minimum wage

[djv]

What gets me is when you go in for yearly and your Doc orders normal tests. PSA, Suger, Chest XRay. Looks you over talk with you 10 minutes. Has nurse come in give you a cardiogram. Then looks at it says looks the same. I will send letter on other results.
The the letter comes says what ever. Then the bill comes and you would think you saw 4 differant Docs. Dam they all grab 200/300 each. You didnt even see them. So you call and say whats up. Oh they read your test results along with your reg Doc. What a fuc???/ rip off.
And Doc your in the business and you say folks are staying longer in hospital these days. Maybe where your from. But Nationaly stays are way done. Take open heart. Was 2.5 weeks in 1986.
then by mid 90's down to 10 days. Now you go home in 6 days.
the average stay in a hospital in last 15 years has dropped 30%. Why do you think there are so many open rooms.
DTB you may be right when workers have there insurance given free they take it. When there asked to chip in they drop it. I dont understand why folks think they schould get it free.

 

[Turfgrass]

Caught a bit on the news over the weekend about jobs and unemployment. Washington State, it seems, has the highest minimum wage in the entire country. The Washington minimum wage is two dollars and change above the federal level. Well, guess what? Washington also has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country! Imagine that! Fact is, of the seven states with the highest unemployment rates in the nation, five of them have state mandated minimum wages that are higher than the federal level.

Anyone with a basic understanding of economics would not be surprised by these statistics. Individuals have job skills that they take to the employment marketplace looking for a buyer. Employers have jobs to offer to people with the appropriate job skills, but these employers also have budget to meet. Each job has a value to the employer. Employers simply cannot afford to pay someone more for their job skills than those skills are worth to the employers. So, along comes government to tell the employer that he must pay more for job skills than the value of those skills to the employer. The result? The employer doesn't hire. Why hire someone for a basic job that requires few skills when you will be forced by government to pay more for those skills than they are worth to you? The result? High unemployment rates.

This news story I was watching on Fox News Channel featured someone from Washington State named Eric Franklin. He was with some group called "Jobs with Justice." There's another trigger word for you. "Justice." Everybody wants justice, don't they? But nobody spends much time trying to define the concept. I'll save you the trouble. "Justice" is when someone gets what they deserve. If you have failed to develop marketable job skills, then you won't be paid very much. This is what you deserve. This is what you have earned. This is justice.

Franklin says that the purpose of the high minimum wage is to "invest in people." Franklin doesn't have a clue. Businesses don't exist to "invest in people." They exist to make money for their owners. To do that you must avoid paying people more than their labor is worth to your business enterprise. It's not about investing, it's about paying for needed job skills.

By the way; many of the people in Washington who are looking for jobs have said that they would gladly work for less than the state mandated minimum wage. Trouble is, they can't. They're willing to work for less, and the employer is willing to pay them less ... but here comes the government to tell the worker and the employer that they will not be permitted to enter into a private contract unless it meets state requirements. That's why we call this a "free country."

 

[Terryray]

yup

yup

low skills explain low wages, not no jobs.

minimum wage discriminates against workers with low skills.

but minimum wage benefits certain politicians, unions, racists, bureaucrats, and lobbyists. All done in the guise of "helping the workers".

 

[auspice]

"If I listened to Michael Dukakis long enough I would be convinced that we're in an economic downturn and people are homeless and going without food and medical attention and that we've got to do something about the unemployed."
-Ronald Reagan

 

[Eddie Haskell]

Our resident neo-nazi's (Dogs and the Doctor) have once again lowered the bar on reason and rational thought in their united endless pursuit to blame lawyers for each and every ill of society from the common cold to the sinking of the Titanic.

The truth is that lawsuits and fear of litigation are not the reason for rising medical costs and the inability to obtain insurance (either malpractice or health care) but rather the fact that technology has outpaced our ability to fully provide medical services to patients.

We could effectively treat and cure many more people than we do but since everyone from the lab technician to the surgical team at the hospital has their respective hand in the pot the cost is prohibitive. I believe that since the government has capped what an individual can recover from medical negligence, we should also cap the other associated industry's (medical and insurance).

Doctors should be limited in the amount of money they should recover from doing specific procedures. By way of example, arthroscopic surgery should be limited by government as to the amount a doc, hospital, nurse, etc. can charge. Similarly, government should promulgate national health insurance coverage.

How do you like dem apples.

Eddie

 

[djv]

Turf, Washington St better have good wages it's one of the highes tax states. Including it's gas tax 28 cents a gallon on top the feds 18.5 Cents. Not sure how folks live there on 10 bucks let alone under 7 bucks. The seniors must just get killed. Maybe that's why they all go to Florida.

 

[Hoops]

I think we should have a maximum wage. As Dr. Freeze has stated in the past, anyone can live comfortably on $15,000 per year earnings.

 

[djv]

Hoops I do remember that. No problem he said. Maybe he's right who are these folks that think they should get milllions.

