We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
The change in medical care. I refuse to term it "health care," since health needs no care other than one's own reasonably-sensible and attentive but not health-obsessed life, combined with the main factor - luck. From a commenter at Allahpundit:
Perhaps the concept of ‘insurance’ isn’t the right one for health care?
I always liked the comparison that was trying to be made with car insurance…
Yet for there to be an equivalent your car insurance would have to cover: - maintenance tune-ups, including oil and filter changes - the cost of repairs for any reason - a price break per gallon of gas - an annual detailing - the cost of tires - a new muffler annually - and never, ever raising the cost of your insurance no matter how many accidents you were in, how many tickets you got… anything
Imagine what car insurance would be like if we modeled that on health insurance coverage and you get an idea why health insurance coverage is so high. And why get fuel efficient vehicles if you are getting the gas subsidized? Or bother with the maintenance if you’ll get a brand new engine if you forgot about it? And the cost of such insurance would be… lower than what you have now?
The number of shades of maroon that went into trying to make this entire ‘insurance’ concept work for one’s health is plain nuts. It isn’t ‘insurance’ if you are going to use it constantly… you want something else.
Perhaps a clue.
Health insurance used to be an executive ‘perk’ because it was TOO EXPENSIVE to provide for everyone in the workforce. Businesses got a price break for it to entice people who would not normally come to work to do so during WWII. The war ended. The subsidy via the tax code did not. Strangely enough before this misbegotten idea got infested into the tax code and people’s minds, individuals did not drop over dead in the street and did work out payment schedules WITH hospitals and physicians. Amazingly that worked and there was a strong system of charitable hospitals and care givers to pick up the slack. Then government got involved and screwed it up.
Government is all about money. Government's expertise is perverse incentives. The Obama-thing, like the previous Hillary-thing, is not technically insurance. It's just pre-paid medical costs, spread across populations and subsidized, or not, by income and with bureaucrats deciding what you can get paid on it.
That's not an entirely insane idea, except that whenever government gets involved with things outside their Constitutional mandate, things turn out wrong and over-controlling by the standards of a free country. Always.
I do not believe that most Americans want every detail of their lives politicized. I think they want to be left alone, but maybe I am old-fashioned.
Chris Matthews: I Wish We Could Go Back to the Days of Friendly
Politics, But the Racist Terrorist Tea Party Traitors Who Hate the
President Because He's Black Won't Let Us
Lebanon
Security Forces Shoot Down Dreaded Israeli “Spy Eagle” - See more at:
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2013/10/lebanon-security-forces-shoot-down-dreaded-israeli-spy-eagle/#sthash.R2Zme4Ac.dpuf
What would happen if all those white students who assert that racism is still a “major problem” and who approve of affirmative action as one remedy followed their beliefs and did not apply to selective colleges such as Williams, Wesleyan, Boulder and U.Va.? How would that alter the demographics of elite campuses?
The admissions offices at those schools would face a less-competitive white applicant pool and could boost minority acceptances. Thousands of white students with eight AP courses, a 4.0+ GPA, and 95th-percentile SAT scores would not join the mix and raise the averages.
I know, I know - most of the value of a property is the land - and its location, but the sheet of plywood over the door, you must admit, is a gracious touch.
Bill de Blasio’s got the broad narrative right: We’ve got two New Yorks today, with a fat and privileged overclass lording it over everyone else.
What de Blasio won’t tell you is that the class profiting at everyone else’s expense is the city’s public sector. Because the campaign-finance laws privilege this class, their chosen candidates start out any race far ahead. But de Blasio won’t tell you any of this because if he’s elected mayor, this is the New York he’ll be working for.
My grandfather had purchased after WW1 some land and a manor in Hungary. He had a doctorate in economics and expert knowledge of agriculture. In a country dominated by large, badly managed latifundia, from his small base he created the income of the landed rich. That he achieved by producing for the market – not by ignoring it as did the absentee owners of the neighboring estates. Irritatingly for these, he even paid his workers above the going rate. Furthermore, he was, as an old worker put it decades later, “his best hired hand”. The locals could not understand grandfather’s agribusiness and the natural origins of his success. In a typical reaction, the native found a logical, explanation. It was that there is a gold mine under the “Black Castle”.
Seems to be an excellent airplane despite initial glitches. Boeing designs, and builds a fair amount of it, but does all of the assembly. Similar to American auto manufacturers. There are engineers and manufacturers around the globe creating these wonderful things for us - people who know how to make useful things.
The family of a former Webster Thomas hockey player has sued the school
district and hockey coach for keeping him at the junior varsity level
for four years "in spite of his advanced skills."
England
is the only country in the developed world where the generation
approaching retirement is more literate and numerate than the youngest
adults - See more at:
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2013/10/the-culture-that-is-england.html#sthash.9Vjx7b7u.dpuf
England
is the only country in the developed world where the generation
approaching retirement is more literate and numerate than the youngest
adults - See more at:
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2013/10/the-culture-that-is-england.html#sthash.9Vjx7b7u.dpuf
ZERO
AMERICANS Sign Up for O-Care in Hawaii, Tennessee – Only 5 Sign Up in
Iowa - See more at:
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2013/10/zero-americans-sign-up-for-o-care-in-hawaii-tennessee-only-5-sign-up-in-iowa/#sthash.bPU1QEt2.dpuf
I don't want to spend time criticizing doctors. My father is one, after all. I also don't want to criticize the VA. I'm sure many of our readers utilize the VA services and may be happy with the care they receive. Or perhaps they aren't, I'm not sure. I don't use the VA and don't have personal experience, but my father did some work there while he was in the Navy years ago, and remains very critical of its administration to this day.
He always told me if I'd like a glimpse at what a government run program for health provision would resemble, take a look at the VA. My extended family members who have utilized the VA did so mainly because they could, and they lacked any other access to health services. None were particularly happy with it, except to say it didn't cost them much when they needed it.
I don't want to imply this kind of abuse can't happen in private practice. Certainly Hollywood stars have managed to find their fair share of enablers. But when it is the government running things, we're supposed to expect better, and when it's a single payer system, we won't have the range of choice to avoid charlatans.
If the legal criteria are "incapable of performing any job," then I'd guess 45% is a low number. It doesn't take much to sweep out a CVS, and it's honest labor.
The notion of fully open borders scares people, it should scare people,
and it rubs against their risk-averse tendencies the wrong way - See
more at:
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2013/10/the-labor-market-effects-of-immigration-and-emigration-from-oecd-countries.html#sthash.chdEoPTy.dpuf
The
labor market effects of immigration and emigration from OECD countries -
See more at:
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2013/10/the-labor-market-effects-of-immigration-and-emigration-from-oecd-countries.html#sthash.chdEoPTy.dpuf
The
labor market effects of immigration and emigration from OECD countries -
See more at:
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2013/10/the-labor-market-effects-of-immigration-and-emigration-from-oecd-countries.html#sthash.chdEoPTy.dpuf
Image via Eratosthenes' 
Soldier's 'Salute Seen Around the World' 
Photo of document via 
When Doctors Decide Your Disease Doesn’t Actually Exist 
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