Texsox

he's the Rush Limbaugh of sports. Says s*** just to be outrageous.

I really believe the 401k, not social security, killed the employer pension plans.

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/learn...a-comeback.aspx

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 23, 2010 -> 09:08 PM) Think of it this way... How many companies offer a pension? It died when the government stepped in with social security. History tells me that the same thing will happen here. How many companies offer 401Ks and even offer matching? I believe it was self directed 401ks that killed pensions. Especially those pensions tied to the fortunes of one company.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Mar 23, 2010 -> 07:32 PM) If Company A offers me, say, $50k, and Company B offers me the same job and same salary but with insurance benefits, well guess where I'm going? Exactly what I was thinking. But suddenly, tons of businesses will all stop. It seems to me that will piss off their employees quite a bit. And I'm not certain if tons of businesses will do that. Perhaps all of the GOP owned ones will.

Everyone has different resources and will give a different amount. I applaud ChiSoxFn for not going the route of doodads and gizmos for a premium membership like some sites do.

Why are companies offering health insurance benefits to begin with?

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Mar 23, 2010 -> 06:43 PM) Um, sure, because they are just going to let the government take care of it. Ultimately, it's "cheaper" that way. And, remember: no raises to make up for that lost benefit. Besides, why would they offer a plan that's now going to get the s*** taxed out of it? The government plan won't tax, but almost all of the plans that exist out there today that's being paid will be taxed to the individual, unless you're union or goverment workers. That will be interesting. I wonder how that will affect employee moral. And you say tons of companies are already planning this. Where have you heard that?

http://www.corporatepredators.org/top100.html Not trying to be sarcastic. I just find the scale of the fine to be outrageous for a company that cooperated and turned themselves in. Here is a link to corporate criminals and their fines. $144 million would have been the 5th highest fine. Most of these are antitrust, environmental, etc. with presumably more damages than what one person in a small office could do.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Mar 23, 2010 -> 06:34 PM) There's a TON of businesses that are already planning on dropping coverage and just paying the "taxes", er I mean "fine". Which means the curve goes nowhere but up, but I'm sure that 'tis all good cause Barackus the Great, Nancy, and Harry told us so. Really? Companies are going to eliminate a popular benefit? Where did you pick up that information?

QUOTE (bmags @ Mar 23, 2010 -> 04:25 PM) Acorn should change their name to the n-word so when it's shouted out we all know what they mean. They should change their name to Blackwater

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Mar 23, 2010 -> 03:22 PM) The sites cost about $1500 a year to run between Server Costs, domain costs, and random software fees. So 150 members at $10 each would work. Or 300 at $5. Seems really doable. Then we can fire your lazy ass.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Mar 23, 2010 -> 04:16 PM) I'm not sure it was in the news -- we are a privately held company, so I'm not sure if the media latched onto it or not. It was about 10 years ago or so... And I stand corrected, it was over 144M$ in fines. This is all I could find on it, but it's not a full story, as I guess you have to be a member? http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-21091555.html It sure is a messed up industry when doing business the right way results in $144 mil in fines. That was really just one person in one office? Amazing.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Mar 23, 2010 -> 04:08 PM) You are right that the NIT used to be the big tourney, but this post still cracks me up. I haven't watched a single minute of this tournament yet btw, including Illinois. I actually forgot they played last night until I heard the final on the radio this morning. Pretty much all the NCAA has to do is add one more full round and it will kill the NIT. The proposal comes up every few years.

QUOTE (southsideirish71 @ Mar 23, 2010 -> 04:04 PM) The right wing cannot do any such thing. The democrats have the majority in congress and have the leadership in the committees. The reason ACORN is going away is because the democrats allowed it to. ACORN's funding came from more than the government. They lost out all around.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Mar 14, 2010 -> 06:15 PM) I would love for somebody to explain to me why the NIT and other loser tournaments exist. Well, I guess that's a dumb question since the answer is they must make money. But other than that, talk about pointless. This isn't like football where going to the crap.com bowl at least gets you more practice, which is of the essence in that sport. What a shame the NIT dropped this far. For all you youngins' starting in 1938, teams dreamed of Madison Square Garden in the spring. From then on into the 1970s The NATIONAL INVITATIONAL TOURNAMENT (for emphasis) was THE Tourny. However, the NCAA decided they wanted to make some money and managed TV much better. So in answer to your question, the NIT (loser tourny) exists because they are too stuburn to give up. They probably dream of the day when teams passed up the NCAA to play in the bigger tourny, the NIT.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Mar 23, 2010 -> 03:46 PM) And yet we still pay Blackwater Xe millions. fixed

