The 6 Pack Economist

As most of you know I am not a fan of government run healthcare.  The reasons of course are numerous.  Most of my reasons for opposing this have to do with the incompetence and corruption that government ventures bring like flies to shit. 

Simply being opposed to something is usually not enough for an argument.  Unless of course you believe the current situation is perfect.  I do not think the current situation is perfect but the alternative of increased government intervention will result in a worse situation.  Although a few additional people will have health insurance the vast majority will see their current coverage slowly die.  The reasons for this are multiple but most of the reasons have to do with the government run plan being subsidized by the tax revenue more and more till the private insurance companies cannot compete.

If we assume that the current plan is similar to a government run health insurance provider, similar to Aetna or United Healthcare.  The difference would be that, instead of being run for profit it would be run for the good of the people.  Those familiar with the term “good of the people” know that it means it will be thousands of jobs for the campaign workers of the winning party.  The most important difference although is not in how the theory of how the company is to be run, but by the sources of funding for the company.  While a private health insurance company is paid primarily by premiums paid by the policy holders, the public plan will be paid by a combination of “affordable premiums” and government taxes.

So far we outlined the future of the system under the current plan but what makes the current system so broken it needs such radical fixes?  There are a few pieces of the current system that are broken.  The first is the current price of insurance premiums.  Many people cannot buy health insurance because it is priced too high.  The reason for this is primarily that the person is trying to buy a policy just for their family.  While businesses have bulk policy leverage to bring the price down the individual does not.  The second problem with the current system is paying for coverage and not getting coverage.  This can range from “preexisting condition” to “uncovered procedure” problems.

I personally believe that when someone buys health insurance it should pay for all non-cosmetic issues a person should encounter.  How much of it the insurance covers can vary, but everything should be covered.  The counter to this is that a company simply cannot cover certain illnesses and still be in business.  So how do we fix this issue?  In this case I think the government can help.  I just don’t see any other way to solve this problem besides including the government. The government would simply have a catastrophic fund.  A person and the insurance company could register a person’s illness, be it cancer or another very expensive illness, at which point all treatments for this illness can be subsidized.  Other rules would of course be needed but the primary purpose of handling high risk cases would be handled.

 The other problem is of course with pricing.  The price of an individual family getting health insurance can be daunting.  The local corporation does not pay that price for its employee’s coverage.  Why? Because it is buying so much that it has leverage to bring the price down.  John and Jane Doe can’t do this.  To solve this problem, coops are the answer.  These coops would be non-profit and run by a small group of individuals.  The coops would charge a nominal membership fee that would be pay for the people negotiating the rates. 

The last problem is very simple to fix.  Although not outlined as a problem earlier it seems the simplest to fix.  All health insurance should be income tax deductible, both for the guy working for the corporation and the guy running a three person landscaping company.

The alternative to all this is a government insurance system that when it is run poorly it will simply ask for more funding from the tax base.  The private companies without this access to taxpayer’s piggy bank will slowly disappear.  Each one that disappears will put more pressure on the government system and more pressure on the tax base.  Because let us not forget that billions of tax income come from the people in the insurance industry.  Each one of the insurance companies that goes out of business means thousands of call center reps, secretaries, IT workers, and managers.  The great majority of these people are not different then me or you.  Although some executive loses his job and multi-million dollar salary, many more Joe Six-Packs are standing next to him at the unemployment line.

I wonder if I could possibly right? Could today’s healthcare system be replaced by some horrible public and private system cobbled together by a bunch of competing interests?  Or maybe it will be run like the DMV?

On June 2^nd 2009 a U.S. court of appeals stated that Chicago’s ban on handguns was constitutional because the United States Constitution does not apply to laws enacted by the states and municipalities.  You can read the whole unconstitutional story here.  But let us look at the key paragraph in the story.

“The unanimous three-judge panel ruled today that a U.S. Supreme Court decision last year, which recognized an individual right to bear arms under the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment, didn’t apply to states and municipalities.”

