freecounterpoint: sob stories

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

sob stories

Hey AI
how's that for a great healthcare system?

>>So, puhleease, spare us the sob stories about people dying on the streets for lack of medical care due to heartless U.S. Kapitalists -- I would have had sympathy for such stories if we've been living in the 1860s, but not now.

10 comments:

Tecumseh said...: Not bad, not bad: about #30 in the world, for a huge, diverse country like the US is pretty good for such statistics. Of course little, homogeneous countries such as Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Austria, Holland, will be ahead -- big whoops. Also, I bet the statistics are skewed, since here enormous efforts are made to save really premature babies, whereas in other countries they do not even count them as live births if they die soon thereafter. But yes, we could do better --much better -- if we took better care of "normal" cases and not devote such disproportionate energy and resources to extreme, heroic-surgery type cases (and this pertains not just to neo-natal care, but to all health care).

At any rate, yes, I've heard of this statistic for several years now -- it's a favorite of my Liberal friends, who try to beat me over the head with it in an effort to "prove" the superiority of Nanny State solutions. To which I usually retort: I'll listen when the French discover AC, and don't let 15,000 elderly fry in the summer.; 5/10/2006 12:38 AM
The Darkroom said...: >To which I usually retort: I'll listen when the French discover AC, and don't let 15,000 elderly fry in the summer.

To which I retort when the gringos will discover levee technology and not let thousands drown, 100K homes destroyed and an entire urban economy wiped out ?; 5/10/2006 10:31 AM
Mr roT said...: I heard on NPR (of all places) that the reason US infant mortality rates look high is that they are counted differently. Here, very premature deliveries are counted as live births while elsewhere they are not. Since they have a large mortality rate, this inflates the whole figure. Bottom line is that this story is horseshit.; 5/10/2006 11:40 AM
Tecumseh said...: Yes, JJ -- that's exactly what I was saying. Sometimes, it helps to read the other posts...; 5/10/2006 12:13 PM
Tecumseh said...: As for la Nouvelle Orléans, it's the French who had the dumb idea to build the city under water level. I think we should sue them, and ask for our money back for the Louisiana purchase (keeping the goods, though, fair is fair.); 5/10/2006 12:16 PM
The Darkroom said...: why was it a dumb idea ? A lot of cities are lower than the ocean level. Holland is 80% or so under water. the difference is that, in civilized nations, the govt appoints competent engineers to build durable levee systems. Here in LA, appointments have little to do with your background. it's more who you know ikf you see what i mean.

the flooding was largely due to human error and had little to do with katrina (force 3 hurricane when it hit land).; 5/10/2006 12:41 PM
Tecumseh said...: One tends to get as good as the people who vote it into office. Louisiana has had a problem with that for many a generation, non?; 5/10/2006 12:50 PM
The Darkroom said...: yup. there's a worldwide trend there...; 5/10/2006 12:59 PM
Tecumseh said...: Regression to the mean?; 5/10/2006 2:09 PM
The Darkroom said...: to the lowest common denominator i am afraid.; 5/10/2006 2:19 PM