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If you are laid off you can only keep the old insurance for a limited length of time under the law a few years ago. Not sure what the law is now. Also the rates can go sky high when you are laid off and take the plan private. Also the old company can lay off a bunch of people, discontinue the old health plan so the laid off people are not eligible to continue in the old plan. Then they start a new plan for the current employees. Or in some cases the companies go out of business leaving people without health insurance. I guess you live a sheltered life.

Reply to
Art
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In the U.S., you would be taling about continuation under the COBRA Act.

True.

I believe they must make it available to continue you under the plan you were under at the time of layoff. BTW - If you get laid off and your previous employer tries to play games with your eligibility for COBRA or what's available under COBRA, call the Department of Labor - they absolutely **LOVE** to go after companies that try to skirt the law in this area. I called the DoL about something that a previous employer was telling me that didn't jive with what the COBRA Act itself seemed to say on the subject, and when I explained the question to the DoL, I had to hold the DoL off from going after them - they begged me to turn them loose on them. I was able to use that fact as leverage to get the previous employer to do what the Act required, and they changed their tune **VERY** quickly (sometimes I wish I had turned the DoL loose on them - they deserved it for several reasons - for one thing, they - a French-owned company - laid off a bunch of Americans in their U.S.-based plant in order to bring French employees over to fill the same spots - a big no-no according to U.S. federal labor laws. There were other sleeze-ball things they did too that I won't go into).

Always a risk, but you could also walk out your door and get run over by a truck too. 8^)

Bill Putney (to reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with "x")

Reply to
Bill Putney

Meant to type "...you would be talking about...

Bill Putney (to reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with "x")

Reply to
Bill Putney

Communism never truly existed, Socialism is still some of the most successful nations (i.e. Sweeden), and capitalism won't leave as long as there are the super-rich. Just out of curiousity, what is the future?

Reply to
Sijuki

That is why Toyota is building a R&D and a Development plant here in michigan. That is why they assemble and make parts here in michigan. Not just the cars. They plan to employ some some 15-30k people by time they are done with it. The number 2 automaker is apparantly reinvesting where they make their money. However, it is still a foreign company since you have to pay the foreign tax on your stock dividend. But still, I would be more apt to buy a Toyota who is building more plants and other facilities here, then a company that is looking to push more facilities out of the country. Not that I think any particular area should be strictly dependent on one industry. But now I am just babbling.

Reply to
Sijuki

"C. E. White" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@mindspring.com...

I really only have one comment to make.... how is the Stock Market a big Casino that I "feed my money into so they can live like a Sultan"? I get mine too. GM pays a $.50/sh dividend each quarter. That is a pretty decent dividend, especially for an auto manufacturer. Their stock is on a decent rise from the fall of the market a few years ago. So I don't see how you are getting screwed on it here. Perhaps if you knew how to make Your Money Work For You, you wouldn't be so angry. This is a capitalistic society. Those who work for it are rewarded for it. Sure, Mr Wagoner may get paid a lot. Part of it may be greed, it may be he is worth it, it may be something else. But look at someone like Henry Ford, he worked tirelessly for years to get his auto company off the ground. He probably spent nights upon nights without sleep, working his ass off, and he was rewarded for it. He made millions, had one of the most powerful companies in the U.S., and there were people who complained about his ways. But I tell you what, if that man offered me a job, I would have taken it and never complained one bit about it. Some companies lie, cheat, steal, but it is our job to educate ourselves on what it is those companies do. Knowledge is the key to success in our world. If you don't like capitalism, I would suggest a country like Sweeden or Switzerland, perhaps even Cuba, North Korea, or Vietnam where everyone is equal (at least according to the rules of communism, but something tells me they are using that word a little loosely... I see dictatorship... but what do I know.) and gets equal pay based off their job description and gets equal food and gets equal housing and the same clothing. Then you won't have to worry about anyone making $14.7 million dollars a year, it will be like $100 a year. You won't have to worry about someone having 17 cows to your 1 or anything, at least in theory, but I am pretty sure in North Korea, they are lucky to have a cow (or ox). I do think some CEO's make too much money, and in a way I think some regulation should be in place, such as when American Airlines is cutting jobs, cutting pay, and filing bankruptcy but the CEO is giving himself a payraise and a bonus it seems a little backassward. Although by filing bankruptcy the courts will decide that stuff. But still. Kmart is another example, offering loans to top executive and pay increases and generous use of company equipment while closing stores and cutting employess instead of investing in the company which drove it into the ground. But I can't complain much cause such is the world of capitalism.

