Maedhros
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Posts posted by Maedhros
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475 new deaths reported in Italy today, deadliest day there so far
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Interesting interview with Tucker Carlson (who apparently is the reason why Trump takes this seriously now?)
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Warning given to Norwegian students abroad. Thought this was pretty funny, although it's wrong. The US has great health services.
if you can afford it
Also
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9 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:
I've finally watched every Ghibli movie.
Which ones did you like the most? I've seen Spirited Away, Mononoke, Howl's Moving Castle and Kiki's Delivery Service. Liked them all, and in that order pretty much.
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5 hours ago, Guard Dog said:
Wealthy people buy favors from the government because the government will sell favors to wealthy people. The solution I'm hearing is "give the government more power". So it can sell bigger favors? Rather than trusting the government to go after the "wealthy people" I say take away the governments power to do favors for them.
Besides, no problem has ever been solved by employing the same means that created the problem. You cannot fight fire with fire so to speak. The trouble with health care in the US is the costs are out of control. When the end user is not responsible for the cost the provider has no incentive to lower the cost. That is what has come from subsidizing the ability to pay. The ACA built in regional protections so health plans and medical facilities don't have to compete with each other for business. No competition for business mans again, no incentive to reduce cost. Every possible wrong thing has been done to address the one problem that has made it a mess: cost.
Now that isn't saying there isn't something that can't be done. I've argued for this before. Rather than "free" (which isn't) health care for all how about a catastrophic health insurance plan for everyone. Say they the individual is responsible for all health care cost up to a certain number. Just throwing out a number here so we'll say $10k. If you get a cold and need antibiotic, need stitches, need a knee brace, etc then it's on you. There will no doubt be numerous insurance products to cover the some of the "first $10k" costs. After that THEN there is a public program to help. So, you sprained your ankle? Too bad, take care of that yourself. Oh you have cancer? Come this way and we'll take care of you. That is a more workable idea IMO.
Why does having a welfare state mean government gets more powerful? I just don't see the correlation. Again, the most democratic countries in this world are countries with strong welfare systems in place. A government should serve its people. Not just a minor % of it that happens to be rich.
As for your last point, that sounds better than the system you have now - but I'd still argue that free(ish) healthcare should simply be a human right in a modern country. We can afford it.
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25 minutes ago, Guard Dog said:
The thing to worry about is a slow creep towards collectivist authoritarianism. IMO better to never take the first step. Not even for "free" stuff. Just as an example, the position I always argue on gun control is a literal interpretation of the right to bear arms. It's not that I don't think there are reasonable restrictions that can and should be placed on it. I do agree on that. It's that I understand those restrictions are not going the be the end of it. Each one begets the next, and the next, and the next until it's all gone. A creep towards authoritarian collectivism is just like that. Better to fight over the first step while you still can.
We need reasonable conservatives tempering the fire of those who want to change too much too fast, but this is pretty defeatist stuff. Let's never progress because we might step wrong? The most democratic countres in the world are welfare states with "free stuff": https://www.eiu.com/topic/democracy-index
I don't think the US would have more issues with authoritarianism if it built a more functional welfare state for the people (whereas now "socialism" over there only seems to apply for the rich). It's weird for me that you worry about "collectivist authoritarianism" when it's something very different that plagues the US, with inequality begetting more inequality, and your country moving more and more towards becoming an oligarchy. The fact that Bloomberg could buy himself into the fold so easily says much. But we'll never agree on this!
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Like the article says - Denmark, not Cuba. It's fully possible to have good welfare systems without abandoning democracy or capitalism.
If anything, I think helping the lower and middle class economically would indirectly give less power to the government and more power to the people.
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"Literally, as I was being eaten by a wild beast, I wasn't thinking about Jesus or my family or my son. I was thinking my insurance was not going to pay for this,"
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"Just pull yourself together"- success stories are nice and all, but as you say, you can do everything right and still not get the outcome you hope for. The state's job is to maximise the chance of positive outcomes.
Edit: @Guard Dog
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3 hours ago, Gromnir said:
sorry, but it ain't true that opportunity is equal.
us doesn't have a historic class o' aristocrats or similar such, and 30 million is a kinda arbitrary number to choose. am honest not sure where your graphic comes from 'cause is an outlier. top 3 countries with share o' millionaires by population is switzerland, hong kong and then the USA. norway just cracks the top 10.
please note income inequality numbers as well. take a looksee where denmark and sweden rank.
and norway?
https://oec.world/en/profile/country/nor/
isn't even a true service-based economy.
were a comical epic fail on these board some years ago with the posting o' a bloomberg graphic which compared russia to norway insofar as currency collapse during a petroleum nose dive. graphic were attempting to show how much worse russia suffered than norway and such point were complete lost on the poster. however, the reason for the mistake were 'cause the trajectory o' currency fail were similar between russia and norway. no, norway ain't as vulnerable to petroleum fluctuations as is russia, but is not gonna be a meaningful comparison to any diverse and service-based economy.
norway?
HA! Good Fun!
It's not equal, it's probably easier in Scandinavia. We're just not as obsessed with the "American Dream", so your millionaire numbers are probably more correct than the ones I found. However:
I also checked income equality numbers, because I'm very certain Sweden and Denmark doesn't have similar problems as the US there (or at least not to the same extent). OECD data seems to confirm that: https://data.oecd.org/inequality/income-inequality.htm
I don't intend for this to be a d*** measuring contest, I genuinly just think the US would be better off with more impulses from the Nordic welfare system. (We own a lot of stocks in the US too, so you guys doing well is in our interest!)
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1 hour ago, Gfted1 said:
Do Norway's welfare services have any time limit? Or can a person "make a career" of living off them?