 

[dawgball]

Question for you on this, Eddie:

"By way of example, arthroscopic surgery should be limited by government as to the amount a doc, hospital, nurse, etc. can charge."

Should this be mandated nationally, state to state, or city by city? Someone providing arthroscopic surgery in New York City or San Francisco certainly would have to charge more than someone providing the exact same service in Podunkville, wouldn't they? The health care provider in the larger city must pay higher rent (and other standard cost of living expenses). If it does go to the city by city level, how many government employees (with the coinciding expenses) is it going to take to run that watchdog program.

Just a question.

 

[Eddie Haskell]

DB:

My comment was in part, tongue in cheek, in that it was a shot at the caps placed on me and my partners in crime. The tort reform caps are placed on a state by state basis although some federal legislation has been raised in the past but failed in Congress or by the Great Clinton.

I agree that cost of living has to play a part in the payment schedules. However, the state legislatures that have implemented tort caps seem to think that 250/500 k is the going rate for pain and suffering maximums. Explain that to a semi-conscious infant who grows into her teen years in daily suffering as a result of some quacks malpractice due to his need to fit 20% more patients into a day since the insurance carriers have reduced his return.

Despite Freeze's and Dogs arguements to the contrary, the blame has to be spread around between greedy doctors, lawyers and insurance companies overlayed on a profession where technology has outpaced the ability of the system to provide good, equal health care to all.

I don't know about watchdogging it dawgie. Hell, we already have workers comp in place which pays x dollars for x injury. Seems like we can take all the adjusters and just give them a little retraining and voila, we have compensation system for medical procedures.

Eddie

 

[slim pickins]

Re: minimum wage

A: charge more to the consumer---but will lead to losing some customers
B: lay 3 employees off and add work to others to keep payroll the same.
C. Cut any employee benefits he might be currently paying.

or

D. Outsource to overseas.
Sweatshops average 17 cents an hour. Savings of
6*20*2000= $240,000. With overhead reduction
should net a cool half million. The 20 laid off
employees can enlist in the military or more
likely be called up in the upcoming draft.
A win-win-win situation. Employer reaps with
a rapists delight, countries overseas get jobs,
and military gets cannon fodder.

Everyone sing in chorus "Joy to the World"

 

[djv]

Slim you want to save a boat load of cash. Lets start shipping abunch of CEO's jobs over seas.

 

[dawgball]

Seems like we can take all the adjusters and just give them a little retraining and voila, we have compensation system for medical procedures.

I've never worked for a government organization, but I have dealt with several of their "employees". They don't like doing the tasks that they have. How do you suggest we convince them to pick up this slack?

btw, i think this site is due for a sarcasm font.

 

[DOGS THAT BARK]

Edward

Let me run this by you.

I doubt if anyone would want to go through life without a doctor.
and anyone with any assets (your clientel excluded of course) could not afford to manage risks without insurance.
Just where would you put the personal injury attorney on a scale of importance?

If fact you are only profession I know of that feed off each other as the only reason most people need attorney is due to actions of another attorney.

As Mark Twain said --If you have a town with one lawyer he will starve to death but should another move in they will both flourish.

Which brings me to my bonafide lock of the year. Kerry will pick Edwards as running mate. My reasoning--Kerrys largest campaign contributors has been from P.I. attorneys (they like to call themselves "trial lawyers") and who's people have been doing the soliciting--not to hard to figure out whats coming down--follow the money and motives.

P.S.

Did you know?


Every one of us pays $1,200 more for goods and services every year because of lawsuits.


A third of the price of an 8-foot aluminum ladder is directly attributed to lawsuits ? frivolous and otherwise.


The National Center for State Courts reports that there were more than 15 million civil lawsuits filed in 1999 ? or one lawsuit for every 18 people in the United States. That equates to a lawsuit filed every 2.08 seconds, the equivalent of one lawsuit filed with each blink of the eye.


One in every four small businesses has been sued or threatened with a lawsuit in the past five years. And according to the most recent available information, personal injury lawyers are pursuing as many as 120,000 lawsuits against America's 500,000 practicing physicians at any one time.


It is estimated that the cost of a lawsuit can be more than $100,000 yet on average, 60 percent of all National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) members earn less than $50,000 per year and one-third less than $25,000 per year.


A survey by the Conference Board found that fear of product liability lawsuits had caused 47 percent of small businesses to withdraw products from the marketplace, and 39 percent had decided not to bring a new product to the market.

 

[Eddie Haskell]

I do not have the time nor inclination to respond to your repetitive propoganda other than to say that your "factual" data is put forth by industries with an agenda whose bottom line premise is to protect their constituents from responsibility for their own negligence. Those industries are the AMA, the chambers of commerce, the manufacturers associations, and of course, your affiliated industry, the insurance companies.

I have previously debunked the myths spread by the foregoing groups about the McDonalds case wherein the system actually worked to get that crap company to lower the temperature of its scalding coffee. Of course you did not reply to the "facts" of the McDonalds case months ago when I pointed out the hype you continue to spread to the readers at this forum.

