Tulsi Gabbard didn’t get her views from being “raised in a Christian household”. It’s almost the opposite, kind of. She was raised in a strange Hindu adjacent cult which had (still has maybe. He might be alive) a “charismatic” leader who had “strong” feelings about issues like homosexuality and a woman’s place in…

There is something genuinely not OK with him. This isn’t “I’m a funny ol’ gaffe machine, but you love me anyway” Uncle Joe Biden. It’s “I’m sundowning, where do I live again?” Old Man Biden. He clearly seems to have some form of impairment which is impacting his memory and recall.

In this settlement? $O. Because it was negotiated between a company and a government agency. Not a private law firm. The FTC doesn’t work on a contingency fee basis. The only people to blame for a shitty settlement is the republican controlled FTC.

Because the FTC is controlled by the republican party. If it was up to them an appropriate punishment would have been Equifax saying “my bad” and shrugging their shoulders.

Jesus christ, what is wrong with everyone here complaining about lawyers? This was an administrative agency settlement. No lawyers got paid. And in the future, if you dislike the terms of a class action settlement to which you contributed exactly 0 time, money, or effort you’re free to reject the settlement and file…

There are no lawyers getting paid! This was a government negotiated settlement. No lawyer is taking a penny from this settlement. It’s just a shitty settlement made by a corrupt republican controlled administrative agency who wishes they could have gotten Equifax off with a stern warning.

What are you talking about? The FTC (the republican controlled FTC to be exact) negotiated this settlement. The lawyers who negotiated the settlement for the FTC made the exact same amount of money whether the settlement was $31 million or $31 billion. And the lawyers who spend years, hours and hours of attorney time,…

It’s not research. It’s a seminal paper theoretical considerations in regards to providing people with health care in light of the “traditional” conception of welfare economics. He didn’t try to use empirical data. It was just based on examining and working within preexisting models.

The tax benefits are vis a vis spending the same amount on salary. Essentially the companies are cutting employees’ compensation as they provide less “generous” health care plans. So the fact employer health care plans afte getting worse says nothing about the value of the tax benefits to companies. What would be…

The don’t because due to terrible tax laws, employer provided insurance is a “cheap” way of competing for employees. Cheaper than actually paying higher salaries. So employers would rather keep the current system with its tax benefits than be relived of the complications of providing health care but be forced through…

How are union members not “paying anything” for their health care? It’s fairly uncontroversial economic theory that employer provided health care benefits are a form of compensation. So when unions members get “free” health care they are giving up the $X in salary increases their employer is instead spending to…

Unfortunately it’s a function of the weakness of unions in general in America. The unions feel the need to be able to provide the strongest justification for their existence/why one should join. Being able to say “we can get you the largest possible number of “things” you couldn’t get without us” is seen by unions to…

I’m sorry. You’re right. I forgot about the lollipop the doctor gives you after she does the shot. I know if I didn’t have a deductible or co-pay I’d be going to the doctor constantly for shots just to get that sweet lollipop.

That’s she’s a brave beautiful woman who doesn’t need to listen to those hater WOC from poor Pacific island countries. The other women need to stop being bad transphobes and just accept they'll never win again because Ms Hubbard works so much harder than they ever could. Which is the only reason she could beat them.…

So no female competitors will get even close to a medal ever again. I suppose it’s a “solution”. But I’m still not sure what the problem is that requires reversing decades of progres in encouraging female participation in elite level sports.

This “Europe in ruins” shibboleth can apparently be used to explain away anything Europe has as not possible here. Even though it’s not true.

If it wasn’t for the TVA much of the rural south where these people live would have continued to be practically third world “shitholes” for decades longer than they did. Though I wonder what would have happened if the TVA operated using a similar state/federal model as Medicaid? Maybe Alabama would have refused to…

Good point. People tend to get painful and invasive health care procedures for funsies if they don’t have a co-pay or deductible. Because health care is exactly like any consumer good. Absolutely no difference whatsoever.

Due to both racial and income related health disparities, people in traditionally republican voter demographics tend to live longer than traditionally Democratic voter demographics. I remember seeing or hearing someone claim income and racial health disparities might be the reason why the hoary old trope of “people…

Because as Tracy says, if we can place blame and fault then we can continue believing it won’t happen to us because we would never be as bad as those who were to blame and at fault. It’s basically a psychological protection mechanism.