Is Anybody as Stress Out as Me?

[jkust]

Re: Is Anybody as Stress Out as Me?

And again I will say the industry as a whole (insurance and medical) had decades to correct it themselves and refused to do so. To pretend this all came as a surprise is disingenuous at best. No matter how you look at it health care in the US is the most expensive in the world but ranks something like 34th. in quality. I am not just measuring that in dollars spent but as a percentage of the country?s GDP, it?s far higher than any country in the world. How Rx drugs are priced alone is a disgrace and in my mind borders on criminal. Yes I know, they need to charge this much to support R&D... BULL, the three biggest pharma companies in the US spend three times (or more) on advertizing (Think Cialis and the Blue Pill) than they do on R&D and that doesn?t take into account the fact most of that R&D happens in universities at tax payer expense and approval testing is done by the FDA, again at tax payer expense.

Please don?t think what you are seeing is anything new because it isn?t. When OSHA went into effect in 1970 manufactures across the country wailed to the heavens it was going to drive them all out of business. The ?pesky? regs. was just too much to deal with and would mean many had to rebuild their manufacturing systems. They too had a litany of excuses, reasons, cited complexity and even conflicts in the regs. In truth, they were right in one respect, it did in fact put some manufactures out of business and many investors looked for green pastures. However in the long run they were replaced by companies that took up the challenge and did what needed to be done and every factory worker's life in the US is better and safer for it. By the way, the American Manufactures Association was just like your industry, they knew it was coming, refused to self correct and cried to high heaven when they were forced to reshape the industry saying the law makers were cluess about the subject.

Bottom line, the only constant in life is change and to succeed you have to change with it or, well you won?t be in the job / company very long. By the way, I tell my manufacturing clients the same thing. Railing against change is no more effective than tilting at wind mills and only eats up time and resources because once change is in motion there is no way to stop it and go backwards. The world just doesn?t work that way and to my way of thinking that?s a good thing.

Agreed on the constant change. The hardest thing to swallow are a couple of really bad things in the law that were put in in such a way, there is almost zero chance for many companies to make it (only a few will remain in the end). Backed the companies into a corner that will bleed them dry until the capital runs out or more aptly companies find other places for their capital. There is change and then there is just nonsensical word on paper and unfortunately we got the nonsensical words on paper. Change is fine but if the change requires you to walk into oncoming traffic, that is a problem. I truly thought cooler heads would prevail here. In this particular case I hate to be so sure of the trainwreck that is on the way. History will be the judge here.

 

[foodfisher]

Re: Is Anybody as Stress Out as Me?

Agreed on the constant change. The hardest thing to swallow are a couple of really bad things in the law that were put in in such a way, there is almost zero chance for many companies to make it (only a few will remain in the end). Backed the companies into a corner that will bleed them dry until the capital runs out or more aptly companies find other places for their capital. There is change and then there is just nonsensical word on paper and unfortunately we got the nonsensical words on paper. Change is fine but if the change requires you to walk into oncoming traffic, that is a problem. I truly thought cooler heads would prevail here. In this particular case I hate to be so sure of the trainwreck that is on the way. History will be the judge here.

November will be the judge

 

[jkust]

Re: Is Anybody as Stress Out as Me?

I suspect what will happen will be a lot like OSHA, it will go through lots of tweaks and adjustments and in the end come up with something more realistic and workable. Yeah, it pretty much sucks to deal with it all until that happpens but again, the industry had ample opportuity to avoid it all.

I certainly am looking forward to tweaks and adjustments. The history thus far has been that the single body writing the regulations so far takes comments in the public comment period, ignores comments and writes the reg how they want. We are really in unprecidented times here. I had hoped I'd never have to tell my kids how the country used to be.

 

[82rude]

Re: Is Anybody as Stress Out as Me?

No stress here Daycruiser!What you need is a trip .After working 35 years in the steel industry i finally retired and decided to go on a trip from my home town of sault ste marie ontario to victoria british columbia.Give you a short run down of how i got there.Michigan to wisconsin to mn,to south dakota to see mount rushmore and the crazy horse memorial through wyoming to montana to the littlebig horn battle field .Then through idaho and washington and up into british columbia and over to vancouver island to victoria.Stayed there one month then headed home through the crowsnest pass in the canadian rockies and down to montana again .then home through north dakota ,minn,wis ,mich.Total milage was 6000 plus ,total cost ,who cares!Im now back home a completly new person ,without a care in the world .I also have a list of ten places id like to move to now,lol.High on the list would be montana and wyoming and abot 5 places in b.c. The whole point of my ramble was go on a trip and leave the stess behind.At the very least it will melt away as you travel (stress).

 

[captmello]

Re: Is Anybody as Stress Out as Me?

Unfortunately, those sorts of changes have to be forced on some groups, especially the ones that won?t self correct. I know you don?t like being told (no one does) but your industry brought all this down on themselves. They could have self corrected years (decades?) ago.

