Figuring Out How Much a Hybrid, Diesel, or Small Car Will Save Per Year

I thought we were discussing the Prius here.

Oh, your here is not my here.

 

"No Child Left Behind" is government meddling. The anti-choice
policies is government meddling. "Don't Ask Don't Tell" is government
meddling. Laws preventing gays from adopting children or marrying
each other is government meddling. The Democrats will reduce
government meddling in all those areas.[/QUOTE]



I think that unlikely, given their starry-eyed attraction to meddling in
so many other areas.

As somebody famous once said, capitalism is a great system, except that
it's never been tried.

The current health care and insurance mess is entirely government-
created, and can be solved by prohibiting governments from meddling
in it.


TORT (liability)
----------------
Class action; contingency-fee lawyering; bottom-of-the-barrel jury
selection; massive, wildly outlandish punitives, even in cases (like
Vioxx) where the jury foreman admitted he had NO idea what the defense
was saying.

These all conspire to create massive risk for medical suppliers and
their insurance companies. Who wants to be the next Johns Manville or
Dow Corning?


INSURANCE OLIGOPOLIES
---------------------
Americans are prohibited by law from purchasing insurance from outside
their home states. Lowered competition means higher prices.


INDUSTRY INSURANCE
------------------
Out-of-control tort means massive insurance hikes for industry, since
the insurance companies' exposure is far more than it was 40 years ago.
The hit is not just on direct malpractice insurance as bought by
obstetricians and anesthetists, but on the makers and suppliers of
equipment and pharmaceuticals. It's accumulative, one added on top of
the other by the time the cost hits the final payer (often an insurance
company, ironically).


CONSUMER INSURANCE
------------------
Many states have anti-discriminatory regulations that prevent insurance
companies from performing the traditional actuarial assessments that
were standard for over 200 years. This means they cannot charge
according to perceived risk levels, so EVERYBODY's insurance goes up to
compensate. This way they get around governmental and activist charges
of "discrimination".

States often have "must issue" laws. These dictate that if somebody
applies to them for insurance, the company MUST issue a policy to the
applicant. This has a tendency to make people avoid buying insurance
until they actually need it, so the insurance company ends up being
sucker-punched with immediate high costs.

Further, states tend to have rules that dictate that if insurance
companies wish to offer one kind of insurance in that state, that
company must offer ALL its product lines. Withdraw one (such as flood or
health), and they are barred from selling ANYTHING. So what happens to
rates? They go up, of course.


TAX CODE
--------
Just after WWII, the government retained wartime price controls for a
few years. This meant that companies, desperately needing labor to meet
demand, could not attract that labor by offering better wages than the
competition.

They COULD offer better benefits, however, so they did. This caused a
distortion where insurance became a business expense for the companies,
them paying for it with pre-tax dollars. But if /you/ bought insurance
privately, you paid for it with after-tax dollars. This is a situation
that still exists.

It wasn’t so bad until rates began climbing for the reasons given above,
but it’s a real problem now. A large chunk of the "40 million Americans
without insurance" are between jobs.


MEDICARE/MEDICAID FUNDING MODEL
-------------------------------
Private insurance originally paid only for standard job billing. If
hospitals or other medical providers wanted to make capital improvements
to their infrastructure (buy new machines, put a new wing on the
building, etc.), they had to do it like any other company, and save up
for it, or take out debt at a financial institution.

Many medical providers were initially leery of the government’s new idea
for Medicare/Medicaid, as they were afraid they might become civil
servants, unable to do anything outside what the governmental strings
allowed. The government’s answer? Permit providers to add capital costs
to their billings to Medicare/aid.

Well guess what happened? The astronomical bills they began receiving
from providers immediately caused big budgetary problems for the Johnson
presidency. Johnson solved that by simply debasing the currency, which
led directly to the ravaging inflation of the ‘70s.

Medicare spending increased 11% last year, about 8% higher than the
inflation rate.

Excellent reading:
"Hillarycare -- The Preview", by Sally G. Pipes,
The Wall Street Journal, Oct 12th.

