Blade 619

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09RvU9_m30Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09RvU9_m30Q

I expect Cameron and May will be seen as a disaster for the country, much as Thatcher was for manufacturing.

Ok, so what was the conclusion?

Oh man... this will be the next ads I see on TV... "Want to live longer? Get an abortion! Support Planned Parenthood!!!" Haha... sadly doesn't work quite like that xD

For most countries the biggest impact on life expectancy were the big sanitation projects and reducing child mortality rates with primary prevention such as reducing poverty, allowing contraception/abortion, good maternal health, childhood vaccinations, educating people so they can eat well and get good jobs. The Infant mortality rate (deaths under the age of 1) typically does a lot to drag a country down (as you need a lot of people to love to 90 to counter the death of 1 newborn, in the USA it is similar to that of Serbia and Croatia, well over twice that of the top 10 sadly, so a lot of room for improvement... and that is usually associated with the poorer rural and urban communities unable to access ± afford maternal and neonatal healthcare. Diet and exercise are indeed very important for reducing things like heart disease which is the largest killer in the developed western world, but typically not until into your 60's and 70's even if you fuck things up fairly badly. As you have found out... the diet many of us eat in the West is bollocks compared to what we actually need... and when moving towards that we can lose weight and improve physical fitness quickly. (Primary example, it obviously reduces the risk of a lot of other things we get down the line including cancer and dementia.) You are correct Sir. This is why we need to break down the protection barriers they have put up. Allow insurance to be purchased from any company that offers it, rather than the few that are in your area. If we could drive the costs down enough, it may be possible to question why we need to buy insurance at all. The insurance could become more expensive than just paying for it yourself when you have a problem. We will get this worked out... because we really don't have a choice anymore. x2 Or you know... have a sensible base level government plan people can buy into which gives some serious competition and potentially an additional source of revenue for federal budgets as they would also no longer have to subsidise healthcare plans from private brokers.

I can see a specialist same day, if I need to, for free. If it doesn't need to be same day it'll depend on what I've got as to how urgent it is and how long it takes. If my hip's a bit of a pain it might take 6 months, if I've maybe got cancer it'll be presentation to starting therapy in less than 10 working days. Obviously anything with immediate threat to life is treated immediately. No probs! I put both up as this one is pre-ACA and the other is post-ACA . Competition can also drive up prices as well as drive down prices. Too much demand --> high price as people compete to purchase the service. However if service providers are competing then it drives it down... at least in the short term. As market theory goes to hell when applied to medical services the reality is that big companies can simply out compete the little guy, bankrupt them, and then exploit effective or total monopolies (as the large insurance firms in the US have done). It is then almost impossible for anyone to enter the market with an alternative except for governments or truly huge pre-existing companies (as seen with Virgin Care in the UK). The most cost efficient system is centrally controlled healthcare, however the practicalities of this are a nightmare as Nigeria and Thailand both discovered and can only really work with a good network of primary healthcare providers (as in Thailand) as this is a significantly cheaper way of delivering healthcare than through hospitals and can treat the vast majority of problems people get. This is also the best way to control greed, assuming your government isn't massively corrupt, as your central purchasing board would have a huge amount of clout. The bonus feature of this, is that those who want to can buy private insurance or go out of pocket, to have private drugs / surgery and because there is always a free option these clinics have to price themselves much more competitively. I can get one done here for ~$15k (depending on exchange rate) compared to $33-44k in the states if I want it done next month, or I can wait for 6 months and have it done for free (you can even view it as a $15k tax rebate). If I was an American I'd be really pissed off with the healthcare system, it's ridiculously expensive, horribly inefficient, and doesn't actually provide a better health outcome compared to other developed countries. As you can see, you guys are a massive outlier. An interesting case study to read is on Costa Rica, they completely revolutionised their healthcare system and now have a similar life expectancy to the US at a tiny tiny fraction of the cost. Cuba has (sorry to say it again) a truly world class healthcare system. Their doctors are so looked after and plentiful, if they haven't seen someone for a while they go and find them to check they're ok. Hell... I'd love to have that luxury! Or to know that my doctor would gimme a call if I'd not been seen for a while to find out how I was doing, and screen for any underlying problems. Basically, I love healthcare, I find it fascinating how different countries have tried (succeeded or failed as the case may be) to implement different systems and how individual politics can rip a fledgling system apart or force it through. How ambition to cure everyone has nearly bankrupted nations in some cases, and been highly successful in others. Fun story, Thailand was possibly the best country at dealing with HIV and managed to contain it almost exclusively to the high risk populations through incredibly diligent epidemiological work and preventative medicine. China on the other hand failed miserably at dealing with HIV with their hilarious notion that it was a disease of foreigners and Chinese people couldn't get it... I suppose an extreme version of how many communities in the west saw it as a gay man disease. Anyway... I digress... Save money, upscale public healthcare and cut public subsidies to private healthcare. Don't get me wrong, it's great place to live if you've got bottomless wallets.

