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[Neonivek]

I admit EnigmaticHat, I forgot I have a faulty Sarcasm detector and had to reread that a few times to make sure there wasn't a typo.

That's a little rude.  Even if I said the dumbest thing ever you should at least say what your problem is.

>_<?

[Reelya]

And (for good or ill), in the US, saying "It works in other countries" is not a good enough argument...

It's sort of ironic what that actually implies. If other nations work perfectly well with e.g. a trust-based system and Americans declare "it'll never work here!" what exactly are they implying? That Americans just lack the general moral fibre of other nations and can't be trusted to honor the system?

[TheBiggerFish]

Pharma has an incentive to produce profitable drugs, not necessarily effective drugs, as callous as that seems.  There's a limited market for miracle cures, so the business stays away from them...
At least, as far as I know, which is not very far.

[EnigmaticHat]

I admit EnigmaticHat, I forgot I have a faulty Sarcasm detector and had to reread that a few times to make sure there wasn't a typo.

That's a little rude.  Even if I said the dumbest thing ever you should at least say what your problem is.

>_<?

You didn't tell me why you would think its sarcastic or which part might have been a typo.

[Neonivek]

I admit EnigmaticHat, I forgot I have a faulty Sarcasm detector and had to reread that a few times to make sure there wasn't a typo.

That's a little rude.  Even if I said the dumbest thing ever you should at least say what your problem is.

>_<?

You didn't tell me why you would think its sarcastic or which part might have been a typo.

I was talking about my own personal limitations, not a fault in your writing... but... if you want?

  You can use scare arguments all you want but our system is more expensive and provides inferior access AND an inferior level of care.

This is written as if it was a positive: "Yay! America sucks, that is awesome". So I was stuck wondering if this was sarcastic or if it was a typo. Finally settling on sarcastic.

As IN you were saying "Yeah this is a problem" but saying it like "Ohh yeah! this problem is awesome"

Edit: Apparently you were playing it straight. Explains why you were mad.

[Aklyon]

it sounds like the new director of the FCC is a real nightmare. isnt there a conflict in interest to have a former verizon lawyer run the FCC?

If you dont have time to watch a 20 minute YT video - go to www.gofccyourself.com , a website hosted by John Oliver which takes you directly to where you can complain to the FCC. just hit express and state your business.

The current chairman is the guy who would vote against literally everything progressive the previous chair did and give some fluffy meaningless reason why he's against the thing that does not hurt a damn thing except isp profit hax.

[Lord Shonus]

Antibiotics have been mostly stagnant because it's more profitable to create something that's more beneficial for diabetes or something chronic, since they have to pay for life.

While this is a popular theory, it fails the logic test for two very important reasons. First, patents are limited in time, so most of the money from your "lifetime of treatment" regimen goes to the makers of cheap generics. More importantly, actual cures are far, far more profitable than treatments - not only do you get the money from the cure itself, you keep your customer base from shrinking (as most people that need chronic care tend to make less money than those who don't), and generate a level of good PR that money simply can not buy. Otherwise, we wouldn't have cures for half the diseases we can cure today.

[Reelya]

  You can use scare arguments all you want but our system is more expensive and provides inferior access AND an inferior level of care.

This is written as if it was a positive. So I was stuck wondering if this was sarcastic or if it was a typo. Finally settling on sarcastic.

It's not sarcastic at all.

The "scare arguments" EnigmaHat was talking about are the scare arguments about universal health care. EnigmaHat just pointed out all the existing flaws in the US system as a counterpoint to the scare arguments.  "our system is terrible" was EnigmaHats counterpoint to some theoretical "what if" argument about how single-payer will turn USA into the USSR.

The scare arguments in this debate are akin to me telling you not to brush your teeth because the vibrations will cause all yout teeth to shatter and fall out. It is in fact a good counterpoint to point out that plenty of other people brush their teeth every day without that happening, so the scare arguments are just bogus.

