Political Discussion

Chucktshoes said:
I generally don’t think about them. They aren’t using the threat of violence to steal from me or abrogate my natural, God given rights as a human being.
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However, they are using their monopolistic power to influence the market away from competition and towards stagnant wages, higher prices, and lower quality. Checks and balances are for everyone.
Chucktshoes said:
Healthcare is a service provided by the labor of others. It isn’t a right. Declaring it as such is a fundamental misunderstanding of what rights are. The providers of any service are free to charge what they wish for their services. Our current healthcare system is setup in such a way that it divorces the consumer of the care from the payer of the care. That creates vast bloat and inefficiencies that inflate the costs of the care as true market competition doesn’t exist. As far as what the costs are in other countries, I don’t live there so it isn’t my concern.
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Here I agree with you. Market competition doesn't exist in our current health care system which is why it's expensive and highly inefficient. The only thing it does well is removing money from the pocket of consumers. However, I often question if this is something that we should leave up to competition, because shortfalls in health will affect our nation's ability to compete with the rest of the world. But if wages were actually based on competition, I wonder if we would have that much of a health disparity. The problem we have right now is how do we deal with our current quagmire to move it towards something better? While I agree that true market competition needs to happen, I believe that needs to happen across all sectors including wages--but the only way for this to even begin to happen is either with worker protections or anti trust busting to get wages back into a competitive arena.
Chucktshoes said:
So, the simple answer to me is why don’t we stop giving them power?
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You know all of this worked so much better when being in congress was something someone did as their side gig. The founding fathers never meant for there to be a political class. I agree that we need to disband power structures, but I think this disbanding of power structures should not be limited to the government. Monopolies are just as insidious as banana republics.
 
Sonicpharmacist said:
Those are some rather large hoops you're jumping through to justify your stance. In both situations, you're paying for that "right" to acquire the thing (the gun, the healthcare), when before this is what you said....
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No hoop jumping, just ensuring that I am being very specific in my language to ensure that it isn’t able to be twisted into things I didn’t say by bad faith arguments. (That’s not a personal accusation, simply a lesson learned from past debates.)

There is no conflict between my statements that you quoted. If you think there is, might I suggest you reread the first one again while placing emphasis on “mutually agreeable terms”.
 
nolalady said:
However, they are using their monopolistic power to influence the market away from competition and towards stagnant wages, higher prices, and lower quality. Checks and balances are for everyone.

Here I agree with you. Market competition doesn't exist in our current health care system which is why it's expensive and highly inefficient. The only thing it does well is removing money from the pocket of consumers. However, I often question if this is something that we should leave up to competition, because shortfalls in health will affect our nation's ability to compete with the rest of the world. But if wages were actually based on competition, I wonder if we would have that much of a health disparity. The problem we have right now is how do we deal with our current quagmire to move it towards something better? While I agree that true market competition needs to happen, I believe that needs to happen across all sectors including wages--but the only way for this to even begin to happen is either with worker protections or anti trust busting to get wages back into a competitive arena.

You know all of this worked so much better when being in congress was something someone did as their side gig. The founding fathers never meant for there to be a political class. I agree that we need to disband power structures, but I think this disbanding of power structures should not be limited to the government. Monopolies are just as insidious as banana republics.
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Politicians should earn zero dollars in salary while being prohibited from anything that even has the faintest whiff of profiting from the position. “Service” needs to be reemphasized in the role of the “public servant” which in the modern parlance more closely translates to “public master”.
 
Chucktshoes said:
It is a right to justly acquire and own property free from the interference of others. It is incumbent upon me to acquire that property in mutually agreeable terms between myself and the producer/retailer of said property. In this case it was an exchange made by the medium of fiat currency I earned through the exchange of my labor to others for payment in said fiat currency. It is not the responsibility of anyone to provide that property to me.
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By your own definition the only rights any human has are to live and die. People can and will attempt to kill and steal from you. That’s why society exists to define morality, nothing beyond life and death is inevitable.
 
Chucktshoes said:
Time to get spicy. I have no issue with folks denying service to anyone for any reason. Plus, I’d rather know who the raging bigots are so I can choose not to provide them with my business.
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So you're ok with systemic racism? Sundown towns?

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If someone's gay/black/whites and the one shop doesn't like the gays/black/whites, guess they gotta move?

Frankly it sounds antisocial.
 
Lee Newman said:
By your own definition the only rights any human has are to live and die. People can and will attempt to kill and steal from you. That’s why society exists to define morality, nothing beyond life and death is inevitable.
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Eh, while one way to look at it, I wouldn’t necessarily agree. That said, if that is your take I would also add to that you will answer for your actions in this life.
 
yukbon said:
So you're ok with systemic racism? Sundown towns?

View attachment 90475

If someone's gay/black/whites and the one shop doesn't like the gays/black/whites, guess they gotta move?

Frankly it sounds antisocial.
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Okay with it? No. Believe I have the moral right or authority to force people to engage with people they don’t wish to? Also no.

Freedom means accepting that some outcomes would be ones that you do not like or agree with.
 