Since you believe the world would be better off without "personal injury" attorneys how do you propose we handle a situation where your butt buddy, Dr. Freeze chops off the wrong leg. I don't think an "oopps" will make the victim feel much better. How do you propose handling Allstate after they send bogus engineers to appraise the damage to Southern California homes after recent earthquakes?

See your pathetic philosophy is that people should just take what the carrier gives them. Well that would be fine and good except for the fact that you guys are out to make money. Its the bottom line that matters to your shareholders not whether someone receives fair compensation. Since you moron, you have created us. Had you fairly paid claims and not looked for every exclusion imaginable I might have gone to med school (hell if Freeze can get in Scott from Atlanta has a shot).

I've had judges ask insurance defense lawyers "Exactly what does this policy cover?" Generally their response is so weak that I've won punitive damages and attorney fees against several carriers for the worthless junk you sell. Why are we here you ask. As Johnnie Rivers said back in the seventies "Look to your soul for the answer."

Because your industry expoited their policyholders a whole new tort was created 30 years ago called bad faith. Run it through one of your websites and you will see how your industry treats its policyholders. Follow the money. If thats not the pot calling the kettle black. I encourage you to follow the premiums.

From what I know, Edwards would make an excellent vice president and in the future, president no matter how much crap you and your ilk launch against him. You see, putz, I'm proud of what I do. And I have seen the underside of your industry as my first five years of practice was defending lawsuits on behalf of insurance companies. Invariably, when I was an insurance defense lawyer, I always felt the need for a shower at the end of the day after seeing insurance company defense tactics aimed at totally screwing their policyholders.

Eddie

 

[DOGS THAT BARK]

1st Edward do you think there is anyone naive enough to think that you care about protecting anyone or there rights, its about about compensation for doing so.

I answered your Mc Donalds statement--not that any idiot can't figure if some one is so stupid as to put hot coffeee between their legs and spill it,it anyones fault but their own. You would have us to believe it is Mc Donalds fault and worth mega bucks. I am sure the attorney and lady were celebrating the fact that Mc D would change their coffee temp and not the windfall they received. Yea right!!

I never said there should not be checks and balances on insurance,doctors ect--but arbitration boards would be more logical,efficient,quicker and save tons of court cost and consumer $$--that is for everyone except for attorneys.

and on insurance--If you ever accumulate assets above the risk you are willing to retain you will understand what it is all about.
Till then you will just have to consider that industry as your meal ticket instead.

--and another question do you really expect anyone to believe there is more fraud of insurance co against consumers than visa versa. If so when you go into work next time I suggest you look at your " personal injuries lawyers bible" cheats sheets on $$ amounts ins companys will settle out of court on vs litigation :tongue

 

[Chopsticks]

slim pickins

slim pickins

I just had to comment on your point about outsourcing. Manufacturing has just about had it's last breath here in the US. Companies are shipping everything overseas. As of now, my company, which makes integrated circuits for many analog devices has already started "fabs" in Asia. Half of our engineers have been sent to China to help them ramp up their factories. I wonder what it feels like to have to train someone who's gonna replace your job? I figure my company will only last a few more years (if we're that lucky) before it completely shuts down and sends all of its work overseas. How can you compete with someone who makes $1200 per year vs. an average worker here who makes a minimum of $25K? Pretty simple math, I would say.

On one hand, you have a Republican President who supports outsourcing and says the US can benefit from it and on the other hand, a Democratic Candidate who throws up a facade of a 5% tax break for all corporate companies who decide to keep their business in the States. Wow, that's big savings. Who to trust in this election is another topic for another thread.

 

[SixFive]

Eddie, do you have malpractice insurance? I'm thinking about suing you. Thanks.

 

[DOGS THAT BARK]

Edward This should make you and a few other attorneys giving high 5's (for a short time) as this Judge is from where else San Fran which will go next to where else the 9th district court of appeals--then get kicked out in Supreme court as usual and what cost to the tax payor???
If anyone thinks all these class actions originate out of that area by coincidence--think again--these attorneys know where these liberal judges hang out.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm.../20040622/ap_on_bi_ge/wal_mart_discrimination

 

[djv]

I know onething about insurance. Rates go up and they cover less. Or they say we can hold rate down alittle if you will take bigger deduct. For PropertyThey alway say the weather and earthquaks and huricane so & so caused your home rates to go up. With all the proffits and there stocks way up. You would think they could give there customers some rebates. Never happen.
Auto insurance has gone nuts. Drinkers they say is cause.
Health not worth going there. Only thing I can see is rates way out distance litication expense. Seems strange how in 3 years under Bush the rates have been like a open can exploding. Not sure if that has anything to do with it. But how we can have tons of litication going on for many years. Have normal rate hikes of 4 to 6%. Then all of a sudden even after good proffits the industry has to jump rate 10/12% a year. And one guy in here said his companies went up 200%. Some how you get the fealing there fooling us. I wonder when litication is topped. And there makeing even more proffits they will reduce health care cost. Never Happen. There will be another excuse by then.