2016 Election -- Part II
Poll
 | 57 votes (47.89%) | ||
| | 33 votes (27.73%) | ||
| | 12 votes (10.08%) | ||
| | 10 votes (8.4%) | ||
| | 4 votes (3.36%) | ||
| | 3 votes (2.52%) |
119 members have voted
Because she's "leaving the country".Quote: beachbumbabsQuote: RigondeauxStill unhappy with the people Trump is bringing in.
But TPP has been declared "stone dead" in many reports, preserving economic stability for thousands of families.
Better still, Leena Dunham wrote this. How does this not brighten the day of every American?
How does it brighten your day, to read about someone's sorrow? I thought you were a better person than to gloat like this.
If people are in sorrow because the sick crooked criminal Hillary lost after trying to buy an election. I really have no sympathy for them.
All this protesting is making America look bad. Let's hope nothing really bad happens while law enforcement's attention is dealing with that.
Perhaps it brightens all of our day (days? Dafaq how does English work??), due to her hard work ethic and nobility in this great time of American revitalization.
Maybe she'll move to Canada, like she supposedly said she would, given a Trump victory. I think that'd brighten my day, knowing a fellow American may move to a place where they'd prefer to be.
I know who I'll be voting for in 2020: #LenaDurkham #President2020 #FreeSyrupForAll #ProbablyAWelcher
PS Hillary is the Anti-Christ.
"It comes as Trump backed away from a promise to build a wall on the US-Mexican border, saying some areas could instead be fenced, but stood firm on a plan to deport up to three million immigrants who have criminal records."
From the Washington Post:
"President-elect Donald Trump is already signaling that he might backpedal on his promise to repeal the Affordable Care Act, telling the Wall Street Journal Friday that he’d consider hanging onto popular Obamacare provisions such as “the prohibition against insurers denying coverage because of patients’ existing conditions, and a provision that allows parents to provide years of additional coverage for children on their insurance policies.”
Quote: beachbumbabsSo you're calling me a liar unless I agree with the words you're trying to put into my mouth. Nice mansplaining, AZD, but once again, wrong wrong wrong. I meant what I said.
Never said liar. For it to be a lie you have to understand what you are saying is a lie. What I am saying is you seem to not understand that moving to a socialist system will not lower the number of administrative jobs, nor will it reduce paperwork. The government invented administrative jobs and paperwork.
Which leaves profit. Health insurance is not a very profitable business, this has been proven time and time again. So l will again request if a socialist system is what you prefer just admit you prefer that.
Her liberalism, if you can call it that, consists of a projection of her own self righteousness and selfishness. The problem with the world is everyone is inferior to me. Sort of like that one guy.
Of course, Hillary, who has no problem signing off on the deaths of thousands for her own personal advancement is her ideal candidate. And if Leena doesn't get what she wants, she's going to leave the country that gave her a dream life. Because the world exists to give her what she wants and any breach of that is a travesty.
"It was supposed to be her job!" That somebody could really be that entitled is funny in itself. I almost think she's on Trump's payroll. Every word is just too perfect. Breaking out into hives!
Of course, people like this are a big part of why Trump won. Got this from a lefty tweeter who said something like, "this makes it all worth it." Almost everybody loves a person like this getting her cheerios crapped in. And many voted for Trump to do just that. This is exactly the type of character Dems need to kick to the curb if they want to stop losing.
Quote: Rigondeaux
Better still, Leena Dunham wrote this. How does this not brighten the day of every American?
Thanks for posting, it brightened my Monday! Been watching and reading some of this kind of story. Shows something about her supporters.
Quote: beachbumbabs
How does it brighten your day, to read about someone's sorrow? I thought you were a better person than to gloat like this.
Babs, read the last line in the quoted story and the part that says, "It's her job." That attitude is why some of us enjoy watching the crying Hillary supporters videos on YouTube. That attitude is why we giggle when this article talks about them breaking into hives. Breaking into hives because your girl lost? Really?
For 18ish months we listened to all this Hillary push. From "she deserves it" to "she is the most qualified candidate in history!" the latter a comment no intelligent person could make with a straight face. It was as if we were being told the election was some kind of Constitutional inconvenience and we should just get it over with. If we pointed out that Hillary failed in every job she was handed we were a misogynist. When we supported Trump we were treated as a bunch of angry white men who should do society a favor and die out.
