Yantelope V2

Adblock plus is the best plugin ever. I love it so much.

Halo 3 was never released on PC. Only Halo 1 and 2. Halo 1 waited 2 years to be released on PC. Halo 2 came 3 years later on the PC.

@Chronixal: I think you're falling into the same trap that Dean is by saying that we're all cold and heartless jerks in our "ivory towers". It's not about which way to run your government works. Clearly they both seem to function to some degree. I think what we're all discussing is what the best way to run your government is. I think that universal healthcare is wasteful and expensive. Johnny and Dean think that universal healthcare provides a solid baseline and supports quality of life and is worth the expense (forgive me if I'm misstating your position). So, at least in America the history of medicare and medicaid is that they were started in 1965 under the social security act to provide medical insurance to the elderly and the poor. I think most people in America are in favor of these programs but there is some discussion on how best to run them and who should or shouldn't receive care etc. I am fine with these programs for the record although I think they're probably in need of some additional reforms. Now, the cost of these programs has been escalating in conjunction with the overall rise in healthcare costs in America. The overall rise in healthcare costs can be attributed to numerous factors and the extent to which those factors affect the cost is of some debate. The factors include: legal liabilities, tax incentives, insurance regulations, availability of healthcare, illegal immigration, and the cost of providing stabilizing healthcare to those without insurance who can't pay. There's probably some factors in there additionally which contribute as well. Typically people in america get their health insurance through their employer. The reason for this (Ethan might know the legal stuff better) is that the government began offering tax incentives to businesses who provide healthcare for their employees. As a result companies found that they could increase their total compensation to their employees by offering benefits packages while lowering their total tax burden. Say for example you are going to pay a person $75,000. If you can deduct $10,000 of that compensation because you're using it to pay off their health insurance that they probably would have purchased anyway then it saves your company money. The problem with this is that individuals in America have become disconnected with the costs associated with health insurance and additionally, because every individual has been on insurance they have become separated from the costs of individual treatment. What has resulted is a system where patients freely visit doctors and hospitals with no regard for the cost of treatment. Doctors futher more provide additional testing and other procedures that may not be necessary because of legal liability reasons. As a result the only cost controls and price negotiation happens on a large scale between health care providers and insurance companies and again between insurance companies and employers. As a result individuals are separated by three levels of high business and are completely unaware and incapable of measuring the cost of health insurance. As a result market forces are completely separated from costs and they have continued to rise. Obama and the democratic party proposed a solution to the rise of healthcare in the form of Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). This new plan offers many reforms which are not necessarily targeted at reduction of cost including requiring health insurance companies to accept new customers regardless of previous condition. The main provision that the bill includes to address the rising costs in healthcare is called the individual mandate whereby all citizens must provide proof they have insurance or they must pay a fine(tax). The underlying idea is that if everyone in America is paying into the healthcare system there will be enough funding to cover the medical care needs of every individual solving the problem of people who do not pay into the system but still utilize services. The problem with PPACA is that it does nothing to actually restore market forces to reduce the overall rising cost of healthcare. It does infact make the problem worse. The burden on insurance companies will rise as people who have had chronic illnesses can now apply and must be approved for insurance which means that the cost of treating these people will have to be passed on in the system making insurance more expensive on average. Additionally, it does nothing to reduce demand or create supply which is the only economic way to reduce the cost of a good or service. As such the demand for healthcare systems will continue to increase as everyone will be covered and the only way to control the costs of the systems will be fore the government to begin choosing what services it will or wont provide. Private pharmaceutical companies will cease development on expensive and unprofitable drugs as they will only be able to produce items which the government or health insurance companies can afford. Wait times in doctor offices will increase. When taking a look at the effects of the universal healthcare system in Canada it was found that doctors were being paid by the patient instead of by the visit as a way to control costs. What resulted is that doctors have very little motivation to see more patients every day and wait times have skyrocketed. If your sole motivation is to expand coverage then universal healthcare systems have been successful. Since we're only expanding coverage to people who are wealthy I'm not really sure why this is a good thing. As early stated the poor are covered under medicaid already. If your motivation is to provide better care, more options, and shorter wait times while reducing costs then universal healthcare is a universal failure.

