corplinx
JREF Kid
- Joined
- Oct 22, 2002
- Messages
- 8,952
I was listening today to talk about the Medicare bill up right now and about how nobody really likes the bill. I started to wonder how a programmer might solve this problem.
Simply put, Medicare is part of a problem in general with government benevolence programs . The programs target different peoples with the same intents but are funded and run by different organizations.
A programmer likes things like standardized apis. We like abstraction. We like engines. We like conf files. Simply put, american social services are one-off spaghetti code.
How would a programmer solve it?
A. take all the programs (ss, medicare, medicaid, welfare, unemployment) and put them into one "engine", fire the redundant government positions to save money, having one office for all benevolence regardless of age increases the user friendliness and accessibility
B. make all the programs need based to reduce "kruft", believe it or not, not all seniors need social security and medicare, save more money
C. axe the social security/medicare/fica taxes/payroll taxes and just dump the income tax standard and itemized deductions, this makes the funding of these programs more "user friendly" as well as the income tax itself
Voila, you have fixed two out of control government programs and simplified 6 in one stroke. Need money or medical care? There is just one office. Doesn't matter if you just got layed off or are too old to work or are disabled.
Yes I am a libertarian who is supposed to say he wants these programs altogether gone. However I am also a pragmatist who realizes we will continue to have these programs so we might as well fix them while they are still here.
Simply put, Medicare is part of a problem in general with government benevolence programs . The programs target different peoples with the same intents but are funded and run by different organizations.
A programmer likes things like standardized apis. We like abstraction. We like engines. We like conf files. Simply put, american social services are one-off spaghetti code.
How would a programmer solve it?
A. take all the programs (ss, medicare, medicaid, welfare, unemployment) and put them into one "engine", fire the redundant government positions to save money, having one office for all benevolence regardless of age increases the user friendliness and accessibility
B. make all the programs need based to reduce "kruft", believe it or not, not all seniors need social security and medicare, save more money
C. axe the social security/medicare/fica taxes/payroll taxes and just dump the income tax standard and itemized deductions, this makes the funding of these programs more "user friendly" as well as the income tax itself
Voila, you have fixed two out of control government programs and simplified 6 in one stroke. Need money or medical care? There is just one office. Doesn't matter if you just got layed off or are too old to work or are disabled.
Yes I am a libertarian who is supposed to say he wants these programs altogether gone. However I am also a pragmatist who realizes we will continue to have these programs so we might as well fix them while they are still here.