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The Subtle Slavery of Obamacare
The Subtle Slavery of Obamacare: The Cattle Chute of Coerced Cooperation in the Collective Corruption
By
Cognitive Dissonance
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“The truth is that the State is a conspiracy designed not only to exploit, but above all to corrupt its citizens.”—Leo Tolstoy
Like millions of other individuals and families in the USA, Mrs. Cog and I have reached a point this year where we must make decisions regarding Health Sick Care Insurance for 2015. Before I begin I would like to point out we are attempting to take back control of our health by eating better, exercising more, mostly by way of regularly working on the homestead, while practicing preventative/proactive care using such things as natural herbs and supplements, organic teas and honey and so on.
Our point of view is simple: other than possibly needing emergency medical assistance for major accidents and injuries or catastrophic illness such as heart attack, stroke etc., we don’t use the health sick care industry nor do we wish too. Our preference would be to have access to a catastrophic emergency care insurance policy with a large deductible (say $15-25,000) to keep the insurance premium manageable. We will handle our day to day health issues as well as preventive care on our own.
We do understand, and generally agree with, the need for catastrophic health injury/illness insurance to meet our responsibility of limiting our, and society’s, liability and expenses. We do not wish to be a burden to others or to ourselves. We have in the past, and continue today, to express our willingness and desire to participate in a common insurance risk pool to mitigate that possibility. Mrs. Cog and I do not wish to receive a free ride, where others pay for our medical expenses, nor do we expect to just show up at the local emergency room and demand treatment without the ability to pay either out of pocket or via insurance for services rendered. That said, let me begin.
This is not the way to exit the sick care racket.
Dammed if we do, dammed if we don’t doesn’t even begin to describe the situation we find ourselves in this December of 2014. Aside from the ‘normal’ annual increases, our present health sick care insurance provider jacked up our premium rates in April and again in August of this year to (they claim) bring our present policy into compliance with the Obamacare ‘mandate’. The total increase over the last eight months was 65% with the majority coming in August. Worse, we just received notice of another 10% increase set for January 1, 2015. So much for the flat out fraudulent and horrifically misleading declared ‘inflation’ rate of 2%.
While I will not discuss specific details, our present coverage is far removed from what the medical system describes as a ‘Cadillac’ plan. The per-person deductible is several thousand dollars each and the total family deductible is well north of six thousand dollars, a figure which doesn’t include co-pays and out-of-network surcharges. The maximum out-of-pocket potential is more than ten thousand dollars a year.
Making matter worse, up here on the mountain there is no doctor network to speak of, further driving up first dollar costs for Mrs. Cog and me. While we take some responsibility for this because it was our decision to move to this rural mountain area in the first place, why all doctors cannot participate in several different national insurance networks is beyond me. It is so much more than just reimbursement rates that determine which doctors are in what network.
The latest correspondence from the health sick care insurance company helpfully informs us we may visit their website before Jan 1, 2015 and select from a variety of ‘affordable’ health sick plans, thus clearly admitting our present day policy is no longer affordable……though it never was for the services desired or received. It is almost as if the system is set up to bolster insurance company profits first, drug and medical services company profits second, doctor and clinic profits third and patient care last. Of course we are told otherwise by all of the above.
The letter ran several pages long and was laid out in a question and answer format obviously intended for those with a sixth grade education or below. Several questions followed along the lines of “Where’s my health care subsidy/premium tax credit” followed by a simple answer; ‘We the (little) People’ were out of luck unless we visited the official ‘Health Insurance Marketplace’. You mean the rabbit hole goes deeper?
What Rabbit Hole?
For nearly two decades I was a licensed life and health insurance agent and sold both individual and group health insurance policies during that time. In addition, from 2001 until 2008 I helped select and structure a midsized employer group health insurance program for my employer as well as the day to day administration of the plan. But even with that large experience base I am far from an expert on the ins and outs of the animal called Obamacare. And I seriously doubt there are more than a few in this entire country who are expert other than the insurance companies who actually wrote the law in the first place.
My blind spot is the nuanced intricacies of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Even after they passed it I was still not able to read and fully understand it. But mama didn’t raise no fool. Speaking as one of millions of semi(un)informed ‘consumers’ of health sick care insurance in America, when I say the game is rigged and ‘We the People’ are the bait, the prey and the patsy, it is more than just me smelling a skunk in the woodpile. The rabid skunk not only sprayed me, but bit me as well and for the life of me I can’t find medical care at a reasonable cost. Welcome to a brave new world.
Nurse - "Doctor, the patient has died."
Doctor - "It's OK nurse, we extracted the wallet in time."
