The problem is the healthcare cost is insane. You will go through $40k after a good injury that may need a major surgery or few smaller surgeries. Average cost for hip replacement is $40k.
I've had a sports hernia and the bill was about $30k.
That's crazy, I looked it up and the average cost for a hip replacement here in the private system in Australia is about $24k (US$16k).
You can get it for basically nothing in the public system but you might have to wait a year or so if it's considered elective (emergency surgery is immediate of course), but most people with private health insurance can get the procedure done within in a few weeks and would only have to pay about $1000 (US$650) out of pocket with a $500 excess (which is pretty common), because the anaesthetist and surgery are usually invoiced separately. Some plans do have lower excesses (like $350) though if you pay higher premiums.
> And what the OP is pointing out is that if your injury is $30K, insurance covers nothing, because the premium + deductible is $40K.
The point of insurance is to mitigate risk. If you think you have enough money to cover your risk, there's no reason to buy insurance.
The sleight of hand here is first complaining that you did not incur enough hazards to offset the risk premium and then citing this as a reason the risk premiums should not exist. Where is the story of the family being weighed down by bills? Or of not getting physical therapy after an injury and having permanent, income-reducing disabilities?
What's under debate is "how much risk." For most people in the US, they'll need help before they hit $40K. They can't afford paying $40K every year for medical and medical related expenses.
Risk is not the only factor. Premium cost is probably the more important one for most. If someone can afford the $40k deductible option, but not the $5k option, you’ll just have to accept the risk. Increasing earnings significantly right now is harder than hoping medical bankruptcy won’t matter in the long run.
30% of US households make less than $50k. That’s more than 100,000,000 people in homes with less than $3.6k/mo for all living expenses. The stories you ask for are simply inevitable
Imagine 2 people get injured in a year, you are now at $60k. Plus, $150 a visit for primary and $300+ for specialist.
My 5 year old has been to the hospital 3 times, stitches once. US healthcare will ruin you if you don't have insurance. A cancer treatment can bankrupt a millionaire.
This answer is obvious, however, video games/simulators can indicate if someone has potential.
Sim racing is a good example of this, there have been several drivers who went pro. Sims are used by racing teams and people like Max Verstappen, Lando Norris use sims heavily to improve their race craft.
I do a bit of sim racing and raced against pro drivers.
Athletic ability is a huge part but nearly every sport has a chess component. Additionally, ability to perform under pressure and dealing with stress/anxiety is another part of sports.
These guys need to face the music imo. If people don't face prosecution it will be damaging.
Elon must needs to be investigated. All previous investigation need to be reviewed and if DOGE stopped or slowed any of them they need to be turned up to 10000000.
That is not political, it is purely a service offered at a price. There is no specific political agenda behind these pardons (i.e., they don't pardon only folks who are, for example, Evangelicals or anti-immigration or whatever), the only criteria is payment.
> Politics (from Ancient Greek πολιτικά (politiká) 'affairs of the cities') is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of status or resources.
I don't know how much more obvious I can make this for you. Bribery is political.
Bribery is political. But it's not taken to be a usual part of politics in the West. (Similar to how the Roman word for ambush was the same as their word for treason. Treason isn't taken to be a usual part of politics. Ambush, for them, not a usual part of warfare.)
Basically, you're both right because what is and isn't political is itself a political question.
Word meanings evolve. Virtue literally means "manliness" in Classical Latin but only a pedantic dick would insist we use it in that sense. Polis and it's related words meant something different to the Greeks than they do to us.
Right, "Politics" evolved from "affairs of the cities" to "the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of status or resources.".
Selling pardons for money is inherently a very political act. It means that you are aligning yourself with moneyed interests, which is clearly the heart of Trumpist politics. Setting ideology aside even, the open selling of pardons sends the message to the moneyed interests in general that he's on their side, even if they don't need a pardon at this exact moment. It serves both practical (get rich people to like you and therefore donate money to your campaigns and causes to help them succeed) and ideological (supply-sider-esque doctrine going back to at least the protestant reformation says that rich people should be in charge because they're rich, QED) purposes.
The hypothetical pardon was promised by then candidate-Trump in a speech at the Libertarian Party convention.
The specific political agenda was to get support from libertarians, who lean conservative, but don't like Trump much - because he rejects libertarianism.
That's as political as you can possibly get. It wasn't a behind the scenes thing. It was literally announced at a political convention.
I am pretty sure that they only pardon people who are pro or at least neutral to Trump. I doubt that he would part on anybody who's an outspoken critic even if they offered him a bribe.
In 2019, Giuliani's assistant chided John Kirakou that pardons couldn't be discussed in his presence but that the fee was $1 million for Giuliani and $1 million for Trump. Given inflation, I'd bet that pardons now cost around $3 million.
I guess OP means to say it is not idealogical reasons.
Op means to say this type of pardon is not to meant to win votes or satisfy the demands of constituents, Like with convicted cops or people with weed related crimes etc or pardoning draft dodgers after Vietnam or civil war and so on .
While money is involved deeply in politics and financial corruption is there , occasionally idealogical (political) actions without direct financial benefits also happen.
It is hard to say whether this pardon of Silk Road founder was motivated by libertarian, or crypto community pressure or by financial donations to the party etc both are possible even at the same time but they are different considerations
> I guess OP means to say it is not idealogical reasons.
“Government exists for the personal benefit of the leader” (or simply “for my personal benefit as the leader”, with even less generalization beyond that) is an ideology, actually.
It’s not one that is popular to embrace publicly, but, that's hardly unique along real ideologies.
This is an unhinged comment. You should take a deep breath and get off the internet. You sound extremely immature calling someone on HN "script kiddie".
reply