This is retarded.

1. It isn't for profit healthcare that is the problem, it's THIRD PARTY PAY.
2. I don't use third party pay, ever, for healthcare. I've been insured nonstop for over 30 years, and NEVER ONCE has my insurer paid my doctor.
3. Even when I've had emergencies, I still called around, negotiated a fair cash up front rate, paid cash up front, and billed it to my insurer. My cash up front rate was sometimes below any co-pay negotiated with my insurer, lol.

I just recently had some elective surgery that would have cost me about $2000 on my annual deductible, but I was able to cash pay a negotiated rate of $400 including a follow-up "free". I submitted the $400 to my insurer and they reimbursed me.

Third party insurance exists because YOU VOTERS demanded the HMO Act of the 1970s, which tied health care to employment, and then employers outsourced it to third parties.

Health care is remarkably cheap in the US (cash pay, negotiated) and I don't have to wait months to see a doctor when I call and say I am cash pay. They bump me up fast.

Thinking deeper on it, you might be a prime example of how captialism is indeed a cult. Thanks for the sermon buddy, but you proved the opposite of your point. Capitalism in practice is always a matter of power and favoritism, and a key attribute is pretending it's an equalizer while making systemic inequality worse. The numbers, and history, back this up in every conceivable way. Pretending communism is just theology while capitalism is "science" is disingenuous, arguing in bad faith, and fucking laughable. Might as well be arguing astrology vs astronomy with a fortune-teller.

You're entitled to be as wrong as you like

Nearly got canned for defending them on slashdot during the quiet period pre-IPO.

DivX's Stage6 *could* have put us 10 years ahead of where we are now media-wise with regard to revenue share, remix culture, and media company profits for streaming even... if the asshats at companies like UMG, and in particular UMG itself, could have worked with technology instead of losing their paranoid, backwards minds over it.

Fuck UMG.

...but home grown backdoors are just peachy keen!

Officially unintended, but in practice... clearly core to its premise.

Nah.

Iâ(TM)m 51. Iâ(TM)ve had health insurance continuously for 35 years and have used it exactly ZERO TIMES.

I am self pay. For everything but true life threatening emergencies, which Iâ(TM)ve had zero.

Even the ER is cheaper when negotiated self pay.

My urologist is stunned that I pay $85 for his visits. Self pay. Including labs. My colleague goes to the same urologist and his insurance pays $550 for the same visit and naturally it comes out of his deductible lol.

Insurance is a scam. All insurance is legal gambling and gamblers never win.

Supply and demand dictate this is exactly the case.

If something is valuable to everyone, it should only be accessible to those who have enough saved value to acquire it.

The poor fucked themselves. My parents are poor but worked hard so I wouldn't be.

Being compensated for it means it wonâ(TM)t get wasted and will always have a fair valuation.

Compensation is as cooperative as it comes because nobody can hoard it.

It would be amazing if there was a document that stated in very clear terms just how limited our federal government is and what it can't do at all no matter what.

I'd say you can pick one over the other. Choose to spend your next 10 minutes without money or without air.

Macroeconomic trends toward employment are not the same as microeconomic trends of job replacement, particularly in specific sectors or roles. Like everything anti-AI, the goal posts will be moved as AI improves... but it has proven consistently able to broaden its reach and capacity over time. Workers who are displaced to be underemployed (but still employed), or ones who list themselves as no longer actively looking for work, would result in exactly what we are seeing.

Translation and transcription are nearly gone as a job. Legal document review. Vibe coding. A World Economic Forum survey said 41% of employers are currently intent on reduce staffing over five years due to AI automation. Indeed reports a 36% drop in tech job postings since early 2020. Sure, you can blame that on macroeconomics... but they didn't see the same drop in other sectors. A 2023 UChicago/Manning/Eloundou study found ~80% of U.S. workers have at least 10% of tasks potentially affected by LLMs, and ~19% may see 50% or more of tasks disrupted. About 47–56% of tasks are automatable with *current* LLM tools. There is no logical reason for a business to hire more people when work productivity can be doubled in some cases with AI use.

That's mostly current case. If you include projections, the concensus is more dire. If you track this consensus into the past, it likewise paints a clear picture of trajectory.

[citation needed]

The mass layoffs using LLMs as a stated reason begs to differ. I'm willing to consider I'm wrong on this, but I don't think I am. Anecdotes about specific organizations misapplying it aren't a credible counterpoint to the overall trend, which is massive.

Everyone I know who makes my equivalent AGI, except for my household, has 1+ dogs, work crazy hours, and have been told that their dogs are lonely and depressed.

Not one or two people.

EVERYONE. Dozens upon dozens of my clients, colleagues, peers, friends from grade school, etc, have a dog or two, and then they have to have someone come spend time with said dog when they're putting 10+ hours away from them.

Wag/Rover/etc is part of their crazy consumer spending. I always am shocked to hear they're spending $1000 a month on their pets.

Americans are insane about their pets. Instead of buying a dog, I invest in corporate veterinary hospitals, because it's crazy profitable.