As many of you know Mrs. Cog and I moved to the mountain in June of 2013 and have followed a path of asset divestiture and debt pay down, done primarily to extinguish debt and to greatly simplify our lives. Anyone who has followed this path understands the way to play the financial ‘game’ is NOT to do as we are doing, but to hold on to the assets in order to keep leveraging up while avoiding the tax man’s ugly wrath.
The net effect of our financial insanity is that the Federal and State tax (wo)men have been richly rewarded for our self proclaimed liberation, though some would definitely call us foolish. We are deliberately working ourselves into the poor house, with gross and net incomes that now land us squarely among the lower middle of the middle class.
The good news is while our income has dropped dramatically, so has our outgo to an even greater extent. The net result is while others in our income class are really struggling to make ends meet, we are not in a dire situation because our housing and transportation costs, other than insurance, utilities, gasoline, upkeep and taxes, are nil compared to many others.
Still, considering our unsubsidized health sick care insurance premiums now represent almost 25% of our gross income, this is no laughing matter. In just four short years, beginning shortly after Obamacare (aka the Orwellian named Affordable Care Act or ACA) was passed under the cover of deliberate ignorance and confusion, health sick care insurance premiums have more than doubled in price and in some cases tripled, quadrupled or more.
Something has gone horribly wrong for the average Joe and Jane Doe and this was not an accident or a product of unintended consequences by any stretch of the imagination. How is it that among all first world countries the USA charges on average 50% more for health sick care services with results/outcomes no better than, and often much worse than, the rest of the first world nations and many second world nations?
While I have watched health sick care insurance premiums rise at triple or quadruple the officially declared inflation rate for more than two decades, what has transpired over the last four years is nothing short of criminal. Even though insurance companies claim the expanded ‘mandate’ of the ACA is directly responsible for the significant premium increases, two things stand out as glaringly obvious even to a blind man.
A modern day treatment plan in practice.
One, the first dollar deductibles and co-pays have risen even faster than the premiums, indicating to me that any greater risks absorbed by the insurance companies from the ACA has been at least partially offset by more money out of the public’s pocket even before the insurance company collects its first greatly increased premium or pays its first dime in benefits.
Two, one look at the huge increase in health insurance company profits since the ACA was ushered in, not to mention their stock price, is a sure sign these companies are not suffering, but rather profiting handsomely simply from the process of preparing for the full implementation of the ACA. They understood quite well a simple ‘bidness’ (a la Tony Soprano) concept. When change is imminent the key to making (more) money is to complain like hell about the threatened legislation while quietly lobbying behind closed doors for the ability to write said legislation. And that is precisely what they did, and continue to do, with the (re)writing of the fine print by the administering government agencies.
Insurance companies brought out the big gun lobby for the ACA
"Watch out for that kick (back)."
Similar to automobiles, housing and higher education, ultimately the price of any expensive product (in this case health sick care insurance) is based upon who is paying (in part or in full) and how easily it can be financed and/or subsidized. When expensive items are easily financed at favorable terms or subsidized/fully paid for by others, there is little incentive to hold prices down because ‘price’ is no longer a critical barrier to entry for the purchaser. As well, if you distort and distribute the price paid among several parties and no one feels responsible to hold the line, another incentive to keep prices manageable is lost or ignored.
The majority of medium/large employer group health sick care insurance premiums are paid by the employer, though as those costs continue to rise the burden is beginning to shift towards the employee through various cost sharing arrangements. While the ACA changed and accelerated that dynamic somewhat, with even more to come over the next few years, for the most part the employer sponsored and heavily subsidized group health sick care insurance policy remains alive and well for now.
What is important to remember here is the lack of a real and significant incentive by the employer, employee and the insurance company to restrain premium increases since no one party bears the brunt of the entire increase. The employer doesn’t wish to upset their employees with sudden and significant premium increases when real wages have been stagnant for years. And after several rounds of layoffs, or at the very least the ever present threat of downsizing/relocation/merger, many employers wish to keep their remaining productive and profitable employees working. It is usually cheaper to keep a (slightly) more expensive employee than to go through the significant expense of replacing him or her, then training a new one who at least initially is less productive.
The employee will likely complain, then grin and bear it because they are concerned about keeping a job in a world increasing populated by part time work with no ‘fringe’ benefits at all. And the insurance companies just want to make hay while the sun shines. As long as someone pays the increased premium, what incentive does the insurance company have to mitigate increases other than to increase company profits? Death by falling drops of water is slower than a rushing tsunami, but the end result is just the same.
The individual or family without access to a (subsidized) group policy, but still able to ‘afford’ to purchase health sick care insurance before the recent changes, will most likely continue to buy the insurance despite the premium increase. They might try to lower the financial impact by going with higher deductibles and co-pays rather than go without insurance so long as they are (self) employed and bringing in an income.
