You answered your own question. You said, "...it is the insurance companies that are holding back better health care", then you followed with "Isn't Medicare an insurance program?"
The operative word is "companies". There was a time at least in US history, when almost all medicine was non-profit. Of course, doctors did well, made good middle-class incomes, but all hospitals were non-profit.
You can trace the collapse of US health care to the Reagan Era, when health care insurance was deregulated and insurance companies started buying up hospitals. This "free market" innovation did nothing but cause prices to shoot skyward. Reagan always hated Medicare (which until then was keeping costs down) and sought the deregulation in order to destroy it. Instead, the whole system metastasized.
We need to learn to value "non-productive" pursuits
Further, we need to learn to value "non-productive" people. It looks like we've already hit "peak labor" but the antiquated and useless idea that "everybody has to work to live" is doing nothing but dividing people and causing further misery and strife, especially in developed nations.
In America, we have this sick Calivinist notion of "earning a living", as if the only acceptable life is a life spent toiling 70% of your waking hours to make someone in the economic elite richer.
The fact that we have people working longer hours than ever even though a greater number of people are unemployed shows just how badly we need a change of values.
It's also what corporations do best: kill competition.
Welcome to cancer-stage capitalism, where corporations hate free markets.
Make no mistake, these anti-competitive laws are not coming from "politicians". They're not smart enough for that. These laws are coming from the people who pull politicians' strings.
I think John Steele may be auditioning for a job as the next Fox News legal analyst.
I'm serious. They've already got Mark Fuhrman as a law enforcement analyst. Clearly there is no level of professional humiliation that disqualifies someone from being a personality on right-wing media.
This is the same government that pimps for an industry that's selling death to it's own citizens, the gun manufactures.
I'm really afraid my country has a dead-ender, apocolyptic mentality, and the head rats are going to make sure they fill their pockets before the end.
The fact that while everyone was watching coverage of the drama in Boston last few weeks, Congress decided to repeal the law that makes it illegal for lawmakers to engage in insider trading on the bills that are about to be passed is a good example of our elite trying to "get while the getting's good". At the same time that Fed policy is goosing the stock market so those trades are more lucrative.
Kevin, there are no "improvements and efficiencies" to outright greed. The kind of greed that makes one act insane. The only "improvement and efficiency" is a stronger leash.
Improvement and efficiency cannot emerge until certain parties (Viacom, etal) stop running around with a baseball bat breaking up the furniture. They've been treated like a spoilt child long enough.
I'm pretty sure that Exxon does in fact hate your children, so isn't truth something of a defense?
Despite their recent public service ads for Common Core Curriculum, a very compelling case can be made that Exxon hates children and other living things.
In their defense however, it's completely clear that Exxon absolutely loves, covets and adores profits, though maybe a little more than is healthy. At least for the rest of us (and our children).
If you create something excellent, and price it right, people will give you money.
I tried it some years ago with a musical project. And no, I didn't sell anything but the music. No t-shirt, no concert, no video or special experience. Just the music, delivered digitally (or as vinyl or casette). The project took me a month to complete and it paid off in a year's income.
It succeeded beyond my expectations, even though the music itself in a somewhat lower bitrate was available for free online.
I believe too much of the fear of "piracy" comes from a entitlement mentality on the part of certain artists. Embrace, rather than reject, the understanding that the world does not owe you a living for your art just because you believe you are awesome. And if you do make something that people like and want to pay you for, stop believing that it's some sort of annuity that will continue to pay you into your old age. Artists have to work for a living too.
I don't understand why the author was surprised that the Mauz device, which turns your iPhone into a mouse didn't catch on.
It sounds like a terrible idea. The mouse is supposed to be an always on, always available device. Something that sits there waiting for input. Nobody wants to have to turn the Mauz on every time they want to use the computer, and if it was always on, the battery life would be terrible.
Plus, what if you get a phone call? Now you have to decide whether you want your phone to be a phone or a mouse. How often do you need to access something on the computer while you're on the phone? If you're like most people, I would say that's pretty common.
Further, people want a mouse to be inexpensive. Using something that costs hundreds of dollars as a pointer is as pointless as using the iPhone as a coaster for your can of pop.
Re: Wrong target. Medicare is insurance
You answered your own question. You said, "...it is the insurance companies that are holding back better health care", then you followed with "Isn't Medicare an insurance program?"
The operative word is "companies". There was a time at least in US history, when almost all medicine was non-profit. Of course, doctors did well, made good middle-class incomes, but all hospitals were non-profit.
You can trace the collapse of US health care to the Reagan Era, when health care insurance was deregulated and insurance companies started buying up hospitals. This "free market" innovation did nothing but cause prices to shoot skyward. Reagan always hated Medicare (which until then was keeping costs down) and sought the deregulation in order to destroy it. Instead, the whole system metastasized.
