The joys of being self-employed

[brmax]

We should still look abroad to Europe for some for our own interest.  Here is the main reason and the simple fact it is an older region of the world, weather you want to embrace their experience or be left behind.
I spent 18 months there as a soldier and they appreciated my being there,  I did try to be a bit sociable.  It was really odd in the travels on trains "how efficient" and again yes as a highway builder,  mechanic of all equipment types,  that train travel is superior ( . )
The education I cannot speak much on other than at the time all persons my age in the German, Nordic, lands were taught 3 languages from the get go,  and not electives as here.  This requirement includes English and they were can I say excellent with the speech. I thought it only honorable to try my hardest to return some effort.
The city,  suburbs and rual areas living quarters of there citizens were to my eyes Organized,  and mostly city type low structure 3 floor buildings along main roads.  Very mundane or actually modest even what they call houses are very close together and many like a condo/town house built very close,  It takes a eye to see there ideas of importance.
In many areas and many things over there I thought how strange? backwards then in following years in my good ole USA these very same infrastructures, technical mechanics, fashions da ta duh become all the rage here. I said quietly many times to myself how efficient, smart and sharp.

I don't care how much academics one learns in life if the experiences of others don't register in our note books, we will continue the same crap.

Im here mostly searching knowledge of experienced fabricators of textiles and leathers from traditionally taught and professionally instructed members.
I wish most times I was waayyy more educated in the writings for this here "Group" of an "Organized" craft women and men, as my teachers in writings did little smiling I hope further along it gets better here.

Have a good day
Im going to go weld in this "wet heat" another work table, Later ; )

[SteveA]

Doc the wide variance hinges on income.  Two parties earning the same income can have varied premiums because the final number is part of your overall returns.  If you paid too little for health insurance they get you on the return.  It's difficult to predict your income for them.  This is how they gauge the premium.  If you underestimate income your premium is lower but they get you on the back end.
One short coming I see is that there isn't a decent sliding scale.  If your income is $ 1000.00 over one of the earning platforms the premium can double and more.  Makes no sense.

Gene - you're right - premiums will increase as the policies move forward and the care will not be as good - it's already not as good.

brmax - thanks for your service !  Your writing is fine - better then mine - it's the content that matters - Europe is already here along with everyone else - we have great workers just poor political leaders who can't get anything done.  I believe we have the best minds in the world here but they are not in charge.

SA

[byhammerandhand]

quote without comment RE: The Donald

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/07/donald-trump-running-for-president/398345/

[kodydog]

Elder care is a big concern. And in Europe, especially GB this is already happening. Will O-care be able to afford our aging population?

This from the Washington post.

President Obama had been confronted by a North Carolina woman asking if "everyone that's Medicare age will be visited and told they have to decide how they wish to die."

In response Obama joked morbidly about euthanasia, that he hadn't yet hired enough bureaucrats to conduct such an operation, yet he could not deny the New York Post's discovery the House bill...

"compels seniors to submit to a counseling session every five years (and more often if they become sick or go into a nursing home) about alternatives for end-of-life care" (pages 425-430).  

In other words, your grandmother will be told, when insufficient resources are rationed to young people, that her duty to die begins with mandatory "end-of-life counseling," or...

As Obama explained, "encourage the use of living wills" that terminate otherwise salvageable lives prematurely through signed "do not resuscitate" (DNR) legal releases that authorize "pulling the plug" on Grandma.

The White House made a quick video to refute claims of euthanasia in the health care bill, but interestingly they deleted Obama's quote about living wills, and AARP sent emails claiming rumors about euthanasia in the bill were generated by conspiracy theorists.

But then a respected bioethicist wrote a scathing editorial in the Washington Post, confirming that euthanasia is initiated by the government in the bill.

"Section 1233, however, lets doctors initiate the chat and gives them an incentive -- money -- to do so."

http://www.knowthelies.com/node/7930

[gene]

That's a bit of old news, kodyD. When O care was first being promoted there were claims that it included 'death panels'. O and the white house and the main stream media denied it. When it came out that there are indeed 'death panels' mandated in O care, no one seemed to care.

A few of our elected Republicans, who are just as much in favor of O care as the Democrats,  gave lip service to being against it and then moved on.

Welcome to som. The Government takes care of us from cradle to grave - literally. There are no more individual rights and freedoms. Liberty? What's that? Everything is based on what a bunch of politicians and bureaucrats say is best for the society.

You can still buy a copy of Hillary Clinton's book, It Takes a Village.

gene

[bobbin]

End of life care.  What's wrong with that?  The way I see it, it's like an a la carte menu... you can order whatever you like.  Or not.  If you wish to talk about end of life options then do so.  If you don't wish to discuss it, then don't.  Some of us think that grim discussion is long overdue! some of us would like to see options available that return to us the thing everyone really wants... choice.  If that's a "death panel"... bring it on, it's long past time to get serious and deal frankly with the issue.  Grow up and get real.

As someone who spent just shy of 4 yrs. caring for an elderly, frail, mentally failing parent I know from whence I speak, you guys (and probably better than most of you!).  My mother made no provisions whatsoever for her last days on this planet.  She figured the will she and my father had drawn up in 1980/whatever would guarantee that their property would automatically pass to their kids.  And that all insurance stuff would be just fine, too.  I wish I had a shot of her face when she realized that it was too late to institute changes to that will and that it was too late to "isolate and protect" the very assets she wanted to see passed to her kids.  You have no idea how hard it is to work full time and care for an elderly person who can no longer care for themselves.  You have no idea how hard it is to coordinate your work schedule with that of your spouse to minimize "alone time" for the elderly person.  You have no idea how trying and difficult it is to find reliable help that shows up reliably to cover the gaps in the care you and your spouse provide.  Consider yourselves lucky... I'd be willing to bet if you'd hoed the same row I did, you'd look at the "death panel" foolishness with very different eyes. 

