Photographer Compares Microstock Sites To Pollution And Drug Dealing

[Roger Hicks]

And ignores the bigger picture.



Sure, my taxes go towards health care (among other government services). What you should be wondering though is why my taxes, which include free health care, are about the same as those in California, which does not. BTW, I keep using California because my colleague works there, and is payed about the same as me, so I know my effective tax rate, and his effective tax rate and so therefore they are directly comparable.

I used to live in California, and sure, taxes are lower than the UK or France, especially sales tax vs. VAT/TVA/GST usw, or of course gasoline tax, though income tax is roughly comparable and property taxes in California are very much higher than here if France. But the total tax bill is not that much lower, and you get an awful lot less for your taxes (no health care, for a start). Come to think of it, my automobile insurance in the USA was proportionately a lot higher than in the UK or France, and don't get me (or worse still, Frances) started on US insurance companies trying to weasel out of claims.

Cheers,

R.

 

[John Rountree]

I'm curious about a couple of your fellow Texans, Digitalintrigue. Have your fellow Texans, George W. Bush and his wife Laura, declined the government sponsored, taxpayer supported health care they are entitled to for the rest of their lives? Or will they simply continue to feed at the public trough?

 

[visiondr]

If the government had a track record of running the post office in the black, which it has not done despite having a monopoly, if Social Security were in the black, if Medicare where in the black, just to name three...perhaps I could be convinced otherwise.

I was eagerly waiting for someone to bring up that completely misleading bit of right wing propaganda.

Yes, the US Postal Service runs a very large deficit. The right likes to suggest that this wouldn't happen if FedEx or UPS ran the post office. The US Postal Service is required to serve ALL Americans at the SAME RATE regardless of where they live. A first class stamp is good whether you're sending a letter from Manhattan to Queens or that same letter from Manhattan to Noonan, North Dakota. Fed Ex or UPS or any other private entity would either refuse to send mail to small town North Dakota or would (as they do now) charge many times the rate as a simple cross town letter. Really, use your brain. The post office runs in the red because it must do something private companies can't or won't do - provide a service to all at the same cost.

 

[splitimageview]

I would, if I used Blue Cross/Blue Shield of North Carolina. Unfortunately, I can't, it's AGAINST THE LAW for me to buy insurance from him, since I live in Texas.

Excuse me, I thought you had been talking about the bigger picture. In the larger frame, it should not be too difficult to extrapolate from my response to your particular situation. Why don't you call BC/BS in Texas, or whatever insurance company you like and ask them the same question?

My insurance company is a public company. I hope the CEO makes a lot of profit for his shareholders, just like I'm trying to do for mine.

Why don't you call your BC guy and post the answer here?

 

[wgerrard]

...when I debate the current bills before Congress, I debate those bills and don't throw up chaff with the hopes others will be deflected from the actual issues.

You're either debating with yourself, then, or building scarecrows.

 

[climbing_vine]

My insurance company is a public company. I hope the CEO makes a lot of profit for his shareholders, just like I'm trying to do for mine.

Why don't you call your BC guy and post the answer here?

You do know, of course, that empirically the correlation is exactly the reverse--the highest CEO pay overwhelmingly corresponds to the poorest corporate performance. A rational person might have some thoughts on why this is...

 

[wgerrard]

I... as to anyone calling the system you have the most efficient and cost effective in the world I would have to wonder.
Bob

That's largely jingoism, Bob. American exceptionalism and all that. Important stuff to the right.

 

[dfoo]

This is a good point. California is bankrupt, and is now taking additional funds out of people's paycheck's as a free loan. Will they have the money to pay this back?

At what point are the feds going to need to do this? Oh, that's right, higher taxes are next...and probably higher withholdings too.

The point is, of course, that free health care doesn't mean higher overall costs. After all, those who are privileged enough to get health care pay for it now (other than those who get it from medicare). Those premiums come from your, and in some cases your employers pocket.

What the US needs is health care reform. There are a number of places where this can occur:
- Getting rid of profit as a primary motivator in health care.
- Tort law reform.
- Doctor salaries.

