There is a huge difference between a company that makes a good product and a company that is good at advertising.

Honestly that's the main reason why tech people need to get MBA's to run their business. It's not that hard to figure out how to manage and do back office stuff passably well. Oh sure, you might pay too much in taxes, but it's not that big a deal.

What is a big deal is the ability to get the word out - to tell people about your product.

And I can honestly say that for most tech jobs, we are more akin to a plumber or an electrician, than anything else.

Yes, if your company makes it's money making and selling software or hardware, SOME of the high end jobs are different. Similarly, the guys that make toilets have some high end jobs that are not blue collar workers.

But most of us don't write the big code. Instead we install, maintain and fix stuff that some idiot took a big dump in.

We are plumbers, not Management. Hell, we even hate the 'suits'.

For the majority of jobs, we don't need a BA. Honestly, my BA was in political science, not computer science. Yes, I took post-graduate classes, yes I taught myself. But NOTHING I learned from teachers at my university is essential to my job.

I don't know your particular situation, mainly because you provide NO SPECIFICS. But I am willing to bet the medical care you got before was for MUCH less expensive things then you got now.

As in broken leg before, head injury now.

The basic fact is, if they did not exploit it, then someone working for them is thinking "DAMN, I wish I thought of using that!"

Do you have sources, or is that just a rumor?

actually told the truth once.

Jobs are determined by us wanting to do things. I want a colony on another planet. Venus sounds good to me. It would be incredibly expensive, but we could theoretically do it. As long as man has ridiculous long term goals like this there will ALWAYS be work.

It also requires a stronger government than a low tech world - you don't need an airforce if you don't know how to fly. You don't need a navy if you don't know how to build ocean going ships. Technology is the real reason why government spending has been going up. The new sciences need government spending, not private spending.

As for the idea that coal miners can't learn to code, there is some truth to that. Technology requires people that can THINK, not just move. It requires a certain kind of thought as well. But people retire. And there are lots of people on the edge - that is not all coal miners lift a pick axe. Some of them run huge dump trucks and huge shovels. Some coal miners are safety wardens, looking for methane.

I guarantee you someone that knows how to drive the huge, dangerous mining equipment can also learn how to code. Safety wardens as well.

The best part about technology is that no matter how 'quick' the change appears, it actually takes decades. There are first implementers and holdouts. Combine that with some retirements and a transition can be accomplished smoothly - as long as idiots don't try to hold everything back until it is too late and change hits you like a tidal wave, instead of a slow tide coming in.

The cities are just as much to blame as the people you insult with your quotes.

Even just restricting it to graffiti, cities do stupid things like declaring chalk is graffiti - even though it washes away with rain - and arresting kids.

The artists don't destroy neighborhoods, the cities let them get destroyed so that they are incredibly ugly, refusing to clean them up. At least until some kid comes along and paints a wall that is falling down. Then finally the city comes in and white washes it. Simultaneously they leave the subway stations full of dirt and garbage, smelling of urine, being unwilling to whitewash them.

That is, I could just as easily write down:

E=M*(C cubed)

But that doesn't mean it is 'right'. The correct formula is E= M*(C squared) and it doesn't matter how many times I write any other formula.

As such, math can describe ANY internally consistent theory. (and even some internally inconsistent ones). It is only through practical testing that we can determine if the math is right.

Well, I can't argue with you there.

But then again, they need all those cameras to protect themselves from CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN

(reference to sci-fi/horror novel)

It is only difficult to do it the other way around. That is, if you have a user ID it is hard to figure out which person it applies to.

But finding out the user ID of a person whose travel schedule you know is ridiculously easy. If you know four facts - 1) the person uses the bike program, 2) where they work, 3) where they live, and 4) what time they have to be in work, then you can easily figure out their userID

Apparently England is fine letting everyone know where you have been.

Look at it from the perspective of a stalker.

Note, that stalker may be a wife, ex-wife, husband, ex-husband, etc.

The stalker can pretty easily find out where you live and work, if they don't already know. Then easily use this website to get all of your other visits.

Your ex-husband, who you left because he hit you one time, can now track you down. Oh, and he now knows the rough location of where you new boyfriend lives.

Clear violation of privacy to me.

Oh. That I can explain, it is quite obvious why it would help the situation. There are three possible situations:

Situation 1) No law requiring people to buy healthcare, no law blocking insurance companies from denying you healthcare for pre-existing situations. They can even deny you healthcare for brain cancer because you have diabetes. (or worse, accept you, then deny coverage because you failed to disclose you had diabetes). People that get screwed: a) anyone that is not 100% healthy and also b) anyone that risks going without insurance but ends up needing it.

Situations 2) Law requiring coverage of pre-existing conditions, but no law requiring people to buy insurance. People that get screwed: Insurance companies, as people wait till after they get sick to buy insurance. Then after insurance companies all go bankrupt, everyone gets screwed.

Situation 3) Law requiring coverage of pre-existing conditions and also a law requiring people to buy insurance. People that get screwed: Anyone that wanted to risk going without good insurance and would have been lucky enough not to need it.

The first situation was what we used to have. The second situation is what we tried to avoid. The third situation is what we have now. Please note it only screw up assholes that tried to take ridiculous gambles and happened to be lucky enough to win the gamble.

We had a choice - screw over the sick, screw over insurance companies (which would have eventually led to a truly government controlled healthcare), or require everyone to buy insurance. We wisely made the best possible decision.

P.S.I am employed and have good healthcare - which I desperately need because I got sick (nasty virus) in college and my kidneys have slowly been dying over the past 20 years, despite the fact that I don't drink, etc. I have maybe 5 more years till I need a transplant and am clearly one of the people that will very much benefit from Obamacare.

Those numbers are also limited - it doesn't show how many people: 1) Bought off the exchange - but bought policies enhanced by the AHCA law. 2) Got Medicaid now but could not have gotten it before (of course, that only applies to GOP states that did not decided to screw over their poor... to save a tiny amount of money - less than 10% of the cost) 3) Were put on/stayed on their parents plans because of the AHCA law that let them stay on.

1) Because Health insurance is not there to pay for things like health checkups, it is there to pay for things like breaking every bone in your body, cancer, heart bypass, etc.

2) If your doctor charges you $40, but you have a $50 copay if you use insurance, it is because your doctor is illegally charging you less money than the insurance company. He may be stealing from them, or giving you a break, but he is breaking the law.

3) If you get in a car accident your car insurance will NOT pay for your medical - it pays the guy you hit medical, not yours. (Unless you paid extra for worthless insurance).

4)If you get injured at work, the company may pay - or it may screw you over. Been known to happen.

5) If you get injured at a home, most people do NOT have the kind of insurance that pays for medical bills. I personally have insurance that will pay you $10,000, that's it. Anything else, you have to go to court to sue me, and I would have to sell my home to pay you off. Good luck with that lawsuit by the way, your lawyer would get 1/3 of whatever I could pay.

The only point I see is someone that radically overestimates how much insurance everyone ELSE has while complaining about how much he personally is being told to buy.