Baumblog EST 1968 - A blog for the Baumbachs who originated in Syracuse, NY

Barak Obama, the wonder child of the Democratic Pro-Terrorism Party (thanks to Dick Cheney for the inspiration for that line), has apparently said some awfully dumb things of late regarding the US auto manufacturers. The elect-me meter is slowly moving toward Hillary...

Oh, I should mention that Mr. Obama drives a Chrysler 300C Hemi. Yes, my irony detector just exploded.

Steve said about 4 hours later

At least he has good taste in cars.

I blame the US auto industry and the UAW for the state that it's in. They should never have agreed to such ridiculous wages for assembly plant workers and mechanics. Sorry, but just because it's hard work, doesn't mean you should get paid a lot. There are a lot of other people around that would be willing to do the same work for a lot less. I think you'll see a big strike come September in the auto industry, and it's probably going to be against Chrysler. We are supposedly in the best shape of the big 3. If that's true, Ford and GM are in big trouble. We simply cannot continue to pay absurd wages for a significant number of crappy workers (there are a lot of good workers, but there are some crappy one too, that ordinarily would get fired, but they are protected by the Union).

You want to fix the auto industry, put health care under the control of the federal government. That will save the big 3. Without it, I'm not sure if any of use will survive.

GJ said 2 days later

Do you mean fund everyone's health care by the federal government, or just the auto industry's? Doing it for just the auto industries would be grossly unfair to every other business in this country, so I'll assume you mean everyone gets government health care.

Note how I didn't say free health care. Medical care is expensive, and as a general rule, we don't take good care of ourselves as a nation. Caring for those of us who get heart disease, cancer, diabetes, AIDS, pneumonia, et al, is prohibitively expensive. Regardless, we've come to think of spending whatever it costs to preserve life. That's what killing the health care system. So, if we expect the same of a government run health system, we will both pay more (thank government corruption) and I'd expect the level and quality of health care we receive to drop.

It's going to be both a tough nut to crack, and a tough sell for the population if they actually read up on the subject.
Steve said 4 days later

Federal healthcare should support the basic average needs of every person.

Hmmm. Caring for all those other issues, um, tough to say. Why shouldn't we cover someone with cancer? That is, a form of cancer that was not developed due to a person's personal choice, like lung cancer for a smoker. So no coverage for smoker's with lung cancer, but certainly cover women with breast cancer.

Then again, at what point do you just tell people, "those are the breaks, you win some you lose some, it's just bad luck, etc?"

And then again, when you have a child with a serious illness that requires years of medical attention, do you just tell the parents "sorry, that's your bad luck?"

I'm not saying I know all the answers. And I know it's not an easy thing to do. But other countries do this, and it works relatively successfully. I have seen one experience where it doesn't work great. A coworker's father in law lives in and is a citizen of Canada. Well, he came down with some serious illness (I don't remember what it was). The hospital told him they would not operate, as the likelihood of success was low, and the risk was high, given the person's age. So he paid to have himself transported to a hospital in Michigan, and paid to have the surgery done, and is now fully recovered. Good news for him, but what if he couldn't afford to do that himself? He'd likely be dead by now. Instead, he's back with his family, working on his farm, enjoying life.
GJ said 4 days later

Ah, but it that the end of the story? Anecdotally, that's a great story. Statistically, he's the one-percenter. If we surveyed 1000 people with the same diagnosis...what would we find?

So if the success rate for treatment is 3%, meaning 30 of the 1000 people recover and live 10+ years after the incident, but 970 die within a year, and this treatment costs $X, at what point does it go from being a value of human life argument to a economic viability argument? One thousand? Ten thousand? One million?

We also have to think of the opportunity cost here--these same resources being used to treat older, sickly folks could have been possibly used to help a less well off much younger citizen...one who can still offer a lot to society for many more years.

We just can't simply rely on the emotional value of human life without looking at the economic consequences. If we truly wish to protect and extend life no matter what, we at least should understand the cost and consequences of doing so, and agree to it as a society--or leave people to decide on their own. But if we do that, they need to fund their medical care on their own, too.

Steve said 6 days later

I agree with the age argument GJ, which is why most of my regular charitible donation goes to St. Jude's. Of course, that's the emotional side of the argument, as I can't stand to see or hear about kids with life threatening issues, when they should still have their whole life ahead of them.

Kristen said about 5 hours later

That was really good! Can't wait for the next installment. The tapeworm thing was the best...LOL

Geoff said 1 day later

I enjoyed it haha.

Abby said 2 days later

Lol.

Liked the tapeworm. xD

Marc said about 1 hour later

If you want the solution, check this article out: http://mathforum.org/dr.math/faq/faq.3utilities.html

Geoff said 5 days later

Who would put up such a puzzle with no solution, that is just terrible!

Marc said 5 days later

That's what I said too! (2 hours after trying to solve it)

GJ said 7 minutes later

That's awesome! Exposure is a very good thing!

Marc said about 2 hours later

That's great Kristen, congrats!

Steve said about 4 hours later

Very cool, good job getting the word out!