I can only ask what the hell these jerks were smoking when they came up with this rational.  This above statement, and precedent this sets, can now be applied to the rest of the bill of rights.  Whichever side of the gun debate you come down on you must understand that the rational for upholding Chicago’s ban on hand-guns to be at best just damn scary.  This statement essentially says that states and smaller municipalities can disregard the United State’s constitution and the bill of rights.  What is stopping your po-dunk little town from restricting free speech?  According to this ruling nothing is stopping them.

I believe that the founding fathers really thought they had some very specific rights that shall not be infringed upon.  Well they outlined with the bill of rights.  Each one had a specific purpose that was to ensure that no matter what happens, the people will always have the government of their liking or at the very least one they do not want to throw off a cliff.

Let us go through the bill of rights and do a quick scan of what each can mean.

The 1^st amendment

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Ok this amendment is to ensure that people can still bitch and moan about the crappy government they have.  It also ensures that they can go to whatever church they want or not to go at all.  In other words six days out of the week we can bitch about all the jerks in the government and on the seventh day we get to have someone tell us how we are big jerks

The 2^nd amendment

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed

This amendment was actually intended for two things.  Ironically neither is the primary reason it is defended today.  The most obvious reading is to protect the people from an outside threat.  But upon closer reading it is actually the constitutional reset button.  Nothing keeps a room full of people honest like knowing everyone is armed.

The 3^rd amendment

No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

The idea behind this amendment has more to do with the time period then almost anything else.  But upon closer inspection an additional purpose could be derived from it.  I would imagine that exercising your free speech rights would be a little dicey sitting across the table from someone with an M-16.

The 4^th amendment

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

This amendment was most notably under scrutiny during the Bush years for the unwarranted wire-taps.  The primary reason behind this amendment was to make sure that the government could not go on fishing expeditions in your house looking for anything to charge you with.  After all I think everyone has something in their closets that could at the very least get them a fine.

The 5^th amendment

No person shall be held to answer for any capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

This amendment is to ensure that people just don’t get thrown into prison.  It is also intended to set up the judicial system in such a way as to ensure that the prosecution must prove guilt. This amendment was also setup so that the government cannot willy-nilly take your private property.  The last part was blasted apart by the Kelo vs City of New London. 

The 6^th amendment

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district where in the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense.

This amendment is also to ensure that people cannot be railroaded into prison.  It also ensured great day-time TV during the OJ Simpson trial.

The 7^th amendment

In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.

I will honest with you, I have no idea about this one.  I think it has something to do with making sure cases involving large sums of money have a jury look at them.  I also think that it states that a jury decision shall not be overturned.

The 8^th amendment

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

If this amendment was actually followed we would not have shows like Dogg the bounty hunter.  But the idea behind this was to ensure that while people were to be tried for a crime they would not have to stay in prison.  Given that anyone can be arrested on the flimsiest of evidence, in theory a person could be held in prison indefinitely by continuous re-arrest.  In addition it was intended to make sure that there was no Tower of Philadelphia, which would obvious have to be just a little taller than the tower of London.

The 9^th amendment

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people

Even the founding fathers had to write a catch all amendment just in case, during the all day beer drinking feasts they forgot something.  If you are wondering what this really means, then let me explain.  Basically this states that if there is no-law against something and it does not interfere with any of the other amendments you can indulge to your heart’s content.

The 10^th amendment

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people

This amendment has been frequently misused by the federal government.  The original idea of the federal government was that it handled international matters and disagreements between states.  If states did not want to handle everything exactly like every other states then they could do as they please, provided it did not break with constitution.  Which of course the above ruling screws up but who is counting.

Well that was your constitutional lesson for the day.  I am sure that the four of you reading this are happy that this long post is finally done.

I got the constitutional stuff from wikipedia

I know that it makes people feel so much better when they can go after the rich corporate fat cats.  Of course it all turns to tears when they realize the rich fat cat was the one who was paying their salaries.  Even microsoft is threatening to move jobs overseas.

