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Non-Tech : Kirk's Market Thoughts -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kirk © who wrote (12554)	12/21/2021 4:19:09 PM
From: Elroy	Respond to of 26587

you live in a city that has had how many innocents killed by gunfire between gangs or just plain criminals who have guns to make up for lack of brains or work ethic? This is true, but again it affects the vast majority of people exactly zero. Most people are not seriously injured or killed by gangs. This story (city violence increasing) is CONSTANT in the media, but of us are completely unaffected by a 3x increase in the murder and robbery rate, in the same was as most of us are completely unaffected in 3x the planes crashed this year compared to last. So... some of the big national issues do strike close to home... if you are unlucky. No, they don't. A 3x increases in plane crashes doesn't affect most of us, and a 3x increase in gang murders doesn't affect most of us. You're focusing on stories the media tells you are BIG IMPORTANT ISSUES which must be of concern, must be, must be, you gotta think about this PROBLEM!!! But they don't really affect you. Turn off the TV news, and you would have no idea there was any change in gang murders or so called "Asian hate crimes". The media should focus on potholes in the roads. That affects all of us, and should be easy to fix.

To: Kirk © who wrote (12554)	12/21/2021 4:59:56 PM
From: Elroy	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 26587

Here's something that amazed me about the USA - provision of basic medical services is awful. My wife and I want to have eye exams - you know, to get a prescription and have the eye doc tell us why we are both having reading problems (likely related to aging). So the local optometrist was booked for 2-3 months, so back in October I made appointments for the two of us to get seen on December 29th. Today we just made plans to take a small trip Dec 28-30. So I called the optometry clinic, cancelled, and took the next available back to back appointments. We are now scheduled to get our eyes checked March 16th. This is completely insane. All over the Philippines you can get an eye exam, same day as a walk in, and the cost is ~$20. All the technician does is use the machine which you look through, and say "left is better?" "right is better?" "This one better?" This one better?" It's not that complicated. I think the cost for this same service is something like $165 in the US. And we have to wait three months to do it. Why? I think government should remove whatever barriers are preventing some under employed person from buying one of these eye testing machine, taking a two week course on how to give eye exams, and open up boatloads of new "Eye Exam Marts" where for $39 you can spend 20 minutes and get almost the same thing that I am waiting three months to pay $165 to get. People who wants spiffy offices and doctor's with 10 years of education to conduct their eye exams can continue to go to the clinic where we may go in March. The rest of us, including me, will happily go to the local EyeMart and within an hour get a basic eye exam for $39.