Finally, don't think for a moment her supporters would not be gloating twice as hard had she won.
Same for all those celebrities who said they will move if trump wins. Same for all those people who said would move if Obama won 8 years ago.
The truth is that BOTH parties got turned upside down in this election and BOTH parties need to decide how to move forward. The Republicans may have control of everything, but it isn't exactly the same as having a traditional Republican candidate win the Presidency.
The Democrats need to get out of their funk, stop protesting, and start rebuilding their party. The election was lost because you had a terrible candidate who did not resonate with the voters in enough states to win. It had little to do with her being a "her"--it had much more to do with her being her. The Democrats failed to get their candidate to the finish line as the winner. The popular vote "winner" is largely irrelevant; BOTH candidates were after electoral votes, not popular votes.
From my point of view, maybe Libtards who are crying about the election should just keep doing so. The longer they don't start rebuilding their party, the better!!
I work in the paperwork part of health care so I see what all of these practices and doctors make. I think it is ridiculous how much some of these people make and if we had this reduced to an affordable amount then healthcare wouldn't cost nearly as much and this wouldn't be as much of an issue.
1 practice that we work for is drug rehab. They get paid $86 a visit by insurance and that visit lasta approx 8 minutes. They pump 40 patients through in a 4 hour clinic. So they have 1 doc, 1 PA, 1 MA, and 1 receptionist to make nearly 4k in half a day. They do 2 clinic a day. For an office of 4 or 5 to make 8k a day is completely ridiculous. Sure they have expenses like any business and they are for profit business but I think this part of the industry is the issue.
Quote: lilredroosterQuote: Paradigm
the Canadian System who's citizens cross the borders for the good docs and no lines.
Border complaints go both ways. Americans sometimes go to other countries for less expensive surgery and treatment. They also have been buying pharmacy drugs over the borders as well.
Quote: rxwineBorder complaints go both ways. Americans sometimes go to other countries for less expensive surgery and treatment. They also have been buying pharmacy drugs over the borders as well.
Ever seen the tv show "Botched?" It ain't pretty when people go to other countries for cheap plastic surgery...
A bodega owner in Queens was arrested for running an unlicensed plastic surgery clinic in his back room. They did liposuction and breast implants for mostly illegal transsexuals. One kid dies. The supposed Dr. fled and the owner was arrested. At trial, he claimed he thought it was a dental clinic for uninsured immigrants. He was convicted of a minor charge.
Quote: lilredroosterOkay, thank you for your answer. So, since he has no insurance, no insurance company will pay. And since you favor a for profit model I would think that means that the government will not pay. So who will pay the hospital for providing his care assuming that he's indigent and cannot pay himself?
No one will pay the hospital for his care. But the hospital is a county hospital, so county taxpayers will 'pay' for his care.
I am not conceptually against single payor, or the ACA for that matter. I just hated the blatant lie that Obama used in getting the ACA passed. If he would have said----"Here is Obamacare.... it will help cover millions more Americans who presently do not have health insurance. But it will be extremely expensive! It will add hundreds of billions to the growing national debt, but it is the right thing to do." But he flat out lied saying it would not cost much, we would save cutting out waste, fraud, blah, blah, blah....
The same thing for national health care (so called single payor).... Just understand it is many more trillions that we do not have..... unless all taxes are to go up substantially.....
My personal fear with any government run health care is my experience with the horrors of having to deal with the government. Two simple recent examples''''
1. We hired a new doc right out of residency to start August 1. He finished residency July 1. He needs to be 'credentialed' by insurance companies before they will pay him for his services. Local ones took 2 to 3 weeks to approve him. STILL WAITING for Medicare to credential him. This is not uncommon for them.
2. If I do a case for Blue Cross, I send them a bill, and within a few weeks I get my fee. For Medicare, they have decided they want to only pay for 'quality care'. I send them a bill and they send me my fee, usually a few weeks longer. But now I have to submit data to another organization (who charges me by the way) so they can accumulate it. At the end of the year they will decide if I met certain criteria and will either add or subtract a percent or two. The costs for me submitting the data, and the additional paperwork, is thousands of dollars per provider. And I may get $30,000 per year from Medicare, so we are talking about $500 or so at risk, and hours of clerical work and fees to try and get that small amount of money. The regulation (called MACRA if you care) is a short ONE THOUSAND TWO HUNDRED page document that will explain what i am supposed to do to not lose my 1%.
