The VA system performs as well or better than the private health care system (https://www.hsrd.research.va.gov/publications/esp/quality-of-care-review.cfm) and is more efficient than the private system. There are similar results for the IHS - as good or better outcomes, at a lower cost, provided often in hard-to-reach areas for poor and often very sick patients.

You want cost savings? Start by taking the 20% profit and overhead that goes directly into the pockets of the health insurance industry. We could easily get more and pay less with a single-payer, universal health care system. Every other high income country in the world does it. Why not the U.S.?

Oh, right, fear and propaganda by those making $$ on the current "system."

I didn't say health care costs haven't gone up. I said:

Which it did. See, for example: https://www.healthaffairs.org/...

It also increased access to care (https://www.academia.edu/download/84418127/glied_effect_of_aca_on_hlt_care_access_ib.pdf) and reduced disparities in access to care (https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/abs/10.1377/hlthaff.2017.0083).
Care was more affordable for low-income people who were also more likely to get care, be able to pay for their prescriptions, and see overall reduced costs for health for low-income families (https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/full/10.1377/hlthaff.2017.0293).
There is also some evidence Obamacare reduced the number of very expensive emergency department visits for those who received insurance (https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/full/10.1377/hlthaff.2014.01030).

But I do agree we still pay too much for health care and the outcomes we receive are sub optimal. Obamacare was insurance reform, but I would like to see the U.S. pursue a universal single-payer system like pretty much every other high-income country in the world. Oh no, wait, "socialism!!!"

I would say Obamacare is very pro national interest, in that it promotes the health and welfare of the nation and slowed the explosion of health care costs. But that program is unpopular with conservative politicians.

You do know that JD Vance once called Trump "America's Hitler," right?

Reminds me of an old joke - if Microsoft made cars, they'd crash twice a day for no reason.

Stellantis is struggling financially...and with the reliance of their vehicles on these ongoing updates, I'd be hesitant to buy one knowing that if Stellantis fails, who will provide "updates" that will keep my car running?

...makes it clear this is a bad law. With the well known, significant harms social media causes to children, it really should be banned under age 16 (or maybe 18). The Social Media companies love this law because they can go on selling children's data and getting children addicted to their products, and all they have to do is provide a brief "warning" that will have zero effect.

Let's see some real regulation and restrictions of social media companies and children, then we'll talk. (Let's start with no sale of children's data and no targeted advertising, and in-app time limits, say 30 minutes a day; I'd love a ban for children, but that's unrealistic.)

Wait, you are saying you need a permit to burn tires?

On a totally unrelated note, can you put out a rubber fire with water?

Corporal punishment in schools (or in homes, or anywhere, really) is sickening. If, as an adult, I hit my coworker with a cricket bat for being late to a meeting, I'd be arrested for assault. But hit a kid...and it's "discipline"? Insanity.

Anyone who hits a kid should be locked up and throw away the key.

So what? Who cares?

We should be spending our energy on ensuring everyone can thrive and have a good life...instead of insisting on labeling everyone and forcing conformity with certain stereotyped assumptions about those labels.

I am not an expert in AI by any means, but my guess is the bigger risk to AI investment is that it will soon be extremely easy and cheap to create your own AI bot, and AI bots will proliferate and be everywhere. They've opened the box and AI is spilling out everywhere, and these companies have very little control over what is happening with the monster they created. How do you monetize that?

In addition, the rate of change in AI is so rapid that as soon as you think you have a good one that people might pay to use, another, better, cheaper model comes out and you're screwed.

The bubble will burst and it will burst hard. Lots of people are going to lose lots of money.

This is exactly how all insurance works. Everyone pays in, those with liabilities (such as a cancer or a death) get paid with the money that is getting paid in. Now, insurance companies are required to maintain a certain level of financial health (such as a certain amount of cash on hand to guarantee ability to pay out benefits should a disaster occur, but even then sometimes they need a bailout), but the U.S. government doesn't really have any such statutory requirements. Well. At least no such requirement that politicians are willing to follow when it comes time to set a budget.

The taxpayers have never defaulted on a significant liability, and I don't expect that they will default on Social Security payments. It's much too popular and too many people rely on it. I do think we will see changes to Social Security due to, yes, some demographic changes, but primarily because the politicians who want to change it (who usually want privatize it for the sweet sweet profits by banks and investment firms) are working hard to hold back the funding it needs to continue as-is for generations to come.

Based on the complexity of most Salesforce installations I've seen, the thieves should be paying Salesforce to help them interpret the garbage they've downloaded, not the other way around...

Trump may PROMISE you $2M to allow him to shit in your mouth, but because of various "legal" maneuvers, outright lying, and an enabling supreme court you'd never see a dime...

I mean, clearly, it wasn't even shit, and if it was, but it isn't, it's probably your own, and you wanted it put there, and the $2M, well, only joking, didn't really mean it, who believes that stuff anyway? And people say having shit in your mouth is healthy now, so I really did you a favor, even though it wasn't even shit anyway.

So only AI will watch it in order to generate even more of the same content? Pass.

Life's too short to spend it on social media. 20 minutes of scrolling and I've been told what to buy, what to like, who to hate, what to be outraged about, why I'm not attractive enough, what exciting thing someone is doing that I'm not doing...all while the company can jam in as many ads and "engagement" opportunities as possible. It's exploitative and exhausting and there's no reason to visit anymore.

In the early days of Facebook, it was kind of fun. Catching up with old acquaintances, seeing if the old high school quarterback made a life beyond high school for himself, seeing if old romantic partners found love, etc. But now it's all exploitation and manipulation and profit-driven, and it's just exhausting. So social media, go away.

Okay, I'll bite. Show me one.

And, you do know, right, that forcing people to use the bathroom that is based on their birth certificate doesn't solve this (made up) problem, either, right? Because, clearly a transman (female on birth certificate, transitioned to man and looks very much like a man), under laws that force use of bathrooms based on birth certificates, would be forced into a women's restroom. So you still have the problem of men being in a women's restroom.

If you look at the evidence, states that have enacted so-called bathroom bills have not seen any decrease in sexual assaults. And if you look at the evidence, you will see in schools with bathroom restrictions, LGBTQ+ students are MORE likely to experience sexual violence (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31061223/).

And even those are not as "good" as people often believe. The biggest earnings come from the business owners, which are a tiny slice of those who go into the trades (and if you want to own a business, you would be better off getting a business degree first, so you might actually know what you are doing).

And the trades are hard, physical labor. Day-in, day-out. I'm glad people are willing to do that, but it is hard on your body.