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What Dreams May Come

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Re: What Dreams May Come

#141

Post by aestra »

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…

Norman Borlaug is the father of the Green Revolution. Green revolution agriculture techniques require a massive amount of oil and gas as inputs. Eventually we're going to run out of those. When oil prices start to spike, people will starve. Also it has decreased diversity to only a few high yielding varies of crops making our food supply more susceptible to pathogens because of lack of biodiversity.

As well as a whole host of other problems, such as people switching to profitable crops to export rather than to feed the local population.

Re: What Dreams May Come

#144

Post by chongli »

adventured wrote: post #77
chongli wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't separate the state out like that and pretend it's not a player. Capitalism is what gives rise to corporatism. Oh, and welfare state is not a bad word. Some of the most prosperous and equitable countries in the world are welfare states[0]. [0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordic_model

A poorly run welfare state is a bad word, to so speak, and that's exactly what America has. Some of the worst functioning countries on earth are also very poorly run welfare states. Feel free to point out several poorly functioning, free market Capitalism countries though. Socialism is what gives rise to Corporatism. The intrusion of government into the economy - rather than the proper separation of the two - through…

If you acknowledge that "welfare state" is not a bad word, then why not just say "a poorly run state is bad"? Adding the word welfare serves only to confuse and misdirect the reader.

Re: What Dreams May Come

#145

Post by chongli »

adventured wrote: post #83
galactus wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

in that case, it can be argued that the soviet union was not real Communism either.

The difference being, to achieve full Communism you have to kill everyone or enslave them completely such that they have no rights. Stalin, Mao, Lenin, Pol Pot, Fidel, Kim il-Sung - they all gave it their best try. And your comparison isn't accurate at all. There are obvious and often massive differences between America's economic models of 1825, 1910, 1960, and 2014. 2014 isn't in any respect similar to the 1825 or…

The depth of ignorance on display here is staggering. Why not read The Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital instead of making a fool of yourself?

Re: What Dreams May Come

#146

Post by morgante »

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…

> I have always wondered why don't Government have regulations in place that forces a borrower to purchase a life insurance. Or at least make the borrower opt into insurance by default with the option of opting out.

Because that's literally an unfair subsidy for insurance companies off the backs of homeowners. Insurance isn't a scam, but it is trading some reward to decrease risks. Probabilistically, you're better off saving the insurance money. I'm not saying that's the best choice for everyone, but it should be a choice.

Personally, as a single adult I'd never consider life insurance——nobody would be financially ruined if I died, so I'm much better off rolling all excess money into the stock market.

Re: What Dreams May Come

#147

Post by jeffehobbs »

futurist wrote: post #131
lnanek2 wrote: post #125

Kind of bizarre seeing someone else's value system which is completely alien to my own. If I was leaving my wife and kids with mortgage and car loan debt, I wouldn't spend $10-20k on a graveyard plot, that's for sure. I don't think I would in any case, I'd just get cremated or whatever the cheapest option is.

Right. I think this is what bothers me about this list. It's material driven. There's a saying that goes (paraphrasing) "don't wish for better circumstances, wish to be a better person." For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Mark 8:36 KJV. Jonathan, you and your family must look to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is your judge. Through Him all things are possible.

Give me a break. Think about what you are saying and how and to who you are saying it.

Re: What Dreams May Come

#148

Post by izolate »

lnanek2 wrote: post #125

Kind of bizarre seeing someone else's value system which is completely alien to my own. If I was leaving my wife and kids with mortgage and car loan debt, I wouldn't spend $10-20k on a graveyard plot, that's for sure. I don't think I would in any case, I'd just get cremated or whatever the cheapest option is.

I feel for the guy, I wouldn't wish his position on anybody. But reading that list, I can't help but think he needs to learn how to sacrifice a bit.

I get that he wants to take care of his finances and spend time with his family. But everything that he listed can be done for 1/5th of the cost. Get cremated, travel by bus, put everybody up in a 1 bed motel room, etc.

Re: What Dreams May Come

#149

Post by morgante »

ktzar wrote: post #100

Instead of donating to this guy I'd prefer to advocate for a free health system and a system that doesn't fuck up a family that has had enough bad luck to see its father die. Having someone in his last months of life begging for money to not leave his family screwed up seems like a waste of those precious last weeks.

> Instead of donating to this guy I'd prefer to advocate for a free health system and a system that doesn't fuck up a family that has had enough bad luck to see its father die.

It doesn't appear that health care costs are a major issue in this scenario. Even with universal healthcare, a dead breadwinner is going to significantly impact a family's financial situation.

Re: What Dreams May Come

#150

Post by johnward »

MisterBastahrd wrote: post #10
girvo wrote: post #3

I feel nothing but sympathy for Jonathan. I can barely imagine the pain he and his family would be going through :( What are the medical costs for someone with terminal cancer in the USA? I assume they're pretty astronomical, so I can understand why he'd ask for help (I'm donating myself). In terms of his house and the like, I was always led to believe that life insurance was specifically for cases like his? Is life…

Life insurance is something that you have to purchase for sums of that magnitude, and a lot of people are too busy buying other things to worry about spending the 10-20 bucks a month that it costs. Usually an employer will give you an additional survivor's benefit, usually between 10K to up to a year's worth of salary.

Everyone keeps saying this. Where can you spend 10-20 bucks a month and get 100-200k coverage? I pay way more than that for like 50k coverage and I got the plane when I was 23.
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