George Soros, one of the wealthiest people in thw world, once told members of the US Congress, in a speech that was invited to give, that the german economist/historian Hegel said that the fall of every great civilization we due to its overindulgence of their first principles. One of the first principles of the US is the freedom to compete in a free market. I think that we are at the stage where that first principle has completely disintegrated into what I can succinctly describe as being 'impelled by pure, unmitigated greed.

>Heard this over the weekend...
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>Seems that "recruiters" go around finding people WITH health insurance and works on them to convince them to undergo an operation they really do not need. Once they have a person they then school them on how to reply to any questions the doctor asks.
>The doctor then sees the patient, confirms that an operation is sensible, and performs the operation.
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>The recruiter gets a cut from the doctor and the "patient" gets his cut from the recruiter. The doctor gets paid a handsome amount from the insurance company, from which he pays the recruiter and makes a nice profit for himself. Apparently, the recruiter get between $1,000-$2,000 and the "patient" gets between $500-$1500 (plus a fixed non-problem, of course).
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>It continues to amaze me as to just how far people will go to make a buck. This one has got to be pretty LOW, morally, considering the types of people involved!