re: Poli Board - Get your poop together Atlanta

Direct to patient drug advertising has hurt today because they can make more claims that may be a little dubious to mislead people. And then patients come in expecting this new 'miracle drug' (understandable after some of the commercials etc) and will just find someone willing to prescribe it.

And you're exactly right about generics. The misconception that they're not as good is crazy. Then there's the minimal tweaks to make a new 'better' brand drug to get patent again which is always shady. Especially since I'm sure it was planned early on when the precursor was being developed.

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I hate that argument..if I was black I would be very offended at all the "open minded" folks using what black folks have gone through and comparing it to LGBT issues...what a slap in the face

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I mean, it obviously isn't the same, but I think it's also ridiculous to act like LGBT people haven't endured any sort of suffering or prejudice, especially in the south.

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Same goes when people use the terms "fig" or "gay" as an interchangeable word for stupid.

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Didn't you live in McDonough or somewhere like that?

Metro Atlanta is better off that you like South, GA better. Stay there and we'll all be better off for it.

Good. And why don't you and Jefferson get married. That way you can both sit around and complain all day about a place where neither of you live.

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Liberals, on the other hand, take more of a punitive or destructive view of economics, wherein they want to tear down the rich and give their money to the poor rather than encouraging the poor to build themselves up. This view often does center around the poor, but Conservatives like myself don't agree that it is beneficial in the long run because it incentivizes poverty and discourages wealth or work that leads to more wealth accumulation.

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This is the truth. The basic principle of liberal econonics is to take money from people who have earned it and give it to people who haven't.

Let's be real here, just because their are a million different races, ethnicities, and that the people look different does not make Atlanta diverse.

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TBH, this should be a conservative Christian policy as well. Just not mandated by the government.

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I disagree. If I busted my arse through college to be in a position to make decent money, why should I feel obligated to give some away to someone on welfare who doesn't want to get a job?

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someone on welfare who doesn't want to get a job

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This is probably the single most misunderstood or misrepresented aspect of poverty. *Most* (read: not all... there are always outliers) people don't want to be poor and/or be a sponge on the system.
The way things are setup currently, there is not a real "graduated scale of assistance". You either get something, or you get nothing. The result of this is that someone who say would like to get a job but can only get one that pays minimum wage and beyond that they aren't given full time hours... say 30 hours a week. That's someone who's trying to be productive... however the way things are setup looks a little like this:

Now that they're earning that whopping 217.50 a week (assuming they don't miss any time or get asked to leave early because it's slow), they are earning 11,310 annually if they never take any time off. Of that, approximately 7.65% goes to FICA, so we're left with ~10,450 before accounting for actual tax contributions (we'll say they're negligible at that level of income though). The rub though is because they're not full time, they don't have access to healthcare benefits from the employer but they also lost their Medicaid. So either they're now shelling out half of their income to cover insurance that has a deductible that likely equates to half of their annual income, or they go without insurance. And that's just one source of a negative cycle.

It's not impossible to get out of that cycle, but it's pretty effing difficult. It's a lot easier to say pull yourself up by your bootstraps than to actually do it. There's all these amazing stories of people who are able to pull it off, but when you listen to their stories, they were on a razor's edge. The margin between success and failure is so slim.


I've said this before, but ultimately people will by and large act in a manner in which they are incentivized. If there was actual effort put into place that puts hard limits on the duration of time that someone can reap full benefits, and more "laddered" benefits for people that are working to better themselves and/or their families this would likely go a long way. There's your carrot, which is usually best accompanied with a stick, say gradual decreases in benefits for someone who doesn't meet minimum thresholds for "trying" for example.