Originally Posted By jonvn That's a nice puff piece. Until they get bought, or change their policies. Why don't you go find out about what happened to Bank of America. The largest bank in the nation. Bought out in the 1990s by Nations Bank, and moved from their headquarters in SF to Charlotte, NC. Gad.
Originally Posted By DAR Many companies work the same this one doesn't. But again you know everything don't ya Jonny boy?
Originally Posted By alexbook mrichmondj: I'm curious if you know anything about the new DoD Inspector General-designate, and if you think he'll help clean things up among the contractors. I haven't had much luck finding info about him on the net, aside from jokes about his name (Claude Kicklighter). <a href="http://www.upi.com/SecurityTerrorism/bush_taps_dod_iraq_official_to_be_ig/20070226-045836-9978r/" target="_blank">http://www.upi.com/SecurityTer rorism/bush_taps_dod_iraq_official_to_be_ig/20070226-045836-9978r/</a>
Originally Posted By jonvn OK, so now you have to be insulting. Last refuge of someone who is wrong. The fact is I don't know everything. I do know this: They all are the same because they all have to follow the same rules. I don't know everything, but apparently you don't seem to know anything, if you think these things can't happen to the company you work for. It is the height of naivete to think that it can not happen to you. A lot of workers at BofA thought the same. They thought wrong, and they were either layed off, or had their jobs taken out of the single largest building in SF, where the headquartes had been for 90 years, and moved across the country. You can not really be this clueless.
Originally Posted By SingleParkPassholder ANYWAY........ I listen briefly to Larry Elder on the way home from court today. Very briefly. Elder's schtick is that he's a black libertarian. I thought he'd be all agog about Libby, but instead in the time that I listened he was talking about the Walter Reed mess. He said it was fair to criticize the Bush Administration for not allocating the proper funding to maintain Walter Reed, but "assuming that criticism is legitimate" he had two questions for those who criticize. One, what do we expect from the government anyway? Do we really expect them to provide decent care at hospitals? Now, this to me is completely disingenuous, because if we're going to plan to go to war, we should plan all the way through and ensure we have a decent place to send casualties. It is not expecting too much of our government to provide exemplary care for soldiers they themselves have sent to war. I didn't get to Elder's second question because as soon as I heard he was going to be yet another yahoo trying to blame Clinton for something (what IS IT with you people??? Did he really get under your collective skins THAT much? I never voted for the guy, but criminy man, MOVE ON already), I switched to sports talk radio.
Originally Posted By DAR <<OK, so now you have to be insulting. Last refuge of someone who is wrong.>> Just taking a page out of your playbook. The possiblilty of losing my job at that company is the same possiblity of me hooking up with Jenna Jameson, it's not going to happen. And no I'm not that clueless because I know what happens in the business world. Yes companies move, yes they're taken over. But were not on the stock exchange so there would never be a corporate takeover of any sort.
Originally Posted By SingleParkPassholder "The possiblilty of losing my job at that company is the same possiblity of me hooking up with Jenna Jameson, it's not going to happen. And no I'm not that clueless because I know what happens in the business world. Yes companies move, yes they're taken over. But were not on the stock exchange so there would never be a corporate takeover of any sort." Whoa whoa whoa my son. It's understandable you feel strongly about what you wrote here, but never, ever, ever make such blanket statements as "I'll never lose my job". The landscape of this country is unfortunately littered with newly unemployed 50 and 60 somethings who never saw the train coming, either.I'm a government attorney, soon to be 49, and I plan on being there until I retire just before I turn 63. Nice, solid government job you say? Hah. In my Rolodex I have a networking list that grows daily, weekly, monthly of people I can call if I find myself out of work. We're always one bad recession or depression away from disaster.
Originally Posted By jonvn "Just taking a page out of your playbook." My playbook is being realistic. You are totally living in a dream world. " But were not on the stock exchange " For example, this. SO what? You don't think if Citicorp wanted to give the owner a few billion for the place, he'd not take it? And if he drops dead tomorrow someone else in his position wouldn't? OR if the economy goes really bad, and the place you work at needs to cut costs, they won't do so? Give me a break. "littered with newly unemployed 50 and 60 somethings who never saw the train coming, either." That's right. No one is guaranteed anything. But lets assume that this one person, out of the entire nation, does have it made, and can never be fired, layed off or suffer something that insurance will not fully cover. The level of zero empathy for absolutely everyone else is amazing to me. No one else has such a lucky position in that he can't lose his job, no matter what. Even if this one seems to think it is IMPOSSIBLE for him to not be employed at his company, it's certainly not the case with everyone else.
