Vermont makes History

[Napoleon]

What a great place!

[Napoleon]

Is Vermont poorer than any rural area equivalent in size and population? I imagine the opposite.

[Napoleon]

Mississippi isn't poor by any reasonable or objective definition.  Vermont, however, is in fact the second-poorest state in the Northeast.

Goldmined.

I'm glad you admire my comic skills, and Mississippi is still richer than Greece.

No it isn't.

And we don't marry our cousins.

2010 GDP per capita, Greece: $28,100
2010 GDP per capita, Mississippi: $33,000

And wrong stereotype (that's Appalachia).

Is Vermont poorer than any rural area equivalent in size and population? I imagine the opposite.

Alaska, Wyoming, Colorado, Minnesota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, North Dakota, Nevada, Oregon, and Kansas are all more rural than Vermont, and all are richer than Vermont.

AK ND SD and WY are welfare states. The rest have big cities.

[Napoleon]

Angus is always right, though if px wants to px all over his own thread, I can accept that. All I ask is that no one px on my threads.

[Napoleon]

We can give entire states Obamacare waivers now?

Slightly more on topic, odds are this won't really change a thing.  Vermont's healthcare system could range anywhere from fountain of youth to extermination camps, and 90% of people will have already made up their minds on whether or not its a good or bad thing.

Vermont's probably close to the top of most US "health" indexes too, so it will be interesting to see how this holds up 10 years from now.

I disagree.  Well, I agree with your tacit accusation that "health" indices are misleading and agenda-driven.  Indeed they are.  People point to things like longevity, which has less to do with medical service than demographic and cultural norms, or to things like "customer satisfaction," which also have more to do with societal impressions.  As far as I know, there is no objective metric metric for medical service.  Most neutral observers understand this, and anyone who points to irrelevant statistics as anything other than what they are is easily identified as either foolish or malevolent.

But your point about folks not reserving judgment about such radical economic experiments may not be valid.  I'd say that if the result is concentration camps wherein the terminally ill are systematically denied services which extend their lives, no matter how wealthy they are, then the American people, and probably Vermonters as well, will reject the idea.  At the moment, although I have visited Vermont many times, I have only two friends in vermont and no relatives there, so, all things considered, if we're going to conduct such an experiment, better it be there than in Massachusetts, California, Texas, Iowa, or any other place where I actually have relatives and friends.  Vermont is small in area and population.  And exceedingly redneck, and exceedingly white.  Homogenous, insular, and not very representative of the US population as a whole.  It's Denmark, basically.  Farmers and stoners, mostly, and a few cops and public servants.  It's one of the few places where such a plan may work.  But if it does work there--and by "work" I don't mean the sort of concentration camps that you hear about on Sean Hannity's show--then I think you have a chance that the rest of the nation may give it a go.  On the other hand, if it doesn't work there, in that lily-white, rural, goos-hunting, organic tomato-growing country where there are fewer McDonald's than there are in any given square mile of Manhattan, then I doubt you're going to get the rest of the country to take it seriously.

But, if we're going to be honest, then we have to wonder about whether the likely cuts in federal funding to Vermont are enough to discourage them.  My gut feeling is that it will not.  But I admit my ignorance here.  I was hoping that at least one post in this thread might be an intelligent one.  And in four pages, I have not seen one.  All we're doing here is braggin about our own ignorance.  And I include my own posts in that indictment.  Given the potential economic impact of such a radical legislation, I think that's unfortunate.

Angus is ALWAYS right. Politics in America is now entertainment. Even this site is a byproduct of that. That's how you get your Trumps and Palins. Its sad but it's the truth in this era. We could do better but we choose not to.