OT: On this episode of Days of the OT..

[Jim Bob]

The chosen major should also be taken in to consideration for risk on the student loan, and we need to get back to the market setting the interest rate, not the government setting it to a below market value.

I'm sure there will be a lot of things that will change if that happens.

Including more and more loans needing to be co-signed by parents...

 

[EichHart]

Eh. I wouldn't bet on any state/federal jobs having the full pension actually payout in 25 years. Look at the mess Chicago is in with the Teacher's union and their pensions. Considering most states and the federal government are in debt past their eyeballs, it's probably not wise to bank on that (or social security) to be there when you retire.

No state has ever gone bankrupt and shed its pension liability. Will that change in the future? Who knows. I work in retirement, and all the best prepared clients are those with pensions. NYS pensions especially are some of the best in the country. Teaches, officers, patrolman, fire dept, etc...all make $3-5k per month without including their SS and other retirement accounts. (deferred comp)

Employees with 401ks would need to save up over 1.5 million with a 4% withdrawal rate to get the same retirement. That would require saving 30%+ of your income towards retirement for 35 years when you can retire at 25 for the state/federal jobs.

New york state pensions are actually well funded as of this moment.

https://www.pewtrusts.org/-/media/assets/2019/06/statepensionfundinggap.pdf

 

[Jim Bob]

Athletic facilities? Funny story:

The University of Florida decided that the football team needed a new practice facility so they took the baseball team diamond. The baseball team needs a new stadium so they ripped out most of the on-campus teaching garden and teaching order in for the agriculture school. Most of those students now have to drive about 45 minutes to get those facilities, not to mention orchards don’t just spring up, fully grown. I had a bit of a tiff with the one assistant athletic director during the ribbon cutting ceremony because I was in lab right next-door. He figured because I am a middle-aged white guy, I must clearly be there for the sports team and I pointed out that the economic impact of the agricultural college is far greater than any prestige for the baseball team or even the football team in the grand scheme of things. The impacts of that will have long-term ramifications and I thought their choice of location was absurd and disgusting. He didn’t like that so much…

I will say that the Cheel renovation was needed for things like giving the women's hockey team facilities appropriate for a program that has won 3 of the past 6 national titles.

That is the new men's hockey locker room, but the women's facilities got a huge upgrade, too.

 

[TehDoak]

No state has ever gone bankrupt and shed its pension liability. Will that change in the future? Who knows. I work in retirement, and all the best prepared clients are those with pensions. NYS pensions especially are some of the best in the country. Teaches, officers, patrolman, fire dept, etc...all make $3-5k per month without including their SS and other retirement accounts. (deferred comp)

Employees with 401ks would need to save up over 1.5 million with a 4% withdrawal rate to get the same retirement. That would require saving 30%+ of your income towards retirement for 35 years when you can retire at 25 for the state/federal jobs.

New york state pensions are actually well funded as of this moment.

https://www.pewtrusts.org/-/media/assets/2019/06/statepensionfundinggap.pdf

Not yet, but....

Illinois pension crisis - Wikipedia

And Illinois isn't some poor state either.

 

[TheStorm]

Developed tinnitus over the past few weeks and it's been ruining my life. Been getting 2 hours of sleep a night and not sure if I'll ever get use to the ringing in my ears...

 

[Mike McDermott]

I really hate the insurance/medical industry right now. Not going to go into deep detail but them not doing their job resulted in my mother in law being rushed to surgery because the infection she had spread to her neck. If they had just done their job and actually tried to find out what was going on a month ago when she had first had issues it probably could have been solved with antibiotics. But they dropped the ball big time and now she’s having major neck surgery.

 

[TehDoak]

I really hate the insurance/medical industry right now. Not going to go into deep detail but them not doing their job resulted in my mother in law being rushed to surgery because the infection she had spread to her neck. If they had just done their job and actually tried to find out what was going on a month ago when she had first had issues it probably could have been solved with antibiotics. But they dropped the ball big time and now she’s having major neck surgery.

The quality of medical care varies wildly in this country, even from hospitals that are only a few miles apart. My wife is a trauma surgeon and I've heard my share of horror stories.

Sadly, for more rural areas/downtrodden, they typically have the worse doctors. The only reason we ended up in a "small" city after fellowship is that they offered substantially (around 30%) more than we would have seen even from high COL areas like DC. But if the hospital isn't well funded, you typically get the doctors with high complication rates that have been fired/wouldn't get hired

 

[Chainshot]

Dropped almost $500 on a prescription yesterday. That was with the discount.

'Murica.

 

[Chainshot]

The quality of medical care varies wildly in this country, even from hospitals that are only a few miles apart. My wife is a trauma surgeon and I've heard my share of horror stories.