Of course most providers will just say F you, and ignore it, and have the government money grab the percent or two (grows to a maximum of 9% in a decade) rather than spend thousands to collect hundreds.
I can recount similar stories with NY State government insurance (Medicaid and Workers Comp).
Bottom line..... if the government is involved in it is a mess to deal with.
I don't need to "have enough votes" to suggest a better plan than one that isn't working. This isn't an election, it's a debate on one aspect of policy that underpins the vast dissatisfaction in the American electorate. It's one you clearly don't want to have so I'll drop it, at least here, and move it to a more appropriate forum.Quote: ParadigmDo you even hear how ridiculous you sound...you are now suggesting a Constitutional Amendment to change healthcare. Trust me, you don't even have enough votes left of center to accomplish this.
Have you ever been involved with organizational politics at any level? Served on a local committee or a non-profit board? If the only policy proposals ever floated were ones where there were already enough votes, nothing controversial would ever get done. But you're done on this point so I won't continue.
If Trump enacts his tax plan I will save five figures on my taxes annually. I can already afford my too-expensive health insurance so that will only help me. My own finances, on the whole, probably will increase as a result of this election, but millions of others lost, and will lose more in the future. The America we used to be proud of lost.Quote:You lost...move on.
By tolerating the debasement of civil discourse and permitting overt bigots to run the country, we have taken leave of our dignity. Are you a proud American today? Trump's vice-president is an overt anti-gay crusader who believes in shock-torturing young boys to exorcise their "gayness." Are you a proud American today? Trump's chief strategy officer is a white supremacist and anti-Semite who beat his wife. Are you a proud American today?
You want to call me an elitist for criticizing Trump team's bigotry or thinking that dignity even matters, fine. I can take it. But your ire would be better directed at the millions of Americans who voted for Trump either in spite of his bigotry or because of it. I acknowledge that Trump won, but I do not accept that his victory legitimizes institutionalized bigotry or hatred the way so many of his supporters want it to. I will never accept that, and anyone who does is perverting the very premise of the United States. Those seeking to impose institutionalized discrimination would be well-advised to recall the opening sentences of the Declaration of Independence:
Quote: Declaration of IndependenceWhen in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
We The People are watching. If you take one thing away from the anti-Trump protests spanning the nation, take that.
Quote: GWAEI haven't read everything in here but one thing that drives me crazy is healthcare.
I work in the paperwork part of health care so I see what all of these practices and doctors make. I think it is ridiculous how much some of these people make and if we had this reduced to an affordable amount then healthcare wouldn't cost nearly as much and this wouldn't be as much of an issue.
1 practice that we work for is drug rehab. They get paid $86 a visit by insurance and that visit lasta approx 8 minutes. They pump 40 patients through in a 4 hour clinic. So they have 1 doc, 1 PA, 1 MA, and 1 receptionist to make nearly 4k in half a day. They do 2 clinic a day. For an office of 4 or 5 to make 8k a day is completely ridiculous. Sure they have expenses like any business and they are for profit business but I think this part of the industry is the issue.
Perhaps they are making an absolute killing on this work, but it may not be anything like what you think they are "making"... I have a friend who talks about her business taking in over $100,000 a month. What she has not figured out is that it isn't how much you take in; it is how much you get to keep. She actually keeps very little on a $1.2 million gross. She'll learn; she is new to owning a business.
This goes for most medical practices. There are lots of costs out there on that "$8K" per day. How much of the two million or so that they take in annually do they actually get to keep as profit after paying all of their expenses?
I am not saying their can't be cuts in expenses but I sure hope that people understand that doctors and other folks put huge sums of money into getting the education needed to practice in the medical field. They need to be paid well for that work.
Quote: MathExtremistQuote: Declaration of IndependenceWhen in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
We The People are watching. If you take one thing away from the anti-Trump protests spanning the nation, take that.
