Bodybuilding can be very expensive

[Coach is Back!]

I already give to the poor, I don't need someone to steal it from me

[dr.chimps]

I already give to the poor, I don't need someone to steal it from me

You haven't lost anything. Anything. And you won't. You're like the spinster, clutching her pearls, worrying she will be raped.   

[Xerxes]

I already give to the poor, I don't need someone to steal it from me

"The necessaries of life occasion the great expense of the poor. They find it difficult to get food, and the greater part of their little revenue is spent in getting it. The luxuries and vanities of life occasion the principal expense of the rich, and a magnificent house embellishes and sets off to the best advantage all the other luxuries and vanities which they possess. A tax upon house-rents, therefore, would in general fall heaviest upon the rich; and in this sort of inequality there would not, perhaps, be anything very unreasonable. It is not very unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expense, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more than in that proportion."

[Coach is Back!]

You haven't lost anything. Anything. And you won't. You're like the spinster, clutching her pearls, worrying she will be raped.   

I paid almost 41% in taxes this year, when this is all said and done with all the federal and state spending, we're going to have to pay for it and you know it.

[dr.chimps]

I paid almost 41% in taxes this year, when this is all said and done with all the federal and state spending, we're going to have to pay for it and you know it.

So You say. And you paid how much less under Bush? And how do we know?   

[Coach is Back!]

"The necessaries of life occasion the great expense of the poor. They find it difficult to get food, and the greater part of their little revenue is spent in getting it. The luxuries and vanities of life occasion the principal expense of the rich, and a magnificent house embellishes and sets off to the best advantage all the other luxuries and vanities which they possess. A tax upon house-rents, therefore, would in general fall heaviest upon the rich; and in this sort of inequality there would not, perhaps, be anything very unreasonable. It is not very unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expense, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more than in that proportion."

Yeah, I get it, I could have very well been that same position not too long ago, but instead of living off the government or asking people for a hand out, I chose to work and figure my own future out.

[Xerxes]

Yeah, I get it, I could have very well been that same position not too long ago, but instead of living off the government or asking people for a hand out, I chose to work and figure my own future out.

Yeah sure thing bro, all poor people should just work they way out of poverty

Imagine for a second you were not born, would you then choose to be born in a society where the differences in class where huge? You could end up a poor kid from the ghetto without a father/mother and a life where few of your friends go to school or have a job.... sure you'd just go the rags to riches route, yeah sure you would  you're such a go getter.

Or would you want to live in a society where the lower social classes at least have basic stuff like healthcare?


Baah why am I even bothering

[dr.chimps]

Yeah, I get it, I could have very well been that same position not too long ago, but instead of living off the government or asking people for a hand out, I chose to work and figure my own future out.

Uh, Coach. Xerxes' quote is from Adam Smith, the Godfather of free trade, then a champion of economical Liberalism, now political Conservatism.  

[Jadeveon Clowney]

 furious blackberry googling ensues in Huntington Beach.

[pellius]

The Coach-sponsored GOP budget proposal, just announced today, essentially privatizes Medicare. So, that's a big Fuck You, to you, tommy.    

/tax cuts for the wealthy and the defense budget untouched, tho. so coach totally wins on this one.    

LOL! No tax cuts for the wealthy. The top 1% income earners still have to pay their measly 38% of the tax revenue the government confiscates from them.

Medicare is a failure. The amount of waste and corruption is obscene. Medicare/Medicade and Social Security are the biggest drain on our country's budget. The government has never run anything and made it better, cheaper and more efficient.

In our country, providing for the national defense is one of the few things authorized by the Constitution. Not providing medical coverage and retirement programs.

[pellius]

Yeah sure thing bro, all poor people should just work they way out of poverty

Imagine for a second you were not born, would you then choose to be born in a society where the differences in class where huge? You could end up a poor kid from the ghetto without a father/mother and a life where few of your friends go to school or have a job.... sure you'd just go the rags to riches route, yeah sure you would  you're such a go getter.

Or would you want to live in a society where the lower social classes at least have basic stuff like healthcare?


