Topic: Opinion on the US - page 10. (Read 18959 times)

Haha funny  

I recall someone from the US blaming bitcoin where only used to illegal stuff like drugs, killing and such like.. Wonder what they use the dollar for, "apparently not the same"

Oh, btw. A great American

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acLW1vFO-2Q

The FDA has a strong hand in this.  Having exceeded the bounds of its reason for existence long ago, it has created a giant and expensive approval process that is also ineffective.  The time it takes to bring new medicine to people has about doubled, from 8 years in the 1960's to about 15 years today and the cost is close to US$1B for a single drug.
http://reason.com/archives/2011/01/25/government-pills
As a result, we get less innovation for a greater cost, and a large incentive to game the process.  Less attention to more uncommon illness, and a proliferation of minor tweeks to existing medicine to prolong the patent protection without benefit.
Their process also increases medication shortages.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2012/02/13/health-care-leaders-drug-shortages-major-threat-patients/9XfOujrFRSEW5FBOkc1cmK/story.html

But worse even is that the FDA stranglehold doesn't end with the drug approval.  The manufacturer must get approval for how much of a drug it plans to produce with its "output controls".  We hear of fear of the "death panels".  they are already here.  Drs at John Hopkins had to ration cytarabine (treatiing leukemia and lymphoma) deciding who will live and who will die because of the FDA controls.  Other centers were less lucky and ran out completely.
http://healthaffairs.org/blog/2011/06/08/rx-drug-shortages-regulation-can-be-deadly/

And the FDA creates artificial monopolies.  "17P" was used for years to help expectant mothers from having pre-mature births, made by pharmacists cheaply for $10 a dose by low income families, until a company called Hologic got the FDA to approve this progesterone fomula and got exclusive rights to it, raising the cost to US$1500 per dose (US$30000 per pregnancy).

The costs are really because of private for profit enterprise?  More so the costs are because "private enterprise" can wield the power of government against the rest of humanity to enrich themselves.  Where you put the blame sort of depends on whether you think government should be doing this sort of thing in the first place, or on the other side, whether you think government should be doing everything and we should all be working for government.  It is the weird blend that some people think of as "private enterprise" (that is in reality anything but that), which is the source of the problems.

This gets compounded year by year because any failure of the system is used as an excuse to increase the system, until the system becomes too-big-to-fail, and then fails.

Putting our health in the sole hands of policy makers is wise, up until it isn't, but in the long run, we are all dead.

Or maybe a baby of a parasite

I don't mind that my taxes go to help someone with the misfortune to get sick and without the resources to deal with it.  I'm happy enough if I never get into that situation.

What pisses me off is that we have an extremely inefficient health care system largely because, IMO, it is for profit.  More profit is to be made by charging more and giving less and skimming the middle.  It's as plain as the nose on one's face.

I do not appreciate it at all that the government is complicit in forcing me into a situation where my tax dollars go not to people who need it but to and industry with useless parasite CEO's making $100k per day.  This is classic 'merger of state and corporate power' and Obama is as good at it as anyone has been to date.  It only takes a person who can complete a sentence to impress my liberal friends these days, and Obama is relatively good at that.

Canadians pay monthly healthcare dues to fund the system, so I guess it's not totally free.

You just have to remember: there is nothing is for free in that life. Somebody pays for it as taxes or other way. Yes, if you not willing to work and live on social help, you will get help, despite that you are a parasite.

The two-tier system we are slowly moving to in Canada is awesome.

I can have my health care for free if I am willing to wait, or if I have money I can get it done right now, and thereby shorten the waiting time of people behind me.

Everyone wins.

LOL - clearly photoshopped but funny!

I'm sorry, as an American, I see Canadians as people who travel in USA to fix they medical problems, as with their healthcare system they wait in line forever just to make MRI.

I'm not sure if USA is a real country either. It looks like weird mashup of pieces of desert and such run by corrupted tv show stars...
And I don't even want to go to these pieces of desert...

Bitcoin has the power to suppress USA, if it becomes an international currency > > The value of US $ will fall >> US Banks will overtax >> People getting cash strapped >> Protests >>> REVOLUTION 
Wish there was a way to tell all the poor citizens of USA its truth.
For e.g
That when they eat at their local McD's ~~ they eat "thing" which does not get spoilt for 4+ years if kept in open ~~that they contribute more to the GM industry when they eat at such food joints.

Canada's a real country?  It must be, right?  Always thought of it just as something that happens when you drive too far north...  Now that i think about it, we keep our old garden tractors & old furniture there, stuff like that...  Not really sure.

My opinion is that America is built for the rich, geared for the rich, and laws are for the rich where the rich feel they don't need to play by the same rules as the rest of people

If you are poor in America, you are nothing, you considered a failure. There are 300 million different people in the US but the culture of hyper-consumerism and materialism is dominant.

I'm sorry, as a Canadian, I see Americans as plain fat people who have a huge nuclear explosion

Huh?

Politicians 'create' probably more jobs than corporations now a-days and probably always have.  At least since the 30's.  Many of them through by contracting through corporations for various projects.  Some of the projects result in durable infrastructure, and some of them just burn money into the economy.

None of our politicians that I am aware of may $1M/year unless you count kickbacks which are increasingly common.  OTOH, that is not an uncommon earning for CEO's.

We do have GINI index which is up into the danger zone where bad things start to happen.  This, more than anything, explains the rapidly expanding investment in internal security infrastructure (e.g., the NSA programs and integration of state and corporate security apparatus.)  It is fascinating that China is similar in this regard.

The land of law makers, making $1,000,000 per year. While a CEO barely gets to chance to make that amount, and create value with job creation.

If you are asking in regards to the individual US citizen, then it is a stupid generalizing question. I've met idiots and nice people in the US. Just like EVERYWHERE else on this planet I have been. The one thing I would say, is that US idiots are usually, ehm, heavier than in most other countries. 

If you mean the US government: I am mad at my own right now, I have no time for anyone elses'. Though it would be nice of the US government to make at least a token effort of reigning in their intelligence services.

FTFY. Most of the people of America don't have a clue, though the internet being everywhere is helping.

I do think some of the things you've listed are more accidental and synergistic than deliberate, but unfortunately I have to agree with the bulk of you statement. It sucks being born in America long enough ago to remember when they actually meant some of the things they preach. Or at least had some need to maintain the illusion.

...and we pulled it off , too!  That's how slick my boy Obama is.  


Lolz, you don't know the half of it.  Not only do we give you cancer, we giving your cancer cancer & afterwards you can't even die right!  You turn into zomblers doing Obama's bidding!  
  

Now you're saying that, just wait 'till you turn into a grain zombie!  You'll chew out your own eyeballs for a Preparation H fix.  Ever had zombie hemorrhoids?  Too awful to talk about.


ORLY?  Pesky foreigner, we had Atomic Cars since the '50s.




Yeah, me too.  We should partner up.