This reeks so badly of desperation that I don’t even feel comfortable saying that they are grasping for straws because that might imply there’s anything within reach. Capable militaries tend to follow the whole “speak softly and carry a big stick” principle and leave the saber rattling for the also-rans. They are just simply FAR more interested in propaganda than any sort of actual invasion.
I’ve worked in ERs before, and there is more to this story that the article sidestepped quite neatly. Most ERs these days are filled to capacity with dangerously low staffing ratios, and the general public’s definition of an “emergency medical condition” and the medical definition of an “emergency medical condition” are very different. Some nights I’ve worked, we had people with chest pain and a cardiac history wait in the lobby for 5+ hours because there were no beds available and their EKG was mostly okay for the time being. A big contributor to this problem is a lack of mental health resources which results in ERs losing beds for up to weeks or even months at a time to hold psych patients that have nowhere to go. It is heartbreaking when we had to turn away people who mostly needed a social work consult…but when there’s two doctors and twelve nurses for a 40 bed ER and 2 out of 3 resuscitation bays are in use for active codes, there just isn’t anyone or any resources available to help someone who isn’t actively dying.
The inpatient side isn’t a lot better. Skilled nursing facilities and rehab centers are increasingly rare and increasingly expensive, and the hospital can’t keep a patient forever if they don’t meet criteria for hospitalization. The nice thing about inpatient is that they get to enforce their staffing ratios so that each nurse only has so many patients to handle. In the ER with EMTALA, it doesn’t matter that a nurse is caring for 6 patients (3 of which are waiting for an inpatient hospital bed, and 1 is waiting for an ICU bed…), that nurse will have to take on another critically ill patient that is stuck on a bed in the hallway if that’s all that’s available. The inpatient problem exacerbates the ER problem, and then you have people stuck in the lobby for 12+ hours before there’s a physical space for someone to see them, that provider’s capacity to take on another patient notwithstanding. It’s a true crisis and it’s only going to get worse until the full healthcare system (i.e. all the non-ER parts) are as accessible and available as needed.
We really need to start redistributing how we spend money on health care. Public option, lower executive pay. More non-emergency long term facilities for patients with psych issues or rehabilitation, and chronic illness care. Better pay and shorter shifts for doctors and nurses. Subsidies for medical tech companies to offset end-user price. More government-funded research into medical tech.
Health care should realistically be our biggest industry akin to a military with the social status of being a soldier and the compensation of being a software developer. We have the wealth and technology to help most people live healthy lives. We need the government to incentivize allocating it correctly.
Healthcare is a bigger industry than military. Medicare alone is almost spending the same as defense and that’s not counting Medicaid or Tricare (military Healthcare) and private spending.
Executive pay is high and could go down, but it’s hardly an issue overall. A big problem is lack of doctors at all, especially rural areas, but general practice is becoming scarce everywhere. There’s also a massive incentive problem that encourages companies to have ERs full of non emergencies.
Spending more or adding another public option isn’t going to fix the problem, ther needs to be a massive realignment of incentives. Specialists are over paid and over utilized. For example an endocrinologist can charge about twice as much as a GP to manage a diabetic patient and the patient still has to see different doctors for anything else. A GP can manage 95%+ of diabetic patients with no need to consult an endocrinologist and manage the vast majority of other medical issues that person may have. Very few doctors choose to become GPs though because it’s significantly lower pay, and not significantly shorter training periods.
The incentive program is screwed up because to a Healthcare company it’s more revenue to have people go to the ER for everything than set up a GP office. That also assumes they can find doctors to staff both, which again is getting more difficult. That ER doctor (another specialist) telling someone to drink fluids and rest for a cold brings more revenue than a GP that said the same thing.
We don’t need rent control. We need them to stop allowing single family dwellings to be owned by huge conglomerates, and particularly foreign interests. It’s insanity.
Yes, lack of housing is the bigger issue. Here in the Boston area, it’s pure supply and demand. Neighborhoods are full of triple-deckers just off the city center that could be denser apartment buildings. Landlords can charge whatever they want, because they know that anyone who wants to live in the area will have a hard time finding another place.
There’s also the question of transit infrastructure. Even with less dense housing, if there were easy ways to get around other than cars, proximity would be less of an issue.
because they know that anyone who wants to live in the area will have a hard time finding another place.
I mean, you’re just saying supply and demand still. They’re charging that because that’s what someone is willing to pay.
Even with less dense housing, if there were easy ways to get around other than cars, proximity would be less of an issue.
Agreed, the U.S. as a whole has had incredible incompetence with government officials regarding public transit. If we had reliable train and bus systems, we’d be in a much better position.
Investors buy on the order of 25% of all residential real estate available. Big money uses its leverage to do this in order to raise the prices (due to the scarcity that they are helping create), which they then use to drive up rents or flip properties at a profit. This cycle has been on repeat for several years now. This is why you see people doubling and tripling up living together and it won’t stop until they can’t do it anymore or our legislators decide to do something about it which I don’t even know why I bother saying it like there’s any chance they will.
Foreign ownership of US property is certainly a significant percentage of that equation, but there are other reasons why its important to pay better attention to foreign ownership. Allowing foreign interests unrestricted access to property in the States ends up giving us stupidity like Saudi Arabia feeding its cattle alfalfa grown in Arizona. One of the most water-intensive crops in existence that its own government won’t allow it to grow itself, is grown instead in our desert, while our own citizens get their water cut off.
Edit: it may technically be “supply and demand” when 25% of everything available is bought with the intention of making a profit on it rather than providing a place to live - but it isn’t beneficial to the citizens of this country when the whole world and all its big business interests can compete with individuals to buy housing.
My dad is right here what are you talking about… i just came for le funny haha fat inflatable wacky orange baby man with loser written on his tumby wumby.
It’s also partially pricing in the risk of another eviction moratorium. It’s still recent enough in landlord’s that the government could take away their recourse for non-payment.
I’m sure that pretty much no Google employee is happy with this. But it’s the classic “I don’t want to lose my place near the top of the industry which I’ve spend my entire life getting to, so I can’t criticize my employer or the direction the industry is going in any way.” Self policing and going along with whatever the man decides so you don’t lose your job and means of supporting yourself and your family. Same with a lot of the people working on the Web Integrity thing I imagine.
There are a lot of different places in the industry where these Google developers could work. I am employed by a company where developers have flexible schedules, no overtime work (except in unusual circumstances), and three days a week of work-from-home. The catch is that my company pays a lot less than Google does - still enough for an upper-middle-class lifestyle, but less. So our developers tend to be people who have children and want to spend more time with their families, and they’re willing to take a pay cut to do that. For the sort of person who has the option of working at Google, “supporting your family” means working less, not more.
Google’s developers are people who prefer higher pay and/or a more fast-paced environment. They might not like this policy, but they don’t want to leave. They could if they wanted to.
“what it is today” a tax-evading, weapons-manufacturing, privacy-invading, wannabe monopoly, that’s continually fucking up their core products and radicalizing people into the far right for profit?
ya gotta agree at least significant parts of those workers’ brains are dead
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