An Unupdate

To continue with this blog's recent divergence toward complaining and airing of grievances, topics today will be scattered across a spectrum of things that annoy me. If you have opinions to the contrary, I would like to hear them as long as they are expressed in a manner that is as far as possible from the usual "YouTube comment" level of intelligence.

As has been evident from my youth, and as is occasionally reaffirmed by my experiences, I feel it necessary to declare that doctors are, in large part, completely useless. This is not to say that all of them fit into this category, as there are some who are treating important diseases and actually using their knowledge to do things that those without the equivalent education would not know how to do. However, many times people go into the doctor's office already knowing what's wrong or have something so simple that it could be diagnosed instead by a nurse. At times I have gone to the doctor only to find that the doctor does not know what is wrong, and they do nothing more than prescribe general medications that I, or anybody with half a brain, could have deemed necessary. The only difference is that they have been given the power to write prescriptions and they are grossly overpaid. The unfortunate aspect is that people have to pay either the cost for the visit or their insurance deductible, which brings us to...

Insurance is a disgusting scam. I can't think of another line of business or industry that makes such a killing off of people either being forced to fund it or being scared into thinking that they need it. Then, when people do need it, insurance companies often find loopholes and other ways to weasel out of their obligations, meaning the helpless client has been forking over money for no reason at all. Unfortunately, however, this has become such standard fare that insurance is much more than an afterthought when people make investments in commercial goods.

Recently, my father had some car troubles and had his vehicle towed to the dealership from which he bought it. Since his purchase of the used car, he had paid a small monthly amount to cover any mechanical problems. Upon arrival at the dealership, he began discussing the policy with one of the workers, who informed him that coverage stopped after 100,000 miles. The car being near 130,000 miles, it was no longer eligible and the repair at a dealership was, of course, going to cost an arm and a leg. However, the written and signed policy made no mention of the mileage limit, and this was apparently discussed when my father agreed to purchase the insurance. The problem is that the amounts are not significant enough to merit any sort of legal action.

On a mildly related note, and I must remark that my friend Anthony and I discussed this about a week ago, I have happily found irritation with the evolution of technology in certain fields. In new cars, for example, everything seems to be headed toward automatic, electrically operated, or computer-controlled devices. At first, this seems like an excellent idea, as we're using the latest technology or finding convenience in things we never considered before. However, the problem is that when these things break or stop working, the average user is not only incapable of solving the problem but often finds that the repair will be unnecessarily expensive. Thus, I sometimes feel like people fail to use common sense when buying brand new cars with all sorts of computer systems running every unnecessary gadget you can imagine. After all, haven't most of us noticed significant problems with our computers, cell phones, or some other electronic after only a few years of use? In my opinion, most people are counting on keeping their new cars for more than just a few years and would benefit from sticking to the old, tried-and-true aspects of some more classic vehicles, rather than falling for everything automatic. As Anthony pointed out, can you remember the last time the manual window control in your car stopped functioning?