When I Am King...

**Doc Holliday** · 24 Mar 2018, 09:34 PM

Originally Posted by Some Stupid Japanese Name

Healthcare is quite the hurdle. I am in full agreement that we should have some sort of universal coverage. But in order to do so, our entire system needs to rebuilt from the ground up. Demolish big pharma, dissolve the insurance oligarchy, and reform medical malpractice law. Pay doctors according to the health of their patients, not the amount of patients they can process in a day. I wish I coud remember the video I watched in health class a few years ago. It laid things out in a way I thought made sense, but of course we’ll never see that happen here because there’s too much money behind keeping things the way they currently are.

Add to that that it only applies to those born the year it becomes effective and after. Then to qualify you must attend a yearly physical and follow doctors orders.

**gamevet** · 24 Mar 2018, 10:12 PM

Originally Posted by kedawa

Then they can move somewhere that has one, move closer to where they work, ride a bike, or walk.
The same goes for drunk drivers who cause serious accidents.

True Story. My friend's dad got his driver's license taken away because he got pulled over too many times while drunk. This was in the 80's, when they didn't crack down on drunk drivers as hard as they do now. So, what does his dad Joe do? He gets a donkey and a cart and rides his drunk ass from the bar down the side of the highway to get home. We can see him from a mile away, crossing from one side of the highway to the other just to piss of the other drivers.

**Fe 26** · 24 Mar 2018, 10:37 PM

*takes notes for old age*

Donkey...and...cart.

**Satsuki** · 25 Mar 2018, 01:34 AM

Originally Posted by Some Stupid Japanese Name

I’ve been belly aching quite a bit lately about how boring we’ve (English speaking denizens of the internet) become and am trying to be the change I want to see.

Healthcare is quite the hurdle. I am in full agreement that we should have some sort of universal coverage. But in order to do so, our entire system needs to rebuilt from the ground up. Demolish big pharma, dissolve the insurance oligarchy, and reform medical malpractice law. Pay doctors according to the health of their patients, not the amount of patients they can process in a day. I wish I coud remember the video I watched in health class a few years ago. It laid things out in a way I thought made sense, but of course we’ll never see that happen here because there’s too much money behind keeping things the way they currently are.

if you find the video, please post! it sounds really interesting. Also

on the diction changes. I am inspired!

Agree completely about the system needing to be rebuilt. There are so many systems in our country that need to be rebuilt, they just weren't meant to support the number of people that use them, or the modern tech structure, or a myriad of other things. But healthcare is the one I feel like we could potentially tackle first and actually get somewhere and see real progress. I feel like there were visible, positive effects on the nation as Obamacare was initialized - but I don't know if that is measurable or not. I'd need to examine numbers - I know there was projected benefits to the economy but I haven't looked at any of the recent studies from '17 or so. Also Trump kinda threw a wrench in the trajectory a bit...and some stuff is just a subsidy free for all.....so we'll see.

**Drewbacca** · 25 Mar 2018, 12:44 PM

So my changes:

1) Driving Laws - I wouldn't enact any sort time limit testing controls on driving. Freedom of movement has a social benefit outside the obvious. If someone can't get around for a reasonable cost (even though they may be a bad driver) you're essentially dooming them to the vicinity of their immediate township. I feel this will have unfair effects on the lower class and it would also spread undue resentment among those whom life has been already unkind. The second thing is I believe most of the "bad drivers!" rhetoric stems from a place of hubris. Everyone tends to underestimate their own bullshit mistakes and overestimate others'. Though I do think that mandated re-testing for major accident offenders proven to be at-fault is a good idea. I would also be ok with opt-in driving test programs at the DMV. Responsible citizens proving their mettle willfully should benefit from lower insurance premiums. That's about the extent I would pursue this, though. Forcing people to take a test at some arbitrarily assigned time has bad intentions, and seems designed to "catch' them. I'd like the government to take a more optimistic stance towards its citizens than that. It seems like a shitty thing for government to do.

2) Universal Healthcare - I would work to establish a true universal system with basic coverage. Drugs wouldn't be 100% free, but have some minor deductibles in place to de-incentivize people from abusing them. I'd also need a system to dissuade wasting a doctor's time. Unsure the best way to do this, as sometimes antibiotics ARE necessary to fight flus, etc. Perhaps tracking the number of visits every year is a start.