Single payer national health insurance.  It's time and the many hidden people who did what I did need it... "death panels" and all!

[Virgs Sew n Sew]

I'm with you on single payer all the way bobbin.

MIL passed in Feb.  We're still sorting out some of her health insurance issues.  Nursing home ripped MIL off at every opportunity, buying non-generic at a horrendous mark-up no less.  UGH! 

Fortunately, in-laws did see a competent attorney who drew up the necessary provisions to protect the assets that they wanted passed onto their two children.  However, I saw lots of people at that nursing home that you could tell were penniless and dependent upon the State for their room & board.   There simply has to be a better way.  What we are doing now is so screwed up it absolutely drives me crazy!

Virginia

[kodydog]

You see that is the problem with social programs, it takes the decisions out of the family and hands it to the government. Okay fine I get it, your too busy to look after your parent.

I come from a very close nit family. We were all there when my father passed. It was a big deal because he was a very ornery old man. And now my mother is 82 and starting to show her age. Two months ago she fell and broke her pelvis. We were all there for her. She stayed with my youngest sister in St Petersburg for a month while she went to physical therapy. Now she is back home in Tallahassee near my other sister and almost fully recovered. I'm the middle man running her back and fourth. Next week I'll drive her to St Pete again as she plans a trip to Ireland with my sister and niece.

Thank god she didn't have to appear before some death panel who would have told her she needs to think about  end of life.

Point is elder care used to be handled by family. I don't know whats going on with people today and their attitude toward the elderly. (Or in the womb for that matter). Used to be a time when we took care of our own. Has the world become so complicated that everyone is too busy to look after the ones who brought us into this world.

[Virgs Sew n Sew]

That's not a real fair generalization kodydog.  When FIL passed, we were very fortunate that, due to his illness, we were able to bring him home from the hospital.  SIL, before her heart attack, had been a geriatric nurse and she pretty much provided round the clock care for my FIL the 2 weeks he had left on this earth.  We rented a hospital bed and had it set up in their living room.  The afternoon he passed, the entire family was in the room with him, chatting quietly.  We were so happy that he passed very peacefully in his sleep.

MIL was an entirely different story.  She had COPD, Parkinson's, diabitis, heart murmur and most importantly, a huge case of the lazies.  She said time and time again that retirement to her meant sitting in her lift chair reading, watching TV or working brain puzzles.  Unfortunately, that meant her muscles atrophied which is the worst thing you can do with Parkinson's.  She was at home for almost 5 years after FIL passed with my SIL trying to care for her.  But, SIL has her own health issues and lifting mom up and down 15-20 times a day was taking its toll on my SIL's health.  Once SIL was unable to care for her, the only option was a nursing home.  Our house doesn't have wheel chair access, it is only a 2 bedroom house and the second bedroom long ago was converted into another purpose.  Would have taken months and thousands of dollars which we didn't have to convert that back into a bedroom that MIL could have used.  The bigger issue would have been how to care for her.  I am fused and cannot lift over 50 pounds.  Had I tried to do what SIL did, I would have wound up flat on my back in Omaha having another level of my spine fused.  Bob also has his own medical issues, besides which a son should not be wiping and bathing his mother.  That's just wrong on so many levels.  She had only a 6 month short term disability policy which she had long ago used up so no insurance would have paid for help to come in with MIL.  That's the sum total of our family.  2 kids and an in-law and all three of us have disabilities.  So, no choice but to use a nursing home.

I will also say that the 11 months in the nursing home, MIL was the happiest that she had been since FIL passed.  Her nursing home had tons of activities and she participated in as many as she could with her health.  She was around her peers, she had started painting again, most days they were able to get her exercising and psychologically she was very content.  We didn't just "dump" her in the home because we didn't have time or didn't care.  That was the best solution we had.  Between the four of us (one grandchild), she saw family 5 or 6 days a week.  Her friends and pastor were in almost daily as well.  She had a smile on her face every day that she was in that place and said continuously that she realized how fortunate she was having a family who cared enough to visit her often.  We did that because we loved her and she was EXTREMELY important to all of us.  There is still a huge void in all of our lives because she is gone.  We would loved for her to be able to pass at home like my FIL did but with her health issues and our issues that just was not feasible.

I would also say that I firmly believe that people who have long painful illnesses should be able to choose dying with dignity.  A hundred years ago, people were not kept alive because of ventilators and other assorted machinery.  That is one aspect of modern medicine that I don't think actually enhances life in some circumstances.  But that is just how I believe.  You are entitled to your beliefs as well.  But people should be able to choose to exit this earth in a dignified manner.  Nothing dignified about not being able to communicate, having machines breathe for you, etc.

Virginia

[SteveA]

If I were given a choice how best to handle a family illness - I'd want it to be mine 100%. My religious beliefs are not intended to sway others.  The leaderships during our lifespans have not had our best interest in mind.  There is no reason to believe things will get better.  Benefits cost money and the branches need to learn accounting.
In regard to end of life - every family should choose their own course whether religious based or not.  Unfortunately the opinions within a Family can cause internal discourse when this time is presented.  Lucky they have some good drugs to make the patient very comfortable.
SA

[sofadoc]

Lucky they have some good drugs to make the patient very comfortable.

.......And drain what little money is left in your wallet.