As someone with a masters degree in health economics, this thread was hilarious. As a little light watching: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSjGouBmo0M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbBKoyjFLUY

Best form of punishment: Isolation with Justin Beiber "Baby" pumped through the cell. Only downside is they then go mad and some poor sod has to look after them.

Kind of a lame attempt at a terrorist attack, I mean... the IRA used to do a much better job.

Why not xD Gonna have to draw the line at armed guard, unless you're planning to buy all the drinks.

If people want to come but are say... under 18 and their parents are doing the whole "But you've never met these people, we're not going to let you go to London to be abducted" routine... Bring your parents and we can sit them to one side with a nice cold glass of water, like a good designated driver.

To spoons! Invite ex-members too?

Mandarijn: 15 Finster Baby: 11 Wolfpacks: 10 + Sister Midnight: 13 Blade 619: 13 The Warrior: 10 BurnedLemons: 14 sffc1: 16 RearviewRover: 12 LordSunday: 14 Argus Panoptes: 13 Captain Crozier: 14 captainjf: 12 ccabal86: 2 Imran Ehsan: 11 Samus: 6 onbekende: 11 Rhizoctonia: 9 Hertt: 8 Davian: 6 - Those who were lost: CarnivoreBot (Post #28) Duel King (Post #65)

Mandarijn: 16 Finster Baby: 11 Wolfpacks: 8 Sister Midnight: 12 Blade 619: 12 The Warrior: 10 BurnedLemons: 14 sffc1: 15 RearviewRover: 12 LordSunday: 14 + Argus Panoptes: 13 Captain Crozier: 13 captainjf: 12 ccabal86: 5 Imran Ehsan: 11 Samus: 6 onbekende: 11 Duel King: 1 - Rhizoctonia: 9 Hertt: 8 Davian: 7 Those who were lost: CarnivoreBot (Post #28)

ccabal86 Imran Ehsan The Lord High Samus

Aw, have feels in return!

I mean, if you wanna keep her feel free. We've got some great clowns ready to take over from her.

omg memoriesand yeah i'd love to be there, only thing though my company has this habit of flying me about for emergency meetings/events.And Soho is pretty central, i'd suggest spending time drinking in Duck & Waffle - google it, it's a very nice you can literally see the whole of London from like 40 floors upI'm so glad you plan to come and I was going to ask you for location suggestions. Duck and Waffle looks perfect for a meet up, except we will have at least two starving uni students who need cheap eats and grog. Any other suggestions? Put it on Samus's company card and call it client entertainment.

Game on motherfrackers.

Take the cash, just say that monies tight and it would go a long way to helping.

God Emperor's don't take $1.00... that's one U.S. buck... for a yearly salary, and donate all profits from his foreign business to the U.S. Treasury. Turn it around and you would be correct... "All throw rotting food at God Emperor Obama". I'm just here for the lulz. You're right, the God Emperor would sacrifice his freedom to guide the Imperium and ensure safe travel in deep space.

Werhey! Some kind of mint?

Questions, no particular order: Where are you from? Be as specific as you like. England What do you do for a living? What do you like/ dislike about it? Medical student, and as far as the tax man knows... nothing. I look forward to the pension. I also like making people bleed. If you're in college, what college/uni do you attend, how far along are you, and what are you majoring in? What do you like/like about it? University of East Anglia, 6th year, Medicine. I like the cudos... I hate the rest. Do you have kids? How many and how old? Not that I know of. What kind of music do you like? Many types... almost everything not electronic. Are you married or in a serious relationship? If so, how did you meet? How long have you been together? What do you like best about being with your significant other? I've been dating the latest girl for about a week? She's still getting used to me... but her friends find it amusing she can't sit down comfortably. How old are you? 24 (yikes... where did that go?) Do you have any pets? Pictures are welcome. None living What do you do for fun? People... games... music... normal things... What's your favorite food? Fajitas? Do you cook? Yes. Lots of styles. Are you messy or neat? Messy... sign of a genius. My notes are neat... on the basis they typically consist just of the lecture title. What's your favorite color? Orange. (arterial red is quite nice). I also find black comforting on occasion.

I'm not gonna complain, I hated till work. Also you'll never be ID'd at one of those which is great! Those machines will require more technicians to keep them operating which leads to some of those being reemployed for that. It's no different than adding machines to assembly lines. Eventually some stores will win custom on the basis of providing a human interaction at the end of your shop and those of us who don't want to wait or exchange soul crushing glances with some slightly smelly elderly person or overweight teen at the checkout don't have to. There are many jobs which employed large numbers of people that have been wiped for ever, but that's progress... and new jobs get made. As they say, the best schools teach kids to work in jobs that don't even exist yet.

That's pretty cool. All the evidence suggests rising wages in the lowest strata of society leads to the greatest overall growth in GDP which ultimately leads to an increase in wealth for the middle and upper strata too. Ford was an interesting microcosmic example of how increasing worker wages leads to increased company growth. We also know that the states in the US which raised their minimum wages have, year on year, outperformed their counterparts who did not in terms of GDP growth and quality of life scores.