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Which is why health care costs more in the US than any other country in the world?? Most efficient delivery?? None of your health insurance premium money going to the Cayman Island bank accounts of shareholders in the health-industrial complex??
Do you want our defense department to be a subsidiary of your cable company? Or does the government handle that OK, prioritizing defense over profits?
Our healthcare costs too much because the insurance companies are in bed with government. (That's called Fascism) AND we are Subsidizing the medical care of the rest of the world. (Check the cost of meds even in first world places such as Canada... And I'm not talking about the end user.)
As to Defense Department: Go back and look at original intent and the Constitution.
Not much other than a LIMITED military (Not the world police) post office etc.
Our healthcare costs too much because the insurance companies are in bed with government. (That's called Fascism) AND we are Subsidizing the medical care of the rest of the world. (Check the cost of meds even in first world places such as Canada... And I'm not talking about the end user.)
As to Defense Department: Go back and look at original intent and the Constitution.
Not much other than a LIMITED military (Not the world police) post office etc.
No, no, no. Our healthcare costs are as low as they are because the government has some regulatory power over them. Without a regulatory government, the health-industrial complex could charge whatever they want for whatever they want. However, it is true that the health-industrial complex has a Cheney-like lobby stranglehold on legislators who will cheerfully and unanalytically enact any laws the medical industry suggests to them. Since Congressmen are all wealthy shareholders in medical stocks.
I'd like to see a little more detail about how we are subsidizing medical care in the rest of the world -- you're a little thin on the data and evidence about that. Saying "Just check something" hardly constitutes a compelling argument. Do you mean the R&D into pharmaceuticals? IF TV ads are anything to go by, they mostly try to recoup that by relieving the discomforts of obesity and other abusive lifestyle consequences.
Anyway, this is off the track. Suffice it to say that Cyprus is managing their economy and governance no worse or no better than the USA, they simply lack the clout to effect the kinds of blunt instrument machinations by which they can drag the rest of the world along kicking and screaming, so what they do seems isolated.
No, no, no. Our healthcare costs are as low as they are because the government has some regulatory power over them. Without a regulatory government, the health-industrial complex could charge whatever they want for whatever they want. However, it is true that the health-industrial complex has a Cheney-like lobby stranglehold on legislators who will cheerfully and unanalytically enact any laws the medical industry suggests to them. Since Congressmen are all wealthy shareholders in medical stocks.
I'd like to see a little more detail about how we are subsidizing medical care in the rest of the world -- you're a little thin on the data and evidence about that. Saying "Just check something" hardly constitutes a compelling argument. Do you mean the R&D into pharmaceuticals? IF TV ads are anything to go by, they mostly try to recoup that by relieving the discomforts of obesity and other abusive lifestyle consequences.
Anyway, this is off the track. Suffice it to say that Cyprus is managing their economy and governance no worse or no better than the USA, they simply lack the clout to effect the kinds of blunt instrument machinations by which they can drag the rest of the world along kicking and screaming, so what they do seems isolated.
The Gov't is in bed with Medicine, other countries, and Insurance companies to insure we pay more.
If there was less insurance, (And medical billing etc overhead) prices would be reduced to the point people COULD afford it... and if we were ACTUALLY PAYING for it... people would care... and it would become affordable.
Just like a flat tax would be manageable, but then so many CPA's and IRA agents would be out of work!
The first directive of a bureaucracy is the perpetuation of the bureaucracy.
The reason is that prescription drugs have high research and development costs but are usually not that expensive to manufacture. In economic jargon, they have high fixed costs and low variable costs. What happens is that U.S. consumers pay a larger share of research and development costs than consumers in other countries. Since the costs of manufacturing a drug are usually relatively low, pharmaceutical companies can still make a profit by selling them at lower prices than in the U.S. in other countries, since the U.S. consumer has helped the companies cover their fixed costs.
In other words, in the name of the free market, the U.S. is subsidizing the rest of the world, where there is less of a free market for prescription drugs. Do we really want this system to continue, or should we work with other developed countries in order to negotiate a better cost sharing arrangement?
This is a good deal for residents of other countries, as our high spending makes medical innovations more profitable. “We end up with the benefits of your investment,†Sackville says. “You’re subsidizing the rest of the world by doing the front-end research.â€
But many researchers are skeptical that this is an effective way to fund medical innovation. “We pay twice as much for brand-name drugs as most other industrialized countries,†Anderson says. “But the drug companies spend only 12 percent of their revenues on innovation. So yes, some of that money goes to innovation, but only 12 percent of it.â€
About 5 seconds with google is an amazing thing....
The Cyprus government IS the people. Just like in the USA. The money "stolen" still belongs to the people of Cyprus, and will be spent in the Cyprus economy to benefit the people of Cyprus, according to the advice and consent of the people of Cyprus. That's how democratic free market republics work.
So wrong.
