The Glade 4.0

They are infringed in parts by the law yes. That does nothing to diminish the philosophical or moral claim of the rights themselves.

It would make slaves of us Aizle - only slaves with inept, lazy, and often forgetful masters. A blessing to any slave but it is the situation itself which is deplorable.

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"...but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom." - De Tocqueville

Big Oil's rising prices are a response to increases in demand, globally.

Just watch entire towns stream to the next town over for a .03 price difference, and you'll understand that if the price wasn't balanced for supply and demand, somebody would be undercutting the artificial price (and making a killing doing it).

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

I mean, really, how much gas do you burn for that 3 cents/gallon savings?

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Buckle your pants or they might fall down.

Honest poll question. Who here works in healthcare? and what aspect? I want to see who argues what based on how they work.

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"Life isn't divided into genres. It's a horrifying, romantic, tragic, comical, science-fiction cowboy detective novel. You know, with a bit of pornography if you're lucky."
— Alan Moore

As far as I can recall, we only have 2 people who work directly in healthcare. Squirrelgirl and Kirra. Gorse is a kinda 3rd as he works for the CDC, but not really actually providing care.

*raises hand* me too, I am directly involved in patient care also

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"Life isn't divided into genres. It's a horrifying, romantic, tragic, comical, science-fiction cowboy detective novel. You know, with a bit of pornography if you're lucky."
— Alan Moore

Inflation, Xeq. Big Oil isn't immune to it's effects on production costs.

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Ezekiel 23:19-20 

Well, yes, that too. Doesn't make the gas station make less money, though.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

And Fester, and Colphax, and DFK! (though he's inactive these days), and Screeling (I think? Or just in med school?), and I think one of the K-names, too.. Kashan?

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Inflation should affect the price of oil and the production costs equally. Inflation is not a reason for the rate of increase in gas prices to be about double the rate of increase of oil prices.

My father works in healthcare, I used to be an EMT and am currently in pre-med.

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Grenade 3 Sports Drink. It's fire in the hole.. Your hole!

Fun fact: If we confiscated all of Exon's evil profits gas would only go down by 7 cents per gallon.

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I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

No, you are shifting the goal posts. You asked why the price doesn't ever return to former levels.

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Ezekiel 23:19-20 

Inflation would have to be over 20% to account for the prices if that was the case.

Inflation is over 10% at the low end.

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Ezekiel 23:19-20 

The concept of slavery is incorrect. The health professionals will not be under the whip, they will not be owned and forced to labor against their will and without compensation. Most of all, they can pick up their black bags and leave if they are not willing to work under the conditions set by the government.

They will be compensated, the government is merely deciding what that compensation will be rather than allowing the medical practitioners to set their own prices. This is not new, governments have been setting what they are willing to pay for goods and services for many centuries.

What this is does not equal slavery. It is better defined as change. It is the latest change in the path from free-wheeling capitalism to the socialism we are rapidly becoming in trying to defend our citizens from the greed of capitalism denying them services.

Is this a good thing? Not necessarily, but the majority of people, particularly those who cannot afford health care under the current system, will welcome it, and that is part and parcel of democracy, the overall good of the people.

Those who desire wealth will have to find new ways to earn it other than participating in a system that looted those who could least afford it, just so they could continue living.

Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The current system did not work at guaranteeing that for anyone outside the medical professions and their associated suppliers. You didn't get all three.

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The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. B. Franklin

"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone." -- Tyrion Lannister, A Game of Thrones

People, three years ago the highest barrel of oil price was $148 and the average gas price was the same as it is now, when a barrel of oil topped out at about $113. It would require an absolutely ridiculous inflation rate for inflation to account for that. You're talking 36% in two and a half years.

Micheal, with all due respect, that is some of the hardest spun comic commentary I've read here in some time, and that's really saying something.

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Ezekiel 23:19-20 

As I said Michael it will be slavery except under a lazy, incompetent, and often forgetful master.

You're simply pointing out why this form of slavery won't be so bad.

I fail to make the connection between how opposition to the idea of a right to healthcare is connected to support for the current system.

I'll point out that for any individual born free that becoming a slave is both becoming a slave and change.

Your argument that they will be compensated is meaningless - slaves are usually fed, clothed, and provided with medical care (property is expensive after all) and all of those are forms of compensation - does this negate the act that the idea was their work was at the discretion of someone else?

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"...but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom." - De Tocqueville

According to documents released at the end of last year, the Federal Reserve distrubuted additional unbudgeted funds to the tune of nearly 14 trillion dollars durring the bailout era, so yes, that's reasonable.

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Ezekiel 23:19-20 

Micheal, If the government has the right to dictate how much you can make as a practitioner in that field, let them suck up the 100k plus of cost the people need to spend to get that level of education, but if the government wants the people to spend their own money on the education, tell them what they can make and allow such idiotic costs for malpratice insurance... the government needs to stay the crap out of it.

People have already been quitting over the entire thing (SG for example). Doctors already get **** and underpaid by Medicare and Medicaid, disallowing them to set their prices is even worse than that.

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Darksiege
Traveller, Calé, Whisperer
Lead me not into temptation; for I know a shortcut

Bad solution. I don't want to pay for medical professionals to go to college.

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Ezekiel 23:19-20 

I am a member of the stay the **** out of it crowd. BUT... if the government is expecting to dictate every aspect of a medical professional's profession... the least they can do is give some reach around.

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Darksiege
Traveller, Calé, Whisperer
Lead me not into temptation; for I know a shortcut

Which is great, but at the end of the day, I'm not the one getting the reach around, but I'm still getting **** in the ***.

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Ezekiel 23:19-20 

Hey, that's a GREAT idea! We can solve several 'problems' with one solution.

We can send all of the illegal immigrants and their families to medical school on the tax payers dime!

SWEET!