Monday, August 14, 2006

Airline Security (again)

Why are we so damned concerned about airline security? Why is preventing death from terrorists/murders so much more important than preventing deaths caused by accidents, diseases, etc? More people die from car accidents every year than in 10 average years of plane crashes. Hell, more kids die of starvation everyday than the amount of people killed from the terrorists attacks of 9/11. Hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, die every year from diseases that are preventable. On top of that, we still have to many babies, so lots of people die, but we make way to many.

How about we start preventing deaths from easily preventable things that also improve the quality of life for people in developing nations, rather than making the quality of life in "developed" nations worse? I never have been, and never will be more scared of a terrorist attack than of dyeing in a car accident, and you know what? I still drive as fast as my car will let me without going off the road/getting pulled over (I go slow only when I think cops will be around).

Sunday, August 13, 2006

FUCK THIS SHIT

Well, tonight I found out the financial situation of my family. My father is a family practice doctor in private practice, who has been in practice for over just over 20 years, he's 57, and he makes the equivalent of $27.48 an hour He works about 80 hours a week, and he's going to burn out at this rate.

This is Medicare at work people, for the past 8 years they have been lowering their reimbursement rates for doctors. The companies that make medical software constantly fuck over physicians, the government, along with the insurance companies, dictate how much
a doctor can charge. There is no market competition, its all dictated. For all those pre-med people, don't become family practice doctors, or internal medicine doctors, become surgeons, radioligists, and anithisioligists, they are the only ones who are going to make any money what so ever in the coming years.

Anyway, back to the point, my family has enough money set aside for me to go to my current University for one year, then I would have to take out about $48,000 worth of loans. Or I could go for the next year, then switch to a state college in Oregon, and take out around $20,000 in loans, or I could just go to the University of Redlands for the next semester, and transfer mid year too a state college and end up with only $10,000 in loans. What should I do?! I love the University of Redlands, and grew up with my parents promising that I would go to a private college, but things went down hill. Hell I'm thinking of robbing a fucking bank, that's how nuts I am going right now. I currently get $12,000 in scholarships from the University of Redlands

One would think that I would qualify for financial aid, but because of the way FAFSA is set up, I only qualify for $2,000 worth of subsidized loans a year.