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What Dreams May Come

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281–290 of 399 posts

Re: What Dreams May Come

#281

Let me get this right. Major diseases are the most important reason for health insurance to exist. But in the US, if you get a major disease, you lose your job, then within 18 months your coverage, and then the insurance is gone. Is this correct?

Not anymore. Now you can get an individual policy that can't be terminated and the price is fixed based on age.

Re: What Dreams May Come

#282

Let me get this right. Major diseases are the most important reason for health insurance to exist. But in the US, if you get a major disease, you lose your job, then within 18 months your coverage, and then the insurance is gone. Is this correct?

Not so much an issue now with ObamaCare. If you can afford it you can be covered regardless of job circumstances.

Re: What Dreams May Come

#283
post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Remember when they said we'd run out of coal in the year 2000? Or that the ice caps would have melted by 2012?

Who are "they"? Hypotheses and projections are constantly refined. But in comparison to estimates on things like coal or climate, the population growth models are almost trivially simple, and while the numbers are adjusted up and down regularly to account for actual data, all data we have show the population growth consistently slowing down. For starters, one of the things that make the population models straightforw…

I appreciate your arguments, but why then is the world population graph basically linearly increasing since the 60s? It's not slowing down.

Re: What Dreams May Come

#284
post #251

I feel very sorry for him, one shouldn't need to think about money when he has just (hopefully not) a few months left. Said that, wouldn't it be cheaper for him and his family to move to an European country, and get therapy there? In most europeans countries you just pay a low and flat rate (around 100€ a month) and you can get Cancer treatment or whatever is needed. I really want to help him, but I hate that at the…

Wouldn't he have to become a citizen first, or at least have a job there, not just be a tourist?

Re: What Dreams May Come

#285
post #255

> Prepare for / pay for my final arrangments : $20,000 I'm not here to bash, but with so much money problem why do people want to spend so much money on their death? If I die I just want people to get rid of my body in the cheapest way possible. Just burn me or give me to science.

"Just burn me" isn't cheap -- heck, this example from else-thread is worse than what I found with some research: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7393011

Also, your family and friends might want to see you before science does whatever with you, and that will cost more than any of us would like to think it will. Funerals aren't cheap, and I was told when buying life insurance to expect all funeral expenses (viewings, whatever is done with the body) to easily be $20k.

Re: What Dreams May Come

#286

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…

You have awful situational awareness and empathy skills. This is not the time nor place. Unfortunately, people tried to politely inform you, but you kept at your personal rant. Many of us in the sidelines have survived cancer, have cancer, or have close family dying of cancer. There is a time and place for personal soapboxes. This is not it. Have some compassion.

I was replying to the parent, who suggested a cure for all cancer cannot come soon enough - I'm not so convinced we should be aiming for immortality.

Point taken though...

Re: What Dreams May Come

#287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What Capitalism? America is the largest welfare state in history. Total government expenditures are nearly the size of China's GDP. What we have is corporatism, plunder by a combination of bureaucrats + government protected corporations (see: Verizon, AT&T, Comcast, Exxon, Pfizer, etc). I wish we had Capitalism. All we have is an extraordinarily misdirected, poorly run welfare state.

> America is the largest welfare state in history. Welfare for the rich. Naked social darwinism for the poor.

More than 50% of the federal budget is for social programs. You're saying those only go to the rich?

Re: What Dreams May Come

#288

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.

That wife and kids might just want to have a viewing. That'll cost money. Cremation isn't cheap, either: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7393011

$20k actually sounds low to me, last time I looked into a burial situation.

Re: What Dreams May Come

#289

20k for a funeral? Really? Seemed legit until that.

Good grief...the comments on Hacker News never cease to amaze... ...just to give a representative example, last September my Dad died. 1) We had his remains cremated. 2) We got said remains without anything fancier than the cardboard box they came in. 3) We scattered his ashes ourselves as a family without any visitation, funeral ceremony, or anything. No gravestone, no casket, no wake, no ceremony, no officiant. Tot…

It was $6K just for cremation? Or you had other costs?

Re: What Dreams May Come

#290

20k for a funeral? Really? Seemed legit until that.

Good grief...the comments on Hacker News never cease to amaze... ...just to give a representative example, last September my Dad died. 1) We had his remains cremated. 2) We got said remains without anything fancier than the cardboard box they came in. 3) We scattered his ashes ourselves as a family without any visitation, funeral ceremony, or anything. No gravestone, no casket, no wake, no ceremony, no officiant. Tot…

Thank you for this. I am giving in to my urge to link it to some of the comments decrying the funereal cost given. I was told to set aside $20k fifteen years ago -- I'd expect now it would be much more.
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