Friday, January 13, 2017

Repeal of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare)

It is such a disappointment that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is being repealed by the Republicans and this would certainly affect the already bad income inequality. 


It turns out that taking away health insurance from struggling families can be a windfall for the well-to-do. The top 0.1% of households—those with income of at least $3.7 million a year—would receive a tax cut of about $197,000 in 2017, on average, if the ACA is repealed, according to the Tax Policy Center.

Removing the ACA would basically remove all subsidies for insurance of the lower income families and make health insurance much more expensive for them. Sadly, many Republicans in Republican states do not like Obama, and by having right wing media calling it Obamacare, they are automatically opposed to it. 



Many people who cheered when the Republicans repeal the ACA did not realize that Obamacare and ACA is the same thing. 

Since 2010, about 20 million Americans obtained coverage and the uninsured rate has fallen by more than one-third nationally. Some of the states that saw the biggest drops in their number of uninsured helped elect Donald Trump, including West Virginia (-58.6%), Kentucky (-57.1%), Michigan (-49.3%), and Ohio (-44.7%).

I personally have friends who have recent health issues and able to afford medical care because they had insurance due to ACA.

So who benefits from the repeal of the ACA?

Abolishing the ACA gives big tax breaks to the most privileged members of our society while increasing the economic burdens on millions of working Americans—while also endangering their health.

This is no longer an issue of bipartisan or politics. If you benefit from ACA and voted for Trump, you probably will have lose your health insurance and simply pay more. Sadly, millions more will be affected by this -- millions who need lower cost heathcare insurance. The 1% that earn millions will probably benefit and everyone else will pay more for insurance.

For any reason why people hate Obamacare, repealing it would be worse for millions. If you have voted against your own benefit and you lose your health insurance, all because you listen to some  outlets media, I really hope that all will be well.

-- Robin Low


Tuesday, January 3, 2017

Haters will hate in 2017


Many people fear technology.  Self-Driving Cars Will Make Organ Shortages Even Worse.



Electric cars are dangerous for blind people.

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Technology is advancing by solving the current problems, and people are still against clean energy, because people working in oil and gas (and coal) will lose their jobs.

Self driving cars will make truck drivers obsolete. Uber drivers soon will not have jobs too.

When streaming videos became more popular, have they thought about how many Blockbusters will they put out of business?

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The fact is, there are always something new in the horizon. sometimes it is incremental with minor changes, and sometimes the change and wipe our whole industries. Digital cameras put a lot of photo development shops out of business, and smartphones and tablets also killed the whole PDA and personal calculator market.

Online media, the kindle and other digital publishing is probably responsible for the slow down of print media.

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No matter what innovation we bring, people will be affected and we need to understand how to mitigate the effects. Automation in the near future will make a lot of manufacturing jobs obsolete. In most cases, the benefits outweigh the problems and when it is financially viable, change will happen.

No matter how good your solutions to the problems are, the haters will hate. Sometimes they do so because they felt offended as they did not come out with the solution themselves and are jealous, and other times, they are affected by the progress you have made, and they don't want to adapt.

People who think they are creating good social impact should focus more on the impact and less on how others view them. If you want to please everyone, sometimes, progress is impeded. As a result, more people are harmed in the long run.

No matter what you do, Haters will hate. So keep calm and carry on, do what you think is good and keeps you happy.

-- Robin Low