But with the implementation of the ACA and the accompanying penalties…..err……‘taxes’, one is limited in how high they can raise their deductibles in order to save money without triggering the penalty……tax. Meaning if they try to purchase a low cost high deductible catastrophic sick care insurance policy they will still be forced to pay the penalty tax in addition to the insurance premiums. Talk about a cattle chute.
What could possibly go wrong?
What was missing from the general insurance risk pool before the ACA (along with the higher insurance premiums) were the chronically uninsured aka the poor, the unemployed, chronically ill, injured, disabled and so on. Make no mistake about it; this wasn’t a case of the insurance companies not wanting those higher risk individuals and families in the risk pool. There just wasn’t anyone available who would, or could, pay the higher premiums associated with the risk. Essentially an entire class of people, a whole new line of (profitable) business if you will, was missing from the insurance company’s portfolio because no one was willing or able to pay. Until now that is.
With the passage, and now ongoing implementation of the ACA, this ‘oversight’ has been rectified. However, the high premiums charged are essentially meaningless or of little consequence to some of the people in this pool because many of the poorest will pay little or nothing after the government subsidy is applied in advance on a monthly basis. It just doesn’t get any better than this for the insurance company(s). The crony nanny state has now firmly inserted itself into another aspect of daily life in America, bringing an already vulnerable class of poorer Americans that much closer to the nourishing teat of total governmental dependency and control.
But it is not just the poor or lower middle class who were, and are, affected by the ACA. While I just said employer sponsored group policies are still going strong, it appears their time in the sun will be limited. Especially after employer ‘mandates’ kick in next year (2015), more and more employers will throw in the towel and cease to resist the impulse to let go and let government totally control the health sick care insurance arena.
If a study of world history (altered and propagandized as it may be) is any indicator, a despotic tyrannical governmental force will eventually be bound and determined to spread its corruption and control as far and wide as possible. It makes perfect sense for this to be promoted since the more citizen slaves nourished from the government teat, the more the newly corrupted converts will fight to remain at the fiat bloated breast.
Once firmly attached and dependent, the suckled will fight any ‘enemies’ the government claims will threaten their government milk supply. This is not to imply everyone, or even anyone, who takes a government subsidy in order to afford their grossly overpriced and underserved health sick care insurance, is a bloated freeloader who doesn’t wish to earn their keep. Far from it in fact. It is a tightly sprung trap not even Forrest Gump could outrun even with his damn box of chocolates.
Run Forrest Run!
The socioeconomic system in general, and the ACA in particular, was specifically designed to corral nearly everyone into the cattle chute of coerced cooperation in the collective corruption of the nanny police state. But for those who claim this frightening trend is new are in our opinion way off base. This is the direction this country has been moving for decades and it was only when the acceleration reached liftoff velocity on its exponential curve to outright oppressive slavery did people begin to notice they had fallen down and couldn’t get back up.
While I fully agree corruption starts at the top and filters down, in so many ways it has now permeated the general public by presenting nearly impossible situations which, while they may be wearing the façade of several ‘choices’, only one choice presents itself as practical, the one which was originally designed to be the ‘only’ choice from the beginning.
The secret to administering the modern day ‘democratic’ nanny police state is to subsidize the illusion of freedom which when you boil it all down is expressed as freedom of choice. The key is to manage those choices in such a way that no ‘good’ choices (defined as fair and beneficial to “We the People”) are presented and the worst best choice further ensnares the public in the corruption nets like an encircled school of sardines. To do this, the government and its joined-at-the-hip special interests most often employ the carrot and stick approach.
Let the games begin.
With Obamacare the process works like this. Currently mandatory health sick care insurance policies are so expensive even the reasonably well off income wise will swallow hard at the price tag. To mitigate the mandatory pain the public is informed they can always opt out if they don’t like the choices. But if they do so they must visit the penalty tax box each year to ‘pay’ for their freedom to choose none of the above. As planned we are given several bad choices to choose from.
Next we are introduced to the carrot after a firm shaking of the stick. Offer to subsidize all those bad choices on a sliding (and generous) scale so individuals whose income is well above ‘poverty’ level, itself a fictitious number pulled out of thin air which is supposed to represent abject suffering but in reality is so much worse, as bait to entice them into the spring loaded mouse peasant trap. Anyone with an adjusted gross income between 100% and 400% of the ‘poverty’ rate is eligible for a (government printed paid) subsidy on a sliding scale. See, that anal probe doesn’t hurt so bad now does it?
You may ‘choose’ to purchase the exact same policy directly from the insurance company and receive no subsidy at all, either on a monthly basis or when tax preparation time rolls around. Or you can use a Federal or State government sponsored and created internet information gathering portal, spill your guts on line and expose all your financial and personal information to the government (and any competent hacker or NSA operative) to receive a subsidy for the exact same policy. Some ‘choice’, huh?
