SLASH'S PROFILE

I love this song ^^ I knew how to play it on piano a while back!

Aww, I really love you all ^^ I know I haven't been around much lately, but I've missed you! (I'm glad Kloe is as cheerful as ever~)

author=unity
Yep. You have to build it, brick by lonesome brick, all while keeping the motivation and vision that one day you'll have a complete game. ;_;

Best of luck! ^_^

Yup yup, that's how it's been going..! I have a tendency to end up forgetting the forest and only seeing the trees, & I've been in this cycle where I've been getting kinda melancholy every few days because of it :P Either I'm too swamped to work on making my games, or I come home from my job too exhausted & stressed to focus well. I'm trying to figure out a new pattern and what I can change so I can focus more easily, but it's tough;;

Thanks for the pick-me-up, everyone ^^

I definitely agree that there are a lot of problems with the ACA, but it also has some very good parts. It introduced new regulations that prevent insurance companies from rejecting people for pre-existing conditions as irrelevant as tinnitus, and extended the length of time in which children could be covered under their parent's health insurance to age 26, which was vital in an economy where the pay for new workers is low. It also just increased the amount of people covered by insurance, which means less people going bankrupt because they spent a weekend in the hospital.

But, yes, I definitely would prefer a single-payer plan, or a plan where the gov't has collective bargaining power, and I would prefer regulations on the health & medical care product industry.

I have extremely little trust in the competitive market, because the way the health industry is shaped, the costs are destined to be high, which means insurance will be expensive. There is very little ability for an individual to be picky with the cost of their health care, especially in a dire situation. There are many other countries where similar or better care costs less for the average taxpayer, costs less for the consumer, and costs less for the hospital. Medical devices, hospital stays, and prescription drugs are inordinately expensive here. Many drugs that cost $60 here go for $5 elsewhere, and in the past decade we've seen hundreds of drug prices go up at their owner's leisure. Hospitals are forced to overcharge regular patients & the taxpayer to cover the uninsured who show up in the emergency room for issues that could be treated much less expensively with a regular appointment.

There's a massive list of issues with the health care system and corporations in the U.S. which leads to incredibly expensive insurance, and I don't believe more competitive insurance markets will be enough. We need regulations on drug patent holders so they cannot spike prices for a drug by 500% overnight (which either hits the consumer directly, or raises the cost of insurance). We need collective bargaining so that providers of medical equipment can't overcharge for MRI machines, catheters, IV stands, etc. We need more people to be covered by insurance so they don't go to the ER and force the hospital to spend money inefficiently.

If the average person doesn't have to worry about bankruptcy due to an unpredictable health problem, we'll see more new small businesses, more self-employed creators, and more freedom in the labor market, as workers will have the ability to choose a job based on more competitive factors, and not just the fear of being uninsured.

author=Liberty
I'm pretty glad we don't have the whole "Loboral/Robpulblicon" bullshit here. (Like, seriously, is this a "thing" anywhere else in the world? I feel like it probably is in some places but that it's infinitely stronger/stupider in America.)

I have no idea what this is, tbh >_>


http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/12/fccs-ajit-pai-says-net-neutralitys-days-are-numbered-under-trump/

Ajit Pai is looking very likely to lead the FCC permanently (he leads it in interim at the moment). He is actively against measures that protect Net Neutrality as well as laws that require ISPs like Comcast to ask for your permission before collecting and storing your personal data and browsing history. His argument is that these measures prevent innovation, investment, and job creation.

I'd argue heavily against that last point - considering we've had Gigabit technology for a while now but most major ISPs like Comcast or AT&T don't provide it (even if they have the physical lines laid), I don't see any benefit for the average consumer. Cutting these regulations will only lead to us being overcharged.

I mean, if you're giving us free reign to ignore you, I'm not going to complain.


Anyway, I don't know enough about international diplomacy to understand the debate re: Trump talking to Taiwan & Chinese relations. The gist of what I've got is that discussions with Taiwan are a huge faux pax because of our relations with China - which I think is incredibly inane as a rule. What else should I know?