We The People have been watching. In fact, we have voted and elected one imperfect candidate over another one. We didn't like what We saw as a country, so we voted for change. Please keep watching; it is important to always keep your eyes on those governing us and be ready to do the work that is necessary to change again in two or four years. Protest without destroying things all you want; don't neglect your education or job while doing so without expecting consequences. We don't all get to have our way at the same time.
Give the President-Elect a chance. I enter every Presidency with hope for good things. Sometimes I am disappointed.
Quote: RonC
I am not saying their can't be cuts in expenses but I sure hope that people understand that doctors and other folks put huge sums of money into getting the education needed to practice in the medical field. They need to be paid well for that work.
Thanks, Ron. I often am asked by friends/coworkers/acquaintances to speak to their high school aged kids about becoming a doctor, and specifically and anesthesiologist, When I tell the high school senior that he/she can become a practicing anesthesiologist in only 12 years their jaws drop open. (Most take 13 now due to fellowships). Try and remember the day you graduated high school and imagine if someone told you that in 12 or 13 years you will be able to practice your craft. And the last 8 or 9 of those years are 60 -70 hours a week every week!
If you don't mind me asking, how many years did it take in professional practice to pay off your school debts (or alternately, how old were you when you became education-debt-free)?Quote: SOOPOOThanks, Ron. I often am asked by friends/coworkers/acquaintances to speak to their high school aged kids about becoming a doctor, and specifically and anesthesiologist, When I tell the high school senior that he/she can become a practicing anesthesiologist in only 12 years their jaws drop open. (Most take 13 now due to fellowships). Try and remember the day you graduated high school and imagine if someone told you that in 12 or 13 years you will be able to practice your craft. And the last 8 or 9 of those years are 60 -70 hours a week every week!
Because that's why compensation for doctors is so high. It needs to be a highly-compensated profession in order to make the up-front investment worth it. But I don't know that most doctors go into the industry just for the money, at least none of my college friends who went into medicine did (including two of my roommates). There are other degrees with far higher ROI and a far lower time/money cost.
I still think we're facing a reckoning on the jobs question and that it will happen within the next two decades. We consider 10% unemployment to be disastrous for our economy. What happens when structural unemployment is 25% because robots are doing everything? But that's a conversation for another time.Quote: RonCdon't neglect your education or job while doing so without expecting consequences.
Quote: MathExtremistI still think we're facing a reckoning on the jobs question and that it will happen within the next two decades. We consider 10% unemployment to be disastrous for our economy. What happens when structural unemployment is 25% because robots are doing everything? But that's a conversation for another time.
You are right...that is another conversation.
My point is that the protesters can protest all they want (without being destructive) but they shouldn't--though they can--stop doing the things they need to do to be successful. The best people to fight against politicians they don't like are successful people...because people will listen to them. I don't spend much time listening to unsuccessful people.
Quote: GWAE
1 practice that we work for is drug rehab. They get paid $86 a visit by insurance and that visit lasta approx 8 minutes. They pump 40 patients through in a 4 hour clinic. So they have 1 doc, 1 PA, 1 MA, and 1 receptionist to make nearly 4k in half a day. They do 2 clinic a day. For an office of 4 or 5 to make 8k a day is completely ridiculous. Sure they have expenses like any business and they are for profit business but I think this part of the industry is the issue.
So by these numbers seems like they are running 8K a day thru the place. Honestly, that really is not all that much. Figuring a 21 day month to allow for holidays and other slow days this is $168,000 per month. Lets call it $170K. IOW, a cool $2MM per year.
The MD is going to warrant $250K per year at a minimum. For those of you who think that is "too much" it is about the same as a GM of a Super WMT makes before bonus. For a MD it is low, but lets assume the MD working drug rehab puts good of people ahead of money to an extent. The PA probably another $100K. Not sure what a MA is, I will put that salary at about $40 and the receptionist at $30K. These are salaries. $420K. But as anyone who has managed payroll knows, bump that by about 20% for benefits and taxes. Lets call it a cool $500K.
Then there is the occupancy cost. This is a total SWAG but I am guessing they need 5,000 square at lets say $15 per square total cost. $15 might be low. $75K to keep the doors open and lights on.
$600K to just staff and open. Not buying a drop of methadone or any other supplies. Not buying any insurance. Not paying any IT costs.
