Showing posts with label News and Society. Show all posts
Showing posts with label News and Society. Show all posts

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Gold DIY Medals for Canterbury Students

Strange how good things result from bad. My flat tyre needed inflating and unable to drive I thought, where can I buy an air compressor at this time of night. I was peeved because I had looked forward to a relaxing evening in. Now I had to find some extra energy to venture out.

I dragged myself to a D-I-Y store about 8:30 pm where three part-time staff members were on duty, all with day jobs as university students. No longer deflated, (unlike my tyre) I found myself marveling at the determination and commitment of students to give their all. Such is their work ethos that, in order to fund their education to become contributors to society, they work unbearably long hours - even in the run up to revising for exams. I felt positively ashamed at my earlier resentment having to sacrifice a single evening when embraced by these young grafters who regularly gave up their evenings to serve ingrates like me.

I do not grasp the mindset of some who imagine with a mixture of condemnation and resentment that students enjoy a life of leisure. The most tragic aspect of this misperception is that in this economic climate, whatever the grades students ultimately earn, and they really do earn their degrees; the prospect of a job, even with a hard-earned degree... is bleak!

In this year of the 2012 London Olympic Games, I would bestow upon such students an honorary gold medal for enduring three years of training and graft in the face of euphemistically unfair mass criticism attributable only to the minority. Students have become my role models. I dropped out of university; I was not half the man of modern students who also hold down jobs! It was undoubtedly the hardest marathon I never finished - unlike these hard-working students I failed to make it to the finishing line.

Consequently I readily overlook isolated incidents where students attract potentially justifiable criticism. My focus is immediately overwhelmingly drawn to the marvelous major contribution students make to Canterbury. I know there are some serious issues, which must be resolved, but why oh why must we twist the lens so narrowly obscuring the massive good, so that only the problems are in focus? Is it that as a nation we have such unfulfilled lives that we need to zoom-in on others' misdemeanours to detract from our own imperfections? Is good news so boring that only bad news is worthy of press publication? Few appear to realise the thousands of philanthropic hours each year donated by Canterbury student volunteers. Whatever your exam results know this... students, you are all heroes in my eyes!

Are Facebook's Days of Glory Coming to An End?   Time For a REDO   Nothing In This Life Is Absolute   Political Activism and the Presidential Election With Fulbright Scholar Michael Sonnleitner   Lessons Learnt   The Death Penalty - Ineffective, Irrational and Fiscally Irresponsible   

The ObamaCare Disaster Continues Say Political Pundits

Many a political pundit and medical professional have called ObamaCare unworkable. Many economists, both macro and micro see it as a potential economic bubble burst waiting to happen, the likes of which we've never seen. I tend to agree with those assessments, wholeheartedly, and am against any type of socialized medicine here the United States. We have a free-market system which has solved nearly every problem we've ever thrown at it, provided we didn't engage in crony capitalism, protectionism, or overregulation to choose the winners and losers in the game.

Okay so, let's talk about this for second because many who want free health care assume that ObamaCare will provide all of their needs, it won't. In fact ObamaCare does nothing more than prop up the Medical Industrial Complex, and ensure the increase of exponential growth in this sector as long as the government is feeding it money. Of course, that can't last forever, because that money has to come from somewhere, namely you the taxpayer.

As President Obama took a victory lap on the Supreme Court's decision on ObamaCare he addressed the nation from the Oval Office, trying to put citizen's minds at ease, and explaining what the Supreme Court decision actually meant for the future of US healthcare, and healthcare insurance. During that speech he stated something to the affect that;

"If you like your current health care coverage, you can keep it, and this law will make it better, more affordable, and enhanced protection."

This is absolutely a false statement for so many reasons, but if you need proof, I've got that too. You see, in anticipation of the implementation of this law my health care insurance that I like very much, or did, has already increased 40% since the Affordable Health Care Act was passed, now I don't like it much at all.

Meanwhile, since the law was passed health care and medical costs have increased 8% per year, meaning that any estimates of cost or economic viability of ObamaCare is void, not that the CBO's estimates were realistic even at the time of their study.

Indeed, this has been a contentious issue between Conservatives and Democrats, liberals and socialists, independents and academics. If we really want affordable health care here the United States, we have to look at some of the roots of the problem, otherwise we are expanding the bubble, bureaucracy, and all the baggage which ensues unnecessarily, none of which helps keep Americans healthy, or free from disease.

Indeed I'd like you to please consider all this, because this law needs to be removed from the books, and if the American people truly believe that they wish to have the government involved in healthcare, then it's time to start back at the drawing board and come up with something that works, ObamaCare clearly won't. I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.

Are Facebook's Days of Glory Coming to An End?   Time For a REDO   Nothing In This Life Is Absolute   Political Activism and the Presidential Election With Fulbright Scholar Michael Sonnleitner   Lessons Learnt   

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