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All of these things go into factoring your individual trust level for a brand. Do you consider gmail.com as a brand to be more trustworthy than 'totallynothack

All of these things go into factoring your individual trust level for a brand. Do you consider gmail.com as a brand to be more trustworthy than 'totallynothackers-email.com' for hosting your email? Of course you do. In the case of medicine (or anything else that can kill you for that matter), the brand trust has been (mostly) replaced by regulator trust, or store-based trust. EG, CVS is probably going to source from reputable suppliers. You can also fill prescriptions on sketchymeds.com if you choose, especially if you're outside the US. Brands being sold and bought are an input to the brand-trust equation. It might mean 3rd parties are the more trusted source of information in a given segment than the brand name itself (of course, you could say the same thing about 3rd parties, ad infinitum).

dragontamer 7y ago
But even doctors, whose job is literally to keep track of these drug thingies, have gotten things wrong. See the opioid crisis + Oxycontin. What hope do laypeople have when even the specialists with over 10-years of high-class training get these things wrong on a nationwide level? Before the Oxycotin news, I thought Purdue was just "that chicken company" at the grocery store (Yeah, I'm ignorant. But that's the fact, at least I know I'm ignorant). I don't have the time to figure out which brand-names to trust or what not to trust. My doctor gave me a "Tomed mandibular advancement device". I don't even know what a mandibular is. My only hope is to trust the doctor and hope it fixes my problem. I've never heard of "Tomed" before. How the hell am I, as a customer, supposed to build a relationship with a brand, when I only buy one or two of their products per lifetime? How am I supposed to do market-research, and figure who their competitors are? If I buy a competing product, what assurances do I have that it works as well as the one my doctor gave me? Look, I trust that the engineers are trying to build devices that improve my life. I trust my doctor is trying to improve my life. I trust my insurance company is trying to save (themselves and me) the most money. But I recognize that there are systemic flaws in the US Healthcare system, and something isn't exactly working right. In any case, the "brand" system being proposed in this topic is clearly not a solution. Not only is it NOT working right now, I have my doubts that it would ever work under our current system. I'm just too ignorant about the companies who make medical devices and drugs, and I've got the freaking internet in my pocket to research things instantly. That's not the problem, it takes more than 5 minutes, or even an hour, of googling to review peer-reviewed journals and figure out which devices, techniques, or drugs are effective. Ultimately, I'm going to trust my doctor and insurance company. Its all I got. I'm not going to be trusting my life to brands of which I've never used before. Its incredibly rare for me to buy any form of medical device in general, I simply don't have a relationship to any medical brand what so ever.
- linuxftw 7y ago
  > Ultimately, I'm going to trust my doctor and insurance company. You're already benefiting from the brand-trust type of system. You trust your insurance company (currently because the market is regulated, but if the market wasn't as regulated, you'd probably be choosier about who you shop with). Your insurance company pays the most for in-network doctors. Doctors probably need malpractice insurance and not be complete frauds to be in an insurance network. I think the airline industry is a good example in the US. I could often save money by going with a smaller carrier, but I choose to spend a little more to go with the bigger carriers, primarily because I know if there are any problems, they're more likely to have extra flights to get me where I'm going. Another good example is HVAC companies. You can pay someone working out of a truck to install a new A/C system for slightly less than the name-brand (factory authorized dealer) in your area. You're probably going to get what you pay for. Companies want to stand by their name. This is a once-in-a-while transaction that can cost multiples of 10's of 1000's of dollars (depending on size/complexity of the system, obviously).
  - dragontamer 7y ago
    In my case: the Tomed MAD cost me $1000. The actual device is worth 150 EUR from Germany (where Tomed is located). The US-distributer sells it for $500. Somehow, the markup got all the way up to $1000 by the time it got to me. Clearly, something, somewhere, has gone wrong in the system. This is a 150 EUR mouthguard that is being sold to me for $1000. As in, what I've literally paid for. Why?
    - wait_a_minute 7y ago
      You've been making great arguments. I appreciate them. However, why not order the device from Germany yourself? Are there stringent regulations in place that prevent customers from purchasing across state or even country lines?
      - dragontamer 7y ago
        First, there's no reason for me to buy the device. I already own one (the one my doctor gave me), and I have no need for a 2nd (yet). So... why did I buy it from my doctor at first? Well, because the doctor said I needed one. I setup an appointment with the nurse, who then gave me the device. A week later, I got a bill for $1000. Shocked at the price of the device, I ended up doing research. $500 is the cheapest I could find it in the USA, and if I include doctor fees + nurse fees, it is "reasonable" that they would mark it up a few hundred dollars above that. In any case, I already "bought" the device before I realized. So I don't think I really have any choice aside from paying the bill. I'll try to buy it straight from Germany in the future. But I didn't even know the name of the device until after I got it from the nurse. I'm kinda new to this whole doctor / taking care of my health thing. But I'm just sharing my experience with everyone, so maybe other people can learn from my mistakes. My general presumption was that my insurance company would be improving the cost-efficacy of the overall system. Apparently not however. Now, its just a $1000, and now I'm over my yearly deductible, so I've basically got free health-care for the rest of the year because of this. (So I don't consider this a big financial mistake, even if it cost $1000. Its more proof that the insurance company is slacking in its job of efficiently pricing these medical devices I'm using...)
w1nst0nsm1th 7y ago
You can be sure Gmail is harvesting your mails for tracking or profiling purpose while you still have to demonstrate totallynohacker-email do that. One of my email and cloud storage provider is Zaclys, a little french non-profit organisation which host owncloud/nextcloud instance and an email service for 10€/year... I can't be sure Zaclys is not harvesting my emails, but the fact I pay them for that service reassure me about their intention. In other hand I know for sure Gmail is not trustworthy regarding my privacy.

