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March 1, 2007
Don't toy with me
I think this is an oblique reference to me, though if it isn't, all can ignore any commentary that follows...
Point of discussion: If you own a toy collection worth thousands, should we feel sorry for you when you complain about how health insurance is too expensive for you to find it worth purchasing (even though you’ll still bitch when you get sick and have to pay for medical attention)? Cathy and I think not, in case you wondered.
I have a couple points of discussion myself:
1. Who evaluates the "worth thousands" aspect? Toys out of package aren't worth much, especially if they're common, and were bought as bargains to begin with. I suspect the sum total of what I could get for every toy I own on ebay is approximately what it might cost to buy some proper furniture or fancy clothes, which I have done without. I certainly doubt it would be enough to buy a $12,000 hospital stay, though it might pay health insurance for one year. Then what?
2. Is it relevant to the issue if most were accumulated during a period of actually having health insurance, prior to one's primary source of income drying up?
3. Shall we compare the price of health insurance to what I spend on toys? The ratio isn't even close. Especially now. I don't even pay to see movies on my own time any more.
4. If you own a house, do you have the right to complain about the price of health insurance? If you have anything that can be sold, must you sell it before you can complain? If you own a car? A fridge? A good TV? To name but a few things worth more than my toys.
5. The only time I've bitched about medical attention was after being gouged for the hospital stay associated with having a very basic, mandatory surgery (the surgery itself was a reasonable price. Everything else - less so). Doctor and prescription bills prior to that were always quite reasonable and sane.
But hey, maybe the comment wasn't about me, but about someone who actually owns all the original Star Wars figures mint-in-package or something. My stuff certainly isn't worth thousands, in terms of what someone in the real world would actually pay for it secondhand. Think of taking a large stack of CDs to Amoeba, and coming out with $10 cash in hand, plus a few of the same CDs because they wouldn't take them. Similar deal.
Thanks for clarifying where I should not look for sympathy, though. I wouldn't have figured that part out myself.
Posted by LYT at March 1, 2007 4:07 AM [Message Board]
Comments
Everyone who knows you has probably thought something similar about your toy collection at some point. In my case, it wasn't that I thought the toys you already had were worth millions... just wondered how you were finding the resources to add new toys, DVDs, etc to the collection, but could not convince yourself that you had them for the DV camera (previously), headshots, etc, that would help you in the areas you normally ask for help in. You bring up good points on the existing collection though, and the habits of others, for that matter.
Even so, I suggest you take it with a grain of salt whether they meant you or not. Only you know what you can, want and need to do. Furthermore, thinking that some actors and politicians congratulating one another about environmental awareness is any less grostesque than us witnessing it because we deemed a few hours of our lives were worth submitting to watch and congratulate actors and politicians for congratulating themselves about creative awareness, is a bit hypocritical and misguided. Especially, if we're congratulating ourselves for agreeing that we were turned off by just one portion of that equation.
Posted by: Jaye Luckett at March 1, 2007 4:27 PM
I dunno. I think poeple are talking about me when they're not, sometimes. I certainly wouldn't think your toy collection is worth thousands, but then I used to collect toys, so thereya go.
People with insurance should still worry about outrageous hospital costs, even if they fool themselves into thinking 'the insurance pays it.'
Eventually things just get too expensive for everybody, and, as long as I'm complaining, you should really only need insurance for something a lot worse than doctor visits and probably even routine surgery.
Posted by: David N. Scott at March 1, 2007 5:34 PM
Obviously they've bought into the lies perpetrated by the scurrilous "40 year old virgin" which used its left wing propaganda machine to posit a bizarre fictional reality where open toys are possibly of some monetary value to anyone. Damn that racist film!
Posted by: ReJeKt at March 1, 2007 6:21 PM
Sometimes these things are hidden blessings.
In one of the later period Butthole Surfers songs Gibby Haynes says something along the lines of "you never know just how you look through other people's eyes," and I've always thought a sweet little string of words.
Posted by: justin stone's creekbed at March 1, 2007 7:00 PM
Heh, what was that song? It was like their one radio hit (well, I guess second if you count Who Was In My Room).
Posted by: David N. Scott at March 1, 2007 7:26 PM
The song was "Pepper"
Posted by: LYT at March 1, 2007 9:14 PM
It holds up pretty good.
Posted by: David N. Scott at March 1, 2007 11:13 PM
This woman is using a really disingenuous device here with the "should we feel sorry for you" bullshit. It's none of her business what you do with your money, no matter how much you bitch about the price of health care. The two things are unrelated. I guess when you have SO much to say on SO many topics (I'm torn between either "Another reason to wish Al Gore would go away" and "Men who need to stop it: part I"), you're bound to leave the logic out every once in a while when you've got an agenda.
Posted by: Ben at March 2, 2007 10:47 AM
(incidentally, thanks for the occasional links to blogs like this... it reminds me why I need to stay the hell away from the internet as much as I can).
Posted by: Ben at March 2, 2007 10:48 AM
You have a FRIDGE? Sell it you fool and get yourself some health insurance!
Posted by: Hlubik at March 3, 2007 9:59 AM
I find myself complaining about health insurance all the time...whether I am employed or not, whether I am making money or not and whether I am sick or not. Health insurance is a thorn on my side but, having it is worth the dollas!!!
Posted by: Edwin A. Santos at March 3, 2007 10:33 AM
health insurance - why the British should stop copying America and celebrate the system it has...
Posted by: offpat at March 4, 2007 5:27 AM