"The point is ladies and gentlemen that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms - greed for life, for money, knowledge - has marked the upward surge of mankind..."
GORDON GEKKO.
I congress could use a little refresher on this point. Sadly...Here's one from someone who's NOT a make believe character...
Profits We Should Cheer
By Stephen L. Carter
19 comments:
You know, Gekko was not the hero of that movie. Greed is good up to a point. That point is where you cheat old people out of their retirement benefits for money, or break the law for money, or corrupt politicians for money or cancel people's health insurance for money. We passed that point a long time ago.
I do agree with Stephen Carter that we need an "expanded public option" in healthcare.
Yes i know who the "hero" of that movie is.
Unlike many of my compatriots who worked on wall st. i actually understood the message of the movie and never liked it. I did however like that speech and agreed with it which is why i used it.
also i don't think the author is calling for an expanded public option. He merely points out that in order to have one you need a vibrant private sector option. Unfortunatley we know that the current legislation being proposed will destroy the private sector option.
The free market is the ONLY solution to the problem (if you believe there is one)of uninsured citizens in this country.
As i've said before i don't think there is a problem. The actual number of "uninsured" CITIZENS is a lot smaller than the #'s we keep hearing. This is but one more lie that Obama continues to tell you in order to get you to stay in your place like the rest of the sheeple.
baaaa...baaaaa....
By the way. Criminals are criminals. If you're greedy (like me) it's always good because you're willing to work hard to get more. I've never stolen anything or cheated anyone to get ahead. If you're morally corrupt then you don't have to be greedy to committ a crime.
just a few comments on this:
one of my doctors has told me that he actually prefers to deal with medicare, even though they pay a little less than the insurance companies, because they are just more efficient to deal with. whta he's basically saying is that the insurance company bureacracy is larger and more formidable than the "public" system.
and what about william kristol, getting snagged by john stewart saying that the VA provides excellent healthcare. but that the "average citizen" doesn't deserve to be treated as well. i am absolutely in favor of our veteran's getting the best healthcare there is ... because they are being used as sacrificial lambs in a interminable war. but i feel that the "average joe" deserves just as good a shake as the vet. just as every industrialized nation on the planet provides healthcare to its citizens, we are so very profited motivated that we fail our own citizens in a serious way.
as i've said before.
1. the average citizen in this country has better healthcare than anywhere else in the world.
2. the free market is the answer to the problems you think we have.
i haven't been to a doctor in probably 15 years so i can't tell you from personal experience what they prefer but i would bet that your doctor is in the minority. Besides which a big part of the insurance company bureaucracy is created by government interference.
Please show me a country that has a single payer system where the average citizen has better health care than here. Just one where the experts agree that it's better. Just one where the citizens agree that it's better.
Do you seriously think that all of a sudden, all of these government jerkoffs, most of whom have NEVER run any kind of business and have just been spewing bullshit for their entire careers can suddenly make socialized medicine work even though it's never worked anywhere else in the world? Who's that smart? Obama? Pelosi? How about some of the republicans? which one of them is smart enough to make socialism work?
Seriously Anita the entire concept is ridiculous.
Finally, i couldn't disagree more that the average citizen deserves anything.
You deserve what you earn.
rhino, you wrote: "i haven't been to a doctor in probably 15 years"
so maybe you should stick to issues you know something about. you have this pie-in-the-sky idea of what it means to deal with the private healthcare system, and then you ADMIT that you've not been to the doctor in over a decade, never mind having had a serious illness that required the coordination of various doctors and specialists and treatments and medications, and tests and second opinions and more tests and more treatments, and then, voila! pre-existing conditions! ... i could go on and you still wouldn't have a clue about how messed up the insurance companies can be, and very, very often are.
no offense, because i'm not going to attack you or call you names because that's very immature, but really, you should stick to issues you can talk about with a little bit of authority.
i'm not entirely sure what that is, but i'll give you the benefit of the doubt that you can find something.
So you're an expert because you've been to the doctor? And i can't speak intelligently on the matter because i'm lucky enough to be healthy?
slow down and think about what you're saying.
Please answer the question that i asked. you said every industrialized nation provides health care to it's citizens. Please tell me which one's citizens have better health care than the average American citizen?
Yeah Anita, I love ya but horrible argument.
Ive never been to a gynecologist but I know pussy.
Yeah thats right.
Can you at least agree that we have the world's best medical system? And that all the countries with go'vt run medi are significantly worse?
Because if you cant, theres no point continuing if you can then to use Obama's phrase..
Why make perfect the enemy of the good?
America is not just good, we're the best. Is there room for improvement of course there is, but Obama and the dems arent offering suggestions to improve. The stimulus did not stimulate, cap n trade will not affect global climate, and health care reform will make our medical system worse.
Do the math.
i highly suggest that you watch the round table discussion on CNBC conducted by maria bartiromo. she brings together all sides of this arguement, from bill frist to michael milken (yeah, i know) to jennifer granholm, the head of the cleveland clinic, the head of a doctors organization, a representative from insurance companies and a guy from eli lilly. it is just a really great discussion.
a couple of points for you.