And all this is presented with the straightest of straight faces, as if not only is this perfectly normal but it has always been this way. Besides, it’s for your own good. While not exactly a Hobson’s choice, it’s too damn close to tell the difference.
Annual insurance company executive conference.
Essentially the insurance companies get to author the law and then raise premiums for four years in anticipation of the law’s enactment. Upon implementation (and after further premium increases) the insurance companies are paid some or all of the high risk ‘pool’ insurance premiums directly by the government on a monthly basis. Best of all, if the subsidy was incorrectly applied or calculated and the taxpayer insured received too much, the IRS is the bill collector, not the insurance company. It just doesn’t get any better than this.
The Affordable Care Act is a prime example of the ‘legal’ process by which an increasingly despotic and fascist government joins hands with other powerful and moneyed entities in opposition to the very people who supposedly ‘support’ the government in order to maintain power over a system that is rapidly collapsing primarily because of the corrupt influences of the government and its cronies. The crony nanny state isn’t here to protect you, but to protect itself and its cronies from you.
It takes very little imagination to recognize similar behavior in the higher education/student loan juggernaut, the military/industrial/political/false flag war machine, the banking/Wall Street/Federal Reserve/IRS parasitic fiat organism, the oil/petrodollar/puppet dictator/empire collective, the nanny state/militarized police/fake terrorism/freedom of speech area/bash and gas the protestors/left-right illusion of freedom game, the Hollywood/NFL/NCAA/MLB/NBA public financing of private assets/bread and circuses distraction, the 1984/FCC/MSM/ISP/DOD/ATT/NSA et al spying on citizens in the name of terrorism/blackmail of anyone useful dirty underwear program and the Corporate Welfare/State Tax Concession/phantom jobs added/Congressional donations, kickbacks and bribery crony capitalism scam to name just a few of the more obvious.
Wait......I think there's more blood left in this turnip.
The one party left out of this you-scratch-my-back-I’ll-fill-your-pocket game is the citizen in whose name all this is justified and done. As The Powers That Be (TPTB) leeches of the slave plantation system bleed ever more life sustaining financial fluids from the population, the natural tendency of said population is either to flee the system or to cutoff and burn the leeches. The leeches, being quite smart and enterprising sociopaths, understand their hosts might actually revolt if something isn’t done and have begun to turn the vise ever tighter to seriously clamp down on dissent and ‘disorder’.
The solution, at least for the leeches, is to dig their suckers in even deeper while injecting ever more anticoagulants and painkillers in the form of more bad choices, narrower cattle chutes and a lot more extra judicial killings by the elite status quo enforcers aka the militarized police. Whom, I might add, are increasingly protected by a corrupt and co-opted judicial system endorsed and enforced by executive order and new Congressional Critter ‘laws’ making it all nice and legal.
All it needs to make it complete is a pretty red bow on top and NSA/FBI operatives conducting sneak and peak investigations (also known as a ‘legal’ breaking and entering) to examine our person and papers while planting drugs, child porn and/or incriminating documents on our computers and in our paper files while harassing any remaining dissidents brave enough to stand up and just say no.
Plenty of room at the inn for dissidents.
The system itself is completely corrupt and thoroughly rigged folks. There is no way out and no possibility of making changes from within because, similar to the methods employed by organized crime, the system will protect itself from those it claims to be protecting while shielding those who most benefit from this arrangement in order to feed itself. What started as the totalitarian tiptoe has now turned into an extremely dangerous crony capitalist state. The nanny police state no longer needs to sneak about since its only remaining purpose from here to perpetuity is to grind our bones to make its bread.
Sadly the more average Jane and Joe becomes aware of the trap, the more dangerous the police state becomes as each citizen/slave is recognized less as a food source to the leaches and more like an enemy combatant come to destroy. Our ignorance is the police state’s bliss and the gearing up for battle by the police state is rapidly extinguishing the public’s ignorance in an all consuming positive feedback loop of shocked awareness. We ain’t in Kansas anymore Toto.
Those of us who now recognize we are sleeping with the enemy, and worse the enemy is rapidly becoming you and me as we are consumed by the engorged system, have some stark and disquieting choices to make, all of them bad with none of them leading to a satisfactory solution. As the nanny police state continues to destroy its host in order to feed itself those choices will not remain static, but instead will move hand in hand with the political wind and the continuing dollar debasement.
Mrs. Cog and I do not have answers to all of our own questions regarding how to protect ourselves, along with those we love and care for, from the encroaching, and suffocating crony nanny state. What we do know is profound in its overwhelming simplicity. When you find yourself in a deep hole with a shovel, the first course of action is to stop digging and begin the process of climbing out.
