Why are medical costs in America so high?

There are several reasons for the high medical costs in our country. First and most important, physicians are joined in one of the most powerful trade unions, the American Medical Association. This union campaigns for quality healthcare and regulations in the health industry. Why is this bad? Of course, because of the nature of big, powerful, and influential unions, labour costs increase. This effect is magnified when one’s ability to practice medicine is strongly limited by a lengthy educational requirement. So, in America, medical labor costs are especially costly. These costs are passed onto the consumer. Hence, we have high medical costs. There is also a lengthy argument about the AMA’s power in Capitalism and Freedom, Chapter 9, if one has the interest in further exploring this topic.

Second, the insurance system encourages irresponsibility. The collective nature of insurance is comparable to Hawaii’s old Universal Healthcare system, in which people bought all they want medically because it was “free”. Of course, the result is an increase in insurance costs and a faction within the insurance company that rations medical expenditures. So, the collective insurance system is responsible for some of the aggregate healthcare costs in America.

Finally, America is one of the few remaining developed countries with no public healthcare system. The result is that almost all healthcare innovation must come through American companies. This investment in new cures, vaccines, and medicines comes out of the pocket of the consumer indirectly, and the result is more expensive medicine.

There are plenty of other reasons that don’t need explanation. Americans pay for top notch healthcare treatment not available in other countries. More people are vaccinated in America than anywhere else. Regulations exist that limit medical competition. All of these are also reasons why our costs are so high.

How can we battle this? What is the true answer to limiting healthcare costs? Disappointingly, conservative talk show hosts don’t even have real answers. Most propose subsidies. However, here is how we can cut these costs:

• Cut regulations that strengthen the American Medical Association
• End government mandates requiring the purchase of insurance
• Encourage other countries to privatize their healthcare systems
• End regulations that limit interstate competition between insurance companies
• Cut licensing requirements for doctors and nurses

Yes, we can cut healthcare costs without creating an oppressive universal healthcare system. All we have to do is get our voices heard.

Confidence in Washington Falling Considerably

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, thirteen states now have double digit unemployment rates. As a result of the lack of improvement, many Americans are now questioning Washington’s ability to combat this problem. In fact, a new Fox News Poll indicates that a majority of Americans doubt that the Obama Administration has any clear plan for fixing the economy. The poll results also indicate that 73% of Americans doubt that Congress has such a plan either.

As of Healthcare, the poll indicates that most Americans don’t believe that major health care reform can occur without increasing taxes and the budget deficit. In fact, 64% of Americans would rather have their ailments treated by private health insitutions than by the federal government. Further, only 3% of Americans consider thier current healthcare quality poor.

What was perhaps most interesting about this poll was the last question:  “Do you think members of Congress should be required to read and know the details of legislation before they can vote on it — even if the bill is thousands of pages long?” The bipartisan answer was a resounding 92% yes.

So what does this all mean? It means that America has lost confidence in Washington. America has even lost confidence in Obama. Change has failed. Hope has backfired. What do we have left?

My Proposal to the Teaparty Movement: A “Salt March”

The original Salt March was the nonviolent movement of Gandhi and his followers across India to protest a salt tax. It drew attention to the Indian Independence movement from media across the globe.

Currently, the teaparty movement has been relatively small and overly ignored. It is primarily a conservative protest against the government economic expansion earlier this year. The July 4th teaparties were primarily uniting opposition against potential tyranny that has been proposed by Congress.

If significant political unrest occurs, it will become possible for this Teaparty movement to organize a nonviolent “Salt March”. Such a march would begin at multiple urban areas across the nation and then proceed as these groups march to the capital. Of course, as these groups get closer to the capital, they’d merge. Such a march would attract significant media attention that the Teaparty movement badly needs and will climax in a Washington with a crowd possibly larger than that of the Civil Rights March on Washington in the 1960s.

However, nothing has really happened to create significant unrest in a while. Cap and Trade hasn’t passed yet, and Universal Healthcare hasn’t passed either. Still, several events may cause such unrest:

• The banning of handguns

While the Obama Administration has shown no sign of actually banning firearms, such an act, or even such a proposal will allow for the organization of a Salt March.

• Cap and Trade

If Cap and Trade increases prices enough, then as with the original Boston Teaparty and the orginal Salt March, individuals would be more willing to protest. Seeing as how nuclear energy is currently the only major alternative to fossil fuels, Cap and Trade will certainly have a massive effect on energy prices and will possibly cause prices to increase to a level that people are willing to protest against.

• Universal Healthcare

While this may just get passed and be ignoredby the apathetic majority, it may cause significant backlash. Many Americans are rather afraid of National Healthcare, and it could be that such a thing could unite the conservative-libertarian movement enough for a Salt March to be possible.

There are probably other events that could make a Salt March an event with an impressive attendence, but this is clear: people will not get off of their butts unless they realize that they are sitting on a thorn.

Reasons Behind Palin’s Resignation

There are many reasons for Palin’s resignation, and this decision is much more complicated thanone simple explanation.

First, Palin was not going to run for re-election. Her prospects for the remainder of her governorship were not particularly promising either. There was a lame duck congress, and she wouldn’t be able to enact policies that she wanted. Her old position was essentially worthless, as she could have little remaining influence in Alaska.

Second, she wished to leave the media spotlight. It is well known that the media had been unfair to her. This is  perhaps an understatement. During her presidency, she was smeared as ignorant, uneducated, and radical. Saturday Night Live was most people’s first impression of her. This break from governorshiop will give her an opportunity to remake her image.