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Mar 23, 2010 -> 02:53 PM) Well, that's the way it works in most industries. In my industry, under HIPAA rules, disclosures of confidential data leads to massive fines. For example, a careless employee in a branch office in the middle of a southern small town cost my company over 75million in fines. One person at one TINY location caused this out of carelessness or whatever other reason. We fixed the situation and turned ourselves in knowing the multi-multi million dollar fine that was going to come with doing so. Why? Because we do business the RIGHT WAY. Now imagine if we had 500 such employees. Or 1,000. Or, instead of doing business the right way, we just swept things like this under the rug hoping nobody would ever find out. The point is, the fines could add up fast. This is where company/employee responsibility comes in. Other employees are supposed to make sure this doesn't happen, so one person can't sink a ship, or two, or twenty. Oversight. Properly handling business. Even at remote locations which must be checked and audited for such breeches. We take it pretty seriously in my line of work. If Acorn had done the same, they wouldn't be where they are. Ignorance is not an excuse for poor business practices or ignoring laws, rules and regulations. And believe me, we are under far stricter laws and regulations than Acorn, as is everyone in the health insurance industry, yet we seem to avoid frequent occurrences of these SPI breeches. Actually I think it is very rare to have the actions of one or two employees take down an organization of that size. I tried to find a news story about the fine. How long ago was it? How would you have felt if instead of a careless employee, a competing company planted someone and enticed the employee into reveiling the information? And instead of a $75 million dollar fine, it was large enough to close down the company?

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Mar 23, 2010 -> 01:48 PM) The saddest part is you are all smarter than this, but apparently it's not hard to pull the wool over your eyes. Keep believing that ACORN is shutting down because of a vast right wing conspiracy. BEYOND ridiculous. Not a vast conspiracy, but it was a right wing group that mounted the effort to stop ACORN. And let's not fool ourselves, they targeted ACORN based on ideology. They also used entrapment, a technique that is often criticized.

I think it is sad when a couple employees' actions cause an entire organization to fold. That is bad news for a lot of people. Imagine if today you lost your job because someone in a remote office ripped off a customer. No fault of your own, but you are as much out of work as the guilty person(s).

$25 via Paypal. I will make another donation in a couple months.

QUOTE (GREEDY @ Mar 20, 2010 -> 09:59 PM) For years on this board and others, I have bashed Dye's defense in RF and I have been met with a fair share of protest. Some more dellusional than others, but for the most part it seemed that more people than not think JD was/is a solid option in RF. And clearly, a strong majority, if not all MLB GMs seem to believe that Jermaine cannot play as an everday outfielder; and JD doesn't want to be paid as a 4th OF or DH, hence the current extra time to spend with the fam. So what rock did all of you crawl under this offseason? And is Hawk or Rongey under there with you? QUOTE (GREEDY @ Mar 21, 2010 -> 03:26 PM) Who did I insult? What the f***! Most people would believe it is insulting to be called delusional and being asked what rock you crawled under. The opurpose of the trhead was not to discuss or even debate a player and his abilities, the thread was basically you calling out posters who disagreed with you. But I can see where you are confused over who was insulted because the list of people that disagreed with you about Dye's defense is basically zero from any threads I could find in a search.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Mar 23, 2010 -> 08:41 AM) If anyone said insurance companies don't profit, they're misinformed or lying. They do profit...they just don't profit that much. You know who has higher profits? Doctors, hospitals, drug companies, and the like...which will continue to have the same (or higher) profits than they have right now. And I see people spouting these percentages of administrative overhead when it comes to insurance companies, with no evidence to back these claims. From what company? I work for Blue Cross Blue Shield, and I assure you our administrative overhead is nowhere near 30%. That reeks of cherry picking inflated statistics from what is probably the worst run health insurer in the country and using it as a blanket fact applied to all. The bill does a hell of a job curtailing the huge 3% profits from health insurance companies... But does nothing to curtail the even higher profit margins from drug companies, hospitals, etc. In essence, nothing truly changed...we're just going to have raise your premiums even more now. Whether you pay for it or the government/taxpayers help, we're still getting paid. Doesn't sound like much was accomplished in terms of cost savings, which was the key point of this entire thing... Since I own quite a few drug companies (stocks), I just did a quick check of some of the money they make -- oh, and thanks to this bill, I'm banking on those drug companies now. Merck Revenue: 23,850,000,000 Cost of Revenue: 5,582,000,000 Minus R&D, Admin, and other -- 5,053,000,000 CLEAR profit. And yes, those are billions, with a B. Bristol-Myers Squibb Revenue: 18,808,000,000 Cost of Revenue: 5,140,000,000 Minus R&D, Admin and other -- 5,052,000,000 CLEAR profit. I work for Blue Cross Blue Shield. It would take us 7.5+ YEARS to clear that kind of profit. It's actually considerably longer than that, but I don't have exact numbers so I'm giving an ultra liberal estimation there. In reality, it'd probably take us longer than a decade to turn that. The best part is, part of this reform was made via back room deals with those drug companies -- so those profits you see above, they're about to get a whole lot bigger. Not that I'm complaining, it'll put my kids through college. But the point is, you watched the left hand, when the trick was being done with the right. One TINY area of health care was "fixed", while the larger parts of it were left alone, or actually HELPED. Good job. I do not get too worked up over profit. Their are too many factors that determine profits. Perhaps the drug companies could be less efficient and pay their employees more to match profit percentages. What we should have is a level playing field and then allow companies to profit as they can.

QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ Mar 22, 2010 -> 07:34 PM) I am posting the link to my facebook page. This should be fun..... I did the same thing. About 75% of my friends are GOPerheads.

The "baby killer" congressman came forward. I hope the story ends quickly.