[links] Link salad still wishes we had single payer in the US

[jaylake]

Boondocks Fantasy reviewed - Not so much with the liking of my story "Jefferson's West".

Space Stasis: What the strange persistence of rockets can teach us about innovation. - Neal Stephenson on space technology. An objection to this essay from Stirling Newberry. (Nicked here from james_nicoll.)

Twenty reasons why it's kicking off everywhere - Some social

Comments

[nicosian]

Right, and privilege.

It's one of the foundations of a healthy, productive, functioning society, and its certainly not a luxury.

But then I do enjoy cradle to grave access and it's vastly improved over my lifetime, and I enjoy access my US friends only dream of.

And it may well have saved my life, my friends lives, my family's lives so many times over, and they didn't need to fear losing their home, their savings.

[anton_p_nym]

?otD: Do you believe full access to healthcare is a right or a privilege?

In my opinion it's one of those things that's vastly more efficient when made universal than it is when handled as an a la carte service. Much like access to highways; the current US health insurance system handles much like the Interstates would if they were all toll-roads... slow, expensive, inefficient, inconvenient, with vast and wasteful bureaucracies necessary to administrate the complicated billing systems. (Only the highways would be better than the current US health insurance system, as there are a lot fewer ways you can bill for a toll road and then deny service

Right or Privilege?

[ladyjestocost]

Myself, I think it's neither, but instead comes under "promote the general welfare". Possibly also "provide for the common defense".

I can think of few things more basic to either of these concepts than a healthy citizenry. I think the only way anyone can miss the common interest aspects of full access to health care is if they spend too much time listening to claptrap from the insurance industry and their remoras.

[mlerules]

Thx for the Newsweek article on Sex & Bible. Useful for some of the folks who're trying to be good x-tians while struggling w/LGBT issues.

[jaylake]

That one's a strange one, given how much people both pick-and-choose what they want from the Bible, and how strongly many of them hold to the idea of revealed truth from such a protean document.

[amysisson]

I think in the U.S. it's currently a privilege, but it should be a right.