Or in this case when you find yourself face to face with the crony nanny state, the first course of action is to withdraw to the best of your ability, take stock of the situation and your resources, then begin to forge a path towards more sustainable living and less dependency upon the nanny state. Since everyone’s situation is different, there is no ironclad advice to give you other than just to begin the process. Essentially do everything you can to buffer yourself from the state while bolstering your own position.
Now get to work.
12-23-2014
Cognitive Dissonance
Hard at work calculating next year's premium increase.
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Thank you. Best wishes to you as well.
I find it interesting that the very document we claim needs to be resurrected is being used to bludgeon us over the head with. Is it the Constitution that is the problem/solution or "We the People"?
some time ago i was on the blog at DKOS and a woman posted that the Bush medicare D plan had been presented in its entireity, to her, for an opinion. i forget why they chose her, she was a professional of some stripe. and she said, i have no idea what this bill is, and she felt embarrassed, as most of us do COG, when someone seems so much smarter than we are. and i said correctly i think, that the bill was a deliberate obfuscation, designed to achieve a perfect 50/50 split in the votes, and that when that happens the lobbyists come in and capture the swing vote, a mere 2 1/2 % bought and paid for. so its 47.5/52.2 in the final vote, and thats how laws are passed in DC. rather than comment on the law (which no one understands, as the woman could testify) i think we should correct the system.
california for instance requires a 2/3 majority to pass new legislation, and they also have a voter initiative process. i think both these things would help stop the waste and corruption in washington. to single out obamacare is fine, but to reform the process, well thats priceless
cat OP | essencebox
It is not subtle.
Businesses market their products to the buyers.
You are not the buyer.
The buyer is the US Gov.
The best thing about having the US Gov as a buyer is that it can **force** people to pay for your product, whether they want it or not, through taxation.
What can you do?
If you read this far and are a Christian (you will be required to prove you at least attend church regularly) you can legally opt out of Obamacare: https://mychristiancare.org/medi-share/
The health insurance industry has been a fraud since at least 1890. All that is happening now is that the racketeers are demanding a bigger cut of your money.
Give 'From Mutual Aid to the Welfare State: Fraternal Societies and Social Services, 1890-1967', by David Beito, a read. It is a wonderful book.
A timely article on how to set aside some antibiotics for personal use without having to intersect with the healthcare system.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/12/no_author/avoidable-death/
Aside from antibiotics for your fish, you can get them for your farm animals too. Just head down to your local feed store. Though do some research first. In other words don't ask for pills for your ruminant.
Go into any Tractor Supply store and tell them your chickens/hogs/cows are sick. They sell all kinds of antibiotics cheap. They are USP grade, the same thing you get at CVS or Walgreens. Another option is Calvetsupply.com. No prescription is necessary. It's all about the livestock, ya know.
Where we live there are many more cows than humans. I was in Tractor Supply a few months back and a gentleman walked in and started barking orders for meds. I would have thought I was in a doctor's office if it weren't for the shit on his boots and the bib overalls. :-)
The thing that has bugged the crap out of me for years is that anyone EVER bought into the idea of insurance at all. It has to be apparent that all insurance is, in its very best utilization, is simply a wealth redistribution plan from the healthy to the sick. The only reason why anyone would buy insurance is if they think it will cost them less than paying for the services direct to the provider. For this to be true, the difference in cost must come from someone else's pocket or heaven (in this case money printing and government debt). This insurance scheme is practiced throughout our economy now, from the very basis of government providing us protection for the simple fee of a significant part of our income, to derivatives into the quadrillions of dollars. Besides the redistributive nature of insurance it also seeks to separate risk from consequence or at least buffer it considerably, which allows much higher risk to be taken. This behavior modification has real cost that "insurance" increasingly can't cover.
As you correctly point out, another problem is that these costs of risk are isolated from the risk taker and the service provider by a middleman so as to disconnect the risk from the cost even further. This has allowed costs to rise faster, given lack or delay in cost feedback.
This is a compounding time bomb that even when ignoring the immense corruption we have, will blow the world apart.
Risk must be apparent, visual, in our face, if we are to make the absolutely best, most intelligent choices. Even debt has fallen into the insurance trap as high risk loans and their inevitable defaults are collectivized, reflected in higher costs or just back stopped by the government who effectively owns us. Further wealth redistribution by even more importantly obfuscation of risk. We are driving down the road at ever higher speeds, while our vision is being increasingly obscured. The answer is to not slow down and clean our windshield, but to buy insurance and press down on the accelerator. We are preparing to crash into our future in a big bad way.
