SinceSlicedBread flops like a soaked loaf.

[skids]

I really hate to say it, as I thought SEIU's idea for a nationwide contest was interesting and might actually yield some interesting results (well it may yet, but not by their own hands.)

This was despite the inferior web coding, the sparse blog entries with days long gaps, and the generally low quality of most of the submissions to the contest. I still thought it might turn out OK in the end. This morning I decided that just wasn't going to happen. Instead of finding ideas that were innovative and achievable, they punted and are now touting as the 21 best some old mainstay ideas that one could argue have been around for so long, they must have major barriers to implementation. Or just not be good in the first place.

I was going to hold my tongue, but after reading the near 100% negative feedback on their own blog by some of their top idea reviewers, I think a consensus has been reached: The contest is a flop. It didn't produce any usable results, and it was not a simple case of garbage-in-garbage-out. There were worthy ideas mixed in there that were overlooked, I can attest to seeing some personally that were far better than almost all of the finalists.

Now I'm union-neutral, as I view most institutions as only as good as the people running them. (I'm also very pro-worker-safety.) So don't bother using this thread to go on an anti-union rant. That's not the issue, and you have no grounds trying to use this flop as fodder for a broader pan of union organizers. This boils down not to unions, but to a "failure of imagination" on the part of some unnamed individuals who screened the ideas before they went to the panel of judges.

It has demonstrated one thing though: It only takes a one-person thick layer to shield the world from the effects of new and original thought.

You can follow the pillory here:

http://www.sinceslicedbread.com/node/23144#comment

..and see what the fuss is about here:

http://www.sinceslicedbread.com/ideas

[yellowdogmi]

1. It might be a flop but please

Support my idea. Look up Toilet seat. Terry R of Illinois. I am hoping for big bucks. If I win the big cash I will donate 25% to DU. Thank you for your continued support.
:think:

[mcscajun]

3. If your Toilet Seat idea didn't make the cut for the 21 finalists...

...then You're out. Sorry.

[yellowdogmi]

4. Oh well

Back to the drawing board. I am amazed that my call for an online constitutional convention also failed to make the cut. So much for my career as an idea man. I guess I'll have to go back to my day job.

[mcscajun]

2. damn...what a bunch of retreads.

Not an original idea in the bunch.

And the three on "Universal Health Care" were off the mark, seriously

1)Talks about investing in digital records and says "this should be easy." It's NOT easy...there's no way small local medical practices can afford going digital. Takes a thirty-year approach to a Single Payer Health Care system that leaves older adults who can't afford to "buy in" -- OUT. We need UHC NOW, not thirty years from now. Sheesh.

2) Advocates cutting the ties to Job-Based healthcare insurance in favor of one funded by a Sales Tax (now *there's* a regressive idea buried in a progressive one.)

3) Medicare as Single Payer (Pilot Program with the 5-10 largest US firms participating - yeah, that'll work...Wal-Mart using Medicare Pilot) Anyway, Medicare is the wrong model; it's too restrictive, with an emphasis on acute care rather than chronic illness.

[SmokingJacket]

5. Well, I never thought the problem in our country was the lack of good

ideas.

It's the lack of people to *listen* to good ideas that are already out there.

Sheesh, even the WORST democratic idea would be better than the corrupt/war-mongering/unconstitutional ideas that are being implemented at this very minute...