tbh i didn't necessarily mean obamacare. it was just an easy bridge to make to a socialist package that seems to be hated by everyone. although i do believe the american insurance market is flawed to the point where it is necessary for the government to step in and make changes. i guess obamacare was a change for the worse, but this free market will have to be restricted somehow, otherwise insurance companies will just keep refusing to give insurance to people with disabilities or a slightly higher chance of some hereditary disease because one of  their ancestors had it. What are they gonna do next, refuse to give insurance to obese people? now that'd be funny, 3 out of 10 americans without insurance just because of that.

Back to the point: do you think that when hospitals get downsized to the point where they cannot afford the newest equipment any longer, that the companies selling this equipment will think "herp derp they can't buy it in this country, even though other countries in the world can still afford it, let's bring down our price". You say you drive up demand by having a multitude of small hospitals compared to a couple larger hospitals, which will make the companies producing this equipment to lower their price. I say this goes completely against what a free market is. The basic rules of supply/demand surely tell us that when demand goes up, and supply stays the same, then the price goes up?

Plus, actually, the demand for new equipment is there: not all large hospitals have the newest, best equipment, yet they require this equipment to perform certain types of operations. As you said, to attract costumers (patients), they require this equipment. So, according to you, the companies should be able to lower the price of the new equipment, since the demand is already there. But they don't, at least not for the time being. New equipment is always expensive, due to research costs and companies wanting to start making revenue as soon as possible. Now your system would work if technology were stagnant and there were no new innovations: after some time, prices would drop. However, in reality, a new product is brought out before/at the time that the older product starts dropping in price. This newer product has to pay for its research costs in an as short time as possible, so the price still stays higher than production price. It doesn't have as much to do with demand as it has to do with innovation and companies wanting to make profits as soon as they can.

Also, if large hospitals can't pay for the equipment even if they want to, then how are smaller hospitals with smaller budgets going to buy that same piece of equipment?

Your examples of pharmacies, opticians, and dentists all have one thing in common: none of them are on the same scale as hospitals. Hell, all of them could even be part of a hospital if it were financially profitable. You even said so in one of your own examples: pharmacies incorporated in hospitals.
You cannot these successes to hospitals, just because they all have to do with human health.

stop spamming my thread >:( y'all are like that fat ass arby

oh and we're still looking! contact me ingame (GoldenEye 4743) or on irc (idling in #pinwheel or #mod)

hey you keep lowering that number >:( last time it was 800k

Flashy, you attacking?

to register channel:
/cs register #[channelname] [password] [welcome msg]
you must have an @ to do this though (which you get when you are first to join the channel before it has been registered)

once you've done this it should say "* ChanServ sets mode: +r" and this'll pop up:
-ChanServ- Channel #[channelname] registered under your nickname: [your nickname]
-
-ChanServ- Your channel password is [password] -- remember it for later use.

then do /hop to get your & (not necessary i think?)

your channel is now registered and you got the highest op possible.

happy kick banning

*alternatively you spam a mod and ask them to take ownership over the chat for a short while and ban/kick the spy out*

ty SOL nice pvc

why are you trying to kill your fammember if he's doing retakes? :\...

You forget that there are a lot of developing countries... All these developing countries welcome Chinese investments. Most of them aren't too keen on human rights themselves or are indifferent about them.

Furthermore, one of the countries China invests the most in, be it buying companies or just buying debt, is, obviously, the USA. The USA welcomes these Chinese investments as well. Why? Because it brings economic growth. Plus the free market doesn't allow any control.

Lastly there's of course the "hostile takeover".

Not allowing another country to invest in your country is a nice dream that doesn't exist in reality in this world of free markets, economic growth, and, basically, greed.

Still looking.

ugh our allies are such slackers >:(

Table of distribution of Rare Earth reserves and mine production (http://www.wikinvest.com/wiki/China%27s_Rare_Earth_Dominance). As you can see, China does not own all Rare Earth Oxide Reserves but does account for close to all mine production, it is safe to assume that the same goes for other forms of Rare Earth elements.

Country    Reserves (t REO)    2006 Mine Production (t REO)    2007 Mine Production (t REO)    2009 Mine Production (t REO)
United States    13,000,000    0    0    0
Australia    5,400,000    0    0    0
Brazil    48,000    730    730    650
China    36,000,000    119,000    120,000    120,000
CIS    19,000,000    N/A    N/A    N/A
India    3,100,000    2,700    2,700    2,700
Malaysia    30,000    200    200    380
Other Countries    22,000,000    N/A    N/A    N/A
World Total (rounded)    99,000,000    123,000    124,000    124,000
Source: Mineral Commodities Summary 2010, U.S. Geological Survey (t REO = metric tonnes of rare earth oxide)

Additionally, this is quite interesting:
From the same site, http://www.wikinvest.com/wiki/China%27s_Rare_Earth_Dominance

How is China dominating rare earth supply?

Of late, China has taken a number of steps to cement its monopoly of the global rare earth market. First, in each of the last 3 years, the country has reduced the amount of local rare earth production that can be exported.[4] The total export quota for 2010 is 30,258 tonnes, 40% less than the 50,145 tonnes for 2009.[11] Second, China appears to be forcing manufacturers that use rare earths to move onshore by using export quotas to limit the availability of these materials outside the country.[6]

>>>>> Last, but not least, the country has made moves to buy other rare earth resources around the world. When credit markets collapsed in 2008, government-owned mining companies stepped in to acquire 52% of Lynas Corporation and 25% of Arafura Resources, which plan to open mines in the next few years that would have a combined production equal to 25% of the global rare earth output.[6] <<<<<

As, according to the Newspaper article I read, China's rare earth element mines are supposed to run out in 20 years if they continue mining at this rate, these steps are crucial. Not only do they drive the price of the elements up and allow China to use it as a means to influence politics with, it also prolongs the period over which China can continue mining these elements (obviously).

All from that wikipedia site.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rare_earth_element
This page was last modified on 12 May 2011 at 23:31.

However there was an article on this in one of the most respected Dutch newspapers some time ago. I just recently remembered it because of one of the other threads in these forums .

I'll go see if i can find it in the newspapers' online database.

Found it!

For those able to read Dutch

China keeps rare earth elements for itself:
http://vorige.nrc.nl/economie/article2633252.ece/China_houdt_zeldzame_metalen_voor_zichzelf

China starts to export rare earth elements again:
http://vorige.nrc.nl/economie/article2637082.ece/China_hervat_export_van_zeldzame_metalen

What shocked me at first was how easily China could control this market.

Oh btw the metals are essential to mobile phones and hybrid cars too! Explains Japan's extremely negative reaction to the ban