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Maravilla, it isn’t about SHOULD…. let’s deal with the facts Maravilla. USA – Zero and Costa Rica – Three.
Like I said, Maravilla, you are just a sound bite.
hahaha, Joseph you like to play the devils child like me.
You defiantly brought out the best in people in this forum!How ever you have too be careful because some of us are not gringos that are upset with today’s political climate and just looking for another woodstock to run too. Some people might be upset with the Liberal U.S. where you can’t say the pledge of allegiance or spank your child because it is too politically in correct! I don’t believe this word politically in correct is in the tico language hahaha
Then there is the small minority of us that are married to Costa Ricans that have to move back for family reasons and do so with our tennis shoes a running!Any ways you have some good points and misconceptions and hope you enjoy your visit to CR!
Under legislation passed in 1989, members of Congress get automatic cost-of-living raises unless they specifically vote to block the pay hikes from being implemented. Because they technically aren’t passing a new law every time a raise kicks in, sympathetic federal judges, who also benefit with cost of living raises under the same legislation, have ruled the practice doesn’t violate the 27th Amendment.
So, every year they get automatic hikes while the poor hourly worker goes ten years without an increase.
Maravilla, I was in the Air Force, we received a cost of living raise every year! Oh, and it isn’t a RAISE, it is an ADJUSTMENT! We did get raises when Congress approved of one, but they didn’t materialize every year. What Congress is getting is a cost of living ADJUSTMENT Maravilla.
Now you are in spin mode Maravilla. Did you know what you know now about the cost of living adjustment before you posted earlier?
Oh, and here I am watching Bonham of U2 on 60 Minutes sayings that 200 thousand Africans owe their lives to America – we gave 12 billion for AIDS meds.
Oh, and lets not forget what the capitalist PIGS are doing up there in Seattle, the one named Bill Gates who is giving BILLIONS to the world’s children and let’s not forget the other capitalist PIG, Warren Buffet, who is giving 30 billion to the Gates Foundation so now the foundation is worth something like 68 billion dollars.
Americans are the most generious people in the world Maravilla. If you can’t find something good to say about her – give it a rest. If there is anything I can’t stand is a American who has far more opportunity than near any other in the world, complain about how bad she is without recognizing the good. SSI cry babies get no respect.
Dwayne, good grief, you sound more like Ann Coulter with each post! First of all, it’s Bono, not Bonham. I know him, and he was doing fine until he made those ridiculous statements about Hugo being an evil dictator! He should stick to music. Oh, we saved 200,000? Wow! That’s impressive, eh? What about the MILLIONS that have already died because of this scourge while we did nothing and Big Pharma wouldn’t come down on their price to help them, and then they dumped a bunch of bad drugs into the country? And the statement I made about the “pigs” was not referring to Bill or Warren, and you know it. I made it very clear that I was referring to the people who willingly destroy our environment, our social structure, and our health in the name of greed. Surely you know who some of them are — Exxon Mobil, Enron, WorldCom, Dupont, Monsanto, McDonalds, GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, etc. There are way too many to list while I’m on my first cup of coffee. So stay on track, Dwayne. And what SSI cry baby are you referring to? Not me. And yes, Dwayne I knew about the adjustments/pay hikes, whatever YOU want to call them, when I posted originally. You were splitting hairs. I’ve lived in DC, and I also worked for one of the most powerful senators. It’s possible I might know a thing or two about how it all works. Sure, there’s plenty of good in the US, but there are things I can’t abide and one of them is supporting a war that I believe is immoral and illegal and profit motivated. That’s why I’ve moved to Costa Rica — because it has no standing Army and is not going around assassinating leaders who refuse to go along with their gameplan. Now, Dwayne, please don’t go off on another tirade, insulting me and making statements about me even though you have no insight into who I am or what I’ve done or who I know. Yes, I’m one of those tree huggers that drive people like you and Joseph nuts. I respect our environment. I want clean air and water, not water that is laced with chlorine and fluoride and now pharmaceutical drugs and chemotherapy drugs. I want food that is not contaminated with cancer-causing pesticides. I also don’t want to eat genetically modified food so Monsanto can make more money. I also want not to be propagandized every day and made to live in fear. So, I’ll take Pura Vida any day, thank you very much. Here’s Lou Dobbs’s take on it all:
NEW YORK (CNN) — Without much fanfare, the House of Representatives last week voted to give members of Congress yet another pay raise, as it has done almost every year for nearly a decade.For some reason, our elected officials decided against holding a news conference. Maybe that’s because they didn’t want to draw attention to the fact that they raise their own salaries almost every year while refusing to raise the pay of our lowest-paid workers.