All we really need to ensure our best chance of survival and yes, prosperity, is a clear honest view of risk. Not shelter from it, not creating opacity that allows us to FEEL safer, more secure and generally better about ourselves. Just plain old ugly truth. This is what freedom is to me. Not protection, not coddling that allows me to pursue my dreams without consideration of consequence. Use our technology for illumination. Let us see the truth, the risks of living on this planet, the risks of our every endeavor. The absolutely very last thing our leaders will NEVER allow us to have, as their goal is control that can only be achieved through dependency.
Sorry if this has already been covered, but Obamacare, the Affordable Care Act, has already been admitted to being the largest wealth transfer legislation in the history of the world by the psychopaths that authored and voted for it.
It is a done deed. We sat and blogged/commented/tweeted about it while our liberty and opportunity was stripped by a cabal of genuine reprobates.
Yep, went from foaming at the mouth from screaming warnings, to foaming at the mouth from laughter at their reactions as they discovered "what's in it".
Wolf of Wall St: coked-out Wild Man broker Matthew McConaughey plying DiCaprio w/ advice & Martinis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTHlXb0PXh4
All people are chained down to heavy toil by poverty more firmly than ever. They were chained by slavery and serfdom; from these, one way and another, they might free themselves. These could be settled with, but from want they will never get away. We have included in the constitution such rights as to the masses appear fictitious and not actual rights. All these so-called "Peoples Rights" can exist only in idea, an idea which can never be realized in practical life. What is it to the proletariat laborer, bowed double over his heavy toil, crushed by his lot in life, if talkers get the right to babble, if journalists get the right to scribble any nonsense side by side with good stuff, once the proletariat has no other profit out of the constitution save only those pitiful crumbs which we fling them from our table in return for their voting in favor of what we dictate, in favor of the men we place in power, the servants of our AGENTUR ... Republican rights for a poor man are no more than a bitter piece of irony, for the necessity he is under of toiling almost all day gives him no present use of them, but the other hand robs him of all guarantee of regular and certain earnings by making him dependent on strikes by his comrades or lockouts by his masters.
Remember (Christmas) by Harry Nilsson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TisqJTlSQgs
.
Harry Nilsson - The Most Beautiful World In The World
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGgDfBZeylM&feature=youtu.be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIeLeIwwpHc
.
better audio.
i tell my family, and friends, it's easy to understand once you know the rules, and i give them a simple analogy.
think of america as one big wal-mart, and govt, and their cronies, top to bottom, own wal-mart, and their not going to lose money.
you shop at the, (govt.), wal-mart for everything, houses, cars, gas, food, ins., and on and on, got it.
when you go to the, (govt.), wal-mart you recieve a red, or green card, you go to check-out, if you have a green card you pay for your items, you've got a red card your waved through.
at the end of the month, (govt.), wal-mart adds up it's loses, and that %age is added to the purchases of the green card holders next month, and so on, and so on.
no different than now, shopping-lifting, (theft), it's an added cost to wal-mart, which is added to the price consumers pay.
when the last green card holder can't pay for his/hers purchases, game over.
there is no rest for the wicked, someone
said it
.
9/11 Conspiracy Solved
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShYTLoqbx3s
The error is the moral delusion that one must behave honorably when others and their systems are corrupt. Creatures survive in the natural world, because they adapt to the realities of that world. Do you owe truth to a thief? Does a tiger hide from his prey? What honesty do you owe your oppressor? Play the game to win, draw or lose the least.
Good call, EOS.
Health Care was never about controlling costs; it was about controlling you.
YES, YES AND YES. Everything is about control.
there is the money system, fiat, scam,
and there is medical treatment paid for
by insurance or other(not to mention reality or
real personal suffering)
fiat. is there
any difference? is there a market for reality?
Professor Longhair - They Call Me Doctor Professor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sk_Iu5I8LZs
choices are getting shitier... choices may become desparate for some.
There are no real choices. There is only control.
Americans are batshit crazy. The only first world country so completely devoted to greed that a normal boring old Universal Health Care plan, like the rest of the first world has had for ages, is beyond you.
Go ahead keep the, by far, most expensive plan there is, and keep those midlemen fat and happy. It is the choice you have made and seem to think is a good idea. Baffleing!
"Americans are batshit crazy."
I agree. The thing is....insanity is self replicating, self reinforcing and all consuming. And most who are insane (and for the most part "We the People" are undeniably insane) are compeltely oblivious to the fact and rather happy if you must know.
Insanity is blissfully ignorant of its own lack of sanity.
Just wait. justice is very specific...
Things are same as they ever were. You always have a choice.
You are so blind you do not see you have no real choice. You are given a selection, all of which have already been chosen for you.
Any selection you make is their choice, not yours.
Choice of what? What do we have a choice between? Life or death? Treated vs nontreated medical conditions? In my corner of the world, there is no expansion of medical facilities, no new hiring of support staff for increased patient load. Nothing has changed. Except the doctors are making less and anything that can be outsources to India is being outsourced.
