General > General Technical Chat
What is a good about Covid 19 related?
<< < (8/25) > >>
IDEngineer:

--- Quote from: Zero999 on March 29, 2020, 08:08:14 pm ---This is obviously no good if everyone is sick and loses their job at the same time.
--- End quote ---
THIS is the root issue with relying on government as a safety net. A few "insurance" claims can be tolerated. Massive, double-digit percentages cannot. We are very near the latter.

Your point about savings being worthless if the currency is devalued is 100% accurate. By itself, having hordes of cash isn't self-sufficiency. Remember the irish potato famine stories.
james_s:
Depending on how bad it gets and how widespread, it might put one or more private health insurance companies out of business which I can only see as a good thing in the long term. Witnessing millions of people being dumped into the street without healthcare during a pandemic might finally catalyze the formation of universal healthcare in the USA, similar to that which every other developed nation in the world has. We already spend twice as much money as the runner up, universal healthcare would be cheaper than what we're doing now and wouldn't result in people losing their healthcare when they need it most or being tied to a job they hate because they need the health insurance. Employer provided health insurance is an enormous job killing tax on corporations that not only encourages them to avoid hiring people but encourages disposing of older employees and replacing them with younger people that are cheaper to insure. It's hard for me to understand why our political right is so dead set against universal care when it would remove what is effectively an enormous tax on corporations removing that dis-incentive on hiring full time employees.

Every system has flaws but if I set out to design one as complicated and inefficient as possible I'd be hard pressed to beat what we have. There are layers and layers of middlemen that add no value whatsoever. I hear people argue that they don't want to pay for someone elses medical care, not realizing that they're already paying for it on top of everything else. Emergency rooms cannot deny treatment, when someone can't pay the cost is padded onto what everyone else pays. The fact that we spend twice as much per capita as any other nation on healthcare yet still have millions without coverage suggests an enormous level of waste and overhead.
james_s:

--- Quote from: IDEngineer on March 29, 2020, 08:12:55 pm ---It has to end at some point. The numbers don't lie and cannot be fooled forever. But I think today's politicians are in too deep to stop it with any sort of normal response. The debt is simply too great to repay, no generation will be willing to sacrifice that much for the excesses and bad judgement of earlier politicians.

--- End quote ---

I've wondered at times what will eventually happen with that. The debt is so massive that I don't think most can even comprehend the number, it will never be repaid, doing so is impossible even if it stopped increasing today, I've wondered if it might almost make sense to just throw part of it out and start over. To be honest I don't even fully understand who the debt is owed to.

Then there is the stock market, it is supposed to provide capital for companies to expand but in reality most of what it functions as is just a huge casino. I was looking at some stock prices yesterday just for fun and even after the huge slides we have seen quite a few of them are STILL greatly overpriced relative to what they rationally should be. I observed the same thing during the housing bubble crash in 2008 or whenever that was, the value of my house dropped quite a bit but it never dropped anywhere near to what I paid for the place in 2004, at the lowest point it was still overpriced relative to average wages. The whole thing is a house of cards and what we have come to see as "normal" is actually highly inflated. People make vast sums of money pushing stocks around without generating any actual value. It's just a big game where you try to leave someone else holding the bag.
tooki:

--- Quote from: babysitter on March 29, 2020, 12:05:03 pm ---
* German folk music concerts got cancelled. (Hint: German folk music is the worst.)
--- End quote ---
Generally speaking, I agree with you completely. I hate Schlager. But this is glorious:

Wilksey:

--- Quote from: bd139 on March 29, 2020, 04:38:39 pm ---Good things so far:

1. Housing market crashed so new buyers might get a chance.
2. No dog shit and litter everywhere
3. All the people who are bonafide arseholes are coming out so I can shit list them easily.
4. Pollution declined. Air in London is like the countryside now.
5. Bar the first night where one fell through my fence and destroyed it, no drunks fighting in the alley behind my house.
6. The company I work for makes more money out of this due to our automation and self service products and the current financial crash
7. Being an engineer type person I relish days when I'm not disturbed every 3 seconds by shoulder tapping dickheads. That is now not a problem.

--- End quote ---

Haha, fully with you on point #7!!

I will say that - perhaps not a "good" thing, but you also find out what the company you work for is like, and how far they are willing to go for their employees.
Let's just say not a lot of happy campers.
Navigation
Message Index
Next page
Previous page
There was an error while thanking
Thanking...

Go to full version
Powered by SMFPacks Advanced Attachments Uploader Mod