Baah why am I even bothering

Not everybody in this country has health insurance but EVERYBODY has health care. Even a drunk illegal alien who just ran over and killed someone and got injured in the process would be treated. When I live in Cali the emergency room was packed with Mexicans with their babies and no insurance. They essentially use the emergency room for an office visit. I waited 3 hours to be treated for a dislocated elbow.

[pellius]

I also want to mention that I have a good friend from India. He told one of his relatives is just so desperate to come and live in the US. He said that he wants to live in a country where the majority of the poor people are fat.

[Xerxes]

Not everybody in this country has health insurance but EVERYBODY has health care. Even a drunk illegal alien who just ran over and killed someone and got injured in the process would be treated. When I live in Cali the emergency room was packed with Mexicans with their babies and no insurance. They essentially use the emergency room for an office visit. I waited 3 hours to be treated for a dislocated elbow.

So if they require surgery or other more expensive treatments, do they get it without ending up with a fat medical bill?

[dr.chimps]

LOL! No tax cuts for the wealthy. The top 1% income earners still have to pay their measly 38% of the tax revenue the government confiscates from them.

Medicare is a failure. The amount of waste and corruption is obscene. Medicare/Medicade and Social Security are the biggest drain on our country's budget. The government has never run anything and made it better, cheaper and more efficient.

In our country, providing for the national defense is one of the few things authorized by the Constitution. Not providing medical coverage and retirement programs.

Hmm. pellius!? With super-googled over-the-top GOP-positive statistics-and-figures. Didn't see that one coming. I think you can relax, given that Coach's 18-hole, yacht-loitering, alms-donating largesse to the poor won't be affected by any policy by Obama.    

[Nilrem]

I just had to reply to Tommywishbone's post.
I lived in the United States for a decade and loved it. Like all countries in the world, it has  pluses and minuses.
The only radical deviation I see from the rest of the developed world is its health care system.
To put it bluntly, it's medieval. It's a terribly convoluted system that makes Soviet era Russia look transparent by comparison. It's horrendously expensive, it doesn't cover one fifth of the population at all, and the rest, have variations of cover ranging from woeful to wonderful. I could go on and on but I won't.
What I will do is give an example of a hip replacement that I had. I had a total hip replacement (top of the line Stryker prosthetic with ceramic cup and ball), seven days in hospital and rehab, all covered by the public health care system here in Australia (which everyone pays into). My total spend was..................... ........................ ........................ ......nothing.

When I showed my surgeon a bill (Like Tommy's) for a 23 hour stay with exploratory surgery in the States ($60,000.00). He couldn't stop laughing. He's on the board of many committees that explore the financial side of delivering health care and has gone to the States many, many times. His conclusion was, that greed had consumed the system over there.
I couldn't help but agree.
The States is wonderful place to live, just don't get seriously sick.

[WhiteCastle]

obviously you haven't heard how hospitals bill and settle.

one of the guys at my work went in for a work injury and we fought with the hospital for the bill.  we ended up telling them "we'll pay you 30% by friday or nothing at all" and they agreed.

those "bills" are just kind of a crapshoot because different companies pay out different percentages. they'll never see anywhere near that money from tommy or his insurance.

Absolutely 100% correct. I've done some database auditing in the finance firms and in the health care industry and without a shred of doubt I can say that the fraud perpetrated by the health care industry makes wall street look like Mother Theresa. There are just insane amounts of collusion between drug companies, hospitals and doctors, and government.

[dr.chimps]

Absolutely 100% correct. I've done some database auditing in the finance firms and in the health care industry and without a shred of doubt I can say that the fraud perpetrated by the health care industry makes wall street look like Mother Theresa. There are just insane amounts of collusion between drug companies, hospitals and doctors, and government.

Shhh. You don't want to wake Coach from his slumber.

[Xerxes]

I just had to reply to Tommywishbone's post.
I lived in the United States for a decade and loved it. Like all countries in the world, it has  pluses and minuses.
The only radical deviation I see from the rest of the developed world is its health care system.
To put it bluntly, it's medieval. It's a terribly convoluted system that makes Soviet era Russia look transparent by comparison. It's horrendously expensive, it doesn't cover one fifth of the population at all, and the rest, have variations of cover ranging from woeful to wonderful. I could go on and on but I won't.
What I will do is give an example of a hip replacement that I had. I had a total hip replacement (top of the line Stryker prosthetic with ceramic cup and ball), seven days in hospital and rehab, all covered by the public health care system here in Australia (which everyone pays into). My total spend was..................... ........................ ........................ ......nothing.