The point is they do not "make" $8K per day. They have revenues of $8K per day. Skill costs money. If that MD is not paid well then he will quite possibly find other uses for his smarts. Doctors do it all the time. The USA would be screwed if we did not get doctors from around the world sticking here to make the cash.
I think a great failing of our society is that, as a whole, we haven't spent enough time listening to unsuccessful people. That's why Trump won in the first place -- he did listen, and he said "vote for me and I'll make you more successful by implementing nationalistic economic policies." I don't think Trump will succeed in making their lives better because I don't think he'll be an effective executive (and because I think nationalism doesn't actually work), but if there's a silver lining in all this, it's that the plight of the unsuccessful American is now front-and-center in the public mind. I'll certainly admit that, prior to the election cycle, I didn't spend a lot of time contemplating the misfortunes of the struggling working/middle class or what to do about it. That's changed.Quote: RonCYou are right...that is another conversation.
My point is that the protesters can protest all they want (without being destructive) but they shouldn't--though they can--stop doing the things they need to do to be successful. The best people to fight against politicians they don't like are successful people...because people will listen to them. I don't spend much time listening to unsuccessful people.
Quote: AZDuffmanSo by these numbers seems like they are running 8K a day thru the place. Honestly, that really is not all that much. Figuring a 21 day month to allow for holidays and other slow days this is $168,000 per month. Lets call it $170K. IOW, a cool $2MM per year.
The MD is going to warrant $250K per year at a minimum. For those of you who think that is "too much" it is about the same as a GM of a Super WMT makes before bonus. For a MD it is low, but lets assume the MD working drug rehab puts good of people ahead of money to an extent. The PA probably another $100K. Not sure what a MA is, I will put that salary at about $40 and the receptionist at $30K. These are salaries. $420K. But as anyone who has managed payroll knows, bump that by about 20% for benefits and taxes. Lets call it a cool $500K.
Then there is the occupancy cost. This is a total SWAG but I am guessing they need 5,000 square at lets say $15 per square total cost. $15 might be low. $75K to keep the doors open and lights on.
$600K to just staff and open. Not buying a drop of methadone or any other supplies. Not buying any insurance. Not paying any IT costs.
The point is they do not "make" $8K per day. They have revenues of $8K per day. Skill costs money. If that MD is not paid well then he will quite possibly find other uses for his smarts. Doctors do it all the time. The USA would be screwed if we did not get doctors from around the world sticking here to make the cash.
Don't get me wrong I understand the economics of it. You over estimated wwhat this particular doc pays employees but your point is valid.
I guess my point is, shouldn't doctors be doctors to help people? That is simply not the case. Doctors are in it for the money and I believe that the insurance and health care industry are at fAult for that.
A medicaid patient goes to a doc for an office visit. The doc gets about $35 for the visit. Medicare patient earns the doc $68 and commercial insurance pays around 73. Why the big discrepancy in earnings? If bc/BS set their contracts at $55 a visit it would save them millions upon millions which could lead to lower healthcare
The doc would still earn a good living at the rate as well.
Quote: MathExtremistI think a great failing of our society is that, as a whole, we haven't spent enough time listening to unsuccessful people. That's why Trump won in the first place -- he did listen, and he said "vote for me and I'll make you more successful by implementing nationalistic economic policies." I don't think Trump will succeed in making their lives better because I don't think he'll be an effective executive (and because I think nationalism doesn't actually work), but if there's a silver lining in all this, it's that the plight of the unsuccessful American is now front-and-center in the public mind. I'll certainly admit that, prior to the election cycle, I didn't spend a lot of time contemplating the misfortunes of the struggling working/middle class or what to do about it. That's changed.
Kind of a different part of the issue than what I was discussing. It is important to listen to unsuccessful people when it comes to hearing their needs. I do believe Liberals/Democrats and even those dastardly Republicans want to help the poor, but they've spent way too much time and money not really figuring out the best way to help them.
My point was more about people abandoning life (missing classes or work) because Trump won. I am all for free speech but you also need to keep your life going so that you don't lose your future while doing the protest thing,
Quote: GWAEDon't get me wrong I understand the economics of it. You over estimated wwhat this particular doc pays employees but your point is valid.