1. they point out that here in the united states, we don't have so much of a "Health Care System" but rather we have a "Health Care Sector", which to me, says a lot.
2. they all acknowledge the innefficiencies in this "sector" and all of them have differing points of view on it, but they all acknowledge that it is in serious need of reform due to waste, fraud, etc., and yes, even greed. everyone from governor jennifer granholm to bill frist agreed that this system is simply not working any more.
3. along those same lines, while you guys keep saying we have the best system in the world, none bartiromo's guests seem to think that was the case. it was acknowledged that our country, in terms of the health of its citizens, infant mortality rates, etc., ranks 30th or so amongst the industrialized west. now lots of factors can be attributed to that (obesity, for one), it is also clear that we SPEND the most on health care. why is that? the systems not working.
4. and my final point for this morning. it was acknowledged in this round table discussion that we do in fact have the best doctors, the best researchers, the hospitals in the world. and we put massive amounts into research and development. however, because the SYSTEM is broken, or perhaps because the corporate megaliths care more about the sales of their drugs than the real health of the population at large, those superior aspects are not trickling down in a significant way to the benefit of the average person.
just like michael jackson was able to buy doctors and drugs at his whim, maria bartiromo mentioned how when steve jobs needed a liver transplant, he got one. he didn't have to be on a wait list for months or years, he got it right away. just like mickey mantle did, as i recall (and there was quite an outcry after that).
here in american, we have all of the best of the best. but when push comes to shove, if you (meaning the average joe in middle america) really need the best of the best, you better be rich and connected.
anita,
even if i agreed with all of your points (i don't) it wouldn't make any difference in where i stand.
You say our system doesn't work anymore. You say the system is broken. You say only the wealthy can get the best of the best.
Ok
So your solution is to make it worse for everyone across the board?
Once again. The proposal that is currently in congress is modeled after systems that are WORSE THAN OURS FOR THE AVERAGE JOE.
Somehow the current crop of politicians in congress and the whitehouse want you to believe that they're going to be able to make it work where others have failed.
Do you think these idiots can do it? Really? Charlie Rangel? Dick Durbin? Or any of the republicans that you can think of you really believe they're so smart that they can make an impossible system work?
Good luck with that.
i just can't figure out how you guys keep saying that "I" have a "solution" to the mess. it seems to be a strategy of you guys, to put words in my mouth (or whatever you call here in the blogosphere). all "I" am doing is acknowledging that there is (and has been for quite a while) some serious things wrong with the system.
you guys, on the other hand "were" saying that we have "the best system in the world." based on your last reply, it seems you have changed your mind a little on this and, like me, acknowledge there is something wrong.
you both say the changes currently on the table will make things worse. "I" admit to not knowing enough about it to know whether that is true or not.
so again, please stop putting words in my mouth or attributing throughts and feelings to me which i do not have or have not given enough consideration to state as "my solutions."
i will admit. "I" have none. "I" wish i did, "I" wish i was that smart.
my bad anita. Not YOUR solution.
The solution currently being proposed by Obama then is a disaster. I know enough to know that it's a disaster. I can state without any hesitation that it would be worse.
I also can say that i have not backed off even a tiny bit on my assertion that we have the best healthcare system in the world. statistics are bullshit. for example the infant mortality stat that you gave... i heard the other day that in some parts of the world they don't count infants unless they live past a certain amount of time....i forget the # but for arguments sake lets say 1 week where as we count all of them.
There is NO DOUBT that we have a better health care system than ANY single payer system or socialized country in the world
There is no reason to copy a system that is worse than ours and every reason to let the free market handle it.
Anita, I like your point about us having the best doctors and hospitals but not the best SYSTEM. I never thought of it that way. Plus I haven't been to the Dr. in like 20 years so I have no idea how it even works today. All I know is that I pay like $20.00 a paycheck to get health insurance (that I have never used) and know that if I do need it, it is there and that the best Dr.'s in the world will be taking care of me in the best hospitals in the world. I'm oblivious otherwise.
Who has a better system than ours?
France, Japan and Australia.
http://www.livescience.com/health/080108-health-care.html
Do you really believe that? If so why didnt you mention "Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom." They all score higher than the US on that poll as well.
Ill have to research that study more but its obviously skewed. Numbers only tell a part of it, for instance I was reading that Bosnia or some other fucked up place has a higher life expectancy than the US.... does that mean they have better medi care?
as michael milken noted on the CNBC roundtable discussion on healthcare, lifestyle is a very important predictor of life expectancy and quality of life (including disease). americans are generally far more obese than our industrial partners, we eat far more junk food, we spend more time in front of the tv than average, and so on and so on.
i happen to believe it when they say obesity is a major factor in poor health in the long term. but as this (or one article i read) noted, an ounce of prevention is 100x less costly than that pound of cure.
i'm sure you'll slice and dice the statistics, and i anticipate your response and i'll say yes we are bunch of fat fucks here in the u.s. (excluding me, of course, i happen to be underweight ... not that i'm bragging or anything).
The stimulus did not stimulate, cap n trade will not affect global climate, and health care reform will make our medical system worse.
___________________
Jenifer
Professional Monitering security systems for Homes, Offices & Appartments
Post a Comment