Re: Silly resistor values

Joel Koltner wrote:
Hi Keith,

"krw" <krw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:kukc65lnig5jg7ak15hgqjn5k2v90ngdre@xxxxxxxxxx
Those "relatively low-skilled workers" need to get more skills.
Showing up for work when they're required to is one of the skills they
need.

Absolutely they should, I'm just not willing to penalize people WRT basic health care even if they are unskilled lazy bums. (And unfortunately there are some such people today that end up in emergency rooms and thereby cost society a lot more than if they were provided basic care and stayed far away from the emergency room.)

BTW, a lot of people who just don't seem to be able to hold onto a job and drift around also tend to be mentally ill and really need treatment.

And therein lies the problem. Some of them are also good men fallen on hard times. Victorian era classified as deserving poor vs undeserving poor.

A pretty astonishing example of an internationally famous astronomer who despite publishing what are still the standard reference works on amateur deep sky observing died in poverty and obscurity in San Diego. He worked for 22 years at Lowell Observatory before losing his home.

Short version on Wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Burnham,_Jr.
Gory details in the Phoenix Times.
http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/1997-09-25/news/sky-writer/full

A name collision meant that in the outside world everyone thought a different Robert Burnham who worked for Astronomy magazine had written his books. In any civilised society his previous empoyment record would have guaranteed him some minimal social security income and care.

He has an asteroid named after him but no-one cared for him on Earth.

No. I suppose some could be less, some nonexistent.

Ah, thanks; I didn't know that.

I wouldn't. Why would they bother with insurance if they can "buy"
the "government option" cheaper?

Because the private insurance option will have better benefits than the government option. Hence it's still a perk like any other that companies use to attract and retain employees.

That is how it works in the UK. Private insurance allows a bit more flexibility about scheduling operations and nicer rooms. The NHS incidentally ends up picking up the pieces if the private sector makes a mistake and the private hospitals often throw difficult cases with expensive complications over the wall.

One thing to remember here is that it is very difficult to negotiate price when you have a life threatening injury or acute appendicitis. Private medicine likes to keep it that way since they make more money. The same arguments and scare tactics against a public health service were used in the UK when the NHS was formed. You may find it interesting to look at that.

It *will* get that bad. That's the design. Listen!

Do you have a timeline in mind? Obama is already 6 months into a 48 month term, and while the economy certainly sucks right now, the overall standard of living in the U.S. is still well above that of, e.g., Europe.

Only for a small fraction of the healthy and wealthy. It isn't clear what properties of standard of living you are referring to either. You may well have insanely oversized cars, TVs and be bristling with guns but is that necessarily better than life in Europe?

You also seem to have a rather poor average life expectancy and very high levels of obesity and type 2 diabetes.

The world economy was wrecked by a series of Enron style "creative accounting" stunts with CDOs that allowed banks to fake their profits so the masters of the universe could all claim their bonuses. The regulators were asleep on the job.

Regards,
Martin Brown
.

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