Corporate America, the Bush administration and the national economic orthodoxy with which they’re in league have consistently argued against helping working men and women at the lowest end of the wage scale by raising the minimum wage. Big business groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce say it will harm the economy and eliminate jobs. As is so frequent with the faith-based economics that grips both political parties in Washington, such concerns have absolutely nothing to do with reality.
For example, it’s impossible to deny the national minimum wage of $5.15 is not enough for a family to live above the poverty line. The annual salary for workers earning the national minimum wage still leaves a family of three about $6,000 short of the poverty threshold.
Raising the minimum wage to $7.50 would positively affect the lives of more than 8 million workers, including an estimated 760,000 single mothers and 1.8 million parents with children under 18. But even this 46 percent increase would get them only to the poverty line. Don’t you think these families just might need that cost-of-living increase a bit more than our elected officials who are paid nearly $170,000 a year?
With no Congressional action on raising the minimum wage since 1997, inflation has eroded wages. The minimum wage in the 21st century is $2 lower in real dollars than it was four decades ago and now stands at its lowest level since 1955, according to the Economic Policy Institute and Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Also, since the last time Congress increased the minimum wage for our lowest-paid workers, buying power has fallen by 25 percent. Yet over that time our elected representatives have given themselves eight pay raises totaling more than 23 percent.
Raising the minimum wage isn’t simply about the price of labor. It’s also about our respect for labor. One of this country’s greatest business innovators, Henry Ford, made history almost a century ago by raising the salaries of his production-line workers far beyond the prevailing wage. Ford not only paid his employees well enough to buy the products they built, but he kept his employees loyal and productive. That’s also very good business.
The myth that raising the minimum wage will lead to job cuts is just that: a myth. In fact, research suggests just the opposite. According to the Fiscal Policy Institute, since 1998, states with higher minimum wages experienced better job growth than states paying only the federal minimum wage. Among small retail businesses in those higher minimum-wage states, job growth was double the rest of the country.
The House Appropriations Committee has passed a $2.10 increase as part of a spending bill, but the business lobby pressured the House leadership to hold up the measure.
“I think it’s disgraceful that we waited nine years to do this,” says Rep. David Obey, a Democrat from Wisconsin. “We have seen gas prices go up by 140 percent since the minimum wage was increased. We have seen home heating oil go up by 120 percent. We have seen health care go up by almost 45 percent.”
This administration, our Republican-led Congress and the dominant corporate interests in this country want cheap labor. And to achieve that goal they’re outsourcing middle-class jobs, importing illegal labor and cutting retirement and health-care benefits.
It’s time for the federal government to reverse the trend, to at least substantially raise the minimum wage in this country, and by doing so express how much we value all working Americans.
Hey Dwayne, “USA – Zero and Costa Rica Three’- sounds like Costa Rica is winning to me. SHOULD doesn’t count??? An ADJUSTMENT isn’t a RAISE??? Oil has NOTHING to do with it???
Don’t let your passion deteriorate into insult and disrespect. Maravilla isn’t calling you names. You bring up some valid points, but these comments dilute your argument. Don’t get mad at those a little more to the left than you. They have good hearts, even if you feel they’re misdirected. Maravilla sounds like someone who would serve you milk and cookies with a welcoming smile you dropped by for a visit.
Maravilla like it or not, capitalists “pigs” make the world go ’round. They actually do create wealth, and not at all just for themselves, but for their communities as well. There’s not doubt that it’s a winning economic system, so we might as well embrace it. The challenge is finding the right balance to minimize its deficiencies (there are many) while simultaneously maximizing its effectiveness.
Neither one of you are extremists, why do you argue as though you’re diametrically opposed to each other?
As for healthcare, it’s pure semantics to argue for or against a “nationalized” or “private” health care system. The reality is that the US and CR, and probably just about every other country in the world, have a mixed system both public and private. Frankly, none of them work well. Let’s accept reality, and talk about tweaking the system to make it better, rather than spout rhetoric which polarizes the debate and decreases the chances for finding common ground.
I think that one of the reasons healthcare is such a big problem today is the switch from surgical intervention to drug therapy as the primary means of treatment. This puts the pharmaceutical industry in the driver’s seat. Here’s the catch there is no such thing as a “free market” in that industry. It owes its existence to a public private partnership. Governments directly subsidize many development costs, model taxation to spur industry growth, create protectionists laws and regulations, and sometimes even intervene in foreign affairs to help their national companies.
We cannot hamstring the industry to the point where it ceases to function. We clearly want it to thrive. But on the other hand, we can’t let it run rampant. As usual, the best solution (albeit imperfect still) is somewhere in the middle.