Sadly, for more rural areas/downtrodden, they typically have the worse doctors. The only reason we ended up in a "small" city after fellowship is that they offered substantially (around 30%) more than we would have seen even from high COL areas like DC. But if the hospital isn't well funded, you typically get the doctors with high complication rates that have been fired/wouldn't get hired

The woman I am dating was misdiagnosed by her local hospital in Lake County. As was her dad (twice). She has a serious tumor in her thyroid and their imaging people didn't think it was potentially cancerous (Shands has said oh yes, it is and it's got to come out) and then her insurance said it wasn't a vital procedure. Like... this is so f***ing broken.

My broke ass just had a $490 dollar script. WTF.

 

[EichHart]

Dropped almost $500 on a prescription yesterday. That was with the discount.

'Murica.

I was in Peru (3rd world country) two weeks ago and got a parasite. I was in the hospital for a full day. 4 IVS, 3 Antibiotic IVs, 3 doctors, 5 nurses, and 4 tests done on me resulted in a bill of $300. In the USA that would have been over $10k. The care I received was incredible. This country is so overrated.

 

[Chainshot]

I was in Peru (3rd world country) two weeks ago and got a parasite. I was in the hospital for a full day. 4 IVS, 3 Antibiotic IVs, 3 doctors, 5 nurses, and 4 tests done on me resulted in a bill of $300. In the USA that would have been over $10k. The care I received was incredible. This country is so overrated.

I lived in Costa Rica. I have similar cost and quality experiences. Hell, my ex-father-in-law spent weeks convalescing at the home of a doctor who he went to in a beach town when he contracted dengue fever — -three weeks!— and he paid a couple hundred dollars. If I ever need a joint replacement, I am not doing it in the US.

 

[Jim Bob]

The woman I am dating was misdiagnosed by her local hospital in Lake County. As was her dad (twice). She has a serious tumor in her thyroid and their imaging people didn't think it was potentially cancerous (Shands has said oh yes, it is and it's got to come out) and then her insurance said it wasn't a vital procedure. Like... this is so ****ing broken.

My broke ass just had a $490 dollar script. WTF.

My wife was able to go from a $300 script to $35 after fighting with her doc and downloading an app for coupons on scripts and arguing with the pharmacy to take the coupon.

And given that I have had so many family members work in all sorts of areas of the medical system (R&D for a pharma company, nurses, pharmacists, medical billing, etc.), I can tell you so many crazy stories from over the years.

The most frustrating ones were when my wife used to work in medical billing where her job was to try and get insurance companies to pay for services. She had one insurance person saying that they were denying the payment. The reason was, and I quote, "I don't know."

Yeah, this whole thing is so broken.

 

[sabremike]

For my fellow downstate peeps:

 

[brian_griffin]

I think a bridge deal is off the table.

Imagine how cool it would be, though, to have a framed $100,000,000,000 giraffe note signed by Tage? Somebody make it happen for ol' Mike.

in Greece, Venezuela, and other countries with hyperinflation it was/is common to negotiate and pay the cost of your restaurant meal at the beginning and not at the end of the meal

The quality of medical care varies wildly in this country, even from hospitals that are only a few miles apart. My wife is a trauma surgeon and I've heard my share of horror stories.

Sadly, for more rural areas/downtrodden, they typically have the worse doctors. The only reason we ended up in a "small" city after fellowship is that they offered substantially (around 30%) more than we would have seen even from high COL areas like DC. But if the hospital isn't well funded, you typically get the doctors with high complication rates that have been fired/wouldn't get hired

Dropped almost $500 on a prescription yesterday. That was with the discount.

'Murica.

30 years ago my “uncle” Jack was prescribed a $10 per pill medication to bind him up from a diarrhea bout. I said, “Uncle Jack, it would have been just as effective to swallow a role of quarters.” We shared a good laugh.
I miss him each year as the T & C holidays draw near.

 

[sabremike]

 

[Club]

Cant multi-quote the prescription talk but

Thats ridiculous! Holy!

Thats where I'm very lucky living in Alberta where my medication has coverage. My anti psychotic is well over 1000$ alone every 4 week injection. And my anti anxiety is roughly 465$.

Yet when I actually became ill with Schizophrenia I had a friend comment a few times that I dont need Aish to pay for my meds, and I should get 2 full time jobs lmao! And the money I get to live off of is around 1588$ and that his taxes pay for it.. Like bud, I cant physically or mentally work full time. And my taxes go towards it too!

But hey what do I know.. I'm just very fortunate and thankful because this illness is hell and I cant imagine people, who dont have coverage, 1, unmedicated, secondly or dont actually have a support system to help them out.