Re: The new Socrates
In America, we have this sick Calivinist notion of "earning a living", as if the only acceptable life is a life spent toiling 70% of your waking hours to make someone in the economic elite richer.
The fact that we have people working longer hours than ever even though a greater number of people are unemployed shows just how badly we need a change of values.
Half-right
It's also what corporations do best: kill competition.
Welcome to cancer-stage capitalism, where corporations hate free markets.
Make no mistake, these anti-competitive laws are not coming from "politicians". They're not smart enough for that. These laws are coming from the people who pull politicians' strings.
Inevitable
I think John Steele may be auditioning for a job as the next Fox News legal analyst.
I'm serious. They've already got Mark Fuhrman as a law enforcement analyst. Clearly there is no level of professional humiliation that disqualifies someone from being a personality on right-wing media.
Color alerts were phased out in April of 2011.
Maybe the reason Americans stopped caring about the "color alerts" is that they were phased out completely two years ago.
killing is good business
This is the same government that pimps for an industry that's selling death to it's own citizens, the gun manufactures.
I'm really afraid my country has a dead-ender, apocolyptic mentality, and the head rats are going to make sure they fill their pockets before the end.
The fact that while everyone was watching coverage of the drama in Boston last few weeks, Congress decided to repeal the law that makes it illegal for lawmakers to engage in insider trading on the bills that are about to be passed is a good example of our elite trying to "get while the getting's good". At the same time that Fed policy is goosing the stock market so those trades are more lucrative.
Re: Re: Re: Re:
Kevin, there are no "improvements and efficiencies" to outright greed. The kind of greed that makes one act insane. The only "improvement and efficiency" is a stronger leash.
Improvement and efficiency cannot emerge until certain parties (Viacom, etal) stop running around with a baseball bat breaking up the furniture. They've been treated like a spoilt child long enough.
Now hold on...
I'm pretty sure that Exxon does in fact hate your children, so isn't truth something of a defense?
Despite their recent public service ads for Common Core Curriculum, a very compelling case can be made that Exxon hates children and other living things.
In their defense however, it's completely clear that Exxon absolutely loves, covets and adores profits, though maybe a little more than is healthy. At least for the rest of us (and our children).
wrong question
Is there really such a thing as "free speech"?
If the work is good...
If you create something excellent, and price it right, people will give you money.
I tried it some years ago with a musical project. And no, I didn't sell anything but the music. No t-shirt, no concert, no video or special experience. Just the music, delivered digitally (or as vinyl or casette). The project took me a month to complete and it paid off in a year's income.
It succeeded beyond my expectations, even though the music itself in a somewhat lower bitrate was available for free online.
I believe too much of the fear of "piracy" comes from a entitlement mentality on the part of certain artists. Embrace, rather than reject, the understanding that the world does not owe you a living for your art just because you believe you are awesome. And if you do make something that people like and want to pay you for, stop believing that it's some sort of annuity that will continue to pay you into your old age. Artists have to work for a living too.
Re:
Just because a master burglar with superpowers can defeat my front door lock does not mean I should not have a front door.
The myIDkey is a really good idea.
lessons unlearned
It's not going to get any better until we start seeing some heads on pikes.
one of these things is not like the other...
Man, kickers are a different breed of football player, no?
not surprising that Mauz failed
I don't understand why the author was surprised that the Mauz device, which turns your iPhone into a mouse didn't catch on.
It sounds like a terrible idea. The mouse is supposed to be an always on, always available device. Something that sits there waiting for input. Nobody wants to have to turn the Mauz on every time they want to use the computer, and if it was always on, the battery life would be terrible.
Plus, what if you get a phone call? Now you have to decide whether you want your phone to be a phone or a mouse. How often do you need to access something on the computer while you're on the phone? If you're like most people, I would say that's pretty common.
Further, people want a mouse to be inexpensive. Using something that costs hundreds of dollars as a pointer is as pointless as using the iPhone as a coaster for your can of pop.
The other devices look promising, however.
Re: Surprise Witness
I just did that, and Doyle gave his tacit consent to making it public domain.
He's also very disappointed in his heirs.
(untitled comment)
Antigua is limited to $21million in copyright infringement.
That comes to 9 downloads of an old Metallica album, 3 downloads of Skyfall, and 1 Harry Potter ebook.
Re:
You believe that publicly pointing out something on blogs is the same as vigilantism?
Another Jerry Falwell Liberty University law school grad, I assume. They have special colloquia in trolling, I hear.
Re: Re: Re:
That's right. She was 12 and she got married and it was a Disney film.
Now you're starting to get the picture of what Disney is about.
oblige
I am very pleased to not use Instagram.
Re:
It's 2012. Everybody has a public forum available.