 

"No Child Left Behind" is government meddling. The anti-choice
policies is government meddling. "Don't Ask Don't Tell" is government
meddling. Laws preventing gays from adopting children or marrying
each other is government meddling. The Democrats will reduce
government meddling in all those areas.[/QUOTE]



I think that unlikely, given their starry-eyed attraction to meddling in
so many other areas.

As somebody famous once said, capitalism is a great system, except that
it's never been tried.

The current health care and insurance mess is entirely government-
created, and can be solved by prohibiting governments from meddling
in it.


TORT (liability)
----------------
Class action; contingency-fee lawyering; bottom-of-the-barrel jury
selection; massive, wildly outlandish punitives, even in cases (like
Vioxx) where the jury foreman admitted he had NO idea what the defense
was saying.

These all conspire to create massive risk for medical suppliers and
their insurance companies. Who wants to be the next Johns Manville or
Dow Corning?


INSURANCE OLIGOPOLIES
---------------------
Americans are prohibited by law from purchasing insurance from outside
their home states. Lowered competition means higher prices.


INDUSTRY INSURANCE
------------------
Out-of-control tort means massive insurance hikes for industry, since
the insurance companies' exposure is far more than it was 40 years ago.
The hit is not just on direct malpractice insurance as bought by
obstetricians and anesthetists, but on the makers and suppliers of
equipment and pharmaceuticals. It's accumulative, one added on top of
the other by the time the cost hits the final payer (often an insurance
company, ironically).


CONSUMER INSURANCE
------------------
Many states have anti-discriminatory regulations that prevent insurance
companies from performing the traditional actuarial assessments that
were standard for over 200 years. This means they cannot charge
according to perceived risk levels, so EVERYBODY's insurance goes up to
compensate. This way they get around governmental and activist charges
of "discrimination".

States often have "must issue" laws. These dictate that if somebody
applies to them for insurance, the company MUST issue a policy to the
applicant. This has a tendency to make people avoid buying insurance
until they actually need it, so the insurance company ends up being
sucker-punched with immediate high costs.

Further, states tend to have rules that dictate that if insurance
companies wish to offer one kind of insurance in that state, that
company must offer ALL its product lines. Withdraw one (such as flood or
health), and they are barred from selling ANYTHING. So what happens to
rates? They go up, of course.


TAX CODE
--------
Just after WWII, the government retained wartime price controls for a
few years. This meant that companies, desperately needing labor to meet
demand, could not attract that labor by offering better wages than the
competition.

They COULD offer better benefits, however, so they did. This caused a
distortion where insurance became a business expense for the companies,
them paying for it with pre-tax dollars. But if /you/ bought insurance
privately, you paid for it with after-tax dollars. This is a situation
that still exists.

It wasn’t so bad until rates began climbing for the reasons given above,
but it’s a real problem now. A large chunk of the "40 million Americans
without insurance" are between jobs.


MEDICARE/MEDICAID FUNDING MODEL
-------------------------------
Private insurance originally paid only for standard job billing. If
hospitals or other medical providers wanted to make capital improvements
to their infrastructure (buy new machines, put a new wing on the
building, etc.), they had to do it like any other company, and save up
for it, or take out debt at a financial institution.

Many medical providers were initially leery of the government’s new idea
for Medicare/Medicaid, as they were afraid they might become civil
servants, unable to do anything outside what the governmental strings
allowed. The government’s answer? Permit providers to add capital costs
to their billings to Medicare/aid.

Well guess what happened? The astronomical bills they began receiving
from providers immediately caused big budgetary problems for the Johnson
presidency. Johnson solved that by simply debasing the currency, which
led directly to the ravaging inflation of the ‘70s.

Medicare spending increased 11% last year, about 8% higher than the
inflation rate.

Excellent reading:
"Hillarycare -- The Preview", by Sally G. Pipes,
The Wall Street Journal, Oct 12th.

 

I'm done as of this post. I've said all I want to.

 

True, but would you rather discuss Priuses or listen to rightwingnut
spew? I'm reading r.a.m.h and I'd rather discuss Priuses than listen to
rwn spew. There's no discussion or debate because that isn't how their
minds are wired.

