Who will be the US "Big 3" in 2016?

What you say should make a lot of sense, but in my mind, NOTHING
could be worse than having the government run anything so important.
Everything I've ever seen the government try to take over is
always poorly run and more costly. Can you think of anything
they've run better and more cheaply? Let's even make that easier.
Can you think of anything they've run well?

Personally, I want the government in my life much less than it
already is. Not more.

 

But for the Canadians I've spoken to, they think the Canadian
Healthcare system is horrible. One of the main reasons is that it's
hard to obtain.

 

What a novel concept! ;-)

 

It's a virtual monopoly, and consumers (1) are discouraged
from shopping around for the best prices; (2) usually have
no awareness of what their insurer is paying for medical
care and how this differs from what someone with other or no
insurance would pay.

Unlike auto repair shops, when was the last time anyone saw
doctors' offices advertising the cost of a routine 10k mile
body checkup in the local newspaper? Or what's the cheapest
ER within twenty miles for getting a laceration sewed up?
Given the wait times in many ERs for such an injury, may as
well make the driving radius 100 miles. (Wait times can
routinely be long in some ERs, because some are dedicated to
certain types of injury, and these injuries fill up the ER.)

Consumers, overcome with fear uncertainty and doubt, now
view health insurance as not something for peace of mind but
something from which they should get their money's worth
every year. Which of course just raises health insurance
prices more.

It seems increasingly more "funny money" is getting around,
too. E.g. in the past year for two minor procedures, once
the billing source heard I was not affiliated with any
insurer but was paying directly, they slashed my bills. So
now the uninsured can count on the insured to pay the cost
of "negotiating" lower fees? I do not want to rely on this
(even though in theory I received a smaller bill these last
times). It's not free market action. Consumers have no idea
of the actual costs of services.

It does resemble a pyramid scheme: Insurance Company X says
that, by purchasing their plan, you'll get a 20% discount
from the "normal" price that doctor's office Y charges. Y
does not want to give money away, so s/he raises the prices
on services. X responds by raising the prices for the
consumer. The consumer Z is just happy s/he's getting 20%
off whatever price.

Government intervenes to prevent monopolistic practices all
the time. While health care providers and insurers may not
be breaking the law on trusts (= monopolies), they are
violating the principles on which this law is based.

This is a trick question, since rarely have direct
comparisons been possible.

We could talk about the construction of interstate highways,
USPS vs. UPS (they seem pretty competitive), disaster relief
(despite Katrina, it would be only conjecture to say a
private firm could handle such a situation better), Medicare
for the 65 and older crowd vs. private insurance today, and
not get anywhere meaningful.

 

LINK THAT!!!!

If you CAN, leave out Great Britain..

 

<G>

JT

 

The USPS makes a profit and only charges 39 cents to deliver a letter
to Buttfuck Idaho.

Well, the US Army used to pay a soldier $15,000 plus rations to drive
a truck in a war zone. Now they give Haliburton a cost-plus contract
to hire civilians at $100,000 to drive a truck which, if blown up or
abandoned, represents a profit for the Company.

I would like to have health insurance that I can't lose to the whims
of fate.

 

1) Segway
2) Horses
3) pogo sticks
4) Honda androids

J.

 

The US the economy was doing pretty sure was do pretty well after the
Kennedy cut the marginal tax rate to 50%, the income to the federal treasury
tripled. Just as the income to the federal treasury doubled after
President Reagan cut the marginal tax rate to 35%. There has been another
huge increase in income to the federal treasury after President Bush tax rat
cuts. Currently the federal treasures income is the highest in the history
of the world.


