The Grand Facade

This evening I decided to look as some international news on satellite TV
in order to see something other than Hurricane coverage (which I can get
enough of just by looking out the window).

I turned on NWI and they had a story about how the Mayor of a town in
Massachussetts is working on buying prescription drugs from Canada in
order to save the town budget. He said that by doing this he would be able
to avoid laying off quite a few town employees. The story also indicated
that he's gotten a lot of interest from other local US governments who
want to do the same thing.

In article ,
says...
I turned on NWI and they had a story about how the Mayor of a town in
Massachussetts is working on buying prescription drugs from Canada in
order to save the town budget.

That would be the city of Springfield, Mass.
http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/07/30...rtdrugs_030730
http://www.theconnection.org/shows/2...917_a_main.asp


He said that by doing this he would be able
to avoid laying off quite a few town employees.

Yes, but politicians always manage to make small things sound
disastrous. That's how they get (re-)elected.


The story also indicated
that he's gotten a lot of interest from other local US governments who
want to do the same thing.

Conversely, the (US) Federal Drug Agency is almost violently opposed to
this kind of thing. Their standard response to buying non-FDA approved
drugs is to claim that these medications are being sourced from third
world nations. (A neutral observer might conclude that (a) Canada is
*more*, not less, civilized than the USA, and (2) the drugs are often
made in the USA and shipped to Canada only to be re-imported into the
USA. The FDA is far from a neutral observer.)
--
Kevin Willoughby lid

Imagine that, a FROG ON-OFF switch, hardly the work
for test pilots. -- Mike Collins

(A neutral observer might conclude that (a) Canada is
*more*, not less, civilized than the USA,

Hardly a neutral sentiment; how does one define "civilized?"

The FDA is far from a neutral observer.)

Niether are you, ISTM

A felony conviction bars one from voting, holding office, owning or
carrying firearms and a slew of other, less tangible things (like access
to most decent jobs). It requires a federal court proceeding to restore
one's franchise (the right to vote or hold office) after such a
conviction.

That was my point. A substantial minority of people in the US are
disenfranchised, and that minority is overwhelmingly from one racial
group.
There's also the problem that throwing a lot of kids into jail is going
to produce hardened criminals who will be the ones who rape the kids
after another conviction.
Sorry to continue the OT thread!
--
In Illinois they are re-examining their "get tough on crime" laws that
prohibit felons from holding jobs that require a state license. They
realized that they were teaching prisoners useful trades like hair
cutting while ignoring the fact that they couldn't get a barber's
license.

I've seen older folks go into a hospital and get some breathing treatments,
antibiotics, and blood tests over a long weekend and come out with a bill for
$29,000.

People criticise HMOs for making medical decisions, but I don't see any way
around that other than letting the medical workers write their own paycheck.

There is something wrong with the pricing scheme employed in the US, and a
disconnect between the services rendered and the cost. The US shells out about
$900 billion for health care and doesn't get anything like good value overall.

And the pharmaceutical co.s are running a con job.

So they enlist the aid of the insurance companies to spread the inflated costs
over the entire population. What the hell kind of an insurance co would pay
$29,000 for services worth $4,500?

......so, I suspect that the health system in Canada is along the lines of "We
appreciate your work and are willing to pay you for it but the bill has got to
be in some vaguely rational amount."

Not, as we like to say, rocket science.

One last example. Medicare will pay $50 per month for the rental of a "walker",
which is some metal tubing with wheels, that Wal-Mart could easily sell for $39
bucks. No doubt there is legislation that prevents this from happening.

Hopefully in Canada they just buy the ****ing thing and avoid the transparent
fraud.

On Sun, 28 Sep 2003 11:10:11 -0400, Kevin Willoughby
wrote:

In article ,
says...
Oh, and the tech sector is hiring again. But they're not hiring
Americans -- they're hiring Indians, Chinese, just about anyone *except*
Americans and Europeans. I personally think that someone should identify
these companies who are "offshore outsourcing" their tech sector
workforce and organize boycotts.

