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No One Goes There Anymore

noonegoesthereanymore.blogspot.com

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Re: No One Goes There Anymore

#241

Post by dhimes »

cactus2093 wrote: post #231
ido wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't buy it, due to first-hand & second-hand experiences of friends and relatives I have in the US. Let me give you one example: my friend(and at the time business partner)'s wife got cancer in the US. It was fairly "mundane"/common cancer that got treated and everything was alright at the end. He was working as a software developer (normal employee, not self-employed - our venture was a side project) with the afo…

To add my own anecdote about US healthcare, I needed a hernia repair surgery in my early 20’s. My dr referred me to a specialist, I asked if he was in network for my insurance and everything seemed good. But in what I have since come to realize is a quintessential US healthcare experience, it turns out the facility that this independent surgeon used and the anesthesiologist were not in network. Nobody bothered to tel…

Makes me think they can write it off their taxes as "uncollectable."

Re: No One Goes There Anymore

#242

Post by rexpop »

amelius wrote: post #143
magicalhippo wrote: post #30

When I see about half my paycheck going to taxes it feels a bit rough. But then I think of stories like this, and how easily it could have been me with an illness requiring expensive medical treatment and possibly preventing me from working regular jobs. And so I pay my tax with pleasure, knowing that if something were to happen to me or my fellow citizen, at least there wouldn't be millions of dollars in hospital bi…

The fact that you are making that much money is without doubt also something you have to thank society for. Would you be able to make the same amount of money in every other country, and without the sacrifices made by other people over the course of history? This is also something to keep in mind.

"making that much money" is not a beneficial end unto itself, and is really only valuable in a particular socioeconomic context. You can't eat money.

Re: No One Goes There Anymore

#243

Post by esotericn »

zolpidem_dream wrote: post #78
ardy42 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> While homeless, my sons and I routinely tried to find out-of-the-way public tables. > Food at restaurants is marked up thousands of percent to cover costs of buildings, rent, power, human capital. The raw materials to make your food are pennies and are available to the average consumer. If you're homeless that's not an option, since you probably lack equipment to cook from scratch.

What about cold cuts, sliced cheese, a loaf of whole grain bread?

This sounds like a cool backpacking story that I've also done for a few weeks / a month.

Now try only ever eating shit food like that for months, years on end, and you're not on holiday wandering around a cool city, it's your life.

Re: No One Goes There Anymore

#244

Post by thewebcount »

ryandrake wrote: post #117
imjustsaying wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was wondering this as well. I couldn't find the thesis and for a moment I wondered if this was posted as an example of an AI-generated post.

I read the whole thing and can’t figure it out either. Maybe there isn’t supposed to be a point. Just stream-of-consciousness words on a blog. Performance art? When the first thing someone tells me upon meeting me is that they have a medical condition, I think “uh oh, heeeere we go.” First of all, it’s none of my business. Second, why do you want me to know this? What am I supposed to do with that information? Is thi…

Unfortunately, for people who suffer from a chronic illness, they have to deal with people like you. You might propose something that seems simple and normal to you, like, let's go here for lunch. They have to explain they can't because they have a very real medical condition, then they have to put up with people not believing them, thinking they're blowing it out of proportion, or just not wanting to make accommodations for them. It can be very degrading and isolating to live like this.

One way to minimize the amount of BS like that that you put up with is by just stating up front, "I have this condition." If the other person listens and responds positively, then you can probably find common ground. If instead they think, "Uh oh, heeeeere we go," you know to dismiss them.

Re: No One Goes There Anymore

#245

Post by TedDoesntTalk »

newacct583 wrote: post #185
TedDoesntTalk wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like your posts on this topic. Talk to wealthy EU citizens about their tax rates. They hate them. And bringing that model,here won't fund the social plans we are told we need. Why? There just too few people in that echelon for higher taxes to make a dent. So one might think these pushers of more social aid might realize, "ok we have to raise taxes on the middle class to get the funds we need... and introduce a nati…

I think you're strawmanning. No one in this thread is talking about "social aid" programs or budgets for them, the subject at hand is tax fairness. At least you'll agree that the US tax regime, as it's implemented right now, is unfairly regressive, right? And that should be fixed, at least as far as it goes? Bezos currently pays less tax than I do, and he should at least pay that much, right? > No, they imstead promu…

> I'm sorry... who is saying this?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximum_wage

The history section is particularly interesting especially the recent history. I hear this talk all the time on social media.

> Bezos currently pays less tax than I do, and he should at least pay that much, right?

I don’t know your earnings, but let’s assume it’s under $1M annually. I do not believe you pay more in gross taxes than Jeff Bezos. If you paid more, you would likely have $0.00 remaining. What is your source for how much tax he pays? It is likely in the millions.