dragontamer 7y ago

But even doctors, whose job is literally to keep track of these drug thingies, have gotten things wrong. See the opioid crisis + Oxycontin. What hope do laypeople have when even the specialists with over 10-years of high-class training get these things wrong on a nationwide level? Before the Oxycotin news, I thought Purdue was just "that chicken company" at the grocery store (Yeah, I'm ignorant. But that's the fact, at least I know I'm ignorant). I don't have the time to figure out which brand-names to trust or what not to trust. My doctor gave me a "Tomed mandibular advancement device". I don't even know what a mandibular is. My only hope is to trust the doctor and hope it fixes my problem. I've never heard of "Tomed" before. How the hell am I, as a customer, supposed to build a relationship with a brand, when I only buy one or two of their products per lifetime? How am I supposed to do market-research, and figure who their competitors are? If I buy a competing product, what assurances do I have that it works as well as the one my doctor gave me? Look, I trust that the engineers are trying to build devices that improve my life. I trust my doctor is trying to improve my life. I trust my insurance company is trying to save (themselves and me) the most money. But I recognize that there are systemic flaws in the US Healthcare system, and something isn't exactly working right. In any case, the "brand" system being proposed in this topic is clearly not a solution. Not only is it NOT working right now, I have my doubts that it would ever work under our current system. I'm just too ignorant about the companies who make medical devices and drugs, and I've got the freaking internet in my pocket to research things instantly. That's not the problem, it takes more than 5 minutes, or even an hour, of googling to review peer-reviewed journals and figure out which devices, techniques, or drugs are effective. Ultimately, I'm going to trust my doctor and insurance company. Its all I got. I'm not going to be trusting my life to brands of which I've never used before. Its incredibly rare for me to buy any form of medical device in general, I simply don't have a relationship to any medical brand what so ever.

linuxftw 7y ago
> Ultimately, I'm going to trust my doctor and insurance company. You're already benefiting from the brand-trust type of system. You trust your insurance company (currently because the market is regulated, but if the market wasn't as regulated, you'd probably be choosier about who you shop with). Your insurance company pays the most for in-network doctors. Doctors probably need malpractice insurance and not be complete frauds to be in an insurance network. I think the airline industry is a good example in the US. I could often save money by going with a smaller carrier, but I choose to spend a little more to go with the bigger carriers, primarily because I know if there are any problems, they're more likely to have extra flights to get me where I'm going. Another good example is HVAC companies. You can pay someone working out of a truck to install a new A/C system for slightly less than the name-brand (factory authorized dealer) in your area. You're probably going to get what you pay for. Companies want to stand by their name. This is a once-in-a-while transaction that can cost multiples of 10's of 1000's of dollars (depending on size/complexity of the system, obviously).
- dragontamer 7y ago
  In my case: the Tomed MAD cost me $1000. The actual device is worth 150 EUR from Germany (where Tomed is located). The US-distributer sells it for $500. Somehow, the markup got all the way up to $1000 by the time it got to me. Clearly, something, somewhere, has gone wrong in the system. This is a 150 EUR mouthguard that is being sold to me for $1000. As in, what I've literally paid for. Why?
  - wait_a_minute 7y ago
    You've been making great arguments. I appreciate them. However, why not order the device from Germany yourself? Are there stringent regulations in place that prevent customers from purchasing across state or even country lines?
    - dragontamer 7y ago
      First, there's no reason for me to buy the device. I already own one (the one my doctor gave me), and I have no need for a 2nd (yet). So... why did I buy it from my doctor at first? Well, because the doctor said I needed one. I setup an appointment with the nurse, who then gave me the device. A week later, I got a bill for $1000. Shocked at the price of the device, I ended up doing research. $500 is the cheapest I could find it in the USA, and if I include doctor fees + nurse fees, it is "reasonable" that they would mark it up a few hundred dollars above that. In any case, I already "bought" the device before I realized. So I don't think I really have any choice aside from paying the bill. I'll try to buy it straight from Germany in the future. But I didn't even know the name of the device until after I got it from the nurse. I'm kinda new to this whole doctor / taking care of my health thing. But I'm just sharing my experience with everyone, so maybe other people can learn from my mistakes. My general presumption was that my insurance company would be improving the cost-efficacy of the overall system. Apparently not however. Now, its just a $1000, and now I'm over my yearly deductible, so I've basically got free health-care for the rest of the year because of this. (So I don't consider this a big financial mistake, even if it cost $1000. Its more proof that the insurance company is slacking in its job of efficiently pricing these medical devices I'm using...)

w1nst0nsm1th 7y ago

You can be sure Gmail is harvesting your mails for tracking or profiling purpose while you still have to demonstrate totallynohacker-email do that. One of my email and cloud storage provider is Zaclys, a little french non-profit organisation which host owncloud/nextcloud instance and an email service for 10€/year... I can't be sure Zaclys is not harvesting my emails, but the fact I pay them for that service reassure me about their intention. In other hand I know for sure Gmail is not trustworthy regarding my privacy.