Just going on what I had and some of what I know. Of course your mileage may vary.
Quote:I guess my point is, shouldn't doctors be doctors to help people?
No.
What does it take to be a doctor? 4 years in a good college. 4 years in medical school. 8 years out of your life and probably $300K. Then you get your internship and residency. There is 3 more years, get paid low and get worked like a dog, 100 hour weeks. This is by design, to break the weak. Better you crack here than in an OR or some other serious situation. Best case is at age 30 you get a job leveraged up to your eyeballs and barely able to get credit to get a pizza delivered.
Do you do this to "help people?"
Don't get me wrong, people go into medical because they like to help people. I would not last one shift. I hate medical and everything about it. It takes a special kind of person to be a doctor. They put in the effort to live well.
Quote:A medicaid patient goes to a doc for an office visit. The doc gets about $35 for the visit. Medicare patient earns the doc $68 and commercial insurance pays around 73. Why the big discrepancy in earnings? If bc/BS set their contracts at $55 a visit it would save them millions upon millions which could lead to lower healthcare
The doc would still earn a good living at the rate as well.
If they can set the contract at $55. Here is an example. Last year times were tough. I was offered barely half of what I was worth in the title industry. I told the guy I would rather deliver suitcases for that wage rate. The doc has fixed and other costs. $55 is what you can pay to have your car looked at. The doc would probably say he would rather play golf.
You can also cut down on a lot of expenses like advertising, and the need for offices to be on prime real estate.
I think it's a lot easier to cap malpractice judgements if we are the ones paying them out, at least partially.
http://www.amednews.com/article/20100503/profession/305039938/4/
Our malpractice costs are twice the amount of those in similar countries. Nobody's gonna feel bad for rich doctors, and the CEOs of insurance companies, though. Especially after paying so many outrageous insurance premiums AND medical bills. It's an adversarial system.
Quote: RigondeauxAs far as costs in the medical field, with single payer and more modest earnings for doctors, I think very few would have a problem with heavily subsidizing their education. So, you get rid of things like interest payments on debt.
Actually this would cause major problems. Free or really cheap medical school? Less penalty if you wash out. Every wash out is one less spot. Be careful the simple solution.
Quote:You can also cut down on a lot of expenses like advertising, and the need for offices to be on prime real estate.
Yeah, lets have all the medical offices in a cheapo part of town! Few medical offices are really "prime." Most I have dealt with are convenient. Nice, but not fancy.
Quote: MathExtremistIf you don't mind me asking, how many years did it take in professional practice to pay off your school debts (or alternately, how old were you when you became education-debt-free)?
Because that's why compensation for doctors is so high. It needs to be a highly-compensated profession in order to make the up-front investment worth it. But I don't know that most doctors go into the industry just for the money, at least none of my college friends who went into medicine did (including two of my roommates). There are other degrees with far higher ROI and a far lower time/money cost.
I went to a relatively inexpensive medical school. And I won quite a few scholarships to go to college. So compared to my average cohort I had relatively low medical school debt, slightly less than 100,000. As someone who hates debt with a passion, I paid it off as soon as I could. I would guess I was debt-free perhaps five or six years after I finished residency. But without subsidy, medical school now is routinely over $300000. And if you are a primary care doctor only making 150000 it is a big nut to crack.
Quote: MathExtremistWhat happens when structural unemployment is 25% because robots are doing everything? But that's a conversation for another time.
Just an aside, saw a news item that a robot solved a Rubik's cube faster than the human eye can see it.
Quote: RSTo liberals & conservatives, read this: Bernie Sanders Could Replace President Trump With Little-Known Loophole
Tldr cliffs
Quote: RSTo liberals & conservatives, read this: Bernie Sanders Could Replace President Trump With Little-Known Loophole
Don't have to read this to know it's more nonsense, just by the headline.
Quote: beachbumbabsQuote: RSTo liberals & conservatives, read this: Bernie Sanders Could Replace President Trump With Little-Known Loophole
Don't have to read this to know it's more nonsense, just by the headline.