The patient record will be presented to an oversight committee who will take a look at the collected data NSA has provided them and if you falll into a category that is high risk (or whatever the case may be...), the cost effectiveness will be determined accordingly. Do you know what I mean. Have a pain pill. Go home. Do not call me in the morning. If you want to die faster, that's an option. I refuse to go back into the medical arena for care and I have worked in medical community since age of 19, 30 years or more. The price I will pay will be worth it to not take part in this cull...errr...experiment which would deem me disposable.
Choice to pay into or be part of the ACA system. Neither of which I will do.
Bless you CogDis. I think you will take some umbrage with this one.
Dear Thomas:
The Search Committee has given careful consideration to your application for the position of Groundskeeper. While we have not yet hired someone for this position, I am writing to inform you your application is not in the finalist pool. Although you were not selected for this position, other employment opportunities may become available in the future. Please continue to check our web site at http://employment.csbsju.edu for available positions.
On behalf of the search committee, thank you for your interest in exploring employment opportunities with us. We wish you the best in your future endeavors.
Sincerely,
Human Resources
College of Saint Benedict/Saint John's University
I am not good enough. 20 years of experience in the field and a bachelor's degree in Science(Horticulture). Not even an interview offer? Really? That is pretty amazing to me. I do not know what to to say.
These university jobs are all given to insider friends or relatives. They only pretend to be interviewing applicants. They already know who is getting the job. University of California is a wonderful example of corruption in Human Resources hiring practices.
Crony capitalism at the lower levels perhaps?
It was that white paper you used.
I suspect you are overqualified. Not by way of experience or education, but by salary expectations. I am fairly certain you wish to receive wages somewhat above the poverty level.
It is not you M, it is the system.....though they do everything in their power to get you to believe it is you.
You are an intelligent guy CD and thank you. I always leave salary requirements blank because I do not want them to be able to use that against me. These days you need to be a North Korean computer hacker just to be able to apply for the simplest of jobs. I do have a job offer on the table that is good but it not start until March 1 and they have not put anything in writing even though I have asked the prospective employer to do so which they said they would do. Where is the written offer? I don't know.
I explained to Mrs M that no one hires anyone who might be smarter then they are. Not only that, no one around here seems to hire anyone that isn't their relative. Nepotism much? Mrs. M has put out some resumes as well and not one call back. It has taken me years to convince her that she is a very intelligent woman and thet she can do whatever she wants to. It's the American dream right? Mrs M believes she can't get hired because she is a Russian but I do not believe that to be the case. Perhaps so but I think it has probably has more to with the fact that she is multi-lingual, a native Russian speaker who is fluent in English and who can speak Italian and that whole series of romantic languages to varying degrees. Being able to speak and understand various languages is intimidating unless it is Spanish. In other words she does not fluently speak the language that corporations like to hire and pay minimum wage for.
It is not what you know, it is who you know and what you are willing to give up. I have thought about going back to church and doing that schtick again but I can't do it because it isn't right. Religion of any sort should not adhere to the tenet of ME, ME, ME, ME, ME, ME, ME, ME which most seem to do. The religion anymore is that of the Vogons.
I gave my daughter my univiersity degree last night. Here you go kiddo. Here is a $50,000 piece of paper.(that cheap these days) Maybe you can show it to your teacher I explained. She is only nine years old and she didn't quite understand so I had to explain in terms she could understand. Dad did a good job in school and he got good grades and so they allowed Dad to go to college and rack up all sorts of student loan debt while Dad was getting good grades (and drinking and chasing women) and then they gave me this piece of paper for all of those years of studying and taking exams. Then Dad had to work whatever job he could find to pay off those loans which Dad did. And now, I am not even good enough to mow the lawn at a university.
The best has to be that no employer, past present of future, has ever checked to see if I have a degree or not. Never. Not once. My accredited Alma Mater is very good about keeping track of that sort of thing so I called and asked. Nothing. My transcript has never been accessed and I graduated in 1998. Well, there goes that.
I wish you and Mrs Cog the best. Thank You.
Thank you AR. That was very thoughtful. I can deal with rejection but the wife is dealing with it in a very different fashion. My wife, Russian as she is was a ranked swimmer for Russia for the Olympics but she did not make team. She has fire in her heart. You would have no chance against racing her in the pool because she is like a missile through water.
And what else? I won a couple of NCCA letters too. That is why our children are not fat asses.
Mr. Manipuflation,
I looked up the link at which you were applying for grounds keeping work. It seems to be somewhere in Minnesota. That is a bit far from here, but consider the following, please. Besides, our four seasons are much more enjoyable here.
