Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[AlabamAlum]

The real answer is to fix the underlying problem that is Economics 101 -- that people who directly consume medical services don't pay for them. Insurance companies and taxpayers pay for them. There is no condition under which this can succeed, and no amount of micromanagement or think tanking can do anything but mitigate damage.

Agreed. But in any society you will have a portion of non-productives (the infirm, elderly, and children) who tax the system and a portion of low earners who need assistance to survive. The low earners are important because even though they get help, they are contributing to the economy and they do have reduced aid needs in comparison to people who are on a 100% dole.

You have to take care of the former and try to reduce the numbers in the latter. And accept that indigent/charity care is just a cost of doing business in healthcare.

[entropy]

AA mentioned it.. what do you do with the Elderly? Have them work until death? Part of the problem is we build a system that requires each generation to be larger than the last to support itself. But we won't have a system where everyone pays their fair share. Just won't happen..

All that said we should try and reward and discourage behaviors. And while I'm not a more tax person, I see benefit in taxing things that lead to poor health. We do it with tobacco, I'm not sure why we wouldn't with sugar or processed foods. You're free to consume more, but you'll help pay for the problems you create.

Right now the patient is not only absent for his or her care decisions but also absent from rewards or consequences of lifestyle decisions.

[AlabamAlum]

The dangers of processed foods are overstated because the defintion of what constitutes "processed" is way too nebulous to make a blanket tax scheme work. Also, so-called processed foods are cheaper, so the tax would hit low wage earners hardest - and these folks are already having trouble feeding their family.

I guess we could tax candy and potato chips, but I'm against a Bloomberg style junk food tax or 12-oz sodas or whatever.

Anyway. Roll Tide.

[lineygoblue]

Ent .. why do you hate cheeseburgers?

[THE_WIZARD_]

Wow AA...I always assumed you were a dumbass.

Know I'm certain.

hi!

[THE_WIZARD_]

liney:

hello

[entropy]

liney.. I don't.. believe me, I don't.

AA... don't disagree on the definitions. Just using it as an generic example. Pick the worst as far as I'm concerned.

[iam416]

Behaviors that should be rewarded: kicking AlabamaAlum in the nads; killing AlabamAlum.
Behaviors that should be taxed: encouraging, in any way, AlabamAlum's daft ramblings.

Entropy, that will be $57,100 in penalties.

[entropy]

wait.. you're the one telling him he's smart and a subject expert. You started this... I'm just doing charity work.

[entropy]

The complete list of Trump's insults on Twitter:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/01/28/upshot/donald-trump-twitter-insults.html?smid=tw-upshotnyt&smtyp=cur&_r=0

[AlabamAlum]

Wow AA...I always assumed you were a dumbass.

Know I'm certain.

hi!

Know?

[AlabamAlum]

Behaviors that should be rewarded: kicking AlabamaAlum in the nads; killing AlabamAlum.
Behaviors that should be taxed: encouraging, in any way, AlabamAlum's daft ramblings.

Entropy, that will be $57,100 in penalties.

Vote for me in 2020

[entropy]

I think that list is missing some recent insults..

(though I'm not sure I'd call all of them insults.. I'm sure the NYT was looking for volume)

[entropy]

Know?

the K is always silent in Nebraska..

Know
Knowledge

[AlabamAlum]

wait.. you're the one telling him he's smart and a subject expert. You started this... I'm just doing charity work.

Smart and content expert? You want my background?

Very well, where should I begin? My father was a relentlessly self-improving boulangerie owner from Belgium with low-grade narcolepsy and a penchant for buggery. My mother was a fifteen-year-old French prostitute named Chloe with webbed feet. My father would womanize, he would drink, he would make outrageous claims, like he invented the question mark. Sometimes he would accuse chestnuts of being lazy. A sort of general malaise that only the genius possess and the insane lament. My childhood was typical. Summers in Rangoon, luge lessons. In the spring we'd make meat helmets. If I was insolent, I was placed in a burlap bag and beaten with reeds. Pretty standard, really. At the age of twelve I received my first scribe. At the age of fifteen, a Zoroastrian named Vilma ritualistically shaved my testicles. There really is nothing like a shaven scrotum. At the age of eighteen, I went off to evil medical school. From there...