 

[sabremike]

Posted this on FB:

 

[Der Jaeger]

I was in Peru (3rd world country) two weeks ago and got a parasite. I was in the hospital for a full day. 4 IVS, 3 Antibiotic IVs, 3 doctors, 5 nurses, and 4 tests done on me resulted in a bill of $300. In the USA that would have been over $10k. The care I received was incredible. This country is so overrated.

As someone who's been around the world, served this country, and seen first hand many of the things other only see on TV, I'll take the US 10 out of 10 times. We have our issues, for sure, but don't let one hospital stay make your mind up.

 

[tsujimoto74]

So a cool thing: I met an owner of the Minnesota Vikings today. Really nice guy, also actually a Giants fan.

And as some bonus good news, for whatever it's worth, he thinks this is Brady's last season (not that he's the first guy to speculate as much).

 

[sabremike]

I GOT WHAT I WANTED FOR MY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[yahhockey]

Tage needs to spend more time at the rink and less at the golf course. Undisciplined.

 

[Jim Bob]

Listen Free to Finding Fred on iHeartRadio Podcasts | iHeartRadio

This podcast about Mr. Rogers is really good.

This week's episode (Beth) should have been sponsored by Kleenex.

 

[EichHart]

As someone who's been around the world, served this country, and seen first hand many of the things other only see on TV, I'll take the US 10 out of 10 times. We have our issues, for sure, but don't let one hospital stay make your mind up.

As someone who has also traveled the world I disagree. I mean in Sweden mother's or father's can stay home with the baby for 1 1/2 years with 80% pay, and be guaranteed by the government that they will have their job when they get back. USA is overworked, has more mental health problems than any other country, and some of the worst health insurance programs in a 1st world country. All the while being the largest economy on the planet. The corrupt politicians and the 1% are controlling us like puppets. Europe in particular blows the USA away in many categories and is a reason 7 out of the 10 happiest countries in the world reside there. Just an example as the CEO of my company got a 10% raise this year over last and makes over 9 million per year while I get my 2% raise while being a top 1% performer in New York State.

How U.S. Employee Benefits Compare To Europe’s

 

[Der Jaeger]

As someone who has also traveled the world I disagree. I mean in Sweden mother's or father's can stay home with the baby for 1 1/2 years with 80% pay, and be guaranteed by the government that they will have their job when they get back. USA is overworked, has more mental health problems than any other country, and some of the worst health insurance programs in a 1st world country. All the while being the largest economy on the planet. The corrupt politicians and the 1% are controlling us like puppets. Europe in particular blows the USA away in many categories and is a reason 7 out of the 10 happiest countries in the world reside there. Just an example as the CEO of my company got a 10% raise this year over last and makes over 9 million per year while I get my 2% raise while being a top 1% performer in New York State.

How U.S. Employee Benefits Compare To Europe’s

I lived in Germany for five years, travels everywhere, and saw a lot. Who pays for all of that? Working people. I had neighbors who worked a month or two every year, claimed illness (was always fake) and hung out living well off government money. Meanwhile, people who worked paid for it. You can say companies did, but the don’t. In Germany, that cost goes back to the consumer as a value added tax. Germans pay about half their wages to taxes. A part of it finds lazy people shaming.

I had my ankle reconstructed in a German hospital. It was overflowing with “sick” Germans. The German nurses who took care of me couldn’t believe that I wanted to leave after three days. Most Germans would stay a few weeks minimum.

At some point, these economies won’t be able to sustain their social welfare programs. Greece hit it already, and see how the people reacted?

I agree that we should do something about corporate elites making massive amounts. But I’ll take the American system (working hard for what you get) over what I saw living in Europe.

 

[EichHart]

I lived in Germany for five years, travels everywhere, and saw a lot. Who pays for all of that? Working people. I had neighbors who worked a month or two every year, claimed illness (was always fake) and hung out living well off government money. Meanwhile, people who worked paid for it. You can say companies did, but the don’t. In Germany, that cost goes back to the consumer as a value added tax. Germans pay about half their wages to taxes. A part of it finds lazy people shaming.

I had my ankle reconstructed in a German hospital. It was overflowing with “sick” Germans. The German nurses who took care of me couldn’t believe that I wanted to leave after three days. Most Germans would stay a few weeks minimum.

At some point, these economies won’t be able to sustain their social welfare programs. Greece hit it already, and see how the people reacted?

I agree that we should do something about corporate elites making massive amounts. But I’ll take the American system (working hard for what you get) over what I saw living in Europe.

Really good points right here. Some I've never thought about. Appreciate the feedback, I'll have to do more research.