Now I remember why I was an independent all those years.

[Tweedling]

this happened to me in march of this year. 4 days in the hospital to stabilize my blood sugar. now i have the pleasure of injecting 2 types of insulin up to 4 times a day & have to test myself all the time. i work 24 hours a week & i have no insurance. fun stuff huh!

 

however, the clinic that i go to is extremely knowledgeable in patient assistance programs (not to mention that i don't pay for the lab work for the tests) & since i fit into a certain income bracket, the hospital wrote off the entire stay, including a visit with a nutritionist and a diabetic educator (twice even). b/c of the 2 places, i now don't pay for either insulin or pen needles. i was also able to move into an apt owned by a friend that's like family so i pay next to nothing in rent so i can make sure i can properly take care of myself. the only thing i have not been able to find is some sort of program or discount for the test strips, which come to about a dollar a strip.

 

all in all, i got really lucky for being so sick.

Despite the bad health, it's good to hear you're being taken care of and able to take care of yourself.

[Guest Speed Racer]

Just trying to figure out how much the government can drive up costs before you move responsibility of failure to the high cost of government regulation instead of a poor business plan.

 

Really? That's what you're trying to figure out? Are there any social programs hoisted on employers that are grossly unreasonable right now? I don't think so. When I think so, that's when I will think the government is out of line.

 

I would prefer a system of socialized medicine, one that cuts the employer out of the picture completely. That's not what we have, and until that's what we have, health care needs to be in the business plan for employers (and in my opinion, always should have been until now). I'm not going to overspend my budget because I think I should be taxed less, because the reality is that my taxes on my wages are what they are. Businesses shouldn't operate any differently.

[uncool2pillow]

When I think so, that's when I will think the government is out of line.

Glad you cleared that up.

[Guest Speed Racer]

Isn't that your answer? When you think the government is doing something out of line with its taxing, that's when you think its taxing too much? Or do you have a better litmus test?

[futureage1]

Unions built the middle class. Anyone with even the slightest knowledge of capitalism's history in this country knows or should know that. Reagan and his corporate goons destroyed unions. The neo liberals and DLC lead by Clinton in the 90's continued the assault.

 

Look around, this is the DIRECT, intentional result of globalized slave labor.

 

Unless you are a CEO engaging in the global slave labor workforce or a Wallstreet thief, your layer in the wealth pyramid, along with your social mobility, will be globalized sooner or later. Count on it.

 

You can either support collective bargaining and by extension a form of socialized medicine, that will provide a hedge against the global slavery being pursued by Wallstreet and the business oligarchs, or you can take your chances that "they'll never globalize MY job!"

 

Wal Mart workers: you make minimum wage, have no health insurance, no overtime, no benefits, and no job security. Do you really want those greedy unions to take all that away from you?

 

None of this will be reversed unless we have labor leaders who are sworn to the cause, and not spending dues money playing golf with the same said robber-barons. The current labor infrastructure has to go. Too many corrupted, bribed opportunists. It's time for labor to be a force to be reckoned with,all the while, reworking the Neoliberal/Reaganomics trade deals that have put us near 3rd world status.

 

I'm a different kind of liberal, the Jeffersonian type, which should explain my opposition to central banks,monopoly capitalism and globalization.

 

I will now watch as the robber barons (in their own minds) and the free marketeers try to discredit these facts.

 

Better get your head out of the sand before you realize just how wrong you have been.

 

Bankers Get $4 Trillion Gift From Barney Frank: David Reilly

December 29, 2009

 

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2009-12-29/bankers-get-4-trillion-gift-from-barney-frank-david-reilly.html

[Guest Speed Racer]

your layer in the wealth pyramid, along with your social mobility, will be globalized sooner or later. Count on it.

 

Labor has been a global commodity for years. Anyone with even the slightest knowledge of history's history should know that. I don't know why people are suddenly angry/shocked/surpised that the U.S. is finally getting in to the export game more heavily.

[Winston Legthigh]

I will now watch as the robber barons (in their own minds) and the free marketeers try to discredit these facts.

 

Could you do us a favor and keep your hyperbole in italics, and your facts in bold?

[Sparky speaks]

Hear,hear. I guess many people in this country are content with America becoming a Third World nation for that is what is happening with this so called globalized economy. The average workers purchasing power has steadily been decreasing, manufacturing jobs are a thing of the past and more and more people are now considered below the poverty level and collecting food stamps.The jobs we have lost the past few decades are not coming back. Just wait until your health benefits get taxed(if you have them) and you start paying for your carbon footprint as we enter a mini ice age. The trillions of dollars created out of thin air for this elite bailout will only result in hyperinflation in the coming years. So over all things are looking pretty good.