My experience with corporate America today.
This may seem trivial but I think it sums up what's wrong with USA.
Full disclosure I have lived here over 20 years.
I took today and tomorrow off work for a break and to get some stuff done.
After, I decided to go to a British themed restaurant/bar named 'The Pub' to watch some English soccer, drink some beer and eat Fish & chips. Happy to spend a couple hours there and spend $50 or so.
I walk into an almost empty bar and ask to watch the soccer which is not currently playing. I'm referred to the manager, a 21 year old girl, who happily hears the word soccer and changes all the TV's to a Panama international game I think. I politely explain that EPL is on NBCSN or Peacock and since this is a British themed pub could I watch that. I was told that corporate control the TV and she could only change it to what they dictated. I asked if they had a subscription to NBCSN and she said yes but she isn't 'allowed'.
My response was to leave, buy a 6 pack and watch at home. Ugh!
 
There's such a thing as corporate english-themed-pubs in the US? We've only got two in Miami -- Churchill's and The Pub (there's others but they're irish pubs and we have a few bierhauses for catching matches) -- but I've never heard of a corporate chain of british pubs. Seems like such a specific thing.
 
Englishbob said:
My experience with corporate America today.
This may seem trivial but I think it sums up what's wrong with USA.
Full disclosure I have lived here over 20 years.
I took today and tomorrow off work for a break and to get some stuff done.
After, I decided to go to a British themed restaurant/bar named 'The Pub' to watch some English soccer, drink some beer and eat Fish & chips. Happy to spend a couple hours there and spend $50 or so.
I walk into an almost empty bar and ask to watch the soccer which is not currently playing. I'm referred to the manager, a 21 year old girl, who happily hears the word soccer and changes all the TV's to a Panama international game I think. I politely explain that EPL is on NBCSN or Peacock and since this is a British themed pub could I watch that. I was told that corporate control the TV and she could only change it to what they dictated. I asked if they had a subscription to NBCSN and she said yes but she isn't 'allowed'.
My response was to leave, buy a 6 pack and watch at home. Ugh!
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I can tell you why corporate does not allow them to put on certain channels. I've had to deal with this when I was in retail management 10 years ago.

The issue a commercial for a competitor might come on. And they can't have that. The approved stations they allow to be displayed they know are safe from having any of their competitors commercials run. They consider it a conflict of their interest to have commercials from a competitor run in their establishment.

And if as a manager you allow one of those stations to be displayed, and you get visited by regional or corporate management and they see one of these channels on it's not good for the Manager. They usually get a written warning on their file.
 
yukbon said:
There's such a thing as corporate english-themed-pubs in the US? We've only got two in Miami -- Churchill's and The Pub (there's others but they're irish pubs and we have a few bierhauses for catching matches) -- but I've never heard of a corporate chain of british pubs. Seems like such a specific thing.
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Apparently they are owned by thetavernrestaurantgroup. Maybe The Pub in Miami is too?
 
RenegadeMonster said:
I can tell you why corporate does not allow them to put on certain channels. I've had to deal with this when I was in retail management 10 years ago.

The issue a commercial for a competitor might come on. And they can't have that. The approved stations they allow to be displayed they know are safe from having any of their competitors commercials run. They consider it a conflict of their interest to have commercials from a competitor run in their establishment.

And if as a manager you allow one of those stations to be displayed, and you get visited by regional or corporate management and they see one of these channels on it's not good for the Manager. They usually get a written warning on their file.
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The sad part is 'ThePub' is only 2 miles from my house and I enjoy the vibe. But they pissed me off now and i won't frequent it again. There are other options.
 
I've just a heard a horror story about something that happened to a co-worker of mine.

Back when she was 18 she was involved in a car accident that resulted in her being transported to the hospital by ambulance. She was under her fathers insurance at the time and that insurance 100% covered the cost of ambulance rides. Her father took care of all the insurance related stuff and bills.

Fast forward 8 years, and when she was 26 out of the blue she had her entire federal tax return garnished to pay for the ambulance ride.

Here is what happened. Apparently they took down her address incorrectly and could not locate her to bill her for the ambulance ride. They send the bills directly to the consumer and not insurance. Once you get the bill you create a claim with your insurance and they cover it. Because they never got a bill and ambulance rides are covered her father never thought anything of it.

The debt was eventually handed off to a collection agency. And that collection agency never made contact with her or her father as well.

They eventually took it to court. But never located her and therefor never notified her of the court date. Since she was a no show at court the judge ordered it to be garnished.

Her father was livid. She described her father as someone who never loses his cool or swears. And when he was on the phone trying to straighten this out he was yelling and dropping f bombs left and right.

His insurance would not help. Too much time has passed and the window to make a claim has long closed. Not to mention his daughter was no longer under his insurance which is another issue in it self.

When contacting the city they too were unable to help. He argued if they never billed him his daughter shouldn't have to pay the bill. They said there is nothing they can do, the debt had already been sold so that the city could recover its money. He would have to contact the debt collector to work this out.

The debt collection agency was only interested in working out repayment plans for the remaining balance. They wouldn't waive the debt or refund what was garnished.

He contacted his lawyer, but because his daughter lost a court case for not showing up, even though she didn't know she had to show up, it would be a tough, long and expensive battle in court to try to resolve this in court. And there is a good chance even still they would not get the money back that was already garnished. His advice was it's not worth pursuing as it will be a long headache and probably cost you more in the long run than trying to recover the money that was already garnished.

She ended up never getting the money back that was garnished, and having to pay off the remaining debt which included legal fees for having to go to court.

She wants to know how they can never find her to bill her, or contact her, or let her know of a court date. Yet have no problem finding her when it comes to taking the money out of her tax return.

This also never hit her credit report until after the IRS garnished her tax return.

The tax return being garnished was the first sign / they ever heard that where were issues with the billing of the ambulance ride.
 
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