Sounds about right. I know of a current strike where workers are asking nearly 25%.

This hike in living expenses needs wages to catch up since no one seems willing to roll back to normal on “supply chain” hikes during COVID.

Providence Health was officially dinged for this. The nonprofit aspect is such a joke.

The nonprofit requirement allows for feeding profits back into the institution. This can come in the form of investing in employees. Instead of investing in workers who directly impact patients by issuing bonuses, the CEOs get bonuses.

Instead of forgiving bills for the poorest patients, they offer payment plans instead.

It doesn’t matter how well you manage and save your money. In your geriatric years, those hospital CEOs will take it all.

One issue with mother baby units is they are loss leaders. This is why not every hospital has them. They only drain money from a hospital. If the hospital has other money making specialists bringing in the cash, then the mother baby unit can stay.

The other piece is a hospital can only have units for the medical specialists they can attract. If, say, they can’t find cardiologists then there will be no cath lab, and patients needing that care will have to be transferred elsewhere. If, say, Alabama is having a hard time attracting OBGYNs due to archaic laws regarding women’s medical care, then the unit would have to close even if the hospital has no financial reason to do so.

Not stand up. David Sedaris, his life essays, not the short stories.

The Ship Shape, amiright?

Indirectly, this is also a vote for OBGYN access. Doctors aren’t required to evenly distribute themselves across the states, they choose.

If they know they can’t follow through on the best care for their patients, whatever that looks like, that doesn’t incentivize an OBGYN to choose Cleveland over other places.

This is a leadership problem. The problem really does need to be solved at the top.

The reality is most working class cannot just stop, unless handed a practical alternative because stopping would mean not going to work, not earning income, and being rendered homeless. Likely living in their car first which would put oil consumption right back in play.

Whatever alternative you’re thinking of that the working class might be able to achieve as an individual probably has a buy-in cost. Given the even greater number of folks living paycheck to paycheck in the last two years, that buy-in isn’t a plausible ask.

Sucks. But here we are. Find a cost free (to the working class individual) solution that doesn’t interrupt the 5-6 day/wk work schedule or require any extra costs or moving and you’ll solve it. Until then, working class folks are going to do what they must to keep the lights on and the water running, and that’s usually going to be commuting to work in a gas consuming vehicle. As such, the solution needs to come from the top, not the bottom.

Earnest question. Is there enough lithium on the planet to turn around every vehicle in the United States to electric? Assume infrastructure for charging. Even then, do we even have the lithium, cobalt, manganese, nickel, and graphite or whatever else electric vehicle batteries need for it?

So if you’re a congressman they recover your vehicle.

I’ll never argue in favor of glitter, but if we’re discussing micro plastics there’s this:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-43023-x

All the synthetic shit cloth you wear and/or sleep on has impact.

Likely to make more impact on this microplastic by buying cotton or bamboo than trying to ban glitter.

This is the problem with non-medical personnel making broad strokes medical decisions. Lives can and will be lost.

If you live remote, say, an hour or more from real shopping and such it’s the way to get fast delivery on anything, though Walmart does ok with this, though their “fast” is fairly unreliable. (Great for front door delivery of kitty litter, dog food, etc)

But no, most people don’t need it because most people don’t live remote.