The FDA (like all other regulatory agencies) has been gutted by the Republicans. Last I heard there were a grand total of 30 inspectors for the entire country. They are also constrained by politics. Partially hydrogenated vegetable oils should be illegal to produce but the agro-giants will keep it available for years unless each city and State outlaws it on their own.
pigsteak, obeisity and diabetes could be reduced drastically if the poor got regular medical treatment. When you don't get a checkup for ten years because you just cannot afford $50, you're not going to have an authority figure telling you to get more exercise. It won't prevent everyone from a shortened life made miserable by blindness, limb loss, back and joint pain, etc. but it would help a lot of people.
The only reason I can see against universal health care is that it will reduce the income of health care administrators. I say remove the profit motive from basic healthcare and get rid of the worthless fuckers. You could double the beds available and hire plenty of nurses and assistants if you weren't shelling out tens of millions of dollars a year to every CEO and staff at every healthcare facility in this country.
Economics 101
That is not true. The brains go where they are most free. That's why the brains are leaving this country and going where their research is not restricted based on fundamentalist religious dogma. If you eliminate the CEO's and put that money into reducing the workload on the doctors, what makes you think the doctors would leave?
Administration in this country has become its own incestuous fuckfest. First there's a director with his assitants and staff. Then his assistants need staff. And then their staff needs assistants and more staff. And they suck the life and quality out of the entity they were created to support while they do their best to make it not look like a dying piece of shit. Our healthcare system, the government, thinktanks, and our education system are prime examples.
Let me hit you with an example. In a hand-out at the last graduation my father attended (as a professor for a state university) there were more names under administration than faculty. The marketing department was bigger than the English and philosophy departments combined. The staff of the president was over 40 people.
Here in Louisville the marketing department of U of L thought it made sense to rent out 8 giant billboards along I-65 for months. All of them ads for U of L. They paid a shitton of money for those things, and the people that designed them were paid a shitton of money and the people that came up with and authorized the campaign were all paid a ton of money and the first year physics teacher is making $35G and has to work 80 hours a week.
In this the brains are the ones working to make the world better despite the worthless fucks. The worthless fucks are the ones sitting on the shit pile of cash, raking it to themselves because it's all they know.
We have become, as a society, a bunch of middlemen, just trying to suck up cash without any thought of the future and our legacy. When you're dead, nobody is impressed by your expensive shit... unless you're a Rockafeller or something. That dude's house is amazing.
Economy 101 is for freshmen.
btw, Day, I think you said you only gave to charities that benefit you. That's just such a strange idea I can't even begin...
Administration in this country has become its own incestuous fuckfest. First there's a director with his assitants and staff. Then his assistants need staff. And then their staff needs assistants and more staff. And they suck the life and quality out of the entity they were created to support while they do their best to make it not look like a dying piece of shit. Our healthcare system, the government, thinktanks, and our education system are prime examples.
Let me hit you with an example. In a hand-out at the last graduation my father attended (as a professor for a state university) there were more names under administration than faculty. The marketing department was bigger than the English and philosophy departments combined. The staff of the president was over 40 people.
Here in Louisville the marketing department of U of L thought it made sense to rent out 8 giant billboards along I-65 for months. All of them ads for U of L. They paid a shitton of money for those things, and the people that designed them were paid a shitton of money and the people that came up with and authorized the campaign were all paid a ton of money and the first year physics teacher is making $35G and has to work 80 hours a week.
In this the brains are the ones working to make the world better despite the worthless fucks. The worthless fucks are the ones sitting on the shit pile of cash, raking it to themselves because it's all they know.
We have become, as a society, a bunch of middlemen, just trying to suck up cash without any thought of the future and our legacy. When you're dead, nobody is impressed by your expensive shit... unless you're a Rockafeller or something. That dude's house is amazing.
Economy 101 is for freshmen.
btw, Day, I think you said you only gave to charities that benefit you. That's just such a strange idea I can't even begin...
[size=75]You are as bad as Alan, and even he hits the mark sometimes. -charlie
"Not all conservatives are stupid, but most stupid people are conservative." - John Stuart Mill[/size]
"Not all conservatives are stupid, but most stupid people are conservative." - John Stuart Mill[/size]
Mr. Evil, I haven't said anything about charities or my funding of charities on any post here, ever. As per your comment about the profit motive, I read your post too quickly and missed the point that you were talking about bloated beaurocracies, etc. I was thinking more along the lines of doctors. If I'm seriously ill, or injured, I want the best and possibly most expensive doctor I can get. I don't care how much money he makes.