Your info on EI is sadly very out of date

Post #317,445 by jake123 11/18/09 10:15:54 AM Reply	Your info on EI is sadly very out of date Nowadays it's about how many insurable hours you worked in the qualifying period. That number can range from 420 to 910, depending on various factors. ...and of course, your swipe notwithstanding, the point is still well taken... the problem is not what the "working person" thinks, because the working person in the Rest of the West think you're all insane for working against your own interests. Rightly so, I might add.
Post #317,448 by boxley 11/18/09 10:48:25 AM Reply	my interest is to be employed and get paid without the feds dipping me for every freeboarding person, currently at 50% of the population that receive services without paying federal taxes on income. Also having every government since Nixon screaming about the inability of the government to keep Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid solvent and the new set of assclowns say, It was all a Lie, everything is Fine and we can add 12 million people to those rolls and save money by stealing from the other guy and passing the savings on to you. Oh yea, on the guy that died waiting for 39hrs in the emergency room in Winnipeg? I hear the government wont pay for his kins lawyers but the hospital gets free lawyers. Lets hope the free lawyers are better than the free health care. Yeah, same shit happens here but I dont have to deal with it yet.
Post #317,449 by jake123 11/18/09 10:57:34 AM Reply	The thing is EI doesn't cost taxpayers any money. It's been self supporting since at least the mid-nineties. In short, it really is an insurance scheme... well it was, until the Conservatives got a hold of it. Then they raided it for its dough and once again it's not paying its own way.
Post #317,464 by beepster 11/18/09 3:15:07 PM Reply	So do you think there's any hope for that scheme here??? We raid things that have no money already to pay for things that have even less. I will choose a path that's clear. I will choose freewill.
Post #317,467 by jake123 11/18/09 3:35:56 PM Reply	If it was properly run, sure. So would universal health insurance. The way you do that is to make it an arms-length relationship... in our terms, a crown corporation with a board of directors made up of stakeholders, running on a non-profit basis. All you have to do is run the joint on sound actuarial principles, keep the premiums levied transparent, and it's entirely possible to have things like this run extremely well. In the old days, health insurance was tied to employment here... well, not quite; instead, paying health insurance was tied to employment, as a line deduction on your pay stub. However, not having a job didn't mean you didn't have health insurance; it just meant that you weren't paying premiums. Also, premiums were not tied to risk factors; instead they were tied to ability to pay, based on your income... if you had more income, you paid more, period. Now, I know that there's a lot of irrationality about that in the U.S. (the fear that someone, somewhere, is getting some kind of social insurance) but history and the experience of the Rest of the West has pretty much proven that you get far far better outcomes that way. Finally, I think that looking at the poll numbers suggests that while your wholly owned government/media complex generate a lot of piss and wind based on a small group of really mouthy people, the majority of people in the US get this... so yeah, I think it would work.
Post #317,468 by beepster 11/18/09 3:53:05 PM Reply	What I think... ..is that the majority of people realize we need a solution and that same majority realize that the government that will provide it will likely screw it up... I will choose a path that's clear. I will choose freewill.
Post #317,469 by jake123 11/18/09 4:16:14 PM Reply	Well, they're doing a good job of it so far cf Stupak. Mind you, the system coming out of the legislation is nothing like the system I have described. This is mostly because your legislature is pretty much a wholly owned subsidiary of the United Corporations of America, afaict. There's a lot broken with how things are down there. It's pretty much up to the American people to fix it. A story for you; I stage managed the Canadian Guitar Festival this past summer. A couple of campsites down from me was a young couple from Ohio. I wished them luck in getting health care fixed. They said that they hoped it would go well. I asked them what they were doing about it. They pretty much said "nothing". I pointed out that I know the name of my MP (Peter Milliken), my MPP (John Gerretson), what their respective responsibilities were, and even more importantly... they knew who I was too. If I see something I don't like, I tell them... and if I see something I like a lot, I tell them that too. If you want to see that hopey changey thing, you need to make sure that your congressman and senator know who you are as well... democracy only begins at the ballot box.
Post #317,470 by beepster 11/18/09 4:22:27 PM Reply	That is very true. Mine has the same initials as I do and his office is 5 minutes from my house. (congresscritter, that is). I will choose a path that's clear. I will choose freewill.
Post #317,473 by boxley 11/18/09 4:45:34 PM Reply	different down here http://www.ledgernew.../opinion/columns/ This year, Jerguson had a previous commitment and didnÂt attend any of the meetings. Murphy and Hamilton only participated to present a united front against the school board, which kicks off the dayÂs meetings. Then, they split a few minutes into the meeting for the Cherokee County Commission to attend a Forsyth County Chamber gathering about health care. During the school board meeting, Rogers was out of the room on a cell phone during the school boardÂs presentation. But, he did manage to come back in when it was the lawmakersÂ turn to speak and was able to tell the schools that they could expect more funding cuts from the Legislature. The dayÂs meetings culminated in what was supposed to be an overview for the public of the upcoming General Assembly. Unfortunately, Rogers had to catch a plane and gave a five-minute outline of the stateÂs budget and the LegislatureÂs desire to cut an additional $5 billion to $6 billion. He did note that even if the schools were left out of the cuts to come, it would require cutting all other state programs by 50 to 60 percent, which he said is impossible. When Rogers left, Hill and Byrd co-opted the meeting and turned it into an anti-health care reform Âforum.Â They said they wanted to present the public with ÂfactsÂ about the proposals going through the U.S. Congress, and then presented two speakers who were firmly against the proposed health care legislation. hill and byrd are county commisioners that have fuck all to do with federal legislation. Since only about 10-12% of people vote in the muni elections this is what you get It seems to me that there has been a shift in our so-called ÂrepresentativeÂ government. These days, instead of us telling those we elect to office what we want them to do, they tell us what is best for the people and do it whether we like it or not.

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