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What Dreams May Come

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Re: What Dreams May Come

#101

Post by Houshalter »

brownbat wrote: post #93
theknown99 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Without sounding unfeeling, do we really want to add to the overcrowding and population explosion problem that much? Earth is full. Our population has doubled in the short time I've been alive. Doesn't that scare the shit out of anyone else? Imagine what would happen if you suddenly cured all forms of cancer. People would live even longer. Population would shoot up. Lack of housing, lack of jobs. More pensioners... e…

Malthus was wrong. Hans Rosling, "What Stops Population Growth?" http://www.gapminder.org/videos/what-stops-population-growth... In Malthus's model, new people only consume food and breed. But we do this other cool thing, too, we also think about human problems and how to solve them. We all add resources to the computer of humanity. Some really cool, like Norman Borlaug, go around the world and teach people how to gr…

We've been saved by falling reproduction rates. First world countries have around 2 children per couple. If growth stayed exponential, then no amount of increasing crop yields would help. Exponential growth is a terrifying thing. After a few generations there would be more humans than could fit on the surface of the Earth.

Re: What Dreams May Come

#103

Post by Blahah »

hessenwolf wrote: post #96
Blahah wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really quite a huge number of people are asking that question already. And a massively disproportionate amount of science funding goes towards cancer research. Far more people in the world die of communicable and vector-borne diseases or illness related to malnourishment. These issues get much less research attention and funding because so many people in the western world are focussed on cancer. So while my heart goe…

It's the other way around, actually. HIV gets a massively disproportionate amount of funds. Cancer gets disproportionately little. Also, as we are eliminating competing risks, cancer is emerging as a huge source of death in developing economies.

That's true only in the specific case of HIV in the USA - the funding in the USA for cancer vs HIV is about right for the global number of deaths from those diseases. Especially if you consider that cancer is showing no sign of being a curable problem, while HIV is.

For other diseases - malaria, dengue, hepatitis, typhoid etc., not to mention malnutrition - global spending is massively disporportionate in favour of cancer.

Re: What Dreams May Come

#104

Post by maxerickson »

vishnugupta wrote: post #78
timr wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're insured in the US (sadly, this is still a fairly big "if"...) the costs of cancer treatment will be covered, but unlike most of the rest of the developed world there are still a lot of caveats: depending on the quality of your coverage, you could end up paying very little, or quite a bit of money. It's not a simple question, unfortunately. That said, it sounds like he's not looking for money for treatment ,…

>If you've just bought a house and a car and had a kid you're probably in a lot of recent debt, with the assumption that you'll have a lifetime to pay it down Out of self discipline I bought a life insurance at the same time my home loan was approved; the insurance amount being same as loan amount. I have always wondered why don't Government have regulations in place that forces a borrower to purchase a life insuranc…

What good would it do a single person?

Life insurance is to protect the people that rely on your income, not pay off your debts (I don't think this is a deep insight, I just think it is the sensible way to talk about it).

If you have children and only insured the value of your house, you probably need to buy more (but of course you might have discussed a simplified version of your situation or whatever).

Re: What Dreams May Come

#105

Post by [deleted] »

fasteo wrote: post #55
Blahah wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really quite a huge number of people are asking that question already. And a massively disproportionate amount of science funding goes towards cancer research. Far more people in the world die of communicable and vector-borne diseases or illness related to malnourishment. These issues get much less research attention and funding because so many people in the western world are focussed on cancer. So while my heart goe…

You are right for the wrong reason. The problem with cancer research is that we are trying to solve an unsolvable problem, wasting disproportionate amounts of money. In some sense, cancer is a symptom of a body gone havoc. Research should be targeted upstream, to really tackle the root cause. It is like trying to fix a hardware issue by patching software. Yes, you can get some results by implementing better error cor…

[deleted]

Re: What Dreams May Come

#106

Post by linker3000 »

This hits a nerve - a neighbour (in the UK) is dying of a brain tumour and the NHS does not have the facilities for effective treatment. There's a fundraising campaign to send Gavin to the USA for specialist treatment which may save his life, and he's just been told he may not be around this time next year without it.

http://www.helpgavin.co.uk/

Good luck to everybody facing similar timelines.

[Edit: I can't spell]

Re: What Dreams May Come

#107

Post by jreed91 »

Hi johnathan. My father just passed away from stage IV melanoma. He was 52. Luckily he left us financially sound. But if there is anything I can do to help you out please don't hesitate to ask. I've done my research on any treatment you could possibly have to beat this cancer. Melanoma is becoming more beatable every day and people are living for years even when they are stage IV. If you have questions please email at jreed91@gmail.com

Re: What Dreams May Come

#108

Post by cpwright »

coldtea wrote: post #33
perlgeek wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's sad that when we find out something this devastating (you're dying), that we have to spend our last weeks/months/years worrying about, of all things, money. I thought nearly the same. But my thought went more along the lines of "it's sad that this person's highest priorities are all about money". If it's not in the face of death that you set your priorities on your own accord, then when is it? That said, I can…

> I thought nearly the same. But my thought went more along the lines of "it's sad that this person's highest priorities are all about money". You make it sound like it's his fault, or he wants money to hoard it or spend it. He wants it for his family. His highest priorities are having them secure.

He has four kids. He should have life insurance, and he should have gotten it when he first had kids and presumably was fairly young so that the rates would be inexpensive.

Even if it wasn't for the mortgage or the van, you would want your partner to have sufficient resources to make rent.

A level term policy can often be had for as little as $30/month and it would have been more than adequate to cover the $250,000 in debt and final expenses. The service (assuming 4% and 30/5 years for the house/car) on this debt is probably about $1500, which means he should probably be able to afford an extra $30.

Re: What Dreams May Come

#109

Post by matiasb »

not_paul_graham wrote: post #25
bherms wrote: post #2

It's sad that when we find out something this devastating (you're dying), that we have to spend our last weeks/months/years worrying about, of all things, money. Nobody deserves this sort of thing happening to them, and when it does happen, it hurts me to think they can't spend their last months on earth focused on enjoying time with their loved ones and instead have to live in fear that their family is going to be a…

No one deserves this, especially not at 35. That is far too young. I've had more than a couple of people close to me pass away from cancer and other causes and it all seems very depressing that in some cases you can't really do anything at all. Forgive me for asking but doesn't health insurance cover costs of cancer treatment even in the USA? I really don't want to sound like a narcissist and I'm not trying to judge…

My stepfather died from stomach cancer last year, the public health system here in Paraguay covered all the treatment, some of the drugs cost more than 15 or 20 times the monthly minimum wage.

Re: What Dreams May Come

#110

Post by enewc »

melling wrote: post #12
bherms wrote: post #2

It's sad that when we find out something this devastating (you're dying), that we have to spend our last weeks/months/years worrying about, of all things, money. Nobody deserves this sort of thing happening to them, and when it does happen, it hurts me to think they can't spend their last months on earth focused on enjoying time with their loved ones and instead have to live in fear that their family is going to be a…

There are over 7 billion people on the planet. A day doesn't go by without a story like this. We just don't hear about most of them. Someday a person like this will simply go to his doctor, get a prescription, and go on to live a normal life. Rather than dwelling on sadness, maybe we should ask if there isn't something we can do, as a group, to make that day arrive sooner. What would it take to cure, or at least trea…

Well, for one, more people could go into cancer research instead of pursuing useless startup ideas.
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