When are people going to learn that if you eat the golden goose it won’t lay any more eggs.  But it makes a bunch of short-sighted people feel better.  Everyone who works for corporations please raise your hand.  Ok that is just about everyone who still has a job.  And everyone who works at a school raise your hands too.  The corporations give educational institutions a lot of money.  So in a way you too work for the corporations.

I believe that corporate income taxes are simply counter productive.  The reason being is simple, when you have corporation the corporation has to employ people.  When people are employed by a private company then the state does not need to pay them to not come after the government with pitchforks. 

Employment for the average person has a lot of advantages both for the person but also for the government.  When a person is working they are less likely commit crime, protest in the street, and in general are just so much less annoying for the government.  After all if someone is home all day watching TV, surfing the internet, or just hanging around they so much more likely to start causing trouble.  This just requires more police, fireman, and morgue employees.

Employment is not just good for the government either it is also good for the person doing the work.  Let us assume the person doing the work at least believes that what they are doing is meaningful to someone (which is one the failures of communism more on this in a later post).  So the person has a job that they believe is doing some type of good, they don’t have wake up in the morning thinking they have the greatest job in the world for this to work either.  Said person has a purpose to their life.  They feel that they have some form of control.  In addition they have a strong separation between free time and work time.  This is very important as someone who either works all the time is burden to themselves, and a person who plays all the time is burden to everyone else.

Now that we have established that employment of people is a good thing we can also establish that we need something to employ them.  Well that is where corporations come into play.  Unlike small businesses (which are just smaller corporations), corporations have to employ a lot of low skilled specialists, in addition the usual skilled specialists.  These types of low skilled specialists must be drawn from the local population.  These are positions like mail room clerks,  janitors, the random copy and printer lady, computer helpdesk people (these are little more skilled), and we can’t forget the random hottie that always ends up at the front desk to greet people.  We all know that she is not going to be climbing the corporate ladder, maybe the corporate pole, but not the ladder.

See all these positions must be filled by the local population of the corporate office.  And when the government makes it very hard to do business and make a profit the corporation will move its offices.  There are plenty of countries in the world who would be more than happy to have these corporations put their shell headquarters in their country. 

Given all the bonuses I have outlined about the employment opportunities of keeping corporations happy why piss them off with higher taxes?  Because some left wing nut bags who can’t see the end result of their own jealously leads them to?

“So you think you can dance?”  no.  I can I turn this crap off.  Unfortunately for me the answer is all no, as my wife loves these damn shows.  The show tonight is the final 20 show.  Basically this is the show they pick the 20 contestants that will be on the regular show.

Tonight’s episode follows the same pattern for each of the contestants who have just spent the last 4 days in Las Vegas being thrown around the stage as 6 self righteous judges play with their emotions.  Here is the pattern each contestant goes through as they come on stage.  If the judges compliment the dancers at first then they are letting them go home.  But if they judges start off with “we think you need to grow some”, pause as the dancer starts to cry, the judges say “and we think we watch you grow over the show, you made the top 20!”  Want an emotional mind fuck for these poor dancers. 

Do these judges go home and hold a piece of steak in front of their dog to watch the poor thing squirm and cry.  Just tell these poor bastards you made it or you did not. Just pull the damn band-aid off and get on with it.

I hate these fucking reality shows. 

I have to say that I appreciate that all the spam engines want me to love myself before I can love someone else.  I guess this is where the other spam engines come in to give me some cialis or Viagra, you know for all the loving I will be doing, for the cheap too.  And if that is not good for you I can get some cheap flights too!  Where has this spam been all my life.  Oh yeah it’s been in my freaking inbox.

I hope there is a special place in hell for spammers and spy ware makers.  Preferably they are waiting in line next to Hitler waiting for their turn for a good old pineapple ass reaming. 

The part that gets me the most is that I get so excited when I see an email telling me I have a comment to approve.  But then it just turns out that it is another spam message.  In the beginning I even approved some of the spam comments.  I did not know it at the time but realized the pattern once I got multiple messages telling me they like the name of the website.

I guess I should be happy that I have at least pirated computers enjoying my posts.  So here is a call out to all my bots in the hood 1001011 01001011101 110100 1001 110011!!!