One night, thirteen years ago in the U.S., I took my daughter to the ER because of stomach pain and vomiting. Turns out it was appendicitis, so they did surgery. She stayed in the hospital until the next afternoon, so a stay of about 15 hours. The surgery bill was US$38,000. That didn’t include the ER visit. Thank God I had insurance through my employer, so I only had to pay 10% (My $1,000 deductible had already been met earlier in the year). I paid about $350 per month from my paycheck for this insurance coverage (entire family).
In contrast, nine years ago in Taiwan I was hospitalized for a week with pneumonia. Seven days hospitalization, with all the doctors, tests, and medicine, cost me NT$2,300. No private insurance, only NHI.
In a lot of US communities, it is actually illegal (as in, against the local bylaws) to have anything that resembles a vegetable in your garden. Meanwhile, there’s roughly a quarter-acre of useless lawn for every citizen in the US. And they wonder why they’re all getting weird diseases.
The medical industry know they’ve got everyone over a barrel: when you’re ill, you’ll pay whatever you have to to not be ill.
Interestingly the typing work is very cheap and also you can do it one test…Called multiplex.
What they often do it charge per item in the test even though some of the tests could have 20 analyses in the test !
There are some moves to control it. Before they could charge 500 USD just to test all the painkillers a person could ‘potentially’ be taking. The docs order the tests and the medical groups and the testing labs share the profit . Most of it is legal scamming hiding under mandatory testing or monitoring .
They very likely had the records still, they just make more money by 'being extra careful ’ for all tests every time. It’s a joke.
If they have to retest they should charge much much less to decrease the profit incentive.
Just like how docs in Taiwan over prescribe pills as hospital and clinics all have associated pharmacies attached. If they associated full diagnostic labs that could work quickly they’d be testing the hell out of us.
Is there somewhere I can read about these anti vegetable garden laws? I’m from Canada so I’m no stranger to creepy strata people, so I can see the possibility. But id really love a reference for future conversations
Keep a veggie garden is okay, just don’t create mess and odour that are gonna bother your neighbor. Veggie garden isn’t that beautiful to look at anyway, so if one can, keep it in the backyard
My MD has some association with a lab, so every year he gives me a paper to go and get the ‘free’ test. It’s free for me but they get paid by the NHS in Taiwan.
In many countries there are laws about what and how you should keep your front yard. Back yard is whatever you want to do, only in a few towns you can’t grow any veggies due to pollution from surrounding factories. (lead and zinc)
Interesting. So in those areas it’s a contamination related issue? What do they do about water? That one is at least logical, if not incredibly depressing. But the nuisance law thing is the type of thing that really gets me personally. I get not having rotting compost heaps next to the neighbours house, but growing veggies, or virtually any plants, that does not directly interfere with others land is one step closer to insanity.
I get that issue there, but if we go down that road everything can potentially be illegal. Aesthetics is hugely subjective and should certainly not be a government involved issue. Like paint in Taiwan. If the color is ugle and faded, that’s the owners right. If it’s peeling and contains lead, then it’s a commynity concern. Gardens are the same. Reminds me about people in some areas doing the native species garden and other people with too much entitlement complining that it’s ugly. My home town in Canada had a similar problem years ago when planting wild flowers and bobs in the lawn became briefly popular. In the spring people wouldn’t now the lawn to let the flowers boom, but grannies complained a lot.
In the end we need to be allowed some personal freedoms. If a person can’t grow their own food on land they bought, I fear we can no longer point fingers at places like china…What’s most mind boggling to me is how the general sheep population not only accepts it but backs it up with sentences starting something like “well, you know…”, “We need to have some rules…”. Its not like growing a trigger carrot is alike to spraying roundup pl over your neighbours children’s kiddie pool, or having thing drunk parties all night every weekend. Truthfully, this is why I stay in Taiwan. I find it easier trying to help improve the pollution here than trying to explain to sjw style people why they can get their nose out my garden. The battle may not be easier but it is FAR less irritating. Seriously, what’s wrong with people?
There’s problem with invasive species in Taiwan though.
And aesthetics can be quite objective. Those sheet metal houses and huge billboards sticking out everywhere(gets dangerous in typhoon days) are just hideous.
My neighbor used to keep a little family of chicks a hen and a rooster. The chicks and hen were fine just walking everywhere they please, but that rooster had to chase little kids around pecking them. And I did kinda get paranoid thinking if there’s going to be a bird flu breakout.
With all that’s said above, I’m not justifying Canada now being officially a sjw gov’t. Maybe growing veggies can u into trouble more than growing pot🤔
Indeed, so logic based arguments for rulemaking can be acceptable. There are numerous native vegetable species. I guess my point is like yours, aesthetics is objective and not hurting anything based solely on being ugly to some. If there is a safety reasons, follow that. Not what some people in places of authority don’t like so no one is allowed to have it. That’s north Korea style thinking.
Every place I’ve ever lived in the States had multiple communal gardens. Anywhere there is a college or university, you can bet there’s at least one.
They’re often hidden, though, and by invitation only because otherwise they’re the victim of massive theft (to be expected). And usually they are not close by, you may have to bike or drive over.
Not at all difficult to find a communal garden in the US, not in my experience.
Easy to find about anything you need to hang out the wash in the US. I don’t think Walmart would give shelf space over if there were no demand.
In many HOA or gated communities, though, it’s verboten to hang clothes in public view. Just one more reason to be active in HOA or just avoid living under such bylaws.
I’m sure there are. And I wasn’t suggesting it was the entire US. It’s a big place. However there are pockets of Stepford-like suburban weirdness where you’ll have men with clipboards turn up with a backhoe if they spot a tomato plant in your flowerbed. Oh, and don’t think about setting up a rainwater collection barrel; rainwater belongs to the government, and must be diverted down storm drains, not put to good use.
Point is, this sort of thing shouldn’t exist at all. A little bit of it is too much. Otherwise, people start accepting it as normal behaviour.
A lot of the US west is semi-arid, and water regulations can be draconian, I agree.
Home Owners Associations sometimes have different ideas about collecting rainwater, too. There’s a place for HOA in the US. Not always easy to know what is or isn’t a good home investment. HOA can sort that out for many home buyers. Rain water can be collected in a variety of ways, not all of which involve above-ground rain barrels.