It’s helpful when framing your arguments to understand the industry in terms of its power (i.e. profitability). One way to measure the profitability potential of any given industry is to analyze the ‘5 forces’ of competitiveness (Michael E. Porter). These are: Internal rivalry, Power of negotiation with suppliers, Power of negotiation with customers, Threat of new entrants, and Threat of substitute products.
1. Internal rivalry these companies spend buko capital on R&D. You can bet they try to avoid going toe-to-toe with each other, and develop separate, tacitly agreed-upon niches. Nothing like 2 gas stations across the street from each other. Furthermore, with an aging population and new drug technologies, the pie is getting bigger. You don’t have to take profitability away from another company to be successful. While there is some rivalry, it’s muted.
2. Power of negotiation with customers Let’s face it, when you’re sick, you’ll pay anything to get the cure. Furthermore, governments regulate the use of generic products, protect trademarks, and create different rules for national vs international trade. That’s why grandmothers are getting on busses to Toronto.
3. Power of negotiation with suppliers The raw materials used to make drugs are commodities, the cheapest things on earth.
4. Threat of new entrants Between the capital requirements and the government regulation, it’s not like opening up a lemonade stand.
5. Threat of substitute products pretty minimal. Surgery is usually a last resort, the homeopathy industry sucks at marketing, and the born agains don’t exactly have a stellar record of miracle cures.
All in all, the pharmaceutical industry rules each of these 5 areas. Given the amount of public participation in its success, and the market conditions which make it so powerful, personally I think we’re currently treating them with kid gloves. It seems to me we could do a whole lot more to bring down the costs of drug treatment.
The other primary reason for the wildly increasing cost of healthcare is tort. There are so many people in the US just itching to sue their vendors for any misstep, and so many lawyers who market like mad to represent them, the entire system is way out of wack. What proportion of the price of that medical product or service goes to pay for liability insurance and legal defense? That hamstrings everything! We obviously need tort reform. Again though, we must balance it with the need for consumer protection.
Come on people, we’re inches away on the political continuum, not on opposite sides of the fence!
Good information Gr,
How ever I see that you didn’t include the rest of the system of the health care. I view health care as a whole! Meaning Drugs, insurance, doctors, nurses, people that are involved in the making the health care run like the manufactures of health care products and every thing else that has health in the name.
We seen it in the airline industry when a screw cost 100 dollars or a toilet cost a million dollars. Now a needle cost how much? I wonder how much a bed pan cost in the hospital? I know the meals are out rage sly expensive. Did you know in CR you can bring your own food to the hospital?
The difference is that the U.S. culture wants the best but doesn’t want to pay for it. When the airline industry gave their workers the best health care and the best pension plans what happened when they had to compete with airlines that didn’t offer that? Look at NW, Delta, Us air, United and American. When the U.S. labor is upset because their health care benefits raise they go bonkers but don’t want to accept that their employer is picking up the lions share of the tab. Government and private industries state that the two major factors of their budget it Pension and Health Care.
Most companies are starting to cut out health care and pensions look at GM, Ford and the restructuring airlines and thousands of small companies. What is the out look for the retirees of these companies?
The main reason is because every one that is associated with the U.S. health care makes big dollars compared to other countries and the wages of the health care workers. When a doctor in the U.S. makes a six figure income, a sales rep for a drug company makes the same amount, a insurance clerk making 15 dollars a hour this erodes the health care industry and creates high prices. My question is when the baby boomers come in full force who will pay for the health care? When the insurance becomes 1500-2000 a month?
Now I am not trying to ditch the employees because every one wants the plasma screen TVs and nice 3 car garage home but at what point is the consumer willing to pay for these nice things. The consumer is the person that pays the health care industry and will make decisions like the consumer in the airline industry! Today in the Star and Trib was a article of companies paying employees to have surgery in other countries for the cost factor. They paid all expenses and gave them a percentage of the savings the company made! The doctors were all U.S. educated!
Again I don’t want to ditch the employees but some day everyone will have to feel the pinch because we can’t keep up at this pace.
This is why people are looking at the alternatives and countries like CR will provide that. Doctors don’t make huge amounts of money, nurses make much less than in the U.S. and they don’t have huge insurance companies like the U.S. It is also not fare to compare because CR is half the size of MN with the same amount of people, so it is like apples and bananas!Hi Scott,
So you figured me out. I love Costa Rica, took my very young son. Went back, did some serious raftying. Have been all the way to the Nicarogua border(excuse my spelling has I am enjoying a nice wine). All over the Pacific coast, San Jose, volcanoes you name it, have driven for hours stopped in little towns etc.
I can get by on my weak Spanish however my wife has no clue. The roosters in the morning are just too much. The whole place reminds me of my childhood in rural Ohio. Scott when I get down again I will get in touch.
