straightUp Loc: California

Good example. Many people get confused about this, thinking that wasteful spending is somehow against the rules of capitalism and since the DOD is a government program, the waste must certainly must be a government problem. But wasteful spending is NOT against the rules of capitalism... it's only recognized as a bad thing when applied to your operating costs because that cuts into your profit, but there is nothing more desirable to a capitalist than a wasteful customer because what your customer is wasting is being added to your profit. This is why so much of a typical corporate budget goes to sales and advertising... Not to innovate, not to produce but to convince as many customers as possible to waste their money on you. In the military-industrial complex, the DOD is the customer and the contractors are there to take as much money from this customer as possible. Their success depends on the weaknesses of the DOD. Are they stupid enough to pay twice for something? Can we make a side-deal with this guy? So, I don't exclude the government from blame, because the answer to these two questions are sometimes "yes". But clearly, the root of the problem is the drive to increase sales which is something the government doesn't do.

Thanks for the link dashy!

straightUp Loc: California

No they don't. Check your facts. The providers and insurance companies are all self-motivated, privately owned businesses. As tdsmst pointed out, the ACA is a set of laws, nothing more. These laws


We already know what will happen dennis - it's already started... my wife's hours have already been cut as a part of her employer's reaction to the new rules Obamacare gives us. Bottom line dennis... what's the bottom line? Profit! That's all you need to know. Employer mandate = added cost = lower profit. Can't refuse to pay the added cost of the mandate? Well then, you gotta cut somewhere to keep that cost down, right? Yes, dennis... to stay attractive to investment that answer is yes. It's capitalist survival. It's what makes capitalism, which is so good at so many other things, so bad for health care. Because healing the sick and injured is not always a profitable task.

This is why I said Obamacare sucks, but only compared to what I want us to have, which is nothing like what we have now. I want socialized medicine damnit. Single-payer, no bills, no confusing insurance options or time windows or deductibles, ceilings, out-of-network providers, age-ranges for who is covered, preexisting conditions or premiums... I just want H-E-A-L-T-H - C-A-R-E... because I am a human being in a civilized society. And yes, we CAN have this. People DO have this. I've seen it for real in other countries, no lie. It's sweet! It works! and it cares for human beings not profit margins.


Why not cut the number of IRS agents down? Easy. Stop charging income tax, switch to wealth tax. Now you have at least ten times the money to tap into and only 5% of the tax payers to deal with.