this post was submitted on 08 Aug 2024
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Science Memes

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 10 months ago (5 children)

The main reason why it exists is to provide jobs. The number of people who work at the TSA at every airport in every state...no representative wants to cut those jobs.

[–] [email protected] 51 points 10 months ago (3 children)

I fucking hate that this is a thing. "We can't stop doing this useless and/or detrimental thing, look at all the work it makes for other people to do!!!" Absolutely bonkers that it's just a standard political argument.

[–] nehal3m 18 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Agreed. I’d rather they be paid that wage NOT to bother me.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

so, we pay more (fastpass or whatever it is) for the privilege. 😅

[–] [email protected] 9 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Same thing with medical insurance. It shouldn't exist but it pays a lot of people's salaries.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (4 children)

It shouldn't exist? I'd like to see you pay for your medical expenses out of pocket.

P. S. No, I am not American.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago

Here in the states when we say "medical insurance shouldn't exist" what we mean is "the medical insurance industry shouldn't exist"

Basically the cluster fuck of insurance companies we have now shouldn't exist, we should just have a single payer type system where medical expenses are paid for through our tax dollars. In its current state it's a nightmare to deal with.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

A lot of private insurance in the US amounts to paying a couple hundred monthly to have the insurance and then they deny payment for basically anything and everything. So you pay them to pay out of pocket anyway.

Just got state insurance which covers everything, but very few offices accept it.

So yeah. Insurance in the US is super fucked up and people go without healthcare, even if they have insurance because they simply can't afford it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I do pay for my medical expenses out of pocket, because I can’t keep insurance long enough to ensure consistent cate.

I’ll give an example. Back in 21 I signed up for medicaid because I was poor enough to qualify. I get an email from my psychiatrist’s office “We can no longer treat you at this office because of your new medicaid status. We are not allowed to treat people on medicaid.” I asked, and they’re not even allowed to treat me if I pay out of pocket.

This is a new medicaid rule. Now if you’re on medicaid you can only see medicaid-approved providers.

So I canceled my medicaid. And I continue to pay out of pocket.

I’ve tried using other government-assisted programs before, with disastrous results. I’ve been kicked off the rolls before, at random, and I’ve had to go through the crash involved in stopping my medication, because while these government programs are helpful, they’re also buggy as fuck and can’t be relied upon.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

That's why you want a national health care program funded by taxes (they call it health insurance, but it's mandatory and based on income, so it's a tax, really). Private insurance is still allowed, but everyone gets a baseline.

Sure, this system has got its share of problems, and they're massive, but if you need care, you generally receive it regardless of your financial situation. Again, bureaucracy happens and there are waiting times etc. etc., but the idea that you may lose everything because you got sick is so alien to me I have no words.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

Yeah I guess the kind of Single Payer model I prefer can be conceptualised as "insurance." But it feels more like health care is taxpayer funded. The similarity to insurance is just details for the detail nerds.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago

We could always use more traffic enforcement. Just switch them all over.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I mean if a state removed the TSA and spent the money on something else, surely they could use the money to create as many jobs as they removed but in an actual useful field.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

But would the TSA workers vote for them?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Probably not, but the people who just got a job maybe would.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

I don’t mean to be ungrateful, but I wouldn’t vote for a republican who got me a job, and I probably wouldn’t vote for anyone who got rid of my job (unless they were otherwise really great). So at least for me, getting rid of the job means you lose my vote and replacing it doesn’t necessarily gain my vote.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago

And people watching this exchange from the outside might vote against because they don’t like the idea of “minus a job for Bob, plus a job for Carl” as even-steven.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Could we pay them to dig a ditch and fill it back in again? It'd be just as useful.

[–] nehal3m 13 points 10 months ago

No, it'd be more useful just on account of the harm they are not doing. I don't give a rat's ass what they do instead, hell, do a huge UBI experiment and just let them chill. Might as well.

[–] ayyy 9 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

If it’s just for the jobs we can put them to work doing something useful like carrying bags for old people in the airport. Literally anything would be more useful.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

We could pay them to do nothing* that would be just as effective.

*not nothing but do whatever they want