Joe
Thanks for your comments, Gr, none of which I take issue with except your comment about torts being a cause for higher med prices. I have a great deal of expertise when it comes to Big Pharma and I can tell you unequivocally that torts are NOT to blame for high drug costs because the pittance Big Pharma pays out for injury or death claims is already factored into their bottomline and a few hundred miillion dollars to pay off a bunch of grumpy plaintiffs in a class action lawsuit doesn’t even cut into their $6+Billion a year rake-in. One company, which shall remain nameless, spent $100,000,000 in legal fees to defend claims that they manufactured a bogus antidepressant that turned out to be far more addictive than heroin and caused people to commit both suicide and murder. Big Pharma has only one interest and that is making money off your illness. The more drugs you take the sicker you are going to get. Every year Big Pharma deliberately manufactures new diseases for which one of their products “may” work (and may not) when a drug is going off patent. When it comes to psychiatric drugs, they are constantly quantifying every human emotion as a disease — the latest being Intermittent Explosive Disorder — a bogus dx if I ever saw one, but it will net another billion or so for each drug company that manufactures Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft or any of the atypical antipsychotics (some of which have sudden death as a side effect, not to mention heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and cancer). And most of what they spend on R&D comes from the government, so don’t be fooled into thinking that they are spending THEIR money to develop a drug. Acid Reflux Disease is another bogus disorder, but all those proton pump inhibitors make the shareholders a tidy dividend. The goal of Big Pharma is to have every man, woman, and child on at least 3 drugs. If you get sucked into psychiatry, that’s easy. And almost every other drug on the market produces so many side effects that at least two other drugs are needed to allow the person to function while the drugs slowly kill him. Don’t even get me started on the cholesterol-lowering drugs which may bring your numbers down but you are more likely to die of kidney failure if you take them. And what’s breaking the back of socialized medicine? Not surgery, not diagnostics, but PHARMACEUTICALS, because Big Pharma doesn’t give a break to anyone. Knowing what I know about these companies, I would have to be bleeding from every orifice and on my death bed before I ever took another pharmaceutical. I know so many people who have gotten out of the clutches of their doctors when they moved to Costa Rica, and guess what? They now don’t take any of those blood pressure meds, cholesterol meds, stomach meds, etc. because they didn’t need them in the first place. Thank God Costa Rica is a poor country — you may actually survive getting medical treatment because all those frontline pharmaceuticals won’t be rx’d, which certainly isn’t the case in the US where you are more likely to die if you go into the hospital than if you got no medical treatment at all.
My husband and I lovingly call Costa Rica the “Land of Misfit toys” ( for those of you who need an explanation watch Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer). We have met many people there, too, who seem to be searching for something, you know, the later in life divorced male, people who do not fit the mold, others who have “escaped” and that is not always bad. Heard many a story of people who are trying to escape “something” and it is not ALWAYS the law. We love it and enjoy the interesting people we meet. Maybe we are misfits too????
Maravilla, you obviously know nothing about the healthcare disasters in the countries you mention. Holland is one of the worst. I agree with some of the previous comments others have made……….. You are a walking sound bite with no substance to your arguments. To make a statement such as “Thank God Costa Rica is a poor country — you may actually survive getting medical treatment because all those frontline pharmaceuticals won’t be rx’d, which certainly isn’t the case in the US where you are more likely to die if you go into the hospital than if you got no medical treatment at all”.
To make a statement like that just shows complete ignorance and shows your “hate American first” mentality.
If you believe the rhetoric you are spouting then you are living in a complete fantasy world.
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Hey Dwayne, “USA – Zero and Costa Rica Three’- sounds like Costa Rica is winning to me. SHOULD doesn’t count??? An ADJUSTMENT isn’t a RAISE??? Oil has NOTHING to do with it???
>>>>>>>Gr… in England, when playing game of darts, you count down from 301 or 501 so sometimes a low score like in golf means you are a winner.
It is an ADJUSTMENT – there is a difference.
I don’t think it is about oil – nothing about oil.
What upsets me about Maravilla is that she can’t talk about anything expect the bad. She has that, “the gov’t owes me” attitude.
Lots of the SSI, mental disability, folks living in CR. She sounds like one of them…. crying and complaining even while the free check is being delivered.
See what happens when I take a few days vacation with my two teenagers?
Shame on you…. 🙂
This is a Discussion Forum for Costa Rica living, retirement and Costa Rica real estate.
This is NOT the best place to talk US politics and we’ll have no more postings here please about US politics.
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.comWELCOME HOME SCOTT.
Curosity was killing me as to why you had not said a word.
I can remember the days of vacationing with my kids. I really enjoyed the personal time together as I am sure you did…
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