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It is true that medicine is expensive, but so is setting up the technology for a major cloud provider (on the scale of Amazon), or a car coordination platform/s
by maxharris 10y ago
It is true that medicine is expensive, but so is setting up the technology for a major cloud provider (on the scale of Amazon), or a car coordination platform/system like Uber.
The difference is that the tech examples I've provided have not had the ability to progress (and the financial reward for doing so) regulated out of them.
The wait time for this is not something that just happened yesterday, and what I'm saying is there's a systematic reason for it that goes deeper than just the nature and cost of the people/equipment/training.
An example of this from another field:
In a 10-year span during the 1880-1890s, J. J. Hill coordinated and financed the construction of a transcontinental railroad, without any government aid. This was done without the benefit of bulldozers, tunnel-boring-machines, automated track-laying equipment, etc.
Today, Seattle's transportation authority says that it'll take 25 years for it to put down six miles of rail between Ballard and downtown.
I'd be dead for sure in 1890 (no CT scanners, etc.), but the rate of progress has definitely been restricted. And the difference is just in our ideas, not things, or any inherent rule in nature.
- gregpilling 10y agoIs it regulation, or vested interests? When J.J. Hill did his thing, there was no landowners to argue with (comparatively). In Seattle, there must be a thousand landowners to consider in that 6 mile stretch. Each one with their own view of the need and cost/benefit analysis of the 6 mile improvement. Eminent domain is not without legal challenge of course, so this drags out the timeline. Underfunded court systems move slower than desired, adding to delays in the process. The 'regulations' would be about safety, electrical wiring, setback etc, which just define how things should be done for the most part and do not add time. It is dealing with all the vested interests of the property owners involved, and the sheer number of them. I am a property owner myself; if the city came to me a decided that my house was in the way of a new freeway on ramp, you had better believe that I am going to want my day in court to fight it. I have the resources to drag it out as long as possible - with extensions, delays, studies, blah blah blah. It does not take much thought to understand how to slow things down in court. I am sure there is a youtube video for it. Would you protest if your own house was to be destroyed by the 6 mile change? I assume you live in the Seattle area or you would not know about the statement. So if your own person domicile was to be destroyed, and it was a beloved place with a lifetime of memories for you, would you be complacent about its destruction or would you fight it tooth and claw? (I would fight) I think the overwhelming majority would fight. And then it takes 25 years to go 6 miles. It is not regulation but property owners. Specifying the diameter of a ground rod in an electrical panel does not slow things down, it speed them up by removing the need to think about it. Just build to code - someone else has figured it out. I don't need to calculate loads of the panels versus the density of the square root of the moon yesterday - I just sink in 2 ground rods 20 feet deep and 40 feet apart and am happy that someone else did the math. Life is an open book test, the printed regulations are the answer key. TL:DR Money not rules is the delay maker.