Epsilon 5

quote:But wait there's more , this will be a nightmare for some ( or most) of you [big Grin] , additional "collective insurances" - insurances that are available to everyone - such as; healtcare insurance: If you have to go to the doctor, dentist, or have a broken leg.Yup we have that. And medication is free, paid by taxes. quote:disabilty insurance: I you are a carpenter and you have accident, fell of a roof, he now has a tranverse lesion and is unable to continue his work as a carpenter.Paid off the salary. We have that quote:Elderly insurance: If you're above 65 you receive a basic-pension.We have it, but it's more than basic. quote:Education: Is free upto 16 after that you'll (most likely the parents) have pay about USD1000 + books a year. If you go higher education or go universities this is much higher. You'll have to loan and/or work for it.The government pays most of the costs for scolarship even at university. University still costs alot thought, depending on where you are going. quote:In additon you'll have a scholarship which depends on the salary of your parents and if you live at home (with your parents) or near the campus/city of the univercity. They also have a card to freely use public transportation with some resticions.Something similar here. And you get good loans and (forgot the calling) "given money" depending on the available you and your parents have. quote:By Jaguar: Your tax rates are from 33% to 60% of income, based on Income level. This is just personal income tax, then you must add the corporate income tax of 35%, which of course as a consumer you pay as well. Here a minimum wage worker will pay about 30% of it's salary in taxes, and as the pay grows the % goes up to about 50%. And there's a sales tax of 7% at federal and 7.5% at provincial, 15.025% total. quote:and to answer your question about what services I think that should be paid for by myself to the government so that the government can do it? NONE OF THEM, the government has no place and no need to do that. If I want unemployment insurance, I should be able to go to an insurance company and buy it myself, if I want health insurance, I should be able to go out to the open market and pay for it myself, if I want a retirement fund, I should be able to put my money in the bank and make it myself.A minimum wage worker CANNOT pay himself such things. Everyone has to pay for the care of those who make less. And I'm not sure a private insurance will pay indefinitely for medication and treathments if you get a serious sickness. And since we pay with taxes, all is much simpler. When I'm sick and need to see a doctor, I just show my card and I get an appointment. Then, if I need medication, I go to the pharmacy, and get it for free, nothing asked (only if prescribed of course) Some people here need over 20k dollars a year to pay all the threatment and medication they need to survive. I got 2 operations to my feets due to ingrown nails. They had to be removed. One time in a clinic (was unsuccessful thought), one time at an hospital. I got medication to reduce the pain (Triatec pills). Cost of all this? 20 dollars. The difference between a governmental insurance and private one is that the government is there to HELP PEOPLE, the private societies are there to MAKE A PROFIT. quote:Only since the government got involved have we seen costs go up 10-20% a year. YES, 10-20% a year, totally insane, but if the government had stayed out of it, deregulated and let the free market do its thing, then health care costs would be low enough for ANYONE to afford. Don't believe me? look at history, and you will see that that is true!! The costs of healthcare have been growing steadily lately not because of mis-management, but becasue the population is growing old. Look at age distribution charts, you will see. More elderlies means more sick people. Sad but true. And it will go worse. [ 05-17-2002, 22:20: Message edited by: Epsilon 5 ]

Some of the columns in the journal are truly hilarious!

quote:Originally posted by Dragon Lady: quote: Other kinds pf "funding" you can get is the family allowance, which is an amount of money given which depends on the age and number of kids you have and the income the family has. Paying people to reproduce, how ghastly. You would think there are enough people on this planet already. ... but most of the that population is found in poor countries. Some industrialised countries have a birth rate so low tat there is starting to be more deaths than births. Go here and select all countries (click on first, then shift-click on last) and select "rate of natural incr.", then submit. Look at some countries, like Germany. Canada has a 0.3% birth rate, which mean in canada we have only ~95000 more people per year over a ~31.5 million population. Russia and Ukraine show the lowest, with -0.7%, while Palestine shows a 3.7% increase. the world average is 1.3% increase per year. quote:The real wonderful thing about the constitution, by the way, is that it can be interpreted to mean just about anything that you want it to mean.Then what's the constitution for? If it can mean anything, then there's no point to it [ 05-17-2002, 15:39: Message edited by: Epsilon 5 ]

quote:Originally posted by Supreme Cmdr: quote:Originally posted by Joel Schultz: You don't think they could be talking about good ol' SC, do ya? No, that variation is from the 3DR guys. You now, Duke Nukem Forever...which seems to be taking forever to complete. Eh, I don't expect that game to be better than any other game at the time. ---- Interesting article. They forgot to say that Microsoft gave Nvidia big money to develop new technology sometime after the Xbox contract signature [ 05-17-2002, 12:42: Message edited by: Epsilon 5 ]

quote:Originally posted by Dragon Lady: quote: Childish and ludicrous. But extremely funny Dunno, I was...err...so stunned I stopped it a little after the cow gets near the tractor.

Happy birthday... how old are ya now?

