And you making $33K a year somehow becomes society's problem? Imagine an entire class of people deciding to "take it easy" and making under $62K rather than striving and contributing and making $125K. Is that the society in which you would choose to live? That's how economies stop growing. And how do you think you pay for all these "free" government goodies when our economy stops growing and tax receipts decline? It will sound insensitive, but people have the responsibility to take care of themselves. Other people's health insurance isn't my problem. When you're incentivized to have to work harder to take care of your family or attain the lifestyle you want, everyone benefits. When you're incentivized to sit on your ass, everyone suffers.
I guess I should have been a writing major, instead of a Physics major. My point was that it sounds like he isn't in a bad situation. It sounds like he is still better off working hard and making the most money he can. I wasn't trying to blame anyone else for my shortcomings; I was just trying to remind him that not everyone is in his position.
I guess you should take care of yourself, instead of asking the rest of us to subsidize your lifestyle. For the record, physics majors tend to do better than writing majors (whatever the fuck that major is; my guess is you meant English). And you're missing the point of his post. He wasn't bitching, he was using his personal circumstance to highlight how fucking insane the incentives are for health coverage under the ACA. It's like the incentives in welfare where you're better off not working, but that's now being applied to the most productive members of society instead of to the least. To put it in physics terms, think of the incentives as Newtonian laws. eblazer was in motion, and an external force has acted up him. Now he's at rest. Guess where he's going to stay?
I consider it to be a "bad situation". First, I generally share maxiep's philosophical and economic objections to the entire system. I think productivity suffers when incentives to work are removed. Second, I think that the implementation of this system is horrid. Why isn't there a more graduated fall-off in the tax credit system? I'm being put in a situation where I either have to agree to get by on a really tight budget or pay astronomical health insurance costs. Sure, everything's relative, but when you've got a mortgage, a car payment, and other typical living costs, getting by on the after-tax money from a roughly $5,000 monthly gross income doesn't leave much slush. And, if something unexpected comes along, like a furnace blowing up or something, I can't simply choose to work a few more hours to pay for it or I'll kick my MAGI over the cap and potentially have to pay back a full year's worth of tax credits. Finally, I'm reluctant to give up my current plan because I wouldn't be allowed to go back to it if this whole house of Obamacare cards comes crashing down...as I pretty much expect it to. I don't think young people are going to buy into it because it's economically disadvantageous for them to do so. The penalties for not carrying insurance are much lower than the cost of the insurance and there don't appear to be any restrictions against signing up for coverage when a health problem does arise. Without the young people playing along, this thing simply won't work.
I have lately come to the conclusion that the ACA was designed not to work. It's the public sector version of dumping (made popular by the Japanese steel industry in the 1980s). You bankrupt all the private insurance companies. Then the only answer is single-payer. If my supposition is correct, it is the cruelest means of achieving a policy end in American history. People are going to suffer economically and others will die due to the intentional degradation of health care in this country.
Man, if I only had a job that came with health insurance , I know I'd sleep better at night. Sent from my baller ass iPad FAMS!
I'd be curious as to what the younger people on this board who presently do not have health insurance are planning to do with regards to Cover Oregon.
I am almost 30 and have health insurance. I know it doesn't answer your question, I just wanted to say "I would answer if applicable."
My work pays my insurance for myself and my family, so it's not applicable. But most of the friends I have my age and a few years younger that don't have coverage are in panic mode wondering WTF they're going to do. Another is getting help from parents, even at 26 (hey, he paid his own way through college, so his parents are jumping in for the short-term to help him out).
It's a funny world when asking an adult to take care of themselves is getting on a fucking high horse.
I know you do what you love, but perhaps a different profession may be better for your family. I know I had to make huge personal sacrifices for the sake of financial security. Hell, I wanted to go into the Foreign Service and see the world. Instead, I worked 80-110 hour weeks hunched over a computer in a Manhattan cubicle.
Oh, and if you're talking about that bullshit major, then no one should be surprised when those people can't find a job after graduation. But I guess they have dreams, and that's all that's important.
this place is not a fair sample. If you consider that only 40% of the High School grads go on to collage in this state, and this board is for the most part collage kids, or guys with jobs that allow them to fuck off..not a lot of the 60% under employed or min wage earners..
It used to be that writing came with any major; social science, natural science or humanity. I suppose if someone is stupid enough to pursue that major, they deserve what they get.
I'm talking about this one... never seen the one you linked. [video=youtube;Xv2UUcXCo9g]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xv2UUcXCo9g[/video]
This is a perfect example of why these systems will never work. We have HCP saying he can't afford to to provide his wife and kids with health insurance, and in another thread is talking about how he loves seeing the look on other peoples' faces when he's driving his Audi A6, and likes it because it is "comfortable". Wow.
That's not what he said at all. He said he's spending $1500 a month on healthcare for his family and he's interested in hearing about a cheaper alternative. Regardless of whether we agree or disagree on government healthcare, you can't fault someone for seeing an opportunity to lower their costs on something necessary like healthcare for their family.
