@kagenin, I actually disagree. I don't think there's any problem with using markets in medicine -- in fact I think it's preferrable -- the problem is that you need to make sure the market dynamics lead to a cycle of providing better care to more people, and not a cycle of providing more expensive care to fewer people.

For example, the system Anthony Weiner wants is single-payer. All that really does is say that for certain basic types of medical service, there's a single state-based insurance company that covers everyone, and will use a nation-sized customer pool to negotiate set rates common to all providers.

The providers themselves are private, and they profits by attracting more patients with good service, and by driving cost efficiencies. In other words, they get rich by taking better care of people and by eliminating waste.

The problem in our system is that the incentives are all wrong.

The private insurance companies make a profit by only extending insurance to people who're as healthy as possible. Their goal is to collect premiums with the lowest amount of "medical loss" -- in other words, without having to actually cover the cost of any treatment. That leads them to cover fewer people, jack up the rates of people who are older or chronically ill, fight with patients over every expensive claim, and try to rescind coverage retroactively on their sickest customers.

The providers also have bad incentives. They make all their money by performing procedures, and getting reimbursed by the insurance companies. This leading them to have tremendous incentives to give everyone a CAT scan and MRI if they come in with stubbed toe. So, they're always working on new, expensive tests and treatments, and reasons to use them on as many patients as possible, without much regard to efficiency or patient benefit.

There are lots of ways to break us out of those bad incentives. On paper, HSA's might work to reduce costs if that was the only way anyone could pay for medical service. If you eliminate traditional insurance entirely, add in mandatory contributions to HSA's, and a little bit of subsidy to cover people who need to spend more than they can afford, and I might be willing to support it.

But just having HSA's as part of our existing mix has essentially no effect on the system at all. Participation is way too low for it to make any difference at all.

Sending this video to Beggar's Canyon to plea for a little attention - beg requested by original submitter kagenin.

I'll finish the quote for you,

...but it ain't freedom without the choice to be free.
>> ^kagenin:
Freedom isn't free.

Maybe I'm being too technical, but I'm not condoning this guy flying a plane into a building; I'm merely stating that IRS employees are not innocent. Why are people downvoting - because anything remotely supportive of this guy is immediately wrong, or because they think IRS employees are in fact innocent? From my perspective, you lose your innocence when you commit violence against others. I happen to believe that the IRS uses violence against others in order to relinquish a very large portion of their wages. Maybe you don't agree, and maybe you should support your position. It doesn't mean they deserve to die via airplane. Why not state, "its not brave to fly your plane into a building of people" instead of insinuating the people in question are innocent little white-clothed devout newborn babies, as if flying your plane into a building of murderers would have been heroic? Again, maybe thats too technical for this community?

Its ignorant to think that all civilians are innocent regardless of occupation. Is a police officer enforcing drug laws innocent? Is a lawyer defending a knowingly guilty man innocent? How about a doctor prescribing drugs he knows have serious, if not lethal, side effects? Do any of these people deserve to die instantly via a plane crash? Of course not, which is why I never suggested that. I'm sorry but I can't take the time to explain every nuance of every position I take. I post what I think, nothing more. Why is anyone making assumptions outside of what is explicitly stated?
>> ^kagenin:
Before people say "IRS employees aren't innocent (or people)," let me remind you that the IRS was not the only tenant in the building this nutjob decided to fly his plane into.

Invocations (happy) cannot be called by kagenin because kagenin is not privileged - sorry.

Thanks for this very long response! I think this was my favorite line: Take away everything someone has to live for, and he'll find a cause to die for.

I will remember that line, because I think you are absolutely right.



Thanks.

In reply to this comment by kagenin:
>> ^Avokineok:
I live in The Netherlands. Everytime I'm on Videosift, I get a sense of how bad it must be to be an American.
I see some great entertaiment with all the late night shows, but I feel bad for all of you who have to live in a country that has so many people taking everything said at Fox "News" ("Gossip" might be more appropriate) so seriously..
It seriously makes me said and makes me believe Amerika is not the land of opportunities; it's a land where people with a lot of money tell other people what think.


Who do you think were those first pilgrims from Europe were? Puritans - People who wanted nothing more than to lecture others on the poor choices they made. (If you've ever been to a good Renaissance Faire, they're the street actors wearing almost all black, and almost always carrying their bibles with them. Hang around one long enough and you'll want to tell them to go take a long walk off a short pier too, if they're in good character. That's basically how they made everyone else living at the time feel. Look at modern day puritanicals such as Pat Robertson.) The ones who colonized America had enough money to sail half-way around the world, which isn't terribly cheap.

Paying for the sins of our forefathers is something every culture does. Just look at television and video games. Here in the States, you can put some pretty violent imagery on TV and maybe even some drug use in your video games, but holy hell if you show a nipple, or touch on ANYTHING of a sexual nature. Releasing a game in the three major English speaking markets (US, UK, and AU) means subjecting your content to three different review boards, with differing notions about what is good and decent for the consumers of their country. Sex, violence, drug use - the disparity between opinions on what is acceptable for only adults to see, even among countries with common language, can mean what get's a Teen rating by the US's ESRB can get an "Adult Only" in the UK, and even be banned outright unless edited for an Australian market.

Despite all this, I remain hopeful because of the fact that those like ol' Noun-Verb-9/11 Rudy are in the minority. The fact that he's so focused on using terms like "Islamic terrorist," or "islamist" displays a blunt ignorance, and could be interpreted as flat out racism. Let's remember that he put the NYC Emergency Command Center, setup after a failed World Trade Center fertilizer bombing in the 90's, was picked by Rudy to be put in the World Trade Center, a place that had recently been the target of a terrorist attack (by attackers who were brought to justice within the same judicial system that handles our parking tickets - we didn't need the post-9/11 military tribunals then, and we don't really need them now, despite certain anti-American Right-Wingers who lack requisite faith in the system they serve). It's like he refuses to learn from history or something, and unfortunately it's not an uncommon condition among modern conservative talking heads here in the states.

