Austraila tries too hard...again

[Zimmer]

What you should want is you want a liberty(freedom) because if you don't believe in god it means that you want this life to be as good as possible.

So those who believe in God don't live their life as good as possible? (I understand your point)

[VaKo]

Those who are willing to sacrifice every earthly pleasure for the promise of a better afterlife and live entirely according a particular interpretation of a religious tome are wasting there lives, but people who use religion as guidance or to fill that undefinable void we all come across every once in a while don't appear to be.

As for public health care, its a basic requirement of a civilized society. If everyone pools there resources the cost of healthcare can be reduced for everyone. So while I might not break my leg or loose a finger in a workplace accident, I might get Parkinsons in my 70's. Without public healthcare you will end up with a situation where the crippled or sick are left to die on the street. And this will only be worse if you want to legalize drugs, which as someone who has probally taken more drugs than most people on this forum have had hot meals, I had to say is an incredibly stupid idea. Yeah, pots cool and it should be legalized but its the mark of a moron to extend that to things like cocaine, meth or heroine. Because trust me, while its fun to do a line or 2 every now and again, its a hell of a lot less cool when you've not slept for a week, your nose won't stop bleeding and your gf won't wake up. There are things that should be kept from society, and for good reasons. Instead of this blanket liberal crap of legalizing everything, drugs polices should focus on decriminalization, healthcare provisions and risk reduction. Addicts need help, not a threat of jail hanging over there heads, and saying "do what you want!" won't help. Look at smoking, we all know it will kill us, the science is very clear on this, but millions of people start smoking every year despite all this. Throw cocaine into this mix and there would be anarchy.

TBH Deags, it just sounds like your pissed off at a government based around ex-70's hippy career politicians who are desperately attempting to re-create a nicer version of the 80's boom "like it should have been". What you want to see is a government which provides solid infrastructure and a decent basic level services to everyone, while allowing enterprising individuals to work hard and do better. You want people to have a work ethic, and you want people to strive to achieve something more than they have. You want religion and politics to be seperate. You want people to have a choice how they live there lives.

[Zimmer]

I have been contemplating this some more. We get insurance to pay for unexpected costs (like a flood or fire) and the medication can be expensive. But why? a) it costs money to research and make sure it is safe (FDA etc). B) Exclusivity, often generic is cheaper but patents provide exclusivity and so they can charge a lot for it (to recoup research costs and make money (profit)) so I think it is not health care insurance that is the complete problem but patents and copyright (if they where more reasonable than prices for meds (and other things cough MPAA RIAA cough )) that allow price ups. But with out profit incentive then no new drugs come to market (or not as fast). So I think there are some things that can help that isn't just health care insurance changes. Just my options. Oh and this is before I read the wikipedia article on generic drugs heh seems my thought process is affirmed :)

[VaKo]

Obviously you need an incentive to invest in the work required to produce a new drug, which is costly, so there needs to be a method of companies to recoup the costs. However, putting *profit* before peoples lives is a good example of how not to run this.

The problem with capitalism and medical care is that we need to pay for these inventions somehow, and this can either be via paying the medical research firms or it could be by paying higher taxes to fund publicly owned research labs. So its either pay on demand or pay up front.

[Zimmer]

Ok I see your point, but with taxes are NOT optional where as you choosing to buy which medicine brand or even not buying some (ok there are some you NEED but I am thinking of cough medicine and the like). So with public research they automatically get taxes, there is no reason to be efficient and not waste money (what they won't get funding, sorry but taxes are not optional (ok so the government chooses another firm (not if this one has some buddies in government (like the MPAA and RIAA)))). So either situation you pay, now do you want control (pay on demand) or risk (pay up front (MAY be cheaper (but I don't think so (reasons above)))). Oh and whether public or private there is going to be greed and profit above anything (yes there is profit in public), so if they do put profit before lives use that against them hurt their bottom line.

[shonen]

Back the the original subject that was posted seeing as everyone went a lil off topic with rants. Gotta love forums.

Anyways was lurking the net and stumbled across this http://partyvan.info/wiki/Operation_Titstorm and thought I would share.

I am all for drawing attention to the subject especially seeing as the mainstream media fail at covering it but flooding emails with small breasted women kind of has the adverse effect. In any case I wonder if it gets a mention on the 6 o'clock news I could use a good laugh after class tomorrow.