Posted by Eddie Sylvano on September 18, 2002, at 15:07:00
In reply to Re: THANKS for the warning!, posted by Disillusioned on September 18, 2002, at 11:58:02
>Yeah? Name one! The twentieth century has been the bloodiest century in history. We eat processed food. We drive automobiles that pollute the air. We languish in front of the Moron Tube, TV, and accept any of the propoganda fed to us. I don't believe that we've advanced at all.
-----------Science is neutral, but the people applying it aren't. A rock, gun, and nerve gas can all kill. What we've got are bad motivations. When television was first invented, a lot of scientists envisioned it being a medium for real education, conveying more information than books, and in a more engaging way. What they didn't realize is that just because they thought that way, other people didn't. It's the responsibility of the individual to better themselves.
>society is not about growth, it's about money! More for the rich and less scrupulous, and less for those who just want a decent life. It's a world economy! Business offers 'competitive' wages. Who are you competing with? Third world workers who will work for less?
-------------I basically agree with you here. It alarms me that our economy is based on the notion of perpetual growth (which, mathematically, can't be sustained), and all the practices this method requires (disposability, artificially induced consumption, inflation). The problem is that there isn't a viable alternative, and by viable, I mean something that the majority of people will comply with. The state of affairs is a result, once again, of the innate motivations of people. No one is controlling it. It's an emergent system derived from each person's relative desire to have more (be superior to) than others. Every dollar spent is a vote in an election of economic ideas.
> I'm not depressed, I'm disillusioned. You have the right to assemble, but only with a permit, and it better not be in Waco, TX. You have the right to bear arms, but not arms that are equal
--------That's a whole philosophical quagmire that I can't address with any usefulness.
>You have the right to privacy, but you gotta piss in a bottle to get a job! Gimme a break.
----------Private organizations shouldn't have the right to screen their voluntary employees in whatever way they feel is useful? I agree that drug use isn't a solid indicator of employee utility, but neither are GPA or appearance, yet they are regularly applied.
>goverment keeps raising the taxes because as Alan Greenspan testified, "people who are addicted will pay anything."
------------Actuarial tables suggest that cigarette usage costs the government (in medicare) more than the tax they collect on them, so it makes some sense to me. Move closer to an Indian reservation, or smoke less, I guess (and yes, I smoke too).
>Now, an equivalent car costs $27,000, ten times as much, but car washworkers aren't making ten times as much.
--------------Economists would argue that although prices of certain goods relative to median income may rise, the rise should be expected, due to the increasing *quality* of goods (known as Quality Bias). Cars 30 years ago were death-traps that got poor mileage, had no power steering, cd players, anti-lock brakes, etc. Expectations have risen, even if wages haven't.
>The Zoloft costs me over $100 per month, and the insurance won't pay for it! I'm locked in my house not only by my disease, but also by lack of finances.
-------------Our current health insurance system *is* pretty retarded (short-sighted). Medical care is a national *need*, just like utilities or sanitation, and would be best addressed collectively. For that matter, drug prices might not be so high if the cost of the approval processes and potential litigation weren't such hamstrings.
>It isn't helping me, an American, but it's over in Pakistan, and soon Iraq, to among other things, help the culturally afflicted women.
-----------People will shit their pants if we're attacked again, in greater magnitude, and nothing was done to prevent it. I'm surprised how few people consider the potential of a nuclear device being detonated in Manhattan as possible. People with collective means and ample motivation are working for it right now.
> I get my meds and 'therapy' from county mental health. They just got themselves a new $6 million building, but they have no money or resources to provide competent one on one care. I've been in
------------It's ridiculous how both the criminal justice system and the mental health system operate, but it's actually what people seem to want. Mental health is still viewed as a personal weakness by a public that still thinks schizophrenia means "he thinks he's 5 different people!"
>You do the math! I'd rather get stoned.I'll join you there ;)
poster:Eddie Sylvano
thread:120225
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020914/msgs/120286.html