Reply to
Sijuki

The homeless americans can get a J-O-B. I know its a rough situation here for some people. I know I am in one myself. But there are jobs. Truth is a lot of homeless people don't want to do anything. Thus if you don't want to work for it, you shouldn't get it. This isn't a vacation.

Reply to
Sijuki

Its called COBRA insurance when you get laid off or quit a job. Its expensive yes, but its insurance. Its not too shabby. You almost always get something in the mail after terminating employment in anyway. I know I always have. Plus I get offered the extensions on my insurance that I had with the company I worked for. You can buy insurance, there is just a cost. There are even insurance companies that will insure you regardless but you will pay a premium. ( a major premium, especially women due to the maintenece care).

Reply to
Sijuki

I've been laid off before and you're full of crappola! There are many health insurance options out there from many different providers that will write policies with different coverage options. Have you not looked for them?

Reply to
James C. Reeves

Spoken like a true republican.

Reply to
Hairy

If you mean stating the facts, you're right. You can get different types of insurance from many sources. They may not be cheap, but they're out there. And there are plenty of safety nets out there for those in dire straits.

Bill Putney (to reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with "x")

Reply to
Bill Putney

Dunno what's it's like in the US but in the UK quite a few homeless are mentally ill and need looking after and not instructions from warm and comfortable people on high to get a job. They're on the streets because the government closed many mental institutions and tipped the inmates into "Care in the Community", a well-meaning move that assumed these people had relatives who would take of them.

How many homeless have you spoken to or read about?

DAS

Reply to
Dori A Schmetterling

Exactly true in the US too plus there are plenty of working homeless.

Reply to
Art

Let me give you an example of a safety net. There is low cost subsidized health insurance available in most states for children with no coverage. But it is limited and on a first come first serve basis. The demand is much higher than the supply, at least in NC.

Reply to
Art

Seems to me when highly paid GM management manages to go from 50% market share to 28% market share in a couple of decades, there is something wrong with the executive compensation system.

Reply to
Art

"Dori A Schmetterling" wrote

Although a certain number of homeless in the US are on the streets rather than in extended-care/half-way house situations, the vast majority are in other categories: 1) single-parent households (usually mother and children) that have been abandoned by the father, 2) low-wage transient laborers who don't have the financial capability to rent (or who are saving all their money and will move back to their permanent home after the work season), and 3) the congenitally un-employed/homeless that just like it - some of these are professional mendicants (ie, beggars).

Floyd

Reply to
fbloogyudsr

An arguement that could always be inserted into any otherwise intelligent discussion.

Reply to
Art

There are certainly other groups - I was only highlighting one group that grew substantially in the UK substantially at the point of closure of what were long-stay hospitals a few years ago. (It must be said that many of these buildings were inefficient and Victorian, but the government chose not to replace them.)

I am aware of some homeless who like it that way, whatever the reason, but I am sure they are a small percentage.

The rest don't want to be there.

DAS

Reply to
Dori A Schmetterling

Once again you have chosen to base your opinion on faulty information. The market has expanded from the vehicles available from around five manufactures in the US to the vehicles from around a dozen manufacture for all over the world. The volume of sales has grown from around 6 million annually then to around 18 million annually today. The fact is GM sells more vehicles today than they did back in the early fifties when they commanded

50% of all vehicles sold in the US.

mike hunt

Art wrote:

Reply to
BigJohnson

We have some mentally ill patients, many of which, at least in Michigan, were given the boot to the street when we got rid of the last few 'insane asylum's' that we had in the area. The last one to close in the area was over 100 years old, but the state no longer felt like funding it. We have a few homeless that are mentally ill, but I don't forsee it making up a majority. A majority of the homeless, or I guess I should say beggars, are men. Some honestly want help and admit it. But others just want to booze themselves, they will ask for money for food, and if you offer them food they tell you to "F*%& off!". I don't feel much compassion for them. By no means is it easy being homeless, you have a heck of a hill to climb, but its possible.

As far as asking how many homeless I speak to or read about, I serve food to the homeless around the holidays those which most are very thankful for the warm food and warm place to spend some time and the good company. Many of them are men, some are women with children. Some are families.

My point isn't that homeless don't deserve anything, but there are people that give this idea that we should spend billions a year to feed and cloth and shelter homeless, when really we should be offering some sort of employment and perhaps low cost options to them. Not particularly free.

Reply to
Sijuki

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