I get confused at times here.. I would like to know, in a short and quick way, how does the welfare system or equivalent works in the US? In Canada, you have welfare itself, and "working insurance". You get working insurance when you lose your job and wait for another, or when you have a seasonal job ... working insurance gives you about 2/3 (I think) of what you got when you were working (average). Welfare itself is for when you cannot work before quite a while for some reason. You get the "survival minimum", which is somewhat lower than the minimum wage. In both situations, whenever possible the government will try to get you off and make you work, which is normal. Other kinds pf "funding" you can get is the family allowance, which is an amount of money given which depends on the age and number of kids you have and the income the family has. It's a booster for lower income families, which we actually get here at home. This is provincial, but the federal government has a similar plan. The Canadian government is liberal, and I like it. Too socialistic is not good (the contrary is true), but I prefer socialism to capitalism. Btw, I'm a liberal, if you haven't noticed.

quote:Originally posted by Supreme Cmdr: arghhhh!!!Childish and ludicrous.

When i first heard about the XBconnect, I thought it was an official thing I wish em good luck

Adress : [email protected] Title : thanks from Westwood E&B

quote:Originally posted by Remo: I got on in the first round of testing. I can't comment it on it- but I am no longer testing it. Ok, you can't tell us about the game, but on a scale of 10, 10 being the best, 0 the worst, what's your score?

I expect to see the ps2 and xbox for sale for 20 bucks at the local supermarket(sic)

LOL! quote:Originally posted by Paddy Gregory: The more reasons I find for NOT playing a Celine Dion CD, the better. amen to that!

ROTFLMAO!

If you look at the numbers the producers only made around 2-3 millions with the movie ... while LOTR made around 150 millions and spiderman is currently at 80 millioms ... but it's only at the second week.

quote:Originally posted by LordDavid: Well, they told me I got accepted and should receive my beta copy sometime next month.Me too

aww I was thinking to post about it yesterday, but thought it wouldn't be a good subject

quote:Originally posted by Grayfox: well than you better start a trainin now on it ep it weeds out all those whose hand eye coordination aint exactly up to par j/k. i dont mind it... im so used to it now, its second nature... which scares me sometimes What are you talking about exactly??

quote:Look at Australia and England and you will see EXACTLY what I mean.What is to see?

quote:A worker is NOT forced to stay at a job, the manager doesn't sit there with a gun and say, "you have to work, and you have to work for this much" The market decides the value of a person's labor, if a company pays more, then that worker will leave his low paying company for the higher paying one, this in turn drives up the labor at other companies as they try to retain thier employees. That is the way capitalism works.That is IF you have a good diploma. If you don't have good academic training, there's a VERY good chance that, if fired / quitting, you will get a job that pays less. Capitalism is not a good thing when you are at the bottom of the ladder.

quote:Read your keyboard command sheetOnly one key for so many (less or more) required chat modes (all, friendlies, region, specific player, etc) involves alot of mouse action... When you press "c".. what happens? a menu pops?

quote:If I wish to give, it is MY choice, but with all the government social programs, it is NOT my choice, and therefore I am NOT free.What happens if everyone a little too selfish stops giving money? You have a bunch of people unable to live because they need money. And what does ensure that you can get charity help from private organisations when you are in need? quote:It's all about freedom people, that is the BOTTOM line, and as long as the government can take my money and give it to others, then I am NOT FREE.Funny thought, I'm not sure you would be that much happy if you were on the other end unable to get money in time of need.

quote:They are god given rightsWhat prophet told people that everyone has the right to carry a gun? quote:You'll find if you took the same money spent on the war on drugs and applied that to keeping illegal arms out only very well financed criminals would be able to have any real weapons. These people would then in turn commit crimes that are well thought out and probably limit civilian casualties. They will not go crazy and start blasting their co works.Well said. That's pretty much the situation here. I remember the stuff the police showed they got from the criminalised biker gangs... they have tons of guns... m4 assault rifles, uzis, all kinds of pistols, explosives... but few civillians got killed, and they were mostly mistakes. (except for that journalist, which almost died)

quote:And percentage wise EP5 1500 accidental deaths with 80,000,000 gun owners is INCREDIBLE!! That number is so low to make it marginal in the extreme. There are almost 300,000,000 people in the US, so if you put it into the entire population, .00001, or the chances of you getting accidentally shot with a gun is 1 in 2 million, you have a better chance of winning the lottery then you do of accidentally getting shot with a gun. What about non-accidental deaths? quote:and actually because only criminals have guns in Canada,the liklely hood of you getting shot during a robbery is higher in canada then it would be in the US.Anything official about that? Link? quote:So, you are 80 times more likely to get killed in a car accident, should we outlaw cars? "it would be for the children" right? Cars are FAR more dangerous then a gunCar are made to go around. Guns are made to shoot and kill. And cars are everywhere. quote:Besides which there are FAR more irresponsible car owners, then there are irresponsible gun owners. obviously, looking at the statistics.You are right, and I know the justice system and driving evaluations are too weak / loose / far and few in between, and I do believe that should be corrected. But then again, people will start to accuse the police of power abuse

Looks good They say that the gf4 may outperform the Parhelia in low quality image situations... I prefer image quality to 5 more fps [ 05-14-2002, 14:26: Message edited by: Epsilon 5 ]