Do you know many Russian billionaires (maybe some Americans too) save money in Cyprus?
So why should they be forced to pay Cyprus government?
they are having bank holidays
until thursday or 3-21-2013
delayed was suppose to open tomorrow now they are afraid of everyone in cyprus taking every dollar out of the banks.
Are they going to start printing euros to increase base money to pay back depositors? or maybe they transporting billions of fiat physical euros from neighboring countries to service them. hmm?
I dont see many people in Cyprus holding much money in banks after this maybe a few hundred dollars at most and keeping rest in the mattress or other physical assets.
their leaders are so useless that they have to delay it this long and it was to bailout more banks that made bad bets on Greek debt. pathetic.
If most of the deposits were made by gangsters as part of their money laundering why shouldn't they be taxed? Just apply the taxes to only accounts above a reasonable, say the 80th percentile, level. That way small savers would be protected and the crooks made to pay.
and you know most of the deposits were made by gangsters how?
this jealousy/hatred of the rich is going to destroy not just this country, but the world-because they use it to TAKE ADVANTAGE of the low information people.
it allows plunder to be justified, and when "the little people" realize that they aren't going to be getting "their fair share", it is too late.
we are nearing that point now-we aren't going to pay back our debt, nobody wants to buy it---and we aren't going to stop spending, and now our dumbass leaders -in both parties-want to bring in more people to ramp up even more spending because they clearly don't understand that we are a service economy where people need to be able to make a living wage, with full time employment.
you don't do these desperate moves (AND IT IS STEALING) if you aren't running out of options-try and remember that as we march forward.
the real way to punish the crooks, by the way, is to put their butts in jail -something we aren't going to see because most of the crooks are high in the administration here-and even our top cop says that some people/banks are too big to prosecute.
it's a sorry state of affairs, all in all.
Last edited by floridasandy; 03-18-2013 at 10:01 PM..
A few years back I was visiting friends in Germany and their Grandfather came into the room with two $20 bills dated 1934.
He wanted to know if a collector would be interested.
I told him it's probably not worth more than the $20 ea...
He was totally surprised to learn a US $20 bill from 1934 could still be spent as ordinary money... seems in Europe, the currency is recalled every 20 to 30 years and they start over.
It was the topic of conversation that night... mostly about how powerful the American Dollar is and that paper currency for 70 or more years ago could still be circulated...
It gave me pause to think... what would it be like to have all your money in the bank become worthless or devalued over a short time...
Last edited by Ultrarunner; 03-18-2013 at 10:57 PM..
they are having bank holidays
until thursday or 3-21-2013
delayed was suppose to open tomorrow now they are afraid of everyone in cyprus taking every dollar out of the banks.
Are they going to start printing euros to increase base money to pay back depositors? or maybe they transporting billions of fiat physical euros from neighboring countries to service them. hmm?
I dont see many people in Cyprus holding much money in banks after this maybe a few hundred dollars at most and keeping rest in the mattress or other physical assets.
their leaders are so useless that they have to delay it this long and it was to bailout more banks that made bad bets on Greek debt. pathetic.
There is no reason to print money, besides its not a political option to do so if they wanted to since the ECB is an independent central bank. The lack of a sovereign currency is precisely why there is such a big mess in Cyprus right now. Iceland faced exactly the same problem in 2008 and muddled through it without such bizarre actions. The normal solution is to let the currency devalue, jack up interest rates to stem currency outflows and then the whole economy deals with the hangover right afterwards with a fairly clear path to recovery led by a cheap currency after the initial shock wears off.
The holiday is purely there to make sure Cyprus decides what it wants to do and then give time to collect the tax. If the tax gets passed the tax taken out is going to come out before banks reopen and be based on balances at the close of business on Friday. Even the most furious efforts to take out cash from ATMs in the past few days would not be enough to clear out significant accounts to where a balance would be due. If you had say $20,000 and the tax ends up being lets say 5%, you'd owe $1000 and I don't see any way you could have withdrawn $19,000 during a time of the banks being closed. The only people the government would have a hard time collecting from were people who had $500 in their accounts and frankly the $25 tax they would owe is just small change from the amount of money they are trying to collect.
In light of all this it seems the crazy efforts to clear out ATMs is just typical panic behavior. It makes for good media play, but it doesn't really hit on where the money is going to come from, nor does it address the real effects of this move. I still haven't heard many mentioning that this is a good way for the EU to take a shot at banking markets it doesn't like. It isn't Spain or Ireland whose banks are really going to have to worry once this mania subsides, its places like Malta and Luxembourg which need to be very wary. Foreigners are basically going to say I need to get my money completely out of the reach of the EU and then move amounts which can really cause issues. If you assume 80% of the population of Cyprus had no more than $5,000 in the bank, you can kind of conclude the average person in Cyprus is going to get a pretty good deal out of this...for now.
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