Re: No One Goes There Anymore

#246

Post by jshevek »

cactus2093 wrote: post #231
ido wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't buy it, due to first-hand & second-hand experiences of friends and relatives I have in the US. Let me give you one example: my friend(and at the time business partner)'s wife got cancer in the US. It was fairly "mundane"/common cancer that got treated and everything was alright at the end. He was working as a software developer (normal employee, not self-employed - our venture was a side project) with the afo…

To add my own anecdote about US healthcare, I needed a hernia repair surgery in my early 20’s. My dr referred me to a specialist, I asked if he was in network for my insurance and everything seemed good. But in what I have since come to realize is a quintessential US healthcare experience, it turns out the facility that this independent surgeon used and the anesthesiologist were not in network. Nobody bothered to tel…

Two anecdotes in support of your last sentence:

I once paid cash up front for a procedure, charged at 25% of the insurance rate. This was put in writing as the total cost of the procedure. Afterwards, they billed me as if I owed 75% of the other rate, with threats of legal action accompanying invoices. I did not immediately locate in my files my copy of the initial contract. Like you, I was freaking out. Even after finding my copy, and knowing that I would prevail in court if it came to it, I worried about all the indirect ways the situation could harm me. Eventually they dropped the issue.

A friend agreed to a few procedures without knowing the price, and was then charged a bizarre, absurd amount of money (I comparison researched, after the fact). He offered to pay 50%, and they gladly, eagerly accepted. I heard the call, they sounded surprised and happy. Clearly he could have paid much less.

Re: No One Goes There Anymore

#247

Post by knorker »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #227
knorker wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, yeah that adds information (not in the article) to this case. But note that I have downvotes on my comment. I'm not surprised. I think I'm being respectful here, but people take as a personal attack when the choice to have biological children is in any way questioned. So this woman did not have that information available to her at the time. Like I said I know people that did.

Your first comment isn't exactly the most diplomatic framing, but I'm sorry you are getting a pile on about this. This site of mine (below) has already been outed by someone in comments, so let me link you to a page that gives a little more detail about that aspect of my life: https://atypicalcysticfibrosis.blogspot.com/p/atypical-cf-de...

Thanks for the link.

I think this quote from it enlightens me a lot in your case: "Cystic Fibrosis is a homozygous recessive genetic disorder. That means it requires a defective gene from both parents to cause the child to have the disorder".

That tells me that with the "The disease occurs in 1 in 2,500 to 3,500 white newborns" I got from Google, those are not significantly dangerous odds, even if you'd chosen to optimize them even more by not avoiding white men during the relevant years.

(but I may be miscalculating, since you said "defective gene", not "diagnosis" (which is presumably the number from google), and it's not important to my point)

With this extra information I don't put you in the group of people I don't understand with this. (of course not that you'd need my approval or understanding, like that other guy seemed to think I was saying)

But say (from a real example) someone has a grandmother, mother, and sister, with varying degrees of paranoid schizophrenic diagnoses (e.g. ranging from "being a jerk in that particular way" to "institutionalized and forced medication"), I do think that this person, even though apparently asymptomatic, would not be responsible, and would be selfish, if they'd choose to have biological children.

Re: No One Goes There Anymore

#248

Post by sokoloff »

lonelappde wrote: post #195
sokoloff wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s more like “if the cost to serve a broad population P is $X, I don’t think it’s screwing them to say ‘the price cannot be lower than $X’ because we are a health insurance company, not a charity.” I think you’re arguing that perhaps health outcomes should not be funded by private for-profit insurance companies and I’d agree, but while it is, this outcome seems grounded in actuarially sound math.

How is charging X more for Y's behavior not screwing X?

I’m genuinely not understanding the X and Y category or behavior you’re contemplating here.

Is Y’s behavior being on average healthier and therefore less costly to insure?

Re: No One Goes There Anymore

#249

Post by pierrebeaucamp »

ido wrote: post #184
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked at an international company where we frequently had employees from other countries visit the US for a while. Some even chose to relocate to the US. These were almost all technical people, raised on the Internet, social media, and discussions in comment sections. It was fascinating to see how bad they expected America to be according to Internet comments and news articles. Many of them were shocked to realize…

I don't buy it, due to first-hand & second-hand experiences of friends and relatives I have in the US. Let me give you one example: my friend(and at the time business partner)'s wife got cancer in the US. It was fairly "mundane"/common cancer that got treated and everything was alright at the end. He was working as a software developer (normal employee, not self-employed - our venture was a side project) with the afo…

> I paid a grand total of ~€500 despite being self-employed at the time (so I only had standard public insurance everyone in Germany gets).

IMO, this is a somewhat misleading statement as Germanys public insurance (that everyone can sign up for), costs quite a lot. Normally the employer would cover 50% of the contribution, but as you mentioned being self-employed that could easily be over 800 Euros per month.

That doesn't quite tip the scale in favour for the US, but the differences between the two health care systems are more nuanced as you're making it out to be.

PS: From personal experience, I find that health care providers in North America will jump to expensive tests or hospitalization much quicker than European counter-parts. I don't know if that's common (I don't have enough data-points) but this could be another factor explaining the difference in cost.

Re: No One Goes There Anymore

#250

Post by thedanbob »

voz_ wrote: post #50

A little investigation led me to https://doreenmichele.blogspot.com/p/me.html The disease appears to be ACF - Atypical Cystic Fibrosis

Now I'm more confused. Why do people "react weirdly" or "strongly" or think she's "some kind of drama queen" when she gives that name? I'm pretty sure my reaction would be to think "I have no idea what that is" and just move on.
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