Working in Healthcare IT and actually on an EMR project for a fairly prominent hospital I'd like to comment on a few of your points:

1) There is HUGE need for developers but budget concerns are a real problem, the stimulus money is years away but the cost of implementation is immediate. This creates a real problem, the need is there but the budget isn't and the timeframe for implementation doesn't leave much room to adjust the budget to open new positions without cutting into development time.

2) I'm going to stay out of the pro/anti-Obama sentiment but I will agree that the government is being way too minimal. If they want to set the rules, they need to set the rules. Currently the vague nature of "meaningful use" is a major problem when trying to tie together multiple legacy systems in time. Obviously it would be nice to eventually merge everything into one flow, we simply don't have time for that, and no one can afford to miss the deadlines. Also, Google and MS are both making extreme pushes for their "single repository" systems. The very concept disturbs me even as I implement it.

3) Yes deadlines are good for driving the industry forward, but there are realistic problems with the deadlines that have been set. If you told every person in america that they had to switch to a hybrid car or half their pay would be garnished you would end up with a lot of people walking to work. Which ties directly into 4) the third party companies are backed up, the hospitals are trying to pick up the slack but are backed up by point 1 and everyone is just sort of holding their breath.

It's more than a carrot, there is also quite a large stick attached to this.

All ER/EDs treat any patient that comes in, regardless of insurance. They report to and receive money from Medicare based on treatment of these uninsured patients. If you do not meet the new standards set forth, the money you receive from Medicare will be drastically cut. For large city hospitals this is simply not an option.

I wonder if pointing that out as a dutiful employee gets me a bonus.

Also, considering the high number of foreign students and the relatively low number of US jobs, even if this was true it's not like companies are magically going to make thousands of positions available for foreign grads. I don't know of any of the foreign undergrads I went to Johns Hopkins with having an easier time getting a job as they have to beg/borrow/steal/jump through hoops getting a visa at the same time.

I'll love you forever for calling swine flu captain tripps.

That makes sense, but there are a lot more than just salary involved in getting teachers to lower scoring schools. The _possibility_ of a higher salary weighed against working in a dangerous environment is, in my opinion of course, not likely to bring in better teachers. Working a cushy job in the suburbs for a moderate salary versus working in an inner city schools, in a dangerous area, where you are likely to see at least petty vandalism as a regular occurrence for the chance at making extra money, that's not a winning proposition to many people.

That said, I don't have a better idea. I attended a private school for K-8 and thne 9-12 (Catholic schools both) and barring an exceptionally boring Theology class, I've always felt I got much better education than my friends at public school. Mostly resulting from smaller class sizes and better parent-teacher interaction (it's much easier for a teacher to really work with parents when there are less kids, and parental involvement in education is key). I've never supported a voucher program though, I believe that public education is important and I wish I had a better idea of how to improve it.

I absolutely disagree. My father spent 30 years working as a public school teacher at a vocational/technical school. If they managed to go a week without an evacuation for a bomb threat it was cause for a celebration. The majority of the students were cast offs from the surrounding 5 schools districts. I don't see how it would at all be possible to use merit-based pay on that student base. Apathetic, mentally handicapped, or simply dangerous students aren't going to magically become pro-active happy students no matter how much you bait/threaten the teachers with pay increases/decreases.

I just don't understand how merit-based pay is going to change let's say, inner city Baltimore schools into bastions of scientific learning. If anything it's going to further drive teachers away from those schools.

I could use my moderate points to mod down everyone who promotes use of the word "cloud"

Since when does something being impractical make it untrue? I have the impression that your notion of impractical equates to useless, which I disagree with.

Ungh, whining about how everything is broken but you don't want to bother is the first step to being ignored, not change, I think you have confused whining with protest. Protest generally comes with the intent to actually do something, whining - as we have here - clearly states the intent to do nothing and have no change (but continue to whine).

Actually it's quite possible to build a small island in international water. I'm not really interested in revolting so I don't have any plans, but your lack of ability to plan doesn't make my point any less valid.

"And maybe I am lazy, but I don't want to spend my life campaigning, I have better things to do (like living it)." Wow, I mean, just wow. You think things are terribly wrong and awful but you can't be bothered to fix them, but you obviously want them to be fixed because otherwise you wouldn't be complaining.

What utter bullshit.

While you are "having a quiet smoke", other people are actively campaigning for candidates/running for office themselves/getting things done while you just whine. If you truly and wholeheartedly believe the system is corrupt beyond measure than leave or revolt. Whining solves nothing. The whole argument "It's broken and everyone is dumb" is just a crutch for the lazy to fall back on when things don't go their way. Move somewhere else, found your own nation, or revolt. All are valid options for you, all have had historical success in allowing people to live lives more attune with what they want. Take a pick, just stop bitching.

I think his point was that the drivers are a known issue just like disk access is a known issue and both should be noted equally. Instead of one being noted, and the other not which implies a mysterious and general terribleness.