Within the low-cost universal healthcare system I would want to pilot a program that incentivizes data collection on bodies. Though I realize that's... intrusive... it's pretty clear medicine at the moment is almost 100% reactionary. I want proactive medicine to be the next phase of social progress. There's no good reason why things like terminated pregnancies are so misunderstood when they can be easily measured. What I would offer is some kind of continual bio-measurement program (completely transparent and opt-in) with exceptional perks to those who opt in (automatic emergency response in trouble situations, free dental, lower deductibles, etc) and empower doctors and researchers with more data than they've ever had before. This is an investment in to making health care cheaper and more effective for future generations.

3) Immigration - Countries that are willing to put together and adhere to a path that see's their minimum wage and labour laws become more in line with western standards would be able to benefit from free trade agreements sanctioned by the WTO. Immigration would be changed to flow easier between countries that are friendly to labour markets instead of vilifying them as evil greed monsters. Tax rates could be set lower in lower wage countries to facilitate better investment. Mobile banking for rural areas would allow credit to flow, particularly to women who could then own their future and receive education. One of the big problems with the current free trade system is that the poverty diminishing throughout the world had direct ramifications on the American middle class. That's a trade-off that was worth it short term (more people are coming out of poverty and activated on a power grid every day) but it seems a little bit unfair, competition-wise. Agree to normalize labour standards so lack of human rights isn’t a competitive advantage. This model has already been proven to work by the U.S.-Cambodian Textile Agreement. This legislation was one of the best labour agreements ever devised and i believe it’s an amazing model to use going forward.

4) News Reform - I would strengthen whistleblower laws and journalist freedoms by decreasing term limits on information in the Free of Information Act. I would also extend new rights to journalists such as criminal infringement exemptions for reporters that must break the law in order to uncover "illegal" activities. An example of this would be a journalist covering Protestors that trespass on private property. In order to cover this, the reporter would also have to trespass. These enhanced rights would be given out to established news organizations first as a pilot, and rolled out to smaller online publications after the pilot.

Secondly I would draw up a new limits on what news publications can publish with regards to mass shooters/shootings. Reporting that events took place and the death/injury statistics would be allowed, but the specific names of the perpetrators and victims would have a moratorium of 1 full year (or some set limit). Canada did something similar with their Young Offenders Actin the 90s and it had a pretty dramatic effect on juvenile crime in the 90s (though not perfect). The way the news media covers massacres, I believe, feeds in to the psyche of resentful, angry shooter personalities. This would an attempt to diminish the positive effects or glory shooters accumulate during their last stand. They would simply disappear from the world as a statistic, not a "victimized-by-society" anti-hero.

I would want to see how this effects these events. I believe there is a reason these shootings have been getting more frequent in recent years. Guns are just as plentiful as they've ever been, and my hypothesis (based on youth crime rates in Canada) is that the news coverage can perpetuate crime. The purpose of news, in my opinion, is truth—not sensationalism.

**Josh** · 25 Mar 2018, 01:03 PM

I don’t know. You have to take a bullshit test to get your drivers license. Why not have to take one again EVERY time you have to renew?

**Drewbacca** · 25 Mar 2018, 01:09 PM

I guess to me the risk to social mobility outweighs the reward. I also don’t think driver testing is an accurate representation of road driving every day. Someone in the car will have you on your best behaviour, and there will be an inherent bias against older drivers. One good aspect would be getting people’s eyes checked though. Also as time on road increases someone who passed an initial test will probably pass again. I can parallel park like a wizard now but when I was 16 I sucked. I have 100s of hours of city driving under my belt now. I also notice that the people who care this much about driving hate the idea of automous vehicles despite them solving the majority of these issues. All I can surmise about this discussion to date is there’s a fundamental hubris motivating it.

Too much effort for a result that would hinder society at large I guess. I suppose that’s why I think it’s petty legislation. IMO the best policy comes from a positive perspective not a worrisome “these people are all fools!” perspective.

**Some Stupid Japanese Name** · 25 Mar 2018, 01:46 PM

Your best behavior isn't going to fix 10 years of bad driving muscle memory. People that don't signal turns, don't know how to merge, don't know where to stop at a crosswalk, etc aren't suddenly going to be perfect drivers because someone is watching. I spend around two hours a day, five days a week driving. This includes rural, small town, and city highway, so I see it all. It wasn't long ago I had a day where I'd have been involved in three different accidents if I wasn't a defensive driver. Humans have a tendency to become lax. A refresher every once in a while isn't out of line. Vehicles are becoming safer every year, yet auto accident fatalities are increasing every year. So what's the one constant?

A lot of people die, multiple times more are seriously injured, and hundreds of billions of dollars of loss are accrued every year, but yeah, petty!