Is he really in a position to keep doing this?
Biden recorder the most votes in history, while winning the fewest counties. That's a head scratcher. The fact remains most of the geographic area of the country voted red. If he keeps this up, states are going to start ignoring his executive orders. That's not how democracy is supposed to work. Laws get passed by legislature, not by dictate of the King.
Biden launches action on "Big Tech, Big Pharma, and Big Ag" – can it be real?
221–230 of 595 posts
Re: Biden launches action on "Big Tech, Big Pharma, and Big Ag" – can it be real?
#222Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’d help a little but it’d still be a long way from an Econ 101 market. Preventative care is hugely effective at reducing costs but high-deductible plans ensure that many people will not get it. Many people simply aren’t capable of shopping around, either: emergency care, cognitive impairments, limited geographic options, and the conflicts of interest inherent to for-profit medicine all make it hard for people to kn…
You don't need everyone shopping around. You just need enough to drive the market, it isn't even necessarily a majority.
Kind of like how list price means everyone pays the same price for a car? What would happen is more of what we already see: tons of addons being pushed, rebates or other ways to adjust prices for some people without lowering them, random specialists and unnecessary services being pulled in relying on the fact that most people don’t realize they can and should say no, and a whole industry of people finding ways to say you had some obscure complications not covered by the standard price.
Look at it from an economic incentive standpoint: Americans pay 2-3 times more for the same service. That is a huge amount of money, and it ensures that rooms full of smart people will be working to ensure that their employers continue to get it.
Re: Biden launches action on "Big Tech, Big Pharma, and Big Ag" – can it be real?
#223My health insurance is buying hospital company stocks.
Vile
Re: Biden launches action on "Big Tech, Big Pharma, and Big Ag" – can it be real?
#224Earlier quoted context omitted.
And what was the legislation? How was it monopolistic in favor of physicians? The AMA does not really represent physicians. Less than 1/4 of doctors belong to the AMA. Many of them do not feel the AMA represents them. The AMA also accepts substantial donations from other sources, including corporate donors and foundations. https://www.physiciansweekly.com/is-the-ama-really-the-voice...
The lobbying to: A. Limit medical care to being provided by these people B. Limit number of residencies
I hate this line that's repeated all the time because its simply wrong. Osteopathy has its own residencies and the DO is legally equivalent to an MD
Re: Biden launches action on "Big Tech, Big Pharma, and Big Ag" – can it be real?
#225Sort of good, but we'll see how it plays out without other policies supporting it. Frankly, many consolidations are not malicious but necessary for survival. Economies of scale and verticle integration are required to complete with foreign companies with lower costs. Look at domestic steel production. No way the market can support numerous domestic options that can compete with the low cost of foreign imports. Then t…
What are some uses for honey by the pound? Off topic but curious, I only ever put it in tea rarely or simmiliarly rarely use it as a sugar alternative when cooking.
With peanut butter instead of jam, in soy honey marinade, on green apples, in yogurt or ice cream. There are many nice combinations where honey works.
Re: Biden launches action on "Big Tech, Big Pharma, and Big Ag" – can it be real?
#226Re: Biden launches action on "Big Tech, Big Pharma, and Big Ag" – can it be real?
#227Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is it fscked for physicians and various healthcare professionals (e.g., paid higher wages than other countries with different systems). Is it also fscked for wealthy patients who do not really care about costs.
> Is it fscked for physicians and various healthcare professionals It's an underappreciated point. The US healthcare system is one of the largest wealth transfer systems ever invented. It's a heavily protected cartel that plunders wealth from the top 2/3 and lines the pockets of a few million employees in the system. There is an excess cost bounty of $1.2 trillion (or more) being plundered and redistributed every yea…
I see your point, but I will raise you that medical training in other countries doesn't also put you in hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt before you've even begun to practice. The cost of a medical education has a large impact on why salaries are "artificially" inflated.
Re: Biden launches action on "Big Tech, Big Pharma, and Big Ag" – can it be real?
#228Finally, they've started attacking big tech on the privacy front. The whole "monopoly" and "anti-trust" thing was going nowhere. But privacy orders like this are a step in the right direction. And to put the nail in big tech's coffin, congress should pass a law forbidding the sharing of any personal information on any resident of the US for any commercial reason whatsoever. With draconian penalties assessed per user…
> And to put the nail in big tech's coffin, congress should pass a law forbidding the sharing of any personal information on any resident of the US for any commercial reason whatsoever. At this point, a huge number (majority?) of Facebook et al users know what Facebook are doing. They value their own data less than Facebook do and are happy to trade it in return for free social media service. You may not like it, but…
Source because I’m pretty sure that’s not true. If that was true GDPR wouldn’t exist in the EU. California has CCPA in the works which is similar/same. People don’t like how big tech is using their data and actions are being done to counter it.
Re: Biden launches action on "Big Tech, Big Pharma, and Big Ag" – can it be real?
#229Earlier quoted context omitted.
What you say is true in theory but not in aggregate. It's no different from any other business in that respect. Look at companies in a field you are familiar with and you will find that the very large ones are a lot more impersonal, ruthlessly efficient, and amoral.
That's the huristic I'm pushing back on: Big = bad, efficient = bad, ect. Some problems are indeed exaserbated at scale, others are not. I think this is especially true for the ag industry and the issues mentioned up thread. You can bust up the biggest factory farms into 100 smaller companies, but they would still have the same practices. Same with monocrop farming.
But at least the concentration of wealth would not occur, and right now wealth = power, which often means anti competitive practices like simply buying competitors.
Re: Biden launches action on "Big Tech, Big Pharma, and Big Ag" – can it be real?
#230Earlier quoted context omitted.
I love how conservatives still make this argument. You're arguing for the free market in a system that literally isn't, and doing it in such a way that it tries to be a thought-terminating cliche. If you get into a car accident tomorrow driving to work, the ambulance/paramedics aren't going to ask you to do your research prior to shuttling you to a hospital to get life saving treatment. Even if you could how would yo…
I agree with the premise of your argument, but why did you have to start it with "I love how conservatives still make this argument"? You have no idea what that person's thoughts or beliefs are...
Parent is not labeling the poster as conservative; he is labeling the argument as the underpinning of the same argument conservatives often make. That's a nuanced difference.