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Age adjusted mortality rates have declined 60% over the past 75 years courtesy of those "assholes" in health care, pharmaceuticals and Wall Street who financed

by rrggrr 11y ago

Age adjusted mortality rates have declined 60% over the past 75 years courtesy of those "assholes" in health care, pharmaceuticals and Wall Street who financed them. (Source: CDC) College enrollment has increased by more than 1000% and graduation rates have increased by 10% thanks to those "assholes" who run colleges and those "jerks" who underwrite college loans. (US Census) Those "assholes" in the environmental industry and their "criminal" counterparts in government have cut by about 2/3 air pollution in the US since 1900, while the population has exploded. (US EPA). Progressives have an important role to play in demonizing business, finance and government. It gets the ball rolling for reform that sometimes creates new businesses. Thank you progressives. They don't know when to stop and the hysteria/drama engine chugs along causing government to over-reach with feel good legislation and regulation & boondoggles that rob the treasury and business of funds needed to train, hire and maintain a vibrant work force... of good paying jobs... not retail and fast food gigs.

robotresearcher 11y ago
Many of those things have improved faster outside the US and in some of them the US is a poor outlier among developed countries.
jklinger410 11y ago
>Age adjusted mortality rates have declined 60% over the past 75 years courtesy of those "assholes" in health care, pharmaceuticals and Wall Street who financed them. Without regulations on insurance and socialized health care almost no one would receive the supposed benevolence of those assholes in health care. >College enrollment has increased by more than 1000% and graduation rates have increased by 10% thanks to those "assholes" who run colleges and those "jerks" who underwrite college loans. Colleges stand to profit from enrollment rates, college loans are a debt factory, college costs have skyrocketed while relative incomes have shrunk dramatically. Those assholes and jerks have laughed their way to the bank with winfall profits from this "everyone needs to go to college" propaganda. >Those "assholes" in the environmental industry and their "criminal" counterparts in government have cut by about 2/3 air pollution in the US since 1900, while the population has exploded. Not sure what your point about this is considering that the EPA is a liberal construct in the first place. In libertarian society there would be no EPA. >Progressives have an important role to play in demonizing business, finance and government. It gets the ball rolling for reform that sometimes creates new businesses. Thank you progressives. I can just feel the aggression oozing off of your comment here. Progressives also have an important role to play in civil rights, social systems that everyone relies on, and supporting and funding an infrastructure that allows equal footing for the poor and the rich. But I see you're sticking to the "big gubment stay out of my life" narrative and I can tell that you would probably benefit from that being the case. >They don't know when to stop and the hysteria/drama engine chugs along causing government to over-reach with feel good legislation and regulation & boondoggles that rob the treasury and business of funds needed to train, hire and maintain a vibrant work force... of good paying jobs... not retail and fast food gigs. You know who robs the treasury of more funds than social programs? Businesses that don't pay taxes. Do you know who robs businesses of money? No one because when you go into business and fail that's no one's fault but your own. What's a good paying job without socialism anyway?
- Umn44 11y ago
  "Do you know who robs businesses of money? No one because when you go into business and fail that's no one's fault but your own." Except that's not true, businesses are subsidized and bailed out all the time. Grayson and the Fed during the baiouts of the banks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJqM2tFOxLQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJqM2tFOxLQ Dailybail http://dailybail.com http://dailybail.com
chillwaves 11y ago
That's interesting how the profit seekers get all credit, but you leave out things like public education that train the professionals and do much of the research. Also interesting how you think in binary, things are either good or bad, assholes or saints. Could it be that some good can come from more access to college, while other negative effects like administrators taking advantage of unlimited financing to naive students that results in crippling lifetime debt happen at the same time?
- vezzy-fnord 11y ago
  It was the "profit seekers" who were some of the hardest advocates for mass public education. See, for instance, John D. Rockefeller's General Education Board. The education system that we ultimately got was a far cry from John Dewey's philosophy, no matter how much lip service he receives.
- rayiner 11y ago
  Public education does little to train the professionals or do the research. I went to a major public research university. 20% of our budget came from the state. All of the research and innovation was done pursuant to grants and contracts, many of them related to defense. The educational system is not effective in doing research. The military/industrial/educational complex is incredibly effective at doing research.
  - kuschku 11y ago
    Then you should look at other places. Germany has almost only public universities – and a lot of stuff you use today was invented by people at those.
  - dhimes 11y ago
    In the US this is true mostly for the sciences. In the humanities, not so much.
  - Thriptic 11y ago
    > The educational system is not effective in doing research. The military/industrial/educational complex is incredibly effective at doing research At the end of the day it's still the same academicians doing the work at these institutions, regardless of the funding source. If the DOD has more success than the NIH for example in funding good research, it's probably because their budget is literally 20 times bigger.
kristopolous 11y ago
There's no way to justify a system that rewards and promotes the most atrocious qualities of the human spirit. We can and must do better.
angersock 11y ago
You are ignoring the financial difficulties presented to the students with worthless degrees and outstanding loans. You are also ignoring the comically large environmental pollution that isn't airborne. Superfund sites, things like Love Canal, are all the fault of these companies.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
devishard 11y ago
I'm not sure why you're arbitrarily crediting the assholes with these successes. Your cited sources only show that progress is occurring, they don't show why it's occurring, and definitely don't show that it's because of corporate industry.