[Guest Speed Racer]

I guess many people in this country are content with America becoming a Third World nation for that is what is happening with this so called globalized economy.

 

Our other option (in regards to joining the terrible, horrible, no-good, very-bad, globalized economy), as far as I can tell, is staying on top by keeping the rest of the world under our thumb. Am I missing something?

[Sparky speaks]

Yes. Child poverty at 20%. Rising infant and child mortality rates. Infrastructure crumbling. Foreclosures at record levels. Currency at point of collapse. Trillions of dollars of resources spent on wars we can't win. Special interests owning Congress. I would say you missed something.

[Guest Speed Racer]

Yes. Child poverty at 20%. Rising infant and child mortality rates. Infrastructure crumbling. Foreclosures at record levels. Currency at point of collapse. Trillions of dollars of resources spent on wars we can't win. Special interests owning Congress. I would say you missed something.

 

Um...no, I think I got it all the first time.

 

We're supposed to resist globalization (which has already happened, btw), to starve other nations' kids and keep their currencies down so that we stay on top of the shit pile.

[IRememberDBoon]

Let me be the naive jackass here.

 

I think as long as we keep Dems in the govt things will go fine. I believe 90 percent of the shitstorm were in right now is a result of GW Bush and his administration.

My reasons are so long that I cant type it all right here but I know deep in my heart that Democrats are what saves this country every time.

Having lived in Washington for most of the last 15 years I believe I know what Im talking about but I cannot begin to type it all here. If you dont see it then I guess you just dont see it. There will always be naysayers. They think they are smarter than The President and everyone else on the planet. Just kids as far as im concerned.

[uncool2pillow]

Isn't that your answer? When you think the government is doing something out of line with its taxing, that's when you think its taxing too much? Or do you have a better litmus test?

Let me make sure I understand your logic. If you don't think taxes and regulations are onerous, then they are not; even if they are driving businesses to shut their doors or move their operations overseas. It is the fault of the business owners for having crappy business plans. If they think the taxes and regulations are onerous, they must be wrong because you are right.

 

This may sound condescending, I apologize if it does. Maybe there is something I am missing in your posts.

[futureage1]

Um...no, I think I got it all the first time.

 

We're supposed to resist globalization (which has already happened, btw), to starve other nations' kids and keep their currencies down so that we stay on top of the shit pile.

 

Not even close. We had trade with nations before "free trade deals". We are not building any nations up.

 

One reason for China's growth is 3/4 of the Chinese population still lives in endemic poverty mirroring third world conditions while the economic growth has been limited largely to urban centers along the eastern coast. Second, China's growth is dependent on a low wage workforce. Once those wages start creeping up, the manufacturing jobs in China will be exported to countries with lower wages. This trend is already beginning.

 

If you exclude the major cities near the coastline, China is a third world backwater, in which each of the western provinces has less paved roads than New York City. Drinking water contains more than simple traces of lead, benzene and polycyclic aromatic compounds. The air is also toxic, and average life expectancy is less than 60. Coolie labor persists at 65 cents an hour, and anybody caught trying to organize a labor union gets hit with a ten year sentence. Religions must be licensed by the state, and some, including Catholicism loyal to the Pope, are outlawed. The national currency is not allowed to float in the free market, and the ports of entry are closed at whim to any manner of import. In return, they export to us our intellectual property in pirated form.

 

So please all you environmentally correct, free market Christians, do not rhapsodize to me about any kind of Chinese miracle. It will take multiple trillions of dollars for them to reach our level of development if they don't poison themselves in the process. I have nothing but respect for the good Chinese people, but their government sucks, and it deserves an embargo on everything it exports to us until it starts playing fair with trade. Let the bureaucrats retaliate on OUR exports. WHAT exports?

[Guest Speed Racer]

This may sound condescending, I apologize if it does. Maybe there is something I am missing in your posts.

 

Well, I'm talking about my own opinion; that's the only thing you seem to be missing as far as I can tell. Using the facts I have, I am assessing the situation and passing judgement on it. That's how most people make their decisions. So yes, if I don't think taxes are onerous, then, um, I don't think they are onerous. If business owners, who as far as I can tell very much have their own opinions, think taxes are onerous, then they think taxes are onerous.

 

Many businesses survive and thrive with taxes as they are; many have failed in better conditions. I'm just stating my opinion that businesses need to adjust their business models to the tax system if they want to survive.

