Texas business owner pays for waitress's brain surgery

[Ban Kenobi]

More material for my Oerdin shrine.

[Dinner]

Not worth it.

[Ban Kenobi]

Over where? What? I was joking.

[Gatekeeper]

Yeesh. There's a lot angst in this thread.

That said, I think a better approach for the restaurant owner would be to dedicate a portion of his business' net income to covering his employee's expenses for the brain surgery. The procedure would still be fully paid for because of his generosity, and he'd still have his livelihood. This would be a win-win approach for everyone in this particular situation.

[Dinner]

My idea of a better approach would be for the Republicans who control Texas to stop playing politics with the lives of their people and just pass the medicaid expansion already. Especially since it would literally cost the state nothing directly as the Feds have agreed to pick up the tab. That way people like the waitress can get the care they need without bankrupting people or begging for their lives. I call that common sense and allowing people basic dignity during a time of illness.

That's just me though.

[Gatekeeper]

You have a good point, Dinner, but that's a policy decision that hasn't been made yet, and might never be made, and thus, is irrelevant at this moment in time to the business owner and the waitress. For better or for worse, they have to deal with the facts on the ground, so to speak.

[Dinner]

Yeesh. There's a lot angst in this thread.

I'd say the thread smells like poop as it's a Ben thread. Fortunately though there is now a product on the market to solve this problem!

[pchang]

On going profits from the restaurant is a slow trickle of money. Surgery costs will probably require a big up front payment. Perhaps a peer-to-peer lending appeal would do the trick.

[Uncle Sparky]

I used peer-to-peer for my heart surgery. 33 million Canadians helped contribute to the cost. In return, I have contributed to the cost of every surgical procedure in Canada for the last 35 - 40 years, and may continue for another 30 years. I bet 330 million contributors in the US would make the per person cost negligible.

[pchang]

BTW - the current labor participation rate in the US (63%) was predicted just from demographic trends in 2006.

[Dinner]

Damn Baby Boomers.... Getting old, retiring, and sitting on their butts all day.

[pchang]

In addition, more teenagers are staying in school.

[Ben Kenobi]

BTW - the current labor participation rate in the US (63%) was predicted just from demographic trends in 2006.

Uhh, no. Just no.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-09-07/labor-force-participation-crisis-dont-blame-demographics

If it were demographics associated with aging, we'd see similar drops in Canada. That we don't see. Canada's labor force participation has generally trended with the US - except over the last 5 years, where the US has fell off a cliff.

[Gatekeeper]

Ben ... I hadn't realized Adam Smith and Solomwi had died until I saw their names in your sig and clicked on them. I knew Scouse and LaFayette had passed from before my hiatus from 'Poly, but not the other two. FWIW, only the link to Solomwi works.

Back on topic, can someone tell me more about the peer-to-peer system? Is it just another name for a single-payer system, or something different?

[kentonio]

You have a good point, Dinner, but that's a policy decision that hasn't been made yet, and might never be made

Sure it will. As the years go on and all those evil socialized healthcare systems noticeably fail to collapse, there's got to come a point where Americans realize that they've just been totally lied to for decades at the cost of millions of totally unnecessary deaths.