Good luck. I think *every* manufacturer of PCs has offshored either
manufacturing, software development, tech support, or some combination
of these. I just bought a Dell laptop. Assembled in Malaysia. Tech
support (judging by accents and lack of understanding of USA-slang) in
India. Major components manufactured in most of the Pacific Rim
countries.

....Then again, the Feds aren't taking this approach positively. Dell
was notified last month that for Federal accounts their support reps
had better be located in the US, and be native American English
speakers. This now has Dell running job fairs through their puppet
temp agency, Spherion, to fill up the slots they purged when they
shifted about 40% of their support force to the Philippines, Malaysia
and India. This has spread to the corporate sector, where most major
corporations IT departments have apparently been talking to one
another, as their employees now ask the same question whenever they
call for support:

"Are you located in the continental US? If not, I need a tech in the
continental US. If you cannot connect me directly with one I can wait
for a short time while you locate one. If you cannot locate one, I
need to speak immediately with your supervisor."

Tech products really are globalized products.

....Products, yes. But until English becomes the global language, tech
support has to be regionalized, and those staffing them need to be
native to that region.


OM

--

"No ******* ever won a war by dying for | http://www.io.com/~o_m
his country. He won it by making the other | Sergeant-At-Arms
poor dumb ******* die for his country." | Human O-Ring Society

- General George S. Patton, Jr

On Sun, 28 Sep 2003 11:10:11 -0400, Kevin Willoughby
wrote:

Maybe. Do you know that there is an assembly line that produces Fords
and Mazdas? Basically the same car with different badges and minor trim
details sold under different nameplates. Due to the minor differences in
trim, the Mazda's meet the legal definition of "Made in the USA" and the
Fords meet the legal definition of "Imported".

....Or to take that one better, when the Taurus was released most
people weren't aware it was originally a design for a Mazda "luxury"
car. When the Taurus took off, the Lincoln-Mercury division of Ford
uprated it and turned it into the Continental, which prior to that was
usually the size of a small boat. What surprised a lot of people was
that the mounting points for parts native to a Taurus fit the same
holes and locations on a Continental, and Taurus parts were, on the
average, about 50-60% cheaper.

Which is why my '89 Lincoln Continental no longer has air bag
suspension, but the shocks of a Taurus...


OM

--

"No ******* ever won a war by dying for | http://www.io.com/~o_m
his country. He won it by making the other | Sergeant-At-Arms
poor dumb ******* die for his country." | Human O-Ring Society

- General George S. Patton, Jr

"OM" om@our_blessed_lady_mary_of_the_holy_NASA_researc h_facility.org wrote
in message ...
On Sun, 28 Sep 2003 11:10:11 -0400, Kevin Willoughby
wrote:

Maybe. Do you know that there is an assembly line that produces Fords
and Mazdas? Basically the same car with different badges and minor trim
details sold under different nameplates. Due to the minor differences in
trim, the Mazda's meet the legal definition of "Made in the USA" and the
Fords meet the legal definition of "Imported".

...Or to take that one better, when the Taurus was released most
people weren't aware it was originally a design for a Mazda "luxury"
car. When the Taurus took off, the Lincoln-Mercury division of Ford
uprated it and turned it into the Continental, which prior to that was
usually the size of a small boat. What surprised a lot of people was
that the mounting points for parts native to a Taurus fit the same
holes and locations on a Continental, and Taurus parts were, on the
average, about 50-60% cheaper.

When I wrecked my Dodge Rampage, I was able to use Omni parts. 70% cheaper,
and the only real difference was the bed.

My wife's Geo Prizm was also the Chevy Nova (a completely *******ized use of
what was a fine name on a muscle car used on a compact abortion) and the
Toyota Corolla (an improvement to the 72 Corolla I used to drive, which was
about 1/3 smaller than the 91 Prizm my wife drove).
--
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