 

True, but would you rather discuss Priuses or listen to rightwingnut
spew? I'm reading r.a.m.h and I'd rather discuss Priuses than listen to
rwn spew. There's no discussion or debate because that isn't how their
minds are wired.

 

Interesting - the stuff one learns on Usenet!

 

Interesting - the stuff one learns on Usenet!

 

hybrid car batteries will be recycled and used in weapons of mass
destruction

 

hybrid car batteries will be recycled and used in weapons of mass
destruction

 

A Male Prostitute and a coward: Double Republican.

 

A Male Prostitute and a coward: Double Republican.

 

In message Prancer
sprach forth the following:

Stoner hasn't posted DICK that's a "fact", cuntfuck.

 

In message Prancer
sprach forth the following:

Stoner hasn't posted DICK that's a "fact", cuntfuck.

 

Rightarded RIPiglicans are always the first one to say something
totally stupid and insulting, then play the victim card when they get
spanked for it. In most sane political parties, you are an American
first, then a member of that party. If you are a Republican, you are
a Republican first...and then there's nothing else left... Sad.

 

Rightarded RIPiglicans are always the first one to say something
totally stupid and insulting, then play the victim card when they get
spanked for it. In most sane political parties, you are an American
first, then a member of that party. If you are a Republican, you are
a Republican first...and then there's nothing else left... Sad.

 

Why specifically mexican?? Last time I checked there are Canadian, and
Asian illegals working in the US too. =)

 

Why specifically mexican?? Last time I checked there are Canadian, and
Asian illegals working in the US too. =)

 

In message EdV sprach forth the following:

Tegger seems to think illegal immigration is a racial thing, not a legal
thing. He is wrong.

http://www.ronpaul2008.com/issues/border-security-and-immigration-reform/

Border Security and Immigration Reform

The talk must stop. We must secure our borders now. A nation without secure
borders is no nation at all. It makes no sense to fight terrorists abroad
when our own front door is left unlocked. This is my six point plan:

* Physically secure our borders and coastlines. We must do whatever it
takes to control entry into our country before we undertake complicated
immigration reform proposals.
* Enforce visa rules. Immigration officials must track visa holders
and deport anyone who overstays their visa or otherwise violates U.S. law.
This is especially important when we recall that a number of 9/11
terrorists had expired visas.
* No amnesty. Estimates suggest that 10 to 20 million people are in
our country illegally. That’s a lot of people to reward for breaking our
laws.
* No welfare for illegal aliens. Americans have welcomed immigrants
who seek opportunity, work hard, and play by the rules. But taxpayers
should not pay for illegal immigrants who use hospitals, clinics, schools,
roads, and social services.
* End birthright citizenship. As long as illegal immigrants know their
children born here will be citizens, the incentive to enter the U.S.
illegally will remain strong.
* Pass true immigration reform. The current system is incoherent and
unfair. But current reform proposals would allow up to 60 million more
immigrants into our country, according to the Heritage Foundation. This is
insanity. Legal immigrants from all countries should face the same rules
and waiting periods.



See that last statment Tegger: FROM ALL COUNTRIES.

 

The sun is the major source of heat, but the level of CO2 in the
atmosphere is very different and the cause of the radical difference
in their climates. There are other differences as well

Variations in solar output have an influence on the climate, but no
more so than volcanic activity or other minor factors. At least not
recently. The idea that it was a significant contributor to present
day global warming was floated by some researchers (and waved like a
flag by conservatives) a few years ago, but has now been discredited.
The fact that solar output has dropped over the last 20 years while
the temperature on Earth has risen should put this theory to bed.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6290228.stm

http://www.pubs.royalsoc.ac.uk/media/proceedings_a/rspa20071880.pdf

Grumpy was talking about rising temperatures on inner planets, but
other than Mars and Earth, there is no evidence of this that I can
find. Martian warming is due to albedo. There has been warming of
some outer planets (including Pluto which still hasn't heard about its
demotion), but nobody thinks this is due to variations in solar
output.