Bernie is on JRE

I figured this would be a shit show, but he’s making some good points. One thing that’s got me thinking is the discussion about healthcare. He mentions that most of the developed world has strict price controls on the healthcare industry. We do not. Most of these companies are multi-national. Are we propping up these other countries healthcare systems?

 

Yes. Not the first time I've seen that laid out. We pay for the R&D the rest of the world benefits from.

 

Price controls on anything always result in less of that thing being available.

 

Do you have less public utilities?

 

You'll have to be more specific.

 

My only very limited experience is going on right now as my sister was recently diagnosed with stage 4 melanoma. So she started treatment at Iowa City hospital six months ago receiving two different treatment. One is called immune therapy where they try and ramp up or fortify/strengthen her immune system. I think this is sort of SOP. She is responsible for this thru her own insurance that her work provides her etc.

The other treatment is a new trial R&D treatment being done by a pharmaceutical company in Sweden. She is currently one of seven patients nation wide undergoing this treatment and had to meet several of their requirements to qualify. This part is being 100% paid for by the company. Each treatment currently runs $27,000 or so. No idea how they determine this but I imagine it’s a cost accounting thing as much as anything.

I’ve been going over with her for some of her treatments because she has to stay there for four hours after treatment so it’s a full day as we live 2 hours from IC. Plus they monitor for side effect etc. The good news is after the first round of 8 treatments the tumors have shown a decrease in size. She starts her second round next week. The sad thing is, (other then we are all Iowa State graduates and hate everything about the University of Iowa) the Iowa City hospital cancer treatment area is always completely full of people receiving treatment, I mean 100 or more every time I’ve been over.

But I’m sure they are getting reimbursed at some level. The question I have, what incentive do these companies have if they are not compensated financially?

In any event........FUCK CANCER

I lost my soulmate 1july17 to glioblastoma. Meredith Rae.

 

You do realize our public utility infrastructure is in abysmal shape don’t you?

 

I'm listening to the interview now and I figured that you dungeonistas would be talking about it. First, by politician standards, I think Bernie is a good guy. By human standards, he's either dishonest or ignorant, not sure which.

30 minutes in, it just sounds like a long form CNN interview. He's regurgitating talking points and cherry picking data to fit his ideological bent. The most terrifying comment for those of us who value the constitution was what he said about fighting Mitch Mcconnell in his home state of Kentucky. Forget what you think about Mcconnell. He's represents Kentucky, and the President has no business going into that state and disrupting it's elected leaders. The constitution enumerates the powers of the federal government not to give it authority over the states, but to restrict it's ability to meddle. If Kentucky's dogshit policies adversely affect it's population, it's residents can vote him out or vote with their feet. It's not the president's job to manage Kentucky or any other state.

 

I hope Rogan asks him why he didn’t pay his campaign staff $15/hr then when called on it cut their hours.

 

Yes, it certainly went downhill after the discussion about healthcare. College was “meh”, but guns, climate change, he needs to STFU about that stuff if he wants moderate middle class America to give him the time of day.

Seriously, if he ran on healthcare reform, real education reform (not just “free for everyone”, but increasing the quality of the education), curtailing lobbyist/corporate influence, and ending the WoD, the guy would be a real threat to Trump.

 

Joe poked at him a little on minimum wage, but the rest of the discussion he just lobbed softballs.

 

Kinda figured that would be the case.

 

I wouldn't trust him to take care of my dog
while I was away. Plus he's been in politics
for years and apparently isn't even good at stealing.

 

Bernie was just born in the wrong place and time.

He could have racked up a huge body count if he was given the reigns to a large society.

Instead, he will end up as a footnote.

 

Yeah I agree. I'm glad I listened. I was always anti Bernie because I'd only heard sound bytes and although his rhetoric seems pretty predictable, I figured I'd learn that there's nuance to his ideas.

Nope. He couldn't be more of a politician. He speaks in paragraphs and seems to have his script pretty dialed. He's painfully transparent and his worldview is one which can only be formed by someone who has his head buried in the political-acedemic sand his whole life.

He would have you believe that without a (free) college education, Americans will be on the streets and starving. No mention of the swollen bureaucracy and greed of the universities, or of abysmal job placement rates for college grads in careers which mirror their degree.

I employ a dozen people with high school educations who earn more money than the average college grad and actually got paid to learn their skill. They have nice big homes and cool toys and great benefits because they work hard in a career which is an absolute necessity and can never be outsourced. I'm sure Bernie spends most of every day in a climate controlled building with toilets that flush and lights which turn on, and I seriously doubt he's ever given a though to how and why that happens.

In the end, I really don't care if he gets elected. I've noticed little difference in my life through Bush, Obama or Trump. My alarm still goes off at 5 AM and I still go to work on improving my lot in life every day. The guy in the White House doesn't affect me very much.

 

Free education, like health care for all fails miserably to address the underlying issue of cost. There is zero real reason for the cost of education and healthcare to outpace the rate of inflation, education more so than healthcare.

 

There is no requirement for any of those companies to operate in those markets with price controls. They wouldn't be there if there wasn't something in it for them. They could just stay home and enjoy those fat margins if they were losing money abroad. So I think the real question you need to ask yourself is why Americans are willing to pay so much for the same product.

Capitalism. Win some, lose some.

 

And the alternative other than doing without?

 

Yes in some ways. Though in many areas 'public utilities' does not mean publicly owned. Off the top of my head I can mention Detroit Edison. Also not much innovation going on.

 

Willing? We're not. When the options are "do this treatment or die", it's no longer a choice. We're forced into it because the pharmaceutical and healthcare companies own the elected officials and regulatory agencies that are "supposed" to be looking out for us. Not to mention how brainwashed far too many of the population is, with the perfect example being the multitude of canned responses that explode from all the guys on here any time free basic healthcare is discussed. They don't even THINK, they just spew rhetoric.