You must believe it to be fair for the government to pass a law to tax all
of the money YOU earned all year, at three times the rate you are currently
paying, then tax whatever money you have left over at the end of the year at
a rate of 55%? LOL


mike hunt

 

The Socialists really have you brain washed, it that is what you believe
The US economy is rising at nearly twice the rate in Europe, over the past
ten years, and it is twice the size to begin with. Compare GNP and see who
is better off. The US is the freest economy in the world, to a fault, the
US does not restrict imports or the exportation of capital as they do in
Europe.. How many European and British corporation make there highest
profits in the US? Why do you think the Japs have a piss poor share of the
market in Europe? IF Europe acted like the US in that regard, the only
cars you could buy in Europe would be Japanese.


mike hunt

 

Really? I was at a major old cars show today. Loads of small British,
German, Italian and French cars from the sixties among the Corvairs,
Falcons, Valliants, Nash Ramblers, Hudson Jets, Henry Js, Studebaker Larks,
Willys and even some Chevettes, but only ONE Jap car, a 240Z with only 23K
on the clock.

What ever happened to all those 'superior;' Jap small cars, they're sure not
still on the road. There were more than 30 VW bugs, nearly 40
Nash/Hudson/AMC Metropolitan coupes and convertibles and a half dozen
CROSLEYS for goodness sake and a couple Isettas but only ONE low mileage Jap
car, curious.


mike hunt

 

most likely melted down to be put back into new jap cars.

you actually saw a 240Z??? consider yourself lucky. 99.9% of the 240Z's
made were scrapped after their frames rotted out and the cars split in half.
early jap cars were made about as good as the late 70's gm trucks were.
within 5 years they rusted out so bad you were left with nothing but a pile
of iron oxide dust.

 

But the 70's GM trucks are still on the road, I see lots of them with holes
in the body still hauling stuff around.

 

Mine is on the road....not in a car show...

 

You're not exaggerating about that either. I saw just that years ago on a
240Z that was in such bad shape the owner himself took it off the road.

One day I watched my mechanic hoist that 240 so he could pull some good
parts off. The driver door was left slightly open. As the hoist took the
load and the car left the ground, the entire body emitted a loud series of
groans, creaks and pops, and the ends of the car sagged three inches. We
knew the measurement because an attempt at closing the door failed.

And remember those Macpherson struts that used to pop through the inner
fender and bend the hood? A walk through any wrecking yard during the '80s
showed you where all the '70s cars were...

They rusted very badly, no question. But then so did most '50s American
iron that is now considered classic.

But I think the main reason you don't see Japs at shows is that there's no
demand; nobody wants them. The cars were seen at the time as cheap
subsitutes for the real thing (American cars), and were treated as
appliances. Japanese cars also were rarely made into convertibles or
hardtops, typically the most valuable of collectibles.

What's most popular in the classic/collectible market at any given time
seems to be largely a function of what the owners' fathers had when they
were kids, or the first car they ever drove. I suppose in time there may be
more emotional attachment to certain Japanese models as a consquence of
that.

 

It can be a small world, but like the Budweiser Clivesdale, you have
blinders on, bigtime.

 

Have you forgotten where those millions/billions of dollars went?

Into the pockets of American workers!

jim menning

 

I don't know about car shows but there are many vintage Japanese cars
in private collections. Here are a few links:

http://www.honda600coupe.com/Honda_600_Coupe_at_Route_22_Honda.html

http://www.thisoldhonda.org/collectors.php

http://www.solace.net/240Z-forsale/ebay/IMG_2328.jpg

http://www.240sxmotoring.com/19da28fure.html

http://datsun1200.com/modules/myalbum/viewcat.php?cid=32

http://sb1.honda-perf.org/mysb1web/pages/rear.htm

http://www.honda600coupe.com/

http://www.honda600owners.com/

http://www.war-eagles-air-museum.com/72-honda_1.html

 

Not to take the side of certain idiot flag wavers for GM, but I
seriously doubt that GM and Ford merged into a single company would not
outsell all other car makers in the U.S.

 

Do you mean FWD is inherently less safe than RWD?

But the import makers also changed their chassis designs completely and
switched from RWD to FWD, except Honda.

What innovations has the auto industry, American or foreign, made to
vehicles since the 1960s that weren't the direct or indirect result of
government requirements for safety, emissions, or fuel economy? I get
the impresson that the majority of advancements in the industry have
been on the production side, as evidenced by the need for far fewer
workers to produce the same number of cars. The car busines hasn't
been nearly as innovative as electronics or biotechnology.