Originally Posted By alexbook Can we dial back the personal element half a notch? jonvn: There are some people who are lucky enough to be truly secure. There aren't a lot, but let's assume for the sake of discussion that DAR really is one of them. DAR: I hope you can understand that if you really are secure in having health coverage for your lifetime, you are in such a tiny minority of Americans as to seem nearly mythical to most of us. The question here is whether what the government can provide better health care than the private sector. DAR has contrasted government care with the best private care, and there's no question that the best private care wins every time. Other have objected that that's not a fair comparison, since very few people are guaranteed the best private care. Is this a fair summary? Can we discuss it in a civilized manner?
Originally Posted By jonvn "but let's assume for the sake of discussion that DAR really is one of them." That's what I did. The thing is you don't look at North Korea as an example, as if that's the only country out there that does this. But instead, look at Canada, and Europe. In fact many countries all around the world. How we do things in this country is not how a civilized nation behaves towards its citizenry.
Originally Posted By alexbook A corrections & an apology: There's an extra "what" in post #69. No points for finding it. I shouldn't have singled out jonvn, as I was actually reacting to several posts by several posters and conflating them in my mind. My apologies, jonvn.
Originally Posted By fkurucz Well, its like he old Fram filter commercials: You can pay me now, or pay me later. As the number of uninsured grows the taxpayers will continue to pick up their tab. I think that it would be better to have a system that properly funded everyone's healthcare. That way instead of using the emergency room as their family doctor (very expensive and inefficient) the poor could see a regular doctor. This would encourage more preventive care (which is far more cost efficient).
Originally Posted By pecos bill If left like it is, given the increase in population and the pathetic state of our education system, in twenty years you could have a country that quite literally is bankrupt. Something has to be done, and hopefully we Americans can quit freaking out about Paris Hilton and Anna Nicole Smith, and start concentrating on the issues that are going to effect our very survival as a nation. Americans are going to have to suck it up and resolve to paying much higher taxes in order to clean up this mess.
Originally Posted By fkurucz ^^That's another issue (population growth). If we could kick our addiction to illegal alien labor our population growth would literally stop.
Originally Posted By alexbook >>That's another issue (population growth). If we could kick our addiction to illegal alien labor our population growth would literally stop.<< If population growth stops, won't economic growth stop?
Originally Posted By dsnykid Unless all of you americans plan to quit procreating, your population growth will never stop... it may slow, it may stagnate, but I can't see it stopping, between birth rates and legal immigration. As to your health care program, I have used American health care as a Canadian on a work Visa, and paid $170 per month, plus whatever my company kicked in. I have also had to take my father to the Mayo Clinic, and looked at an itemized bill in which we were literally charged $400 for q-tips and cotton balls. A 4 day diagnostic stay cost $15,000... It was insane! I do have Government Health care at a cost of $44/month.. it doesn't include optical or dental, but if I am in an accident, I do get quality care for however long I need it. Having experienced both sides of the coin, I do prefer having 'sociallized' Health care
Originally Posted By mrichmondj << If population growth stops, won't economic growth stop? >> In a country that relies on the rest of the world to support it's consumption, the answer would be yes. If our business leaders were smart, they could leverage off the population growth in the rest of the world to increase our economic might. Sadly, we've let the rest of the world leverage off of us, so we're stuck relying on 3rd world immigrants to drive the growth rate in the U.S.
Originally Posted By mrichmondj << Unless all of you americans plan to quit procreating, your population growth will never stop... it may slow, it may stagnate, but I can't see it stopping, between birth rates and legal immigration. >> Check out the latest census data and trend analysis. You couldn't be more wrong. Our organic population growth will be negative as the Baby Boomers start to die off in large numbers. Our only significant population growth will be coming from immigration.
Originally Posted By mrichmondj << I'm curious if you know anything about the new DoD Inspector General-designate, and if you think he'll help clean things up among the contractors. I haven't had much luck finding info about him on the net, aside from jokes about his name (Claude Kicklighter). >> IGs have never been all that succesful when it comes to the DOD. Investigating military contracts is difficult because the players are so transient. The uniformed folks rotate every couple of years, and the contracts usually don't have too much longevity between the initial award and the time they are renewed. By the time someon gets around to investigate, so much of the critical information is lost and the key players have moved on that it is hard to reconstruct exactly what happened. That's not to say that there isn't plenty of bad stuff to investigate, it's just not as easy as it appears.
Originally Posted By dsnykid >>Our organic population growth will be negative as the Baby Boomers start to die off in large numbers. Our only significant population growth will be coming from immigration.<< Yes I understand that, and I see where you are coming from. I didn't even think about the baby boomer population. However, I did mention legal immigration
