• socsa@piefed.social
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      3 months ago

      “Corn is $7/lb in America” is either propaganda or a joke from Arrested Development

  • Vaggumon@lemm.ee
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    3 months ago

    The corn thing is absolute bullshit. The ambulance thing is dead on. I got my ambulance bill today from the city Fire Dept. And it is $3,900 to go 4 miles, no lights, sirens, or drugs administered in the vehicle. Just a ride.

    • BatrickPateman@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Insane to me as a European.

      I had a surgery on my nose done, to improve breathing at night. Was fully covered by my health insurance no questions asked, and according to their statement less than 2000€ incl a night in hospital. Only thing I had to pay was like 10€ or so to the hospital.

      Can’t imagine what that would have cost in the US of A. I’d probably still be struggling with breathing.

      • Vaggumon@lemm.ee
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        3 months ago

        So I can’t say what your cost would have been but can tell you mine for a minor stroke.

        3 days in ICU, Clot Buster drug, CT Scan, MRI Scan, ECG, Heart Ultrasound, 3 Blood Screenings, and a slew of other drugs, tests, and treatments.

        Total: $236,678.49 Including the Ride to the Hospital. I didn’t have insurance at the time as I was out of work and my wife was moving to a new position so I’m on the hook for 100% of that.

        • BatrickPateman@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          Holy shit. We have everyone pay ~15% of their wages to health insurance which sure sucks for some if they don’t need anything paid (e.g. me, since I was always healthy). But than again that bill would not be such an issue around here.

          Damn, you people need more Luigi’s.

        • lobut@lemmy.ca
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          3 months ago

          My dude, this is so wrong man. You didn’t do anything wrong. What we even doing it we aren’t taking care of each other? What’s this all for?

          So many people talk about winning the lottery but it feels like everyone is playing this “reverse” lottery game where at any moment you could be on the hook for an eye-watering amount of money.

          I’m a Brit living in Canada. I hurt my ankle at a pub in London, UK and it swelled like hell and I got out the tube at London Bridge to find a hospital that I found on Google Maps. I went there and the front desk person was like this was a private establishment you gotta go elsewhere. I was like, “ah crap” so I went back to the tube station. Apparently a tube station employee saw me leave and knew where I was headed and that I’d be back. So an ambulance was waiting for me to drive us (another girl there was passed out drunk) to the (correct) hospital. It took a long time to be seen and I stayed there all night, but I paid for nothing. I got the crutches for free and the therapy and like, I didn’t even SHOW them my ID.

          When I came back to Canada and Trump was making his threats. I have some right-wing friends that were like, “we should merge with the states”. I said, “dude, that’s a bad idea with healthcare, I know you think it sounds okay because you think you have insurance and stuff … but it’s gonna be bad for us as a country.” He was defiant about it and that we should join the states though.

            • JumpingSpiderMan@piefed.social
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              1 month ago

              At first I was thinking he should kick his fascist friend in the head. But then I realized his friend’s brain wasn’t working anyway so a kick in the pills is clearly the wise choice.

    • iz_ok@sh.itjust.works
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      3 months ago

      RedNote is an app similar to Tiktok but actually owned by the Chinese Government.

      What is even more crazy is that it’s not really even localized and most of the app is in Mandarin.


      My initial comment is completely incorrect. I apologize for spreading misinformation.

      As other commenters pointed out, RedNote is a private company operating in mainland China and is not owned by the government.

      • sakodak@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        It’s more like a mix of Instagram and Pinterest. Short form video is frowned upon, they value longer and more thoughtful videos. It is definitely not TikTok, despite what the tiktok refugees initially thought.

        They are actively working on English localization and translation, and they include a feature to automatically add subtitles in both English and Mandarin when speaking either.

        It is a very welcoming community and it’s mostly people sharing pictures of their pets in the comments.

        It’s not “owned” by the Chinese government, but like every other corporation in China it is the government that holds corporations to account, not the other way around like in the US. And it’s more for worker protections and other regulations than it is for any sort of nefarious purposes.

        • frostysauce@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          And it’s more for worker protections and other regulations

          The suicide nets indicate the worker protections aren’t all that great…

        • JumpingSpiderMan@piefed.social
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          1 month ago

          Facebook and Twitter more accurately own the American government. Or at least their oligarch owners own the American government.