I think its the greed of whomever is wallowing in big paychecks. Whether its the bankers or Auto manufacturers or insurance co. or Mcdonalds, they all seem content with riding it out, without worrying about correcting themselves. Why put all the work into R & D, it just cuts into the bonuses.

 

[jkust]

Re: Is Anybody as Stress Out as Me?

I think its the greed of whomever is wallowing in big paychecks. Whether its the bankers or Auto manufacturers or insurance co. or Mcdonalds, they all seem content with riding it out, without worrying about correcting themselves. Why put all the work into R & D, it just cuts into the bonuses.

Well, if they didn't have customers who can vote with their feet, I'd agree. What a gigantic platitude mello.

 

[FlaCowboy]

Re: Is Anybody as Stress Out as Me?

Do you guys realize we have some of the cheapest fuel in the world? The exceptions are kind of obvious, but look at the ones higher than us:

http://www.mytravelcost.com/petrol-prices/

We should pay less seeing how our technology to refine it is much better than elsewhere...we would "really" pay less if all the taxes were not so high :facepalm:

 

[QC]

Re: Is Anybody as Stress Out as Me?

You got it wrong. We pay less because our taxes are lower. Just facts man. You can look it up.

 

[Bigprairie1]

Re: Is Anybody as Stress Out as Me?

At the pump it is.

.....is that why prices vary from state to state? or is the tax a federal (common) tax?

BP

 

[QC]

Re: Is Anybody as Stress Out as Me?

Federal is common, state varies. I always fill my boat in AZ even though I boat on the border. Usually 20 - 30 cents a gallon cheaper.

 

[projo198]

Re: Is Anybody as Stress Out as Me?

Sorry if that doesn't brighten things up for ya, but trust me your not the only one worrying!

 

[lncoop]

Re: Is Anybody as Stress Out as Me?

So long thread. It's been good to know ya.

 

[Bigprairie1]

Re: Is Anybody as Stress Out as Me?

edited - QC

...take a minute or two and read the rules (ahh 'regulations') of the forum and keep away from the political crap....its not that hard.

Now that said, I'd like to hear how Daycruiser is doing lately since everyone has chimed in on a variety of worries and concerns originally noted.

My two bits.
BP

 

[WIMUSKY]

Re: Is Anybody as Stress Out as Me?

Hopefully, instead of shutting the whole thread down, the offending post just gets removed......

As Bubba mentioned, there are some guys around here that add a surcharge. I've thought about it. What I usually do is wait a year and make a permanent rate increase since the gas prices really don't fall very far around here....

I was stressed this a.m., had to go in for a "full" physical.....

 

[projo198]

Re: Is Anybody as Stress Out as Me?

...take a minute or two and read the rules (ahh 'regulations') of the forum and keep away from the political crap....its not that hard.

BP

Original post edited for content.

Sorry guys!

 

[WIMUSKY]

Re: Is Anybody as Stress Out as Me?

I'm thinking the area your in makes a difference. We are so rural that going to town is a 40 mile round trip. To a real town it's more like 200 miles.

I agree. Going to town for us is a 50 mile round trip. However, a real town for us is only 100 miles......

 

[DayCruiser]

Re: Is Anybody as Stress Out as Me?

You got it wrong. We pay less because our taxes are lower. Just facts man. You can look it up.

But included in the price of their gas is free health care?

 

[rbh]

Re: Is Anybody as Stress Out as Me?

But included in the price of their gas is free health care?

It ain't free if your refering to Canada, the wife and I pay about $120-ish per month for the both of us in BC.
Some provinces are less some more and ones free, just depends on how much oil your pumping out of your back yard (yeah I am talking about you alberta!!!)

 

[Bigprairie1]

Re: Is Anybody as Stress Out as Me?

But included in the price of their gas is free health care?

Actually, this is a fairly common misconception DC. As Rob mentions, it isn't free (I'm not sure where that comes from??).....Like Rob we pay about $120 a month for the family. As well we typically have to pay for our own prescriptions (when we have them) although in our case my wifes company picks up about 90% of that cost as well as most dental and eyecare I think. The system is universal tho' and if you are a Canadian you simply get a health care card...and you're 'in'. If you 'check in' to the hospital and want to upgrade to a private room tho'...you have to pay an extra surcharge. Beyond that, you've paid into it (as mentioned above)....so you get to use it for....well pretty much nothing when and if you fall into 'disrepair' (so to speak).
This is one of the good things about some discussions within an online multi-national group....is we can get the info on each others cities, taxes, lifestyles, benefits or hardships....direct from the sources rather than from the local (sometimes) news and often 'uninformed' people or politicians.
All good!!
BP

 

[foodfisher]

Re: Is Anybody as Stress Out as Me?

Got Billy Bass singing the first stanza to me anytime I'm down.