article, but I think we are talking about two separate issues, both of which are summed up in the cliche: "26 is the new 21".
On the one hand, the earning power my dad enjoyed at age 21 with a B.S. would now require an M.S., thus requiring more time to get those credentials, if not some time to work and pay for it too (including books, food, dorm/appartment, etc). Taking another 5 years to reach this pay level is not totally ridiculous.
On the other hand, I have many, many friends who required 4, 5, even 6 years to earn a basic B.S. degree. Assuming the pattern holds, they will certainly be 26 (or older) before receiving an M.S. or PhD, assuming they continued their education (most didn't).
So yes, I will agree that we now demand more from middle-class adults, and so, they require a few extra years to mature. That said, I have also seen an overabundance of laziness, apathy and entitlement in the younger generation- many of these people are in no hurry to mature, and it shows.
Here here! I got my first appartment at age 16, and can still remember the nightmare of lies I needed to spin together in order to "qualify" for a 40+ hour job, bank account and lease. At 16 I was ready, willing and able to go out and start my life- the Dickensian laws created to protect me only stood in my way.
On the other hand- I have a brother who is currently 17, and he is not ready to leave the nest, not by a long shot. Even basic stuff like laundry and cooking simple meals totally confounds him (Easy Mac doesn't count- at least Romen requires you to learn how to boil water).
Like any lawyer will tell you: it depends.
When I was about 12 I spent a summer with a cousin who really loved throwing his pocket knives at animals- squirrels, frogs, other kids, etc. He didn't own a computer or NES, didn't play violent video games. Is anyone suprised to learn that he was eventually sent to prison for beating up a girlfriend? Something was very wrong there, but no video game can be blamed.
On the other hand, at 12 years old I used my pocket knife to fillet fish all the time. I never used it as a weapon, I considered it a tool. I only cut up fish I caught, and only to eat them (mmm-mmm, Manitoba walleye).
I would be tempted to say "I had good parents", but I didn't. Like most of you, my parents split up when I was very little. So why did I learn self-reliance while my cousin and brother did not? Honestly, I can't be sure.
But I would wager my love of "Faxanadu" for the NES had very little to do with it.
Whoever modded the parent "underrated" need to have their mod privellages revoked.
I disagree. Am I the only one around here who remembers the round-the-block lines for Windows 95 back when it first came out? Compared to that degree of "Star Wars-esque" popularity, Vista is a flop.
bmo already had an excellent response, but I want to chime in as a person living 3 blocks from the Atlantic Ocean, now about 3 months from the start of hurricane season.
I agree with you. 100%.
I am happy to pay higher insurance premiums and taxes to live in a prime area. These costs were factored into my final budget, along with an emergency fund to be used in the event of an evacuation. I am not rich, not even upper-middle-class really, but I take responsibility for myself and my family, as this is the cost of freedom.
To share the costs of our hurricane damages throughout a Federal fund is unfair to the 99% of Americans who aren't right next to the beach, and it artificially disguises the true cost of my home.If I were forced to pay the full premium of potential hurricane damage, that might change my budget, might force me to pick another area. So long as true costs remain hidden, even those who want to be personally responsible, like me, cannot truly be so.
The second amendment does not apply to normal citizens. It applies to organized militias.
Judges?
Bzzzzzt!
Oh, I'm sorry, we can't accept that answer. Pick another category?
What?! But the 2nd Amendment clearly states: "A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."
That's correct, but you have a bit of a chicken-an-egg fallacy going on. Without armed and trained private citizens, what exactly would that militia be composed of? Do you expect the government should authorize a militia before allowing them arms? Doesn't that sort of invalidate the 'ole "necessary to the security of a free (as in beer) State" clause?
Let's try: "20th Century Dangers" for $2,000
The answer is: This force was responsible for more deaths than any other throughout the entire 20th Century.
[cue Jeopardy theme]
At the risk of being pedantic, yes, all music is data, but only very recently (circa 1990) did binary data become the norm. Some music lovers still perform it from an analog source.
Read: some of us old fogies still love our records and listen to them every evening because we feel they sound far superior to you punk kids and your newfangled iPods.
You shed cells all the time and grow new ones. At what point (if any) do you stop being the "old you"?
Good analogy. I would also accept that a hard drive, video card, NIC, etc might be considered peripheral. However, once you have replaced the motherboard, I argue that you have a "new" computer, all other semantics aside.
To return to your biology analogy, the motherboard serves as the central nervous system of a PC, connecting all of the organs (components). Without the motherboard, there is no computer. Without a video card, or hard drive, or CDROM, etc, there is still a computer, albeit a limited one.