The fact that our president didn't use words like "islamist" or "islamic terrorist" or any permutation thereof is because he understands that the greater threat to our nation is a foreign policy that takes away everything from poor young brown-skinned people living in the cradle of civilization and gives them nowhere to turn to but bombed out countries, crumbling infrastructure, and eager suicide bomber recruiters. Take away everything someone has to live for, and he'll find a cause to die for. Dealing with the symptoms is one thing. End the root cause, and then you have the potential for peace.

Take the issue with rampant piracy around the waters of Somalia. Sure, everyone's talking about the latest tanker to be overtaken, but how many stories have delved into the root cause? The polluted waters that have killed off all the fish in the region? The fish who fed the people on the land? The fish that drove the local economy? All dead. The Indonesian Tsunami caused a tidal wave of wretched filth to wash up ashore, tainting the land and water supplies, causing pestilential illnesses. If you're a poor Somali 20-something with your family boat, and you can't make an honest living with it, what are you going to do? Grab some weapons, recruit a crew of close friends in the same situation you're in, and take your chances on the shipping lanes within striking distance... yeah, that would seem like something someone EXTREMELY desperate would do. It's happening right now. The Somali Government can't do jack, they can barely govern an area the size of my rural hometown. Sure we can bust out the snipers when someone important gets kidnapped, and we can applaud the heroes who put their lives on the life to ensure the safety of others. But that won't stop the next motley crew of fishermen with nowhere else to turn but terrorizing the high seas.

I've only spent about 4 days total in the Netherlands. What I saw was beautiful. Amsterdam was breathtaking, both figuratively and literally - man, those canals can really wreak in the summer . I hope to visit again soon. Didn't get to check out much of the television, but what brief moments I was allowed rest in front of a TV on that trip was pretty cool. A lot of stuff just wouldn't get past the FCC here without some serious fines being levied for sexual content, and that's a damn shame...

But, like I said, I'm still hopeful. Wow, that was long If you made it this far, thanks for reading.

Sending this video to Beggar's Canyon to plea for a little attention - beg requested by original submitter kagenin.

Invocations (fail) cannot be called by kagenin because kagenin is not privileged - sorry.

Moving this video to kagenin's personal queue. It failed to receive enough votes to get sifted up to the front page within 2 days.

Sending this video to Beggar's Canyon to plea for a little attention - beg requested by original submitter kagenin.

>> ^kagenin:
My girlfriend has a couple crates full of 80s animated movies in this archaic format. Her player needs a new stylus cartridge, however.


That's pretty darn awesome... of course I would imagine a new stylus would be next to impossible to obtain anymore.

>> ^kagenin:
Way to confuse the issue, blankdude. And MG, here in California, smoking in restaurants is banned. And the steak is just as killer.
And I for one will welcome the day the internal combustion engine is banned from our roads. But that's another issue entirely, although Public Health is benefited for either limiting tobacco access or banning ICE engines.


Thanks for proving my point, my myopic and selfish friend. And allow me to reiterate my last point:

And some cannot wait until whatever it is you (that means you kagenin) do is banned so they're no longer forced to pretend to be inconvenienced just because they want to go out for a good steak (or whatever else they want to do, but they'll disguise it under a loftier, more pious purpose like 'safety for children' or whatever).

see, it's out of my hands now. I redacted all "offensive" info across the board. sorry kagenin! good times though. totally killed some time today.

It's good to see that people still go for the "ill defend your right to say it"... thats pretty cool.

Very good point Kagenin,

However the problem is that there is a difference between a philosophy and a religion.

If Jesus or Buddah had just written a book telling people to chill out and be nice to each other, that would have been great. The problem lies in that they (or the people who wrote their specific "holy text") took it a step further and said, this is MAGIC! Then, over the centuries that came after, people who had NOTHING to do with Jesus or Buddha came up with an endless chaotic list of random shit that had nothing to do with the original philosophy in order to solidify their own power and greed: gays are evil, priests can't get married, kill the infidels, kung fu is awesome.

The problem is that the so-called "legitimate" religions are just as tainted by imperfect humans who came up with their own bullshit in order to control people, gain wealth, and solidify power. To say that the American Evangelical Right, with all its hate-mongering, torture supporting, assassination endorsing has anything to do with Jesus is ludicrous.

Yes, Jesus, Buddha, Marcus Aurelius, Plato, Aristotle, Siddhartha, etc. all had excellent ideas, not all of them ended up being religions.

I'm not saying that Scientology is somehow legitimate, I'm just saying that the Boston Catholic priests were just as much pederasts as L. Ron Hubbard and their white-bearded god seems fine with an endless cavalcade of sex-abuse victims whose lives have been forever ruined by those who were supposedly "chosen by god" to serve in "his" name...

man, I love my sarcastic quotes and ellipsis!

Moving this video to kagenin's personal queue. It failed to receive enough votes to get sifted up to the front page within 2 days.

Agreed, I can see the pink slip now, "We Regret to inform you that you've been making too much sense."

In reply to this comment by kagenin:
I'm beginning to think that Shep is the only guy on Fox who even has a conscience. He seems to be listening to it a lot more recently, and that's not a bad thing. I just hope ol' Rupert or one of his lackeys don't smack him down for it.