It ain't nonsense.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/president-obama-elected-donald-trump-387275
It's unfortunate media and websites (essentially) get paid per view, instead of factually accurate content. This applies to both sides. However, it seems like the younger generation (millennials) are typically the ones who hear something, without bothering to fact-check it, then spout it off as truth. Not that older people (older than millennials) don't do this either, but it seems like it's mostly happening in the younger generation, since the youngin's spend more time on the internet than older people.
Quote: SOOPOO
My personal fear with any government run health care is my experience with the horrors of having to deal with the government. Two simple recent examples''''
1. We hired a new doc right out of residency to start August 1. He finished residency July 1. He needs to be 'credentialed' by insurance companies before they will pay him for his services. Local ones took 2 to 3 weeks to approve him. STILL WAITING for Medicare to credential him. This is not uncommon for them.
2. If I do a case for Blue Cross, I send them a bill, and within a few weeks I get my fee. For Medicare, they have decided they want to only pay for 'quality care'. I send them a bill and they send me my fee, usually a few weeks longer. But now I have to submit data to another organization (who charges me by the way) so they can accumulate it. At the end of the year they will decide if I met certain criteria and will either add or subtract a percent or two. The costs for me submitting the data, and the additional paperwork, is thousands of dollars per provider. And I may get $30,000 per year from Medicare, so we are talking about $500 or so at risk, and hours of clerical work and fees to try and get that small amount of money. The regulation (called MACRA if you care) is a short ONE THOUSAND TWO HUNDRED page document that will explain what i am supposed to do to not lose my 1%.
Of course most providers will just say F you, and ignore it, and have the government money grab the percent or two (grows to a maximum of 9% in a decade) rather than spend thousands to collect hundreds.
I can recount similar stories with NY State government insurance (Medicaid and Workers Comp).
Bottom line..... if the government is involved in it is a mess to deal with.
I'm positive you deserve the maximum amount that Medicare is giving you, and even more beyond that. But would your life be drastically affected if Medicare screwed you out of ~10% like it sounds like they may eventually do? It sounds like most of your income doesn't from Medicare; is that correct?
Quote:The long-stalled plan to stash radioactive waste at Nevada’s Yucca Mountain is set to be revived with the arrival of President-elect Donald Trump in Washington and the departure of the project’s most ardent Senate opponent, Harry Reid.
Two people familiar with Trump’s transition planning say the issue is actively being discussed by advisers as a wave of nuclear power plant retirements intensifies pressure to find a permanent home for more than 70,000 metric tons of radioactive waste now stored at those facilities.
http://lasvegassun.com/blogs/elsewhere/2016/nov/14/trump-advisers-eye-reviving-yucca-mountain-nuclear/?utm_source=mostpopular&utm_medium=banner&utm_campaign=mostRead
It solved it in less than 2/3 of a second. Most people can't even pick up and view all six sides of a Rubik's cube in 2/3 of a second. But that's an example of a highly-optimized, task-specific robot, and we're already good at building those. What's coming are generalist robots that can actually fill in for people in a wider variety of roles. For manual-labor roles, it's an obvious replacement: robots don't need health insurance or training (or if they do, they can learn instantly). But for knowledge work, software-based systems are already starting to replace some of the more rote office worker jobs. Here are two examples from highly-compensated industries, finance and law:Quote: rxwineJust an aside, saw a news item that a robot solved a Rubik's cube faster than the human eye can see it.
Here's a long-form NYTimes article on how financial services automation has been eliminating lower-rung jobs in the finance industry -- first clerks, then analysts. More recently, client-facing advisers are going away, in part due to the advent of robo-investing and consumer-facing algorithmic trading. I have some of my money with Wealthfront, for example, and its algorithms are trading for me around the clock, rebalancing my portfolio and harvesting tax losses while I do other things. One quote from this article:
"We are not coming up with new jobs as fast as we are replacing them."
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/28/magazine/the-robots-are-coming-for-wall-street.html
And here's a recent software package billed as an Artificially Intelligent Lawyer, intended to delegate tedious researching to a machine while attorneys handle client matters:
http://www.rossintelligence.com/
I mean, if you want to talk about technical jobs that could disappear in an instant with better technology, just look at gaming math. Imagine an AI that allows queries like "what's the house edge on Ultimate Texas Hold'em" and then runs off, figures out what numbers to crunch, and then crunches them?