Some things can't really have market forces applied to them to create competition. You can't really have competing roadway systems. You also probably shouldn't have competing police forces that individuals need to contract. Probably wouldn't work very well. I think it's pretty easy to come up with millions of examples of people who aren't acting in their own self interest. Furthermore, sometimes companies and people acting in their own self interest still help others. You see it all the time when companies give money to charity or "go green" to promote their image. It's in their own interest but they're still doing good.

Edit, Malicious beat me to it. I forgot to refresh

Keep the peace, maintain order. Also perform some functions that are probably not best left to private enterprise such as transportation needs like roads etc.

I don't believe it's the governments job to help people. I believe that's the responsibility of each individual to help his neighbor.

I have also tried to play this game many times and failed every time.

We have tons of safety nets without universal healthcare. Medicare, medicaid, s chips.

Universal healthcare and a safety net are two entirely different things. Universal healthcare is being sold as a way to control costs. I think it's a failire in thay regard.

I've spent over two weeks in china.

Amazon has Arma 2 for cheap right now. http://www.amazon.com/Meridian4-40365ned-Operations-ArmA2-Combined/dp/B003UV8RRE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1337309205&sr=8-1 http://www.amazon.com/Meridian4-40365ARMA-2-ArmA-Download/dp/B003UV8OOA/ref=sr_1_2_title_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1337309228&sr=1-2 I got it for free from GMG during their crazy event. Maybe I need to try this mod out.

Maybe we need a chick flick thread. I have not seen Definitely, Maybe. I can think of about 100 I didn't like.

F'in A man. We brought on a guy at work whose name is Michael Jackson. I'm wondering how long it is before I can ask him "are you related to that singer guy" and "why don't you just go by Mike?"

I honestly can't remember the last good chick flick i saw.

See, i leave you guys alone for 5 minutes and this is what happens.

Yeah, and I'm sure that Sweden may be great for people without ambition but personally I don't think that makes for a great country. Ambition and opportunity were two of the main ideals that made America great. Flushing them away to achieve a better "baseline" seems like a step backward IMO. I want to have a family, Raise kids. Send them to good schools. Makes sure they have the best medical care if they need it. I would like to travel some day. I'd like to have a little bit of land. It'd be nice one day to have a pool since Texas gets so hot. I work a standard 8-5 job 40 hour week with occasional overtime. I get my two weeks of vacation each year and all that. The great thing about America is that all of that is within my grasp even though my parents didn't give me any financial help at all. Opportunity is definitely there for people who just seize it and I think that's what makes America great. Class mobility is something that's probably pretty hard to measure. Aside from people with genuine physical and mental handicaps pretty much everyone can improve their financial situation in America through a bit of hard work. http://www.forbes.com/forbes-400/#p_1_s_arank_All%20industries_All%20states_Self-Made_

I'm not sure anyone said this.

I repsonded to Sporkwaffles twice because it was such a popular comment (I can't figure out why) and I thought I'd expand on my reply. In response to the baseline argument, I can understand how some countries do have a large gap with a wealthy class and a very poor working class. I do think you need to factor that in somehow but at the same time just taking a baseline of how good the poor are doing doesn't give you an accurate picture of life. Going back to the start, this whole discussion of "standard of living" got kicked off by this statement. So, yeah, I guess if we're going to say that having a really good worst case scenario for your people is what you're aiming for then congrats, Sweden has the best worst case scenario for their citizens. Now if you're wishing to live in a place that actually lets you achieve above and beyond the worst case scenario Sweden is probably not my first choice.

Ubisoft weekend for all your DRM laden game needs. http://store.steampowered.com/sale/ubi_weekend2012?snr=1_4_4__118

Keep us posted on that HTPC. I'd love to build one some day.