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Children with cancer scammed out of millions fundraised for their treatment

bbc.com

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Re: Children with cancer scammed out of millions fundraised for their treatment

#371

Post by nickpp »

hermanzegerman wrote: post #126
nickpp wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Obviously you need a strong and prosperous economy. But like you noticed yourself you also need to tax it, to deliver benefits to your population

> you also need to tax it, to deliver benefits to your population

The benefits were already delivered by that strong and prosperous economy in form of products and services.

Taxation is of course necessary to fund government spending but we need to keep in mind its drawbacks: from discouraging productive activity and slowing economic growth to giving politicians funds to buy votes with populist social policies.

Re: Children with cancer scammed out of millions fundraised for their treatment

#372

Post by ekianjo »

Loughla wrote: post #271
ekianjo wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would extend it to fraud in charities in general. Trusting a third party (unknown to you) to handle your money responsibly is not a smart move.

Are you saying all charities are frauds? That's how that comes across.

I'm saying you have no way of knowing, so the potential is always there.

Re: Children with cancer scammed out of millions fundraised for their treatment

#373

Post by nickpp »

lawtalkinghuman wrote: post #287
nickpp wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any system needs a resource allocation algorithm. In capitalism it is easy and transparent: price, with the side effect of aligning society interests with those of the selfish individual. Of course the strange and heavily regulated US health-care system is obviously far far away from a free market. In socialism it's much more random: black markets, lists, lotteries, friends and network of connections. The side effect…

When I'm unconscious in an ambulance, I'm definitely in a position to appreciate all that price transparency the free market has provided, so I can rationally weigh up all my options calmly and objectively while my organs are shutting down.

The great majority of health care is not emergency health care. Actually, the fact that emergency health is so expensive is quite the incentive for preventive medicine. And for the rest, insurance is necessary. Like for house fires or floods: I get the insurance but I also check my wires and pipes regularly.

Re: Children with cancer scammed out of millions fundraised for their treatment

#374

Post by fwipsy »

xeonmc wrote: post #171
eleveriven wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that families have to crowdfund lifesaving care creates the vulnerability but it doesn't force anyone to build an industrialized scam on top of it

Local man embezzles $20,000 meant to keep 200 orphans from being crushed in the orphan-crushing machine.

This framing is disingenuous. We're meant to say "tear down the orphan-crushing machine!" But in this case there's no machine, only human mortality. You're substituting a simple question ("why are we crushing orphans?") for a complex one ("who should pay for poor children's healthcare?")

Also, the scale seems much larger than $20k.

Re: Children with cancer scammed out of millions fundraised for their treatment

#375

Post by chaostheory »

Animats wrote: post #8

"The campaigns with the biggest apparent international reach were under the name of an organisation called Chance Letikva (Chance for Hope, in English) - registered in Israel and the US." Chance Letikva is registered with the US IRS as a charity. They've filed a Form 990. Location is Brooklyn, NY. [1] Address is listed. It's a small house. It's also incorporated as CHANCE LETIKVA, INC. in New York State. Address matc…

The article names Erez Hadari as someone involved with the organization.

Re: Children with cancer scammed out of millions fundraised for their treatment

#376

Post by ruszki »

bko wrote: post #312
tchalla wrote: post #41

The root cause of the problem is that parents and children need to raise funds for cancer treatment in the first place.

There's a benefit to having a service tied to the individual receiving the service. For starters it put price pressure and competition on providing the service. When someone else is paying for something you don't have a signal of efficacy, in terms of pricing or quality. To put another way, if I were facing some terminal illness I would want to have full control of picking the service even if it costs money. Sure, I…

When you have to choose a provider or you die, there won’t be a real downward pressure on price because there is no need to form a cartel to feed on this. You can see this in every single market of utility or de facto utility segments.

Re: Children with cancer scammed out of millions fundraised for their treatment

#377

Post by reactordev »

barbazoo wrote: post #360
reactordev wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Introducing “The Automatic Orphan Crusher 9000” complete with conveyor belt fed chutes and titanium jaws, no orphan can escape! Just place a piece of candy…”

Does it have AI?

That would be part of our Orphan Industries plan for managing output of your 9000s on the industrial floor. Sure. Monitor throughput and TTK right there from the app.

Re: Children with cancer scammed out of millions fundraised for their treatment

#378

Post by chaostheory »

Ozzie_osman wrote: post #85

It's worth noting that if the suspect is in Israel, and he nerds to be tried in the US it might be an uphill battle trying to get him extradited. https://jacobin.com/2023/02/israel-law-of-return-extradition...

According to the article Erez Hadari, the man supposedly affiliated with the organization, is in Canada at the time of writing

Re: Children with cancer scammed out of millions fundraised for their treatment

#379

Post by tiagod »

nickpp wrote: post #366
tiagod wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not everything needs to be profitable.

I lived under the very system this principle enabled and I can tell you that without the profit motive we were cold and starving since there was no motivation for people to work and sew clothes or grow food.

I didn't write "nothing needs to be profitable".

I live under a system where even very expensive treatments are covered by the state using taxpayer money, and I'm not starving. Sometimes you need to optimize for human dignity.

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