We can't be sitting back and assuming that there will always be enough jobs for everyone. That's almost certainly not going to be the case, and when that happens it will break the entire premise of our current economy. We should be planning for it now, rather than just waiting to see what happens and then suffering riots and revolutions when we don't have a good answer. Trump just got elected in an economy where, despite the unemployment rate dropping by half, from 10% in 2009 to less than 5% today, many people still felt so marginalized that they wanted to "drain the swamp." Given that, wouldn't you think an economy where 20% or more of the population is unemployed would lead to people wanting to "burn down the whole forest?"
The rise of technological automation will put an end to our labor-based economy as we know it. Either we figure out how to transition to a post-labor economy peacefully, or that transition will happen violently.
Yes I know bannon was involved in the campaign, but I guess I was foolish enough to believe that was also just part of pandering to the alt-right base.
Hopefully congress and senate at least can hold the reich in check.
Quote: mcallister3200I never thought trump was racist before, I thought he just pandered to them to get the nomination. After appointing Steve Bannon as special advisor aka minister of propoganda of the trump reich, Bannon is inarguably an unapologetic blantant racist as well as wife beater, I no longer believe that trump was just pandering to racists.
Yes I know bannon was involved in the campaign, but I guess I was foolish enough to believe that was also just part of pandering to the alt-right base.
Hopefully congress and senate at least can hold the reich in check.
I never thought liberals were racist, or sexist before the election cycle started, I just thought they pandered to the leaders of their party to appease them. Then they nominated Hillary Clinton, an unapologetic and blatant (sp) racist, sexist, and classist, as well as the wife to a pedophile, who encouraged his pedophilia, while at the same time encouraging his pro-rape lifestyle.
I no longer believe the liberal voters were not racist, sexist, or classist. Their xenophobic existence panders to what they truly believe, and now I can see it clearly.
Hopefully the Conservative House and Senate Majority continue to hold reich in check, and MAGA!!!!!!!!!!!
The "give him a chance" refrain is bs. I accept I'll live through it, but he doesn't get a clean slate/free pass from his past worrds and actions
Quote: mcallister3200It's not a liberal or conservative view issue, I'd either identify as independent or libertarian. It's a piece of shit human being issue, which doesn't have anything to do with piece of shit Hillary.
The "give him a chance" refrain is bs. I accept I'll live through it, but he doesn't get a clean slate/free pass from his past worrds and actions
sounds like you were between a rock and a hard place pre election there bub.
Thank goodness we all can agree that Hillary is a piece of you-know-what. Puts that one to bed.
If you think "Make America Great Again" means tossing out all the brown people, all the non-Christians, and all the LGBTQs, that's just too bad -- you'll lose that fight. Fortunately, the vast majority of Americans have already moved past that perverse notion of "greatness." Belief in white supremacy is as legitimate as belief in dice setting.Quote: Maverick17Hopefully the Conservative House and Senate Majority continue to hold reich in check, and MAGA!!!!!!!!!!!
Quote: mcallister3200After appointing Steve Bannon as special advisor aka minister of propoganda of the trump reich, Bannon is inarguably an unapologetic blantant racist as well as wife beater, I no longer believe that trump was just pandering to racists.
Listening to Trump talk just distracts me from paying attention to what he's doing.
Now that he can actually start showing us some actual deeds.
How much is truth, how much is placating the masses (perhaps on both sides), how much is outright lies. Who knows.
Quote: MathExtremistIf you think "Make America Great Again" means tossing out all the brown people, all the non-Christians, and all the LGBTQs, that's just too bad -- you'll lose that fight. Fortunately, the vast majority of Americans have already moved past that perverse notion of "greatness." Belief in white supremacy is as legitimate as belief in dice setting.
What about my post in any way, shape or form, would have you call me a racist?
You seem to like to infer things, or blatantly lie about things.
Stop doing that, at least when you quote my posts, it is not only offensive to all, but it brings out some of your xenophobia here.
Quote: MathExtremistIf you think "Make America Great Again" means tossing out all the brown people, all the non-Christians, and all the LGBTQs, that's just too bad -- you'll lose that fight. Fortunately, the vast majority of Americans have already moved past that perverse notion of "greatness." Belief in white supremacy is as legitimate as belief in dice setting.
