@Rpruett:
Nothing has a static real world value, and the price of gold fluctuates heavily in addition to any changes in the value of the dollar due to inflation:
http://goldprice.org/inflation-adjusted-gold-price.html
As for the rest of your points, I think they've been addressed in my response to mrstickball.
That article on the VA discusses its endeavors to continually improve its services, adopting new practices that have yet to become mainstream.
For example:
|
Patient records were transferred to a system-wide computer network, which has made its way into only 3% of private hospitals. When a veteran is treated, the doctor has the vet's complete medical history on a laptop. ... Another innovation at the VA was a bar-code system ... for prescriptions--a system used in fewer than 5% of private hospitals. With a hand-held laser reader, a nurse scans the bar code on a patient's wristband, then the one on the bottle of pills. If the pills don't match the prescription the doctor typed into the computer, the laptop alerts the nurse. ... |
