A fairly amusing encounter but also kinda sad too

Posted by $ AJAshinoff 4 years, 5 months ago to Culture
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Today I had a run in with petition signers today when I went to write. A young girl, perhaps 23, approached asking me to sign her petition to get a proposition on the AZ ballot to reform healthcare in AZ.

I asked "What is the proposal? What will be offered on the ballot to make things better?"

She didn't know, it was her first day on the job.

I then asked, "You have to have an idea on how to improve the system before you get on the state ballot, right?"

She's called her 'supervisor' over, a Hispanic lady perhaps 26, also with a clipboard.

She explains to me they have a lot of ideas.

I asked what they were.

She responds 'a variety' and then then starts asking me about preventing health insurance companies from denying preexisting conditions.

I told her that I wasn't interested in signing and began to walk away.

She halted me by asking me why I would ever be against helping people get health insurance that have pre-existing conditions.

So I began to explain private ownership. How a private business has an inherent obligation to pay it personnel livable wages and it's share holders some degree of compensation for their investments.

I went on to explain that government has no right to tell a private business how to legitimately conduct business, nor how it can legally make a profit. That insurance companies have 'risk management' in order to protect their ability to make a profit, to ensure its people have jobs. I included that even O-care had risk management. Further, I explained that it is immoral and un-American to regulate how a company does business to earn its money and then seek to pile taxes them on when they are carrying losses imposed by regulations.

People on patio at Panera Bread voiced their agreement, some clapped.

She switched gears, "What about those companies that sell insulin for $300 when it only costs them $10?"

I then felt the need explained supply and demand. That more manufacturers of insulin there are the more available insulin will be in the marketplace, the lower the cost to to the consumer without subsidies paid by increased taxes or regulations. Further, If the US opened up its market to import prescription drugs which meet our standard, the price to the consumer would plummet. The same can be said for health insurance providers. If every health insurance company could offer its policies in all 50 states the cost for health insurance would also go down as consumers have more choices about where to spent their money. Competition for the dollar would drive down costs.

She began walking away when someone absurdly shouted out 'You should run for President'

I pulled her back by saying "You're not listening to what I'm saying."

I gave her an example she could get, Auto Insurance. 'If there were only a hand full of auto insurers they would control the price no matter how good a driver you are, right?' Fortunately there are dozens of auto insurers in Arizona and some specialize in bad drivers, those with accidents, those who made bad judgements and those who rack up tickets. The insurance companies specializing in problematic drivers make their money by charging more, or offering less coverage. They also allow bad drivers to have a place to be insured, because other companies either refuse to insure them or they charge way too much money. These companies refuse bad drivers to offer the lowest rates to safe drivers because safe drivers present less risk (financial outlay in the long term).

I had to explain, 'The free market is the only way to fix the problems with any business in this country because the more choices the consumer has the lower the cost.'

She and her sidekick pretty much ran from me as those on the patio started applauding

Pretty Amusing..pretty sad that young people today either can't see the problems we're having or they just don't bother to really look at things.


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  • Posted by Mamaemma 4 years, 5 months ago
    I think it’s very encouraging that people agreed and applauded. Sometimes it seems that most people live a life based on irrationality and wishful thinking. I love to see signs that that is not true, although the culture and media endeavor to convince me that it is.
    Good job!
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    • Posted by $ 4 years, 5 months ago
      Perk of living in a red state. I have to admit with all the CA transplants that degree if response hasn't always been guaranteed. Still itsvsad these kids, no doubt after a paycheck, can't think these things through.
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  • Posted by $ Abaco 4 years, 5 months ago
    Ah...you are in AZ. That's why there are some bystanders who would opening support you. That must be nice. Here in CA the few of us left speak in quiet tones and look over our shoulder to make sure some passer-by doesn't overhear out conversation. No...that's not a joke. We really do that...
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    • Posted by Pecuniology 4 years, 5 months ago
      Take The 5 South to The 10 East and keep going until it ends, by which time it will be known as I-10. Merge onto I-95 South and keep going until it ends. Merge onto US1 South, and be really careful at the McDonald Street intersection; there's always glass and broken plastic in the roadway there.

      Welcome home.

      Granted, the Miami/Fort Lauderdale area is 2/3rds Democrat, but they're the kind of Democrats who have concealed carry permits, and we see a lot of cars here—white vans driven by tradesmen, mostly—that have Trump stickers on them and have not been vandalized.

      It isn't Utopia, but the coffee is the stuff of legend, private and government gun registries are forbidden by statute, the state personal income tax is forbidden by the state constitution, and wearing a Che Guevara t-shirt in Miami is as dangerous as wearing a Trump t-shirt in Berkeley.
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      • Posted by exceller 4 years, 5 months ago
        "wearing a Che Guevara t-shirt in Miami is as dangerous as wearing a Trump t-shirt in Berkeley"

        That is probably due to the large Cuban population there.

        I always point out that once people lived under communism, there is no way they'll ever go back to accept it. Americans have no idea what it is like that is why the left can brainwash a significant segment of the sheeple to go for communism.
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        • Posted by Pecuniology 4 years, 5 months ago
          Even the Democrat Cubans are not fond of murderers like Castro and Guevara. We also have a very large Venezuelan population in South Florida, who fled the Chav 'paradise'.
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  • Posted by $ 25n56il4 4 years, 5 months ago
    Bravo! Wish I could have been there! I'm reminded of when my best friend asked a check-out girl at the grocery where the Pet milk was. The young lady replied, 'In the aisle with the pet food!' I thought I would die!!!!!
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  • Posted by exceller 4 years, 5 months ago
    Good for you that you had a receptive audience.

    In CA it may have turned out quite different.

    I would have also added the difference between mandatory auto insurance and mandatory health insurance.

    When I pay my auto insurance bill, I am paying only for my own automobile not for somebody else's.

    But in health insurance, I am mandated to pay for other's coverage. That is how ACA works (or doesn't).
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    • Posted by Pecuniology 4 years, 5 months ago
      "When I pay my auto insurance bill, I am paying only for my own automobile not for somebody else's."

      If one lives in an area with a lot of uninsured drivers, one's auto insurance premiums are higher than in areas with low proportions of uninsured drivers. Granted, this is not the same as paying for their insurance, what with their being uninsured and all, but the negative externality is algebraically similar.
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