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Yes, of course, I would like to see cures for diseases, but so far, all I have seen for all the medical advances are higher insurance rates and medical bills........
You do not need to participate in modern medicine. In which case you would not need insurance either.
Personally I will stick with modern medicine. In addition to a host of minor issues such as infections that might have killed me, I have survived malignant melanoma and prostatic cancer.
While you are thinking about retreating from modern technology, you could consider no longer participating in the City Data forum. I doubt they existed 15 years ago.
A thread like this is ultimately going to get political and well beyond the scope of this forum.
With that said, I try to be optimistic, but it's difficult. I just moved back to Tennessee a few weeks ago and started a new job Monday. I kept my (relatively) higher northern salary, but I've run into former colleagues and classmates over the lat few weeks who are really struggling. Many of these folks are just high school educated, "strong back, small brain" type people, but are honest and hardworking.
A close personal friend of mine majored in finance at UT-Knoxville, but never found meaningful work, wouldn't move, and ultimately was a meter reader for a local natural gas company. He was laid off in February and just got back to work this week...making smoothies at a nearby college gym as a Sodexo contractor.
Classmate of mine who is a year older than me (31) and is a good mechanic but never got any formal training, has been complaining on Facebook about being out of work for months. He has a baby on the way (fiance has a decent county job), and went back groveling to some $11/hr (he said it..) security guard job he had in the past but they wouldn't hire him. Don't know what happened there, but in the past the poor guy could probably find something. Now - he's just screwed. Guy's hair is mostly gray and he looks like he could be my dad
Coworker at my new job was in the ER last night and has burned through two of those costly EpiPens this month. Oh, her and her husband have already met their $12,000 out of pocket maximum after he had a major surgery earlier this year. It's some allergy related thing. She complained she can't afford more care, but has to have it anyway.
I don't know how things were forty or fifty years ago, but there are a lot of sad stories out there
You do not need to participate in modern medicine. In which case you would not need insurance either.
Personally I will stick with modern medicine. In addition to a host of minor issues such as infections that might have killed me, I have survived malignant melanoma and prostatic cancer.
While you are thinking about retreating from modern technology, you could consider no longer participating in the City Data forum. I doubt they existed 15 years ago.
Precisely. Modern technology has its flaws, but I think it's done far more good than harm. When it does have problems, it's usually due to misuse, abuse, or inept government policy regarding implementation/use.
Dude: Turn off Fox News. Go outside and smell the roses. Go volunteer.
You might be depressed--it happens. I'm your age, and I have always been prone to depression, but lots of things help. Isolating yourself in your home doesn't help that much. I would suggest:
1. Take a class, preferably with some young people. Is there a community college in your area? Call them and ask how to get in a yoga class, or beginning drawing or something else interesting and not too hard. Young people are fantastic these days--they'll lift you up.
2. Take walks. People get stuck in their cars and suffer from lack of exercise and oxygen. Walking is easy and will make you feel better.
3. Call the public library and ask about computer classes. Public libraries have classes on how to use the newest hardware and software--there is one you might like.
4. Pat yourself on the back for being right about the way humans have made everything too complicated and too expensive. Think of ways to simplify your life by getting rid of stuff, and stopping doing things that are just worrisome. I'm a news junkie, but I gave myself permission to ignore stories on subjects that just depress me, and about which no one asks my opinion anyway.
5. Maybe get some help. There's no shame in being on an anti-depressant, and you don't have to take it forever.
Good luck, I've got my fingers crossed for you--you sound smart enough to figure it out.
I quit watching TV news a great many years ago. It is just garbage with talking heads pretending to chum it up with each other and presenting a few minutes of "news" between piles of human interest shots and of course lots and lots of ads.
Same here. The tipping point for me was Dan Rather and his "fake, but accurate" smear story in 2004. I get my news on line. And not from Fox News. They're almost as bad as the alphabets.
Dude: Turn off Fox News. Go outside and smell the roses. Go volunteer.
You might be depressed--it happens. I'm your age, and I have always been prone to depression, but lots of things help. Isolating yourself in your home doesn't help that much. I would suggest:
1. Take a class, preferably with some young people. Is there a community college in your area? Call them and ask how to get in a yoga class, or beginning drawing or something else interesting and not too hard. Young people are fantastic these days--they'll lift you up.
2. Take walks. People get stuck in their cars and suffer from lack of exercise and oxygen. Walking is easy and will make you feel better.
3. Call the public library and ask about computer classes. Public libraries have classes on how to use the newest hardware and software--there is one you might like.
4. Pat yourself on the back for being right about the way humans have made everything too complicated and too expensive. Think of ways to simplify your life by getting rid of stuff, and stopping doing things that are just worrisome. I'm a news junkie, but I gave myself permission to ignore stories on subjects that just depress me, and about which no one asks my opinion anyway.
5. Maybe get some help. There's no shame in being on an anti-depressant, and you don't have to take it forever.
Good luck, I've got my fingers crossed for you--you sound smart enough to figure it out.
These are deeper and more systemic issues than walks or calling the library can resolve. I probably walk 20-30 miles a week as it is. Walking is good for general health, but it's not going to make a bit of difference on systemic problems.
Most people have these concerns. We have to deal with them the best we can individually, and no amount of trite remedies will resolve them.
You do not need to participate in modern medicine. In which case you would not need insurance either.
Personally I will stick with modern medicine. In addition to a host of minor issues such as infections that might have killed me, I have survived malignant melanoma and prostatic cancer.
While you are thinking about retreating from modern technology, you could consider no longer participating in the City Data forum. I doubt they existed 15 years ago.
Sincere congratulations on being a cancer survivor. Many people are not so lucky.
Perhaps I am mistaken, but I thought people are now required to have medical insurance in the U.S. or face penalties. All I know for sure is that my husband and I must now pay $898.50 per month for COBRA to keep the same insurance coverage we had before he was laid off last March. Although he was just hired back on a contract basis (without insurance), his unemployment was only $473 per week with a 26-week limit. I am just grateful that we have enough savings to see us through if he is laid off again before he is old enough to collect social security (he is 60), but I realize that many people are not as fortunate as my husband and I are. I am still working, btw, although my income is very small compared to what my husband was making before he was laid off.
But you are correct in saying that people almost always have choices. We could just take our chances and let the insurance lapse.
P.S. Btw, why are you so snippy (although I can certainly think of some other words to use) about my participating in City-Data? If I am not mistaken, City-Data itself is just another kind of chat room combined with a research site, both of which have existed since almost the start of the Internet, and I have made no secret of the fact that I have used the Internet for quite some time.
Last edited by katharsis; 09-03-2016 at 12:33 AM..
curmudgeon / misanthrope........ I'm right there with ya
The only curmudgeon/misanthrope worth a damn was Florence King, and that's because she liked sex and was an old-fashioned Barry Goldwater conservative, the kind who would have kicked Donald Trump in the ass so hard he would have had to stop running for president.
And to the bold text I add this comment. For the first time since 1945, serious, potentially escalating, war, is at the margins of the NATO zone. Russia has invaded Ukraine and threatened the rest of Europe with nuclear destruction. This is not the same old "stuff," different day. We have turned an invisible corner into a dark and dangerous alley.
....While you are thinking about retreating from modern technology, you could consider no longer participating in the City Data forum. I doubt they existed 15 years ago.
I was there, you could have found similar in the late 80's...if you had a computer, and by the 90's when computers had become available to the general public. These things were smaller in readership, of course, and worked a bit differently; but they were very similar.
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