When I showed my surgeon a bill (Like Tommy's) for a 23 hour stay with exploratory surgery in the States ($60,000.00). He couldn't stop laughing. He's on the board of many committees that explore the financial side of delivering health care and has gone to the States many, many times. His conclusion was that greed had consumed the system over there.
I couldn't help but agree.

I have no first hand experience with the system myself so it's good to see someone who has seen both sides

The States is wonderful place to live, just don't get seriously sick. get rich or die trying.

Fixed with 50 cent wisdom

[OneMoreRep]

you could have gone to mexico and had that done for $2,000, and gotten then dents out your car in the same building while having surgery

What you forgot to tell him is that the same guys who would be taking the dents out of his car, would most likely be performing surgery on him as well.

"1"

[pellius]

The economist, Walter Williams, said that in this country there are only five simple easy to achieve rules you have to follow to guarantee you a decent middle class life style. That doesn't mean you'll be rich but that you will not end up on the streets or living off someone else's labor.

Finish high school. Don't have children before you are married. Don't get addicted to drugs or alcohol. Don't get in trouble with the law. Get a job, any job, stick with it, and work hard. Even if you work at a fast food place, if you work hard you will eventually get promoted and move up and become at least a manager -- but usually more if you pursue an education. Maybe not the most glamorous life but you at least have the dignity knowing that you are pulling your own weight and providing for you and your family. My brother's best friend got a job at Walmart as a bag boy. Some 40 years later he's still there now a district manager making six figures. The guy siting next to me on the plane while coming back to Hawaii came to the US and barely speaking the language worked as a janitor for Jack-in-the Box. Still working for the same company he was now on his way from his home in Marin County to stay at his vacation home in Hawaii. Stories like this are endless here in America.

In this country there are always going to be a certain percentage that are poor. But those are not always the same people. People are changing their economic circumstance constantly. A student, such as Xerxes, may have a pitiful annual income that will place him in the lower economic ladder. But with his reasonable intelligence and biting wit this won't last long providing he has some ambition. When you start digging into why a person or a family are consistently destitute you will invariably find that they have broken one of those five years. Usually it has to do with alcohol and drugs.  

[Nilrem]

"The economist, Walter Williams....."

And that's where you lost me. The LAST people we should be listening to, or drawing life lessons from, are economists.

[pellius]

So if they require surgery or other more expensive treatments, do they get it without ending up with a fat medical bill?

In a word, yes. They will get a bill but if you're some poor sap they are not getting dime. You'll go into collections and get a bad credit rating and you also have the option of simply filing for Bankruptcy and have all debts erased and it will be on your record for 7-10 years but now you are debt free. As a practical matter, you can easily build your credit rating back up in a couple of years as now you are free of debt and can easily get secure credit cards and many will still give you credit (such as if you want to buy a car) as they are very forgiving of unforeseen circumstances.

If you are an illegal or a criminal it's a free ride.

[dr.chimps]

"The economist, Walter Williams....."

And that's where you lost me. The LAST people we should be listening to, or drawing life lessons from, are economists.

Who else would they ask us to listen to? Poets? 

[#1 Klaus fan]

Coach hates democracy and the government, is he an anarchist?

[pellius]

"The economist, Walter Williams....."

And that's where you lost me. The LAST people we should be listening to, or drawing life lessons from, are economists.

No we should be listen to you.

Walter Williams grew up in a time when there was still Jim Crow laws and came from a family that was dirt poor living in the projects. Economist run the gamut of political philosophies. Some believe that those who spend money the best are those who had to actually go out and earn it. It's radically different when you can spend someone else's money and suffer no consequences. Remember, when times are tough you have to tighten your belt. When times are tough for the government they just tell you to tighten your belt and simply raise taxes and/or print more money. They never reduce overall government expenditures. We are not in such a staggering debt because the government doesn't confiscate enough of our money. It because they simply spend too much.

http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/opinion/thomas-sowell/5438-walter-williams-memoir-up-from-the-projects