In a similar sense, there's a whole world of examples of single-payer systems and they all have lower costs per patient and decent outcomes compared to the US system. Some hypothetical Blade-Runner/Gattaca style dystopia from having single-payer health care is just as ludicrous as the tooth brushing teeth explosion thing.

[Neonivek]

Yeah I edited my post to explain why I thought it was sarcastic

Or rather... what KIND of sarcasm I thought it was.

Antibiotics have been mostly stagnant because it's more profitable to create something that's more beneficial for diabetes or something chronic, since they have to pay for life.

While this is a popular theory, it fails the logic test for two very important reasons. First, patents are limited in time, so most of the money from your "lifetime of treatment" regimen goes to the makers of cheap generics. More importantly, actual cures are far, far more profitable than treatments - not only do you get the money from the cure itself, you keep your customer base from shrinking (as most people that need chronic care tend to make less money than those who don't), and generate a level of good PR that money simply can not buy. Otherwise, we wouldn't have cures for half the diseases we can cure today.

Pretty much.

Though I am not sure "Popular theory" is the right word... more like "Popular idea" as I am not sure anyone who actually knows anything about the pharmaceutical industry actually states that. In fact a big problem with the industry is how little money there often is in actually developing NEW drugs versus making new slightly altered versions of the same drugs (or finding new, often inferior, uses for current drugs and repackaging them)

Heck reminds me how Lex Luthor actually discovered the cure for cancer but decided not to release it until they could develop a version that would need lifelong supplements.

[EnigmaticHat]

I admit EnigmaticHat, I forgot I have a faulty Sarcasm detector and had to reread that a few times to make sure there wasn't a typo.

That's a little rude.  Even if I said the dumbest thing ever you should at least say what your problem is.

>_<?

You didn't tell me why you would think its sarcastic or which part might have been a typo.

I was talking about my own personal limitations, not a fault in your writing... but... if you want?

  You can use scare arguments all you want but our system is more expensive and provides inferior access AND an inferior level of care.

This is written as if it was a positive. So I was stuck wondering if this was sarcastic or if it was a typo. Finally settling on sarcastic.

Oh I get you.  I was speaking in defense of single payer.  So the scare argument would be something like "in Canada the waiting times are super long."

Your statement was ambiguous and could be interpreted as critical or insulting.  I see that you didn't mean it that way.

[Reelya]

"Death Panels" was really the cresendo of the fear mongering.

[Pwnzerfaust]

Oh I remember that. Sarah Palin made some bullshittery statements about how a panel of doctors will decide whose grandparents live or die or somesuch, right? Nutty, absolutely nutty.

Wish we could do like the rest of the civilized world and get universal healthcare already.

[Reelya]

Oh I remember that. Sarah Palin made some bullshittery statements about how a panel of doctors will decide whose grandparents live or die or somesuch, right? Nutty, absolutely nutty.

Wish we could do like the rest of the civilized world and get universal healthcare already.

Yeah, 30% of polled Americans believed in the death panels however.

The actual bill that gave rise to the death panel nonsense is one relating to providing counselling services about end of life arrangements for ill or elderly patients. Previously medical providers weren't remunerated for providing that service, but now they can claim that as an expense, hence "death panels".

[SalmonGod]

Rather effective for tapping into the deepest fears of baby boomers especially, I imagine.

[Rusty Shackleford]

And (for good or ill), in the US, saying "It works in other countries" is not a good enough argument...

It's sort of ironic what that actually implies. If other nations work perfectly well with e.g. a trust-based system and Americans declare "it'll never work here!" what exactly are they implying? That Americans just lack the general moral fibre of other nations and can't be trusted to honor the system?

Yeah, quite frankly a system devised for an oil rich and homogeneous  Scandinavian country of 5 million people isn't going to directly translate and work in a sprawling and diverse country like the USA.

Working backwards, Chicago has a similar population, what if all of the USA was run like Chi Town? That concept is a fucking entirely impossible nightmare dystopia, right? Same deal.