You definitely can, and there are more than a few who try to abuse the system. It's sometimes hard to seperate those with the ones who are actually unable to work and need support. (Fatigue syndromes etc)
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3 hours ago, pmp10 said:
A society is a zero-sum game.
One man's safety net could have been another's man ladder.Thousands of people's safety nets are ladders for them, and the one man still has his ladder (and even a safety net to catch him if he falls of it). More bakers, more cake, and less rat food - as shown in the article.
Less income inequality, same opportunity to get rich, a better society where people can relate more to each other. Maybe you won't get as many Jeff Bezoses, but you won't have all his underpaid workers either.
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On 2/20/2020 at 10:21 AM, Gromnir said:
Too long to quote
You make some fair points, and I do understand that the US is different, with most of you being "temporarily upset capitalists" and happy with that. I just don't think a stronger welfare state would hinder any opportunity, quite the opposite. You can perfectly well sell "opportunity" and "happiness" hand in hand.
https://evonomics.com/where-in-the-world-is-it-easiest-to-get-rich/
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying you should turn into Scandinavia, because there are clearly different challenges over there that we don't have (size and diversity, among other things). But I think investing in your populace (education, healthcare, etc) will more likely than not give returns. GD said something earlier about the massive debt making it impossible to spend any more money on welfare (or something like that?). But you need to spend money to make money.
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No government will ever be flawless, or even near flawless, but if you look at which countries attains the highest degree of happiness and democracy in polls and studies, they're countries with good welfare systems guaranteed by the government.
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Yeah. The natural followup question whenever someone claims a country's economy is good is...who is it good for?
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"In China they eat dogs" is legendary.
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Better Call Saul is fantastic. I keep trying to convince my friends to watch it, but they have a spinoff aversion that I share in most cases - but with BCS I'm glad I gave it a chance.
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2 hours ago, Guard Dog said:
A mostly free society is never going to be perfect. We DO have equal opportunity here. What we do not have is equal outcomes. But that is life. I don't blame people for being in dire circumstances. I am more than willing to help them improve their lot through charitable donations and even a tax supported social safety net. But I have no sympathy for people who choose to remain in dire circumstances. Gromnir and I have discussed this before. You as well. He is right that some people just give in to hopelessness. But that too is a choice they make themselves and not something that the people who didn't owe them any apology for.
No one wants to remain in dire circumstances. There's always the social inheritance aspect. Someone born to poor, unintelligent or abusive parents will never have the same opportunity as others. Technically, maybe, but not in reality, knowing what we do about the human brain and how early experiences shape us.
How society allows for poor (in any meaning of the word) people to break through the chain says a lot about that society. In the US you seem to want to keep the status quo, with expensive education and healthcare that definitely doesn't help poor people be "free".
It's good that you see the benefit of donations and tax supported safety nets though.
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Memories of Murder and The Wailing are my two favorite South korean films. I also liked Snowpiercer though and didn't feel like I lost any iq points throughout it. It had a silly frenzied charm I enjoyed.
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Isometric RPGs are nearly all very boring.
Most lauded games are well crafted, but are also dull and a chore to play. Red Dead Redemption 2 comes to mind.
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4 hours ago, ShadySands said:
I knew I've heard of Parasite before but couldn't place where
I mean I still have no desire to watch it but congrats to the film and everyone behind it. They really cleaned up tonight
Out of curiosity, why do you have no desire to see it? Not a fan of the director?
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On 2/8/2020 at 6:54 AM, Hurlshot said:
Decided to watch Suicide Squad with my daughter, since we will probably catch Birds of Prey in the next week or so. I enjoyed it in the theater when it came out, but I so rarely go to see movies that it is always a bit of fun just to have the big screen experience. I still really enjoyed Margot Robbie and that is what makes it a watchable film. But it was not fun watching more Jared Leto and the silliness of the plot didn't hold up well with a second viewing.
Also it was a TBS version, meaning it was edited. I think that might have helped by shortening it up a bit.
Suicide Squad was torture material for me. I don't really agree with the consensus view that Margot Robbie somehow made it watchable. Her character wasn't well done, and suffers from being clearly written to please fans. Arya in Game of Thrones suffered from the same fate after a while. The only good thing that came out of the film was all the Harley Quinn halloween costumes.
Apparently Birds of Prey will be a bit better though.
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7 hours ago, Guard Dog said:
You know I am puzzled by one thing. We have had a lot of folks come here and defend Communism as an economic system. Some have been utter trolls who enjoy provoking people. Some have been (I think) genuine like Ben. But everyone of them feel compelled to defend the indefensible like Lenin, Stalin Mao, and the worst acts of the USSR and other oppressive nations that delighted in killing people by the thousands.
Do we really though? There are many here and elsewhere who want the government to provide cheaper healthcare and education through raised taxes, which is fully possible without abandoning a capitalist system - but I don't see many people who genuinly defend communism? Except the occational oddball every now and then.
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Recently got a new job. Now I can walk 15 minutes to my new workplace, as opposed to a one hour drive with the bus. I wish I was asked what my favorite pasta was though. I detest generic job interviews, and feel like they (often) say something about the person interviewing you. I rejected a job offer recently because I got a bad feeling on the boss lady, it felt like she had just googled "job interview questions", and asked the ten first ones she found. She came across as really dull, and in my experience places with dull/bad leaders also have similar work environments.
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Today - what you've done
in Way Off-Topic
Posted
Spending a lot of time with my son due to the virus (kindergartens are closed). Watched My Neighbour Totoro with him, which we both liked. I love that Netflix added so many Miyazaki-films.