 

[dfoo]

My insurance company is a public company. I hope the CEO makes a lot of profit for his shareholders, just like I'm trying to do for mine.

Why don't you call your BC guy and post the answer here?

Profit should not be a motivator in health care.

 

[Roger Hicks]

I was eagerly waiting for someone to bring up that completely misleading bit of right wing propaganda.

Yes, the US Postal Service runs a very large deficit. The right likes to suggest that this wouldn't happen if FedEx or UPS ran the post office. The US Postal Service is required to serve ALL Americans at the SAME RATE regardless of where they live. A first class stamp is good whether you're sending a letter from Manhattan to Queens or that same letter from Manhattan to Noonan, North Dakota. Fed Ex or UPS or any other private entity would either refuse to send mail to small town North Dakota or would (as they do now) charge many times the rate as a simple cross town letter. Really, use your brain. The post office runs in the red because it must do something private companies can't or won't do - provide a service to all at the same cost.

Dear Ron,

The loony right is completely unable to understand the idea of a public good -- or of public costs for private goods, which is why they always fight anti-pollution laws, laws that try to mandate clean meat from decently-run abbatoirs, etc.

Cheers,

R.

 

[John Rountree]

There are ONLY two ways an insurance company can make profit. One is to overcharge, the second is to deny services.

 

[wgerrard]

And whether you are 'for' the mandated insurance or not, that's what's in the bills being proposed now. If you're for those bills, then you're for mandated insurance.

Not so. People often support legislation that contains provisions they don't like.

There is no universal health care provision in the US Constitution. .... Insisting that universal health care is a right when it is not is what is wrong.

So, you are arguing that rights that aren't specifically mentioned in the Constitution don't exist?

NOBODY IN THE USA CURRENTLY HAS TO BUY INSURANCE. Period. Anyone who says otherwise is a liar. I cannot make it any clearer than that.

No one has said U.S. citizens currently have to buy insurance. They've said it's a damn risky thing not to have it.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Not so. People often support legislation that contains provisions they don't like.





So, you are arguing that rights that aren't specifically mentioned in the Constitution don't exist?



No one has said U.S. citizens currently have to buy insurance. They've said it's a damn risky thing not to have it.

Dear Bill,

'Course they don't. Ain't no furriners got no rights. What are ya? Some kinda commie? Or worse still... some kinda LIBERAL!

Cheers,

R.

 

[wgerrard]

The only way for care to be provided for all, is for everyone to provide for their own care.

Yes, we should all start planning in the first grade to be multi-millionaires by 21 so we can pay for six-figure health care out of pocket.

Palpable callous nonsense.

If I had to pay for the hospital care i've already had out of pocket -- and my income is solidly middle class -- I'd be dead.

SO, thanks for exposing the right for what is really is.

 

[Brad Bireley]

There is one thing for sure is that we will find out what America really wants next November! Hopefully our country will not be bankrupt by then.

 

[splitimageview]

Well there is a third way, and that's for them to have competition, which forces them not to overcharge, unless they want to lose customers.

There are ONLY two ways an insurance company can make profit. One is to overcharge, the second is to deny services.

 

[splitimageview]

I pay $164 per month for my health insurance, it's quite good.

I'm no multi-millionaire, but if I were to have some sort of catastrophic illness, I don't need to be.

Yes, we should all start planning in the first grade to be multi-millionaires by 21 so we can pay for six-figure health care out of pocket.

Palpable callous nonsense.

If I had to pay for the hospital care i've already had out of pocket -- and my income is solidly middle class -- I'd be dead.

SO, thanks for exposing the right for what is really is.

 

[dfoo]

There should be no competition in health care.

 

[climbing_vine]

Well there is a third way, and that's for them to have competition, which forces them not to overcharge, unless they want to lose customers.

And because you are in fact a satirical computer program, you have yet to explain where this magical competition will come from, when it is amply demonstrated that oligopoly and monopoly is the natural order of industries with high barriers to entry.

 

[alien8]

There is one thing for sure is that we will find out what America really wants next November! Hopefully our country will not be bankrupt by then.

Or we could just refer to the existing data about what America wants:
Poll results