The evidence for the US adopting a universal system is so overwhelming at this point that this article does not surprise me. Add it to the existing pile.

What does shock me is Americans continuing to vote for politicians that 1) hold up the fanciful notion that the US gets it right when it comes to healthcare while literally every other developed nation gets it wrong and 2) tank common sense reforms in order to score political points. Where did the ACA's architects get the idea of an individual mandate from? Republicans. Yet when the 2010 midterms approached, the individual mandate suddenly became anathema to every Republican in a race. Voters have to stop allowing themselves to be manipulated by self-serving politicians when it comes to this issue.

@sirleothelion: Is there

Don't European nations and Canada have insanely high tax rates comparable to cities like New York or San Diego, or worse? I don't know about having government expand to control more areas of my life and screw people like myself over more on taxes.It depends. The UK and Australia have total tax burdens that are very similar to the US average and guarantee universal access to healthcare.

I'd rather have participating in SSI, Medicaid, Medicare, etc. completely optional. That is, I don't pay into them but I don't get to use them either.The problem with people opting out of joining the insurance pool is that when they get sick they draw from the system without ever having contributed. If someone you care about fell ill without having paid for insurance, would you be fine telling them to go depend on charity? I know I wouldn't.

I'd keep more of my income to myself to freely use as I wish instead of having the nanny welfare state toss $65,000 of tax payer money at a set of steps that a private citizen could build for $500As is referenced in the OP's article and in countless other sources, countries that guarantee universal care while regulating the healthcare industry are much more efficient. That is to say they achieve better health outcomes while spending half or less per capita.

Seems like people are so hell bent on equity and equality in society even to the point of completely forgetting why the Founding Fathers established this countryLife expectancy at birth in the late 18th century was less than 40 years. Germ theory was not accepted and doctors were powerless to do much of anything about the vast majority of ailments. I think the idea that they founded this country with any notion of how to set up a modern healthcare system in mind is pretty outlandish.

The gerontophobia on display on the right is actually wild given that folks 65 and up is the only age tranche Republicans reliably win.

Between the "let old people die to save the economy" argument during the pandemic and poking fun at Biden's age, it's amazing more seniors don't vote Democrat simply out of spite for the Republicans. The things you get away with when you appeal to white identity politics...

@ghost_of_phobos: Thanks for the clarification!

Also I hope that this game gets DLC support in the form of new plans following launch. One of the best aspects of the PC game was the new planes from modders and the developers.

I'm curious how they will make the game playable on a controller. There's a lot of buttons to press in the cockpit of a 747. It's a lot easier to replicate that on a keyboard then on an XBOX controller.

Also, for those that think this is boring, this is a simulation game. It's obviously a niche title for people who are interested in aviation. Not everything has to be a mass market, appeal-to-as-many-people-as-possible kind of game. Many years ago I worked on a private pilot's license and this game at least allows me to scratch that itch nowadays.

If it plays well and runs well, that may be the factor to get me to give in and buy an XSX.

@eoten: "And the US doesn't even have the highest homicide rate of western, or "modern" countries."

Where are you getting this from? Are you counting Russia as part of the west?

The US' homicide rate is at least 2x the rate of any other rich country. This study considers our gun homicide rate to be 25.2 times higher than the average of other high-income countries.

It seems to me that conservatives love to use "violence in inner cities" to score political points but when you point out that strict gun laws work in other countries to reduce violence, they are no longer interested in the subject.

Correct me if I'm wrong but looking at deaths per capita, it actually seems that 9 out of the top 10 states with the highest rates of gun deaths could be considered traditionally Republican. This actually bolsters your point since I think adjusting for population is probably important. New Mexico is the exception but this state certainly has lax gun laws.

I'm genuinely curious what the Republican justification for this is. Especially as someone who lives in Chicago, I'm a bit tired of seeing my city used as a political cudgel by conservatives who are all too happy to ignore the high rates of gun crimes in their own state.

@appariti0n: "I'm sure there are SOME who don't care about babies, and just use it as a moral cudgel, but there are also SOME who most definitely feel deep compassion for those aborted kids."

I don't doubt the sincerity of your feelings but you can understand why many would suspect that those seeking a complete ban on abortions don't truly have the best intentions. Countries with bans on abortions consistently have thriving black markets for the procedure. Some countries in Latin America with restrictive laws have higher abortion rates than the US. Canada has more lenient laws and has a lower abortion rate than the US. If we decide as a society to minimize abortion - and we should - guaranteeing access to family planning and cheap if not free contraception should be our goal.

More than that, if we are interested in reducing harm overall in the long-term, we know that giving women bodily autonomy is a good choice. Not only are the illicit abortions that would occur under a ban extremely dangerous, being forced into parenthood early is correlated pretty strongly with poverty. I know some may argue that adoption is an option but many mothers are forced to keep children by their families and partners that they would otherwise give up.

Honestly, no I think they won't have anything like Gamepass for the foreseeable future. To be clear the free games available monthly through PS+ and the PS+ collection on PS5 are also nice (like PS Now) but no, it's not anywhere close to Gamepass.

If the goal of a subscriber service is to get consumers into your ecosystem, then what is Sony's motivation to implement one? People already buy their hardware more quickly than they can supply it. Sony's also just less likely to run subsidize a Gamepass like service and lose money on it given that they are a smaller company than MS.

This is not a criticism of Sony. Unlike a lot of people over the past few months, I do think they are generally making good decisions given the realities of the industry now. I'm also skeptical that Gamepass will remain as is for long without some sort of massive price hike. I have to assume it's losing money for Microsoft. They won't let that go on forever.

@eoten: "The vast majority of homicides with guns are gang and drug related. How does making someone who already owns guns wait 2 weeks before he can buy something else he wants going to do a damn thing?"

"500 people alone are shot and killed in Chicago to guns purchased and carried illegally. What's your solution for that? Tell me how mental health checks and wait times fixes that. If none of your proposed solutions deal with that issue, why should any reasonable person listen to them?"

Wait times can indeed help regardless of gun crimes being linked to drugs or not. Criminals in Chicago do not necessarily already have guns. Waiting times can act as a deterrence by forcing would be criminals to seek other solutions to whatever situation is leading them to consider violence.

Wait times are only a small part of the real solution however which would be a national licensing system. States that have pursued this have seen the benefits: https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/10.2105/AJPH.2020.305822

State's doing this on their own is not a complete solution however. We need a federal program. Illinois enacted one in 2019 but cannot do anything about what happens in other states. 60% of guns recovered in Chicago come from out of state, namely Indiana. A lot of guns used by Chicago gangs were simply purchased in out-of-state sporting good stores.