Re: Current Insurance Company Healthcare Nightmare http://commerce.senate.gov/public/_files/PotterTestimonyConsumerHealthInsurance.pdf The system we have today has major problems. We don't complain because industry has picked up the tab, and you are shielded while employed and protected behind corporate group buying power. If you just down care about folks not in that category, you think the nation is OK because you're OK, but you status can change, and then you'd need a better system but not have it available. I bet many of us have seen sides of the private insurance horror story.
the # i gave was a guess. perhaps i should only comment on biological sciences. you should include private universities as well, they do very little research without public funds. many companies get public funds too. it may vary with the discipline, but there is little basic research done at companies. its all applied. and thats good, but it depends on the basic research done (and published) mainly at universities. science done at companies, and not in the public realm, is what you should be most skeptical of because its all about money not science. thats why you have tons of "scientists" at P&G trying to "prove" that trans-fats are good for you and "scientists" at reynolds trying to "prove" that cigarettes dont cause cancer.
yes, you made up a number for the purpose of your argument. why? says you, but we just displayed how much you are to be trusted. practical science will be done, with or without public funding. nope, because i am not forced to pay for that or bother with it at all. i dont care who tells me cigarettes are good for you, i am free to make my own decisions. with the government it is is different. we are gonna try to reduce carbon emissions and massively raise taxes whether i like it or not. the government has force behind their decisions. they decide for me. they can ban trans fats or smoking, even if i adore these things. private comapnies do not have that power, so i can choose. i am not scared of dishonest scientists at mcdonalds telling me cheeseburgers make you skinny. i dont have to listen to them. but when the government starts making decisions, we all are gonna be punished.
Re: Current Insurance Company Healthcare Nightmare I like this part the best... I know from personal experience that members of Congress and the public have good reason to question the honesty and trustworthiness of the insurance industry. Insurers make promises they have no intention of keeping, they flout regulations designed to protect consumers, and they make it nearly impossible to understand—or even to obtain—information we need. Let's now make a few changes... I know from personal experience that members of working-class America and the public have good reason to question the honesty and trustworthiness of Congress. Politicians make promises they have no intention of keeping, they flout regulations designed to protect consumers, and they make it nearly impossible to understand—or even to obtain—information we need. Now it reads correctly! :grin:
Where did I mention Gore? You have a "Chicken Little" mentality. You concern yourself over something that no one can control. Your climatologists profess the doomsday scenario because they spend all of their time poring over insignificant minutae then "publish" it to maintain their status. A few thousand years from now, there will be those who continue to do this because that's how they justify their existence. But the seas will still be the seas, people will still be alive and polar bears will still be killing and eating seals. It becomes political when the politicians try to convince us that something can be done to forestall oblivian when, in fact, all we need to do is collectively show a little concern for the environment so we can live in a clean place.
every word of this is true. sabanfan is a keen observer of humankind. the doomsday scenario, for whatever reason, is a constant. there are just certain themes that resonate with people and they get attached to them. they always turn up in legends and myths. it would seem like a doomsday apaocalypse scenario would not be appealing to us, but it is. we love it. and we love to feel like we caused it. we like to feel like we matter.
In fact most research in developed countries is performed by private researchers, but much of the funding comes from government sources. Government contracts out far more research than they do in-house. Private researchers perform about (70%), Universities perform about 20%, and around 10% is performed by government agencies. Universities receive research funding from state, federal, corporate, and private sources. Somewhat true, but kind of a generalization. University research does not have to make a profit for the funding agency, although they often do. They can pursue long shots and find basic answers without expecting big payoffs. But corporate research has to benefit the bottom line or they move on quickly. Again somewhat true. It's not that the scientists are dishonest, but their reports are more narrowly focused and much of their work is proprietary, so it doesn't always receive the peer review and publication in journals to establish its credibility. More importantly, corporate-funded research results that do not support corporate policy never see the light of day. Even university research from private sources. I'm working on a project for an Big Oil company and they and LSU went through many legal discussions to arrive at how the data would be presented and to preserve the oil company's proprietary sensitivities without compromising the university's analysis or intellectual property rights. One of the reasons that they want to partner with the U is that they intend to promote this particular research publicly and they realize that university is found to be more credible by the public than the corporation. You don't understand one damn thing about research works, I'm afraid. Just bury your head in the sand and everything will seem fine.