I have been blessed in Life beyond my expectations. I have a wonderful Wife and two healthy and well-adjusted children. We practice living within our means, and are modest folk. We are located in the foothills of Appalachia, where I have successfully managed to put my meager resources to work. We have several cows, chickens, pigs, goats, etc. where we live. By any stretch, I would be considered a "Prepper", however, I see it simply as personal responsibility and good citizenship to be able to rely on one's self, Family, and friends. I have no formal education past high school, but am an avid reader and doer, and have taught myself much.
Due to life being a sort of journey, with some curves along the way thrown in for good measure, I happen to own a little bit of unused extra property nearby. All that property needs is a good steward through whom which it can be made to prosper and reach its full productivity / potential.
Mrs. Cog's post about locals being in tune, or aware, of other ways of doing things is spot on. My goal is blending a modern lifestyle with one our Grandparents would be more familiar with. So far, so good.
I gladly offer you the opportunity to get in touch in touch with me, consider a lifestyle change, put your brains and brawn to good use, and live a freer, healthier, happier life.
I won't give away all that I have worked for, nor see it squandered, but I am offering you an opportunity to work with me in building a better community here. The resources I have available would be available to you to put to use until you would be able to do more for yourself. You, your Wife, and Daughter would be welcome. Opportunities in Appalachia abound, but only for those willing to put the work and put the effort into their endeavors. A strong business background puts you leaps and bounds ahead of the game, all you need is to apply it to what you decide to produce.
It is a lot to consider, but as a horticulturist, you could prosper here. There are outlets for what can be produced locally, just none through which you will become fabulously wealthy, but the cost of living is low. Your gain would be security for you and your Family, and the creating of something you can be proud of.
If you would be interested in such a major life change, or are even able to consider my offer, please do feel free to get in touch with me.
The offer would be contingent upon yours and my being able to get along passably well, that you aren't scamming everyone here with your posts, and you are sincere in your desire to be productive. It isn't instantly gratifying, but is/ can be rewarding over the long term. The gain for me is having contributed to the betterment of my community.
Feel free to get in touch.
I am inferring that you are in the NYC metro area.
Any interest in the black markets?
fret not, vlad is gonna bring it all to a screechin' halt real soon.
You may be correct in your assessment.
Everyone is desperately trying to convince the world Russia is evil incarnate. What this really is all about is Russia has the gall and audacity to threaten the almighty dollar. ANY leader large or small who has done so over the last 40 or so years has suffered a terrible beat down.
Not sure if this time the western powers will be as successful as they were with much smaller second and third world countries. Russia and Putin are not stupid by any measure of the word. The question is not if Russia is ready to go all in because I think they are or they would not have pushed it this far. But if China is truly ready and willing to back that play?
I will be joining a "legal" sharing ministry. If you don't mind paying the fine, you can get temporary insurance.
I believe that one of the larger, undiscussed problems of Obama Care is that it can and will be used as a weapon for the control and or suppression of political dissent, much is the same way as the IRS has been turned into a weapon used against those who would threaten the status quo. They will look on a Homeland Security list (Main Core) kind of like a bad Santa to see if you have been naughty or nice, and are of a favorable political outlook. If so your kidney transplant will be approved. If you threaten the system because of your anti-government views, your transplant request will be put under a further never ending review. Also politicians and their opponents will be arm twisted with personal health care information. Finally, it gives the government access to mental health information that could be used as an excuse to prevent gun ownership or restrict air travel, etc.
If you threaten the system because of your anti-government views, your transplant request will be put under a further never ending review.
You are far too optimistic...
Dissidents will be the ones PROVIDING the kidneys - and hearts and ... - for transplants. China has already worked out the model.
And guys like Cheney will be getting transplant after transplant to keep them alive... meet our future Zombie leaders.
Or simply locked up in a hospital ward with wire mesh over the windows because your politicial views are a sure sign of serious mental illness.
This was why I included the next to last image labeled "Plenty of room at the inn for dissidents."
I think most rational people knew when Reid & Pelosi were gutting an unconnected spending bill left over from the year before and inserting ObamaCare into it (besides openly bribing a sitting US senator, Nelson) that something was terribly wrong, that was the time to stop it.
But we don't live in a world with rational people. We live in a world where people can mention the word "democracy" or "rights" and the majority goes batshit crazy with approval. In this bizarre world, law can be whatever the majority has been suckered into believing it is, from slavery to ObamaCare.
Fortunately, laws can be repealed quite easily.
The question is, will (like subprime mortgages) the thieves and their accomplices go unpunished yet again?
I say they will.
When enough people participate in the corruption who exactly do you 'punish' other than a few token scapegoats. The herd is always 'right' even especially when it is dead wrong.
I'll settle for all the bell cows heads on pikes that were leading the herd.
And of course, whoever trained them.