 

I don't mean to sound like an ass, but how the do you personally form opinions if not passing judgement on facts you have? Honest question.

[uncool2pillow]

Well, I'm talking about my own opinion; that's the only thing you seem to be missing as far as I can tell. Using the facts I have, I am assessing the situation and passing judgement on it. That's how most people make their decisions. So yes, if I don't think taxes are onerous, then, um, I don't think they are onerous.

 

I don't mean to sound like an ass, but how the hell do you form opinions if not passing judgement on facts you have? Honest question.

It seems like your opinion is based more on feelings than facts. My main argument is that if taxes and regulations lower employment and / or send significant numbers of jobs overseas, then they are onerous. I am not sure if this new health bill rises to that standard, but it seems to me to be a stronger standard than "I personally think these taxes are too high." Without much thought of their effect to the overall economy.

[Guest Speed Racer]

It seems like your opinion is based more on feelings than facts.

 

Well, here are the facts:

 

* The healthcare bill is what it is;

* Taxes are what they are;

* Health care costs what it costs;

* Businesses know these three facts;

* Businesses set budgets;

* If you make as much or more than you spend/pay in taxes, you stay in the black;

* Not all businesses are closing;

* Businesses have closed in high times and recessions.

 

I don't know enough about the bill or businesses to decide whether it is so bad that it will completely ruin the U.S. economy, but something tells me that someone would have caught an error like that along the way. Something also tells me that if it is that bad, our government will probably correct the error. All I know for certain are the facts as stated above, which I used to form my opinion. Sure, some feelings might have slipped in too, but I'd wager I'm probably not the first human who used feelings to form an opinion.

[uncool2pillow]

You provide a lot more explanation for your opinion here. We all use feelings to form opinions to one degree or another, but I didn't see anything beyond that till this post. Will this destroy the U.S. economy? No. Will it help or hurt? I guess we'll probably find out soon enough.

[Guest Speed Racer]

Eh, I thought I covered it on the previous page (the part about how I don't spend based on what I think my income/taxes should be, but how they are, and businesses shouldn't either), but I guess I was unclear.

[bjorn_skurj]

I dunno - I think if we lowered taxes and loosened regulations enough to compete with World-3 people for manufacturing jobs, our country would start to look like the World-3 in very short order.

[LouieB]

I dunno - I think if we lowered taxes and loosened regulations enough to compete with World-3 people for manufacturing jobs, our country would start to look like the World-3 in very short order.

Doesn't it now? We don't make hardly anything here anymore. We export raw materials and buy manufactured goods. Isn't that what the third world does? Our taxes are low (compared to most industrialized countries) and we don't regulate inports hardly at all either. There are few tariffs on stuff.

 

LouieB

[Guest Speed Racer]

Doesn't it now?

 

Have you been to a third world country recently?

 

What our nation, and many other nations in our tier, is pretty keen on doing is manning corporate headquarters in the U.S. and siphoning the manufacturing duties to cheaper nations. We still manufacture most of the world's aircraft here, for what it's worth. We also export a lot of education, if you consider the number of foreign people who attain higher education in the U.S. and then leave.

 

Where the trouble will come from is if we can no longer compete with other nations that export education and house corporate headquarters for companies that sell goods that are manufactured elsewhere, and other service-based, non-manufacturing products that we toss into the global trade market.

[Sparky speaks]

There is hope for America yet......Would you like fries with that mam?......Welcome to Walmart.....Can I change your diaper Mrs. Smith?

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/30/finding-a-job-10-industri_n_406409.html

[Dude]

There is hope for America yet......Would you like fries with that mam?......Welcome to Walmart.....Can I change your diaper Mrs. Smith?

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/30/finding-a-job-10-industri_n_406409.html

 

#1. Management, scientific, and technical consulting services

#3. Computer system design and related services

 

Looks like there are good jobs to be had for those willing to learn how to do more on their PCs than post political rants on message boards and surf for porn.

[Guest Speed Racer]

Looks like there are good jobs to be had for those willing to learn how to do more on their PCs than post political rants on message boards and surf for porn.

 

There's, like, a lot of stuff in the health care industry too on that list. Also, I bet that if full-service restaurants continue to grow (NOT fast food, which a selective reader with an agenda may be tempted to imply), I bet that sectors that support full-service restaurants (food vendors, accounting, laundry and uniform services, marketing) might also experience a little kick as well. Additionally, "general merchandise" (Walmart-like stores, let's say) also have corporate offices with positions that require bachelor's degrees n' stuff.