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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Marcuswrote:<br>
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<p class="MsoPlainText">The spending mostly comes from the
elderly. </p>
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<p>With a guaranteed minimum income, AI displacement, and the
universal agreement that "one should not spend more than they
make", I think this graph suggests we revisit the world of Logan's
Run forthwith:<br>
</p>
<blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RNDovT38J0"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RNDovT38J0</a></p>
<img alt=""
src="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/logans_run_still_and_peter_craig_-_inset_-_getty_-_h_2018_0.jpg"
moz-do-not-send="true" width="500" height="282"><br>
<br>
and if you need to get THAT dystopian image out of your mouth, <br>
I recommend Sean Connery's role as Zardoz, though not so keen on
his costumery !<br>
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzsw07QFe4s"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzsw07QFe4s</a><br>
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src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrI4Zw8_ru2oXV4joQgVbJQvZOkuAzC82Ne8RNGAycbBCOyf3SHbyLLCnHnOBs8_kKSfUQ8rjXXfaKR_i1pYu7nKzwf-I56h_XRvMxI2k-uyzuJbRjvZL7aIyiStjcpumxlJwaOQ/s1600/zardoz+pb.jpg"
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<br>
<br>
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<p>What is that blip-step in the chart at age 85? A data anomaly?
A signature of something in the Medicare code that allows/requires
folks 85 and over a little extra payola? Or something that
happened in 1940, effecting the health of all adults born before
that year? <br>
</p>
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<br>
<p>I can't believe I"m on the (far) left side of that curve. That
sure looks like a sysiphean hill to slog up? Until last year I
had never spent more on "health care" for myself than a bottle of
Ibuprofen or pack of bandaids. Wait, I did spend $900+ a year in
penalties for not spending 2-4 times that on insurance I was
choosing not to use... does that count. (I don't blame Obama, but
the "mandate" wasn't one of my favorite of his actions)... </p>
<p>I finally let Social Security start paying me my "pension" and
they pressured me into letting them send a chunk of that to
Medicare, so I let them do so and now I need all kinds of medical
care I didn't need before. After all I need to get "my money's
worth"? <br>
</p>
<p>Actually at the same time (to spite my face/wallet?) I hired a
doc who has an office next to the old Pojoaque PO and Carwash (for
the locals) for $90ish/month to "keep me healthy".. she doesn't
take Medicare (or any form of insurance) and makes housecalls (if
it is important and appropriate).... she talked me into all
kinds of lab tests and then medications to balance my various
numbers (which is working, though I can't see a change in my
umwelt over it)... She also convinced me that the debilitating
pain in my hips was never going to get better on it's own and that
while *I* might enjoy hobbling around, it was damned hard for
everyone else to watch (kindof like the argument for mandating
seatbelts and motorcycle helmets) so I let her send me to the
radiologist who confirmed "yep, those hips are toast!" and showed
me how the round balls in the round sockets were square-stubs in
roundish sockets... <br>
</p>
<p>So Uncle Sam (or Donald or Biden or Kamala) has been paying the
test labs and the radiologist a pretty reasonably small fraction
of what they bill for those services and I get dinged for various
bits of it (deductibles and copays) which is annoying but given
the fancy buildings and machines they are maintaining, "only
reasonable"? So to keep her from pressuring me for colonoscopies
and full-body calcification scans I agreed to see an orthopedic
surgeon who looked at my Xrays and agreed with the Radiologist
"Yep, those hips are toast!" and then proceeded to talk me into
letting him cut each leg off, remove the hinge, and put it back on
with tungsten-ceramic hinges guaranteed to last a lifetime (if I
don't have the bad form of living too long as Marcus chart
suggests I *might*). So as you all know if you read past the
subject lines of my massive missives, last year about this time
they put me under, cut the first leg off (left a few shreds
attached for blood/nerve/lymph) and stuck in the hardware, revived
me, insulted me with an overnight stay in the hospital I didn't
want, etc... then sent me to someone (physical terrorist) who was
supposed to teach me how to "walk right" again. After that all
got better, we did it again. <br>
</p>
<p>Meanwhile if I believed the billing departments a the doc, the
hospital, the radiologist, the anesthetists, the physical
terrorists, the hinge-makers, the silver-bandage suppliers, the
blood thinner folks, the blood thickener folks, etc. it was going
to cost Aunt Kamala upwards of $70K for me to have fresh hinges
(and hopefully a lot less misery). But nope! not only did Aunt
Kamala get sent packing (thank you Elno and Bozo and the Zuckster
and Rogan and Lex and ??) but it seems those numbers are all for
show. I'm pretty sure (if I sorted the numbers out), the total
payments from Uncle Donald for both hinge replacements was order
$18k with me forking over, myself the price of a cheap used car
($6k) for all that abuse and residual damage. Who pays full
price? <br>
</p>
<p>So I guess I owe the rest of the country a few years of my
allotted ~$6k/year. I pay cash for meds I want to (believe I do
not) not need, and I pay my Doc by auto-transfer monthly, and if
I do go for the colonoscopy, I might instead buy the
Dominatrix-of-choice DaveW recommends, a decent endoscope and tip
her extra to "take pictures" while she's working out her own daddy
issues on me. I think GPT or Claude or Gemini would be eager to
look those pictures over and tell me if it is time to go back
under anasthaesia and "the knife" or continue on in blissful
less-ignorance (willful for sure). I don't know if Doc Stephanie
will want to consult, but if George and Dan say "those are benign
polyps", that's good enough for me?!<br>
</p>
<p>I'm not sure what poverty level is these days but minimum wage
suggests that the average poverty-earner doesn't make a lot more
than the rest of you are expected to pay for me or access to the
big fancy buildings with expensive automobiles parked in the Staff
Lot to entertain my multiple hypochondrias? I already pay about
$2500/year to uncle Donald (from what he grudgingly pays ME out of
my lifetime savings account called Social Security) and about half
more that to Doc Stephanie and the Pharmacy... it is all so very
complicated?<br>
</p>
<p>And what does all this mean to folks in the Donbas, or Raffah or
the south side of LA or an immigrant work camp in Iowa that is
about to be raided? It means I'm a spoiled, old white guy with
nothing better to do than rant to others not that unlike me
(except for all the details)... <br>
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