If I were in charge, I’d have a tier of general physicians trained, paid for by the states and the feds and local communities, to be dedicated basic health care providers. They wouldn’t get rich and wouldn’t specialize but they would be SOMEBODY anybody could go to if there’s a problem.
Most stuff that happens to us is minor shit. You get a gash on your leg and need antibiotics. You break an arm it has to be set. Your kid swallowed something weird and they need an xray. You hurt your back and need pain meds. Whatever. Basic. It shouldn’t be hard to get that.
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Bull in a china shop. Thankfully there’s people NOT in his cabinet nor in most of Congress who are smart enough to compensate. For how long? I don’t know. But I can only hope there’s plenty of fast-thinkers out there that can keep things afloat while know-nothing messes around.
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I hoped so for a while Gerald. A piece of me still hopes so. But when the writer of his 1988 book said, “There is no private trump”, it put a big hole in that idea for me.
What if what you see is what there is?
Nothing deeper to be found?
That’s even more a worry than any conspiracy ideas people come up with.
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We have no decent manufacturing here. Labor’s cheap in other countries. Maybe if they eliminate minimum wage here, pay auto workers $3/hr and electronics makers $3/hr here it might work.
But we’re not china and can’t turn into China without a lot of major changes.
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I exaggerated to make a point and that was wrong. I’m just saying we can’t get the profit margins they can get in China nor the large amounts of workers needed for the large scale manufacturing they can do there.
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That’s true in many factories but not all. Consider too : WHY do companies choose to locate overseas and Mexico? It’s cheaper labor. It’s fewer safety regulations. It’s far larger unemployment rates than we have here [they HAVE the manpower].
Robots are far from taking over everything just yet, even in the USA.
If we wanted to do large scale as they do at the high quality levels they have (for electronics anyway), we don’t have enough people, nor enough of the right people with the right training, etc.
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Intellectual capital for example. You know where the smart people are being educated?
Pakistan.
India.
Brazil.
Been that way for 25+ years now.
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You’re right Erek. But it’s not in the places where the people are complaining. That’s one of the reasons why Trump got in.
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Michael Moore drives me nuts but he was right on that count.
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Old industries go the way of the horse and buggy drivers. That’s the nature of big business though.
To get back to an era of local manufacturing we’d almost need some kind of socialism.
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Nah. I don’t care what political system we have Gerald. It’s going to suck no matter what.
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That’s why I’m watching Trump like a hawk Gerald. I don’t want North Korea to happen here.
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I don’t have it as it is, so nothing changes for me. I take Zinc and Magnesium a few times a week and eat relatively healthy. Best I can do.
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Maybe. But corporations have to manufacture and sell it. Who will be able to afford it? Smartphones took a strange turn though: Few of us *should* be able to afford them, but they got clever with expensive plans which supported them for years.
Now that the technology is settling down and competitors brought in cheaper rates, not sure if there’s much growth left in that industry.
Meanwhile, we’ve gotten used to it.
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and what do we do? We blame the people themselves. I mean come on – given a choice between magic device that does everything, or “ouch I need a doctor!” – you’re going to pick the magic device that does everything.
“Sorry, you can’t have this because you’re poor. Pay for your health while we have good jobs with insurance *and* can get those magic boxes too”.
Given a choice, you pick the magic box. It’s nobody’s fault for picking the magic box because any society that has magic boxes really *should* also be capable of providing for its own people somehow. [yes, the logic doesn’t flow completely but I think it’s true enough]
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Oh it totally is Erek. I run the business part, my brother does the trapping work, sister-in-law does most of the day to day stuff I used to do.
I could be a well paid systems analyst again but damn that’s stressful stuff. Fun in its own way though.
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We live in a strange community Erek : You’re either super rich or scraping by. That’s about it.
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