Third, many believe Palin wants a run in the 2012 Presidential Election. This, however, is not confirmed. There is a possibility that she will retire after this and return to a private life. Most don’t believe this though. Palin was a uniting factor for the Republican Party during the election last year. Some even consider her to be the face of the Republican Party.

Palin’s future is in question. The next few days will likely show Palin’s intentions, and possibly reveal any other motifs behind this sudden resignation.

Cap and Trade Bill Passes the House

Though it was only by 7 votes, the cap and trade scheme has finally been approved.

Let’s look at the facts. Cap and Trade has not significantly reduced Carbon emissions in any country that it has been enacted in. It has never created more jobs than it has lost, and it has never amounted to more than a tax on a harmless gas. All the taxes assessed by Cap and Trade will inevitably be passes onto the consumer. Gas prices will skyrocket again, and the cost of virtually everything will increase.

Despite this fact, Barack Obama believes that this bill will actually create jobs. Says Obama, “This is a jobs bill”. According to CNN, Obama believes that this bill will actually create “millions of new jobs” [1]. Perhaps Obama needs a quick economics lesson: When the cost of everything increases and wages remain the same, aggregate demand is less, because consumers cannot afford to buy as much as before.

What Obama thinks though is that this bill will cause some sort of quick change to a cleaner United States, because as the costs of “dirty” products increase, the public is more likely to buy less “dirty” products. However, it is not that simple.

Those “dirty” products include gasoline, oil, natural gas, and coal. These products are currently the main contributors to the power grid in the United States. There is no true “green” alternative source of energy. Biofuels and biodiesels are not profitable without massive amounts of subsidies. Solar energyand Wind energy combined constitute less than half of 1 percent of energy production and are impractical to expand to even 5 percent. Hydroelectricity can not expand much more either, as there can only be so many dams on a river while maintaining high energy efficiency.

So, ultimately, this Cap and Trade Program is a massive energy tax. As energy costs increase for all americans in the face of a recession, how is the little guy that Obama was going to protect going to make his next house payment?

This bill has not yet passed the Senate, so there is still hope for the American economy.

[1]  http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/06/26/house.energy/index.html

Understanding the Logic of Dismissing Facts Regarding a Potential Missile Threat

Why is the U.S. government “downplaying” the North Korean missile threat?

The Japanese believe that North Korea plans to fire a missile at Hawaii on July 4th. They probably did have plans to do this, but according to the U.S. Intelligence Committee, there is no threat of such missile attacks. This is probable for several reasons.

• The U.S. is aware of a possible attack
• N. Korea knows that the U.S. is aware, as this intelligence has been published to the internet [1]
• The U.S. is preparing to defend potential attacks [3]
• This is also available on the internet [1]

So, what would be the advantage of an attack? Should N. Korea try to clear the Pacific of Hawaii, they’d be badly embarassed by our missile defense systems. N. Korea knows this, so an attack is unlikely.

However, this is not the only extent of the Korean missile threat. The North Korean government announced that it would be testing more missiles near the Sea of Japan between June 24th and July 9th [1]. What is also interesting about this is that N. Korea announced today that it plans to eliminate the United States [2].

Another interesting fact about the situation in Korea is that the U.N. Security Counsel has asked to search North Korean ships and that North Korea responded by saying that it would consider such an inspection to be an act of war [2].

War seems eminant, but the United States is prepared to repel any potential attack. All that remains is for the public to remain calm, and it seems that the best way to do this is to downplay it.

[1] http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/06/24/us.north.korea/index.html

[2] http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,528880,00.html

[3] http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/06/19/us.nkorea/index.html

Iran’s Facade of Democracy

Iranian Democracy Is Like Fascism: The People Are Told What to Believe Happened

Iran’s government (ran by Ahmadinejad) declared Ahmadinejad the winner of the election with 85% of the vote count… Many of the members of the West have voiced skepticism. Says a Republican Representative from California,

There appears to be pretty good evidence that this is a cooked election

He is justified in saying this, as supporters of declared runner-up Mir Hossein Mousavi are now seen protesting and rioting in the streets of Iran. Mir Hossein Mousavi has declared himself the landslide victor and popular belief is that the election result has been tainted. 

I believe it is a fair conclusion to declare that Iranian Democracy is corrupt. It is, perhaps, also fair to say that something must be done. The United Nations has not taken any steps to rectify the situation, and as violence in Iran increases, the situation can only get worse.

Sources:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/06/13/official-obama-administration-skeptical-irans-election-results/

http://mideast.blogs.time.com/2009/06/13/iran-election-the-regime-cracks/

Government Intervenes With Over 9 Trillion in Spending: Will this help?

Or will it end all hopes of recovery?

According to CNN, the government has allocated over$ 9,542,000,000,000 with the intention of stimulating the economy. The large majority of this money is trying to stabilize banks and “make credit more accessible”. The logic behind this is that in times of economic growth, interest rates are low.

However, interest rates cannot sink below inflation rates without massive bank failure. This is because the rate at which the real value of loans decreases due to inflation and the rate at which the real value of loans increase due to interest balance when these rates are equal. So, banks can only make wealth when their interest rates are higher than the inflation rates.

We should now realize that the intervention in our banking industry will NOT help the banks, but rather cause permanent damage. While curing temporary illness, the government has injected a poison: inflation. With an approaching fivefold increase in total currency in circulation and with artificial competition in the banking industry, not only will inflation rates increase rapidly, but banks will not be able to raise interest rates to keep up.

The federal government has already applied regulations that will prevent the banking industry from increasing suddenly and steeply. The result of this will be bank failure, followed by hyper inflation and ridiculous interest rates, and then ultimately the fall of the global economy.

It is a sad thing to predict, but no other result can come from this print-and-spend government and its attempted control of the credit market.