Honest question about fundamental beliefs

[Drolgin Steingrinder]

Good to see you both here, Tanc and Mippy!

[Zaelath]

Having been exposed to US life to a greater degree in the last 2 years than previously I've formed the following opinion:

I will never live in the USA unless it changes. (Yeah hooray, I know).

The two things that absolutely must change are:

- Socialized medicine. Basic healthcare is a fundamental necessity in any civilized society. Private insurance puts a price on this, and as soon as something has a price there will be those that cannot afford it. And there are major corporations making a huge fucking profit from it. If as little of 10% of Micheal Moore's "Sicko" is true, I am disgusted. Funk's position of "I want none of my money going to support others" is typical hard-nosed bullshit from people who have yet to be touched by tragedy. I had friends who thought this way. Then one of our circle contracted cancer. She died, but in the 2 years this took she had treatment that would have cost $200k-500k at US insurance prices. It cost her nothing but it made me happy to know that the tax I pay helped her in her time of need. The same goes for all my family members who have ever needed treatment. What you currently pay in insurance premiums would cover the cost of this service and there would be none of the attendent bullshit: assessors, pre-existing conditions, profits etc. If you're sick you get treatment. The end.

- Right to fire. God was there ever a more abusable, self-defeating concept? I worked with a company in a right-to-fire state and everyone was so worried and paranoid they spent 30% of their time fretting and 30% of their time covering their arses so they wouldn't get fired. Put some limited right-to-work protection in place and watch your productivity soar.

I agree on the medicine, primarily because the current system is so horribly abused now; things like insurance companies paying 40% of what you would have to pay in cash for the same hospital treatment.

The right to fire never bothered me personally. The only reason I would expect it to come into play would be if my boss was a psychopath, and I wouldn't want to work there anyway... and it worked out better for me when I wanted to leave my job in the US. "Seeya Monday" ~ "Ummmm about that...."

I didn't see any fear in the staff either, I've never seen such a bunch of slackers pretend to themselves they were working hard in my life. I was constantly being asked by managers that weren't directly involved "how I was going" on projects that I'd completed and handed off days before...

Oh, and Funk's already covered how relieved he is that I'll never be in MN again ;p

[Mplor]

Hi Drolgin! =)

On the "right to work/fire", I've worked for both a state agency with almost total job protection, and for a fortune 50 corporation with total "right to fire".

I can honestly say that I prefer working in a "right to fire" situation.

When you can't fire anyone, your employee base becomes like the Dead Sea. Through natural attrition, your higher performers will now and then leave the company because they will always have other options. However, your lower performers will have far fewer options and will tend to stick around.

I prefer working with high-performing colleagues by far, and I hope I never work at a company with total job security again.

Of course I've never been fired and I'm (hopefully) still on the upward arc of career trajectory. Once I've been fired a couple times and my career trajectory flattens out, I might feel differently.