by rrggrr 11y ago

robotresearcher 11y ago

Many of those things have improved faster outside the US and in some of them the US is a poor outlier among developed countries.

jklinger410 11y ago

>Age adjusted mortality rates have declined 60% over the past 75 years courtesy of those "assholes" in health care, pharmaceuticals and Wall Street who financed them. Without regulations on insurance and socialized health care almost no one would receive the supposed benevolence of those assholes in health care. >College enrollment has increased by more than 1000% and graduation rates have increased by 10% thanks to those "assholes" who run colleges and those "jerks" who underwrite college loans. Colleges stand to profit from enrollment rates, college loans are a debt factory, college costs have skyrocketed while relative incomes have shrunk dramatically. Those assholes and jerks have laughed their way to the bank with winfall profits from this "everyone needs to go to college" propaganda. >Those "assholes" in the environmental industry and their "criminal" counterparts in government have cut by about 2/3 air pollution in the US since 1900, while the population has exploded. Not sure what your point about this is considering that the EPA is a liberal construct in the first place. In libertarian society there would be no EPA. >Progressives have an important role to play in demonizing business, finance and government. It gets the ball rolling for reform that sometimes creates new businesses. Thank you progressives. I can just feel the aggression oozing off of your comment here. Progressives also have an important role to play in civil rights, social systems that everyone relies on, and supporting and funding an infrastructure that allows equal footing for the poor and the rich. But I see you're sticking to the "big gubment stay out of my life" narrative and I can tell that you would probably benefit from that being the case. >They don't know when to stop and the hysteria/drama engine chugs along causing government to over-reach with feel good legislation and regulation & boondoggles that rob the treasury and business of funds needed to train, hire and maintain a vibrant work force... of good paying jobs... not retail and fast food gigs. You know who robs the treasury of more funds than social programs? Businesses that don't pay taxes. Do you know who robs businesses of money? No one because when you go into business and fail that's no one's fault but your own. What's a good paying job without socialism anyway?

Umn44 11y ago
"Do you know who robs businesses of money? No one because when you go into business and fail that's no one's fault but your own." Except that's not true, businesses are subsidized and bailed out all the time. Grayson and the Fed during the baiouts of the banks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJqM2tFOxLQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJqM2tFOxLQ Dailybail http://dailybail.com http://dailybail.com

chillwaves 11y ago

That's interesting how the profit seekers get all credit, but you leave out things like public education that train the professionals and do much of the research. Also interesting how you think in binary, things are either good or bad, assholes or saints. Could it be that some good can come from more access to college, while other negative effects like administrators taking advantage of unlimited financing to naive students that results in crippling lifetime debt happen at the same time?

vezzy-fnord 11y ago
It was the "profit seekers" who were some of the hardest advocates for mass public education. See, for instance, John D. Rockefeller's General Education Board. The education system that we ultimately got was a far cry from John Dewey's philosophy, no matter how much lip service he receives.
rayiner 11y ago
Public education does little to train the professionals or do the research. I went to a major public research university. 20% of our budget came from the state. All of the research and innovation was done pursuant to grants and contracts, many of them related to defense. The educational system is not effective in doing research. The military/industrial/educational complex is incredibly effective at doing research.
- kuschku 11y ago
  Then you should look at other places. Germany has almost only public universities – and a lot of stuff you use today was invented by people at those.
- dhimes 11y ago
  In the US this is true mostly for the sciences. In the humanities, not so much.
- Thriptic 11y ago
  > The educational system is not effective in doing research. The military/industrial/educational complex is incredibly effective at doing research At the end of the day it's still the same academicians doing the work at these institutions, regardless of the funding source. If the DOD has more success than the NIH for example in funding good research, it's probably because their budget is literally 20 times bigger.

kristopolous 11y ago

There's no way to justify a system that rewards and promotes the most atrocious qualities of the human spirit. We can and must do better.

angersock 11y ago

You are ignoring the financial difficulties presented to the students with worthless degrees and outstanding loans. You are also ignoring the comically large environmental pollution that isn't airborne. Superfund sites, things like Love Canal, are all the fault of these companies.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

devishard 11y ago

I'm not sure why you're arbitrarily crediting the assholes with these successes. Your cited sources only show that progress is occurring, they don't show why it's occurring, and definitely don't show that it's because of corporate industry.