It seems to me that sometime around the year 2000, after the immense tech goldrush of the 1990's, a good chunk of Americans started to feel left out. Those who hadn't gone to college, hadn't gotten the "good jobs", hadn't invested in those awesome tech stocks, etc. It seems to me a lot of these people feel bitter that they were "missing out" on the future, and so, in a typical childish fashion, they prefer to have no future at all.
And then came 9/11, and suddenly racial bias was acceptable, religious war inevitable, and collectivley, America began walking, and then running, backwards. It was the one of the worst days in American history, and worst yet, it was our leaders, not our attackers, who did the most damage.
America is my home, and of course I will always root for the home team. But so many of my fellow countrymen are so stupid, so easily distracted, and so easily cheated that I would almost rather forgo the advantages of socialism if it means avoiding the inevitable disasters these programs may create.
Sorry for the late reply. Let me give you my p.o.v. in a nutshell.
I am currently 26, born in 1980, American. I have been told my entire life that social security will not exist when the time comes for me to retire. Yet, despite this mantra of a doomed social security net, for my entire working life (~10 years now) I have seen a chunk of my paycheck, my labor, my LIFE, go to this system. At the same time, I hear horror stories of old people eating catfood to survive, and retirees working part-time to maintain their status of living. As I understand it, the average U.S. retiree living soley on social security is living well below the poverty line.
To recap: the most heroic people in our society, the so-called "Greatest Generation" is being forced to live in squalor and poverty, DESPITE the fact that I, and millions of other working Americans, have paid into the system designed to protect them and their (IMO well-deserved) standard of living.
My father was a collections attorney who worked to collect debt for hospitals. It is a disgusting profession which resulted in an equally disgusting person. I have NO PITY for the current system, and agree 1000% that it is DISGUSTING that a child or elderly person should be forced to suffer an emergency before being allowed healthcare, except for the lucky few who are covered by health insurance. For example, I myself do not have health insurance, cannot see a doctor without either a) paying a gross amount or b) suffering an emergency first. All the while, I work full time, pay my taxes, take out the trash and mow my lawn (i.e. I do what has been asked of me by the system in which I operate). To make matters more ironic, I am currently engaged to an RN who works at our community hospital, and hear first-hand the horror stories and tales of the disgusting, corrupt scumbags who profit from the status quo at the price of the health of children.
So there's my dilema: on the one hand, I understand the social ideal, and agree in moral principle that a human being is entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, which occasionally demands a tylenol, an x-ray or an operation. On the other hand, I think back to my old boss who was fond of asking (in his broken-English way): Who gonna pay? Who is going to pay for socialized healthcare in America? More important- what will we get for our money?
True, social security is another animal altogether, but to me it represents what happens to our social ideals when placed in the hands of the U.S. Government. And Republican or Democrat, it makes little difference to me- throughout the past 50 years both teams have looted and corrupted the system beyond the worst nightmares of a rational person.
So there is my perspective. I am happy to lose a part of my paycheck, my effort, my life, if it means a higher standard of living for all, including myself. I am also happy to keep my own money and effort, and take care of my own healthcare and insurance needs. However, this half-ass "pay for the cake but don't get to eat it" bullshit is the epitome of unfair. To give a concrete example, I paid about $10,000 USD in taxes in 2006, and yet, besides roads, I did not consume a single public service. Even my student loans have been privatley financed, and paid for by myself.
I fear that my nation will soon demand nationalized, socialized healthcare, and do so without considering cost as we so often do. But what then? How high can our national debt grow before China (et all) cash in those bonds and greenbacks for a more stable currency? And what then? Will my children's children think back to a time when grown men and women ate catfood as the "good ole' days"?
I like Canada, and find Canadians to be especially polite and friendly. I spent a summer in Manitoba when I was 13, and loved every minute of it. However, I fear many here in the US are looking over the fence to a greener pasture, without first considering the immense cultural differences, not the least of which is a ~30 million v. ~300 million population. Not that we can't learn a lot from each other- we can- but it remains an Apples-to-Oranges comparison.
Thanks again for replying and challenging my own opinions and bias.
Thank you for the thorough reply. As an American I am finding myself very leery of socialized healthcare, if only because of the quagmire my Government has made out of social security. However, I think you raise a valid point that socialized healthcare does not nullify free market advantages, such as suppliers competing on price, and private practices innovating new procedures.
From a personal perspective, how do you rate your local healthcare? Have you ever been treated in America? If so, how do the two systems compare?
Follow up question: is it fair to assume that Neoliberals and Libertarians agree on the issues of individual liberty and human rights? i.e. pro-gay rights, pro-drug legalization, etc?
Disclaimer: not trying to argue, just understand.
Does your view on health care fall under free markets, or social support?
How do neoliberals differ from Libertarians?