Belief in global warming falls in the US thanks to a very cold summer in the Northeast sectors. And lack of hurricanes due to El Nino in the souther sectors. Also, we get to discuss healthcare: Congress just passed the bill for this but it isn’t the end of the story, not at all. Corporations are now going to force their workers to fly in jets to foreign lands for surgery because it is cheap. We will see the offshoring of even service industries, now.
Here is a photo I made when I poured oil into a warm pot of water and then began to take it to a boil. This is a nice metaphor for our watery planet and its relationship with oil.
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Ethical travel company drops carbon offsetting – Green Living, Environment – The Independent
In 2002 his company became one of the first British travel operators to begin offering customers the opportunity to buy into an offsetting scheme. By paying money to a third party operator that ran carbon-reducing projects in the developing world, holidaymakers could jump on board flights supposedly happy in the knowledge that any carbon dioxide released during their journey would eventually be reduced by the equivalent amount somewhere else. .
Supporters of the scheme, which has now become a multibillion pound industry, say it is a vital way of quickly reducing the world’s carbon emissions and combating climate change. But a growing number of critics say it is simply a way for people and businesses in the developed world to buy their way out of a problem without actually committing themselves to reductions in their own emissions. After years of falling into the former camp, Mr Francis has now joined the growing number of offset critics. .
“Carbon offsetting is an ingenious way to avoid genuinely reducing your carbon emissions,” he said yesterday. “It’s a very attractive idea – that you can go on living exactly as you did before when there’s a magic pill or medieval pardon out there that allows people to continue polluting.”
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Hooray! Several years ago, I compared carbon offsetting as a new form of buying indulgences. It is totally and utterly fake. As I keep on saying, if global warming was so dire an issue, the Bilderberg gang would refuse to jet set all over the planet, they would bulldoze their mansions and turn their vast estates into forests. And to do us all a favor, commit suicide.
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Bingo! End of problems! Of course, there are armies of people on this planet who want other people to die, not themselves. This is natural. All living things would prefer that other living things, not themselves, die. The rich are very concerned about this lovely planet we live on. But not concerned enough to curb their vast appetite for consuming world resources and polluting everything.
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The Bilderberg meetings to deal with global warming were secret. This is because they wanted to talk about how to get all the rest of humanity to reduce their carbon footprints while still allowing the elites like the British royals, to continue living high off the hog. This was a terrible puzzle for them. But they trooped forth to propagandize to us all to stop using the oil that the rich want for themselves. And this proved a total failure.
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Americans’ belief in global warming plummets 20 percent in three years, Pew poll says
Americans seem to be cooling toward global warming. .
Just 57 percent think there is solid evidence the world is getting warmer, down 20 points in just three years, a new poll says. And the share of people who believe pollution caused by humans is causing temperatures to rise has also taken a dip, even as the U.S. and world forums gear up for possible action against climate change. .
In a poll of 1,500 adults by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, released Thursday, the number of people saying there is strong scientific evidence that the Earth has gotten warmer over the past few decades is down from 71 percent in April of last year and from 77 percent when Pew started asking the question in 2006. The number of people who see the situation as a serious problem also has declined.
And this photo shows why belief in global warming is falling: high stratosphere volcanic dust. Yes, we have had very lovely sunsets this year and this is due to volcanoes. Mt. Sakurajima in Japan might erupt soon, it is a very active volcano inside a much, much bigger caldera created when a volcano blew up 22,000 years ago.
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The Volcanoes of Kamchatka, Russia have been very active sporadically this last year and several Alaskan volcanoes joined in. Then there were eruptions in South America, too. So we have a lot of very fine dust high up and this is like a fine veil thrown over the planet and thus, temperatures have dropped in the temperate zones.
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Now, most of the audience the Bilderberg gang targeted for this summer of global warming happens to reside in this same temperate zone I just mentioned. We had a very cool summer. Lots and lots of rain, too. The NYC market for peddling global warming fears spend the summer cold and wet. So of course, the people here are in no mood to be scared of warm, dry summers.
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On top of all this, there is no real serious attempts at doing real things. I contend that yes, there is a change in our atmosphere due to human fuel burning. I also understand that jet flight has definitely altered the pattern of cloud formation and has greatly, greatly increased high cirrus cloud formation. But the global warming guys in the Bilderberg gang don’t want to stop jet travel. They just want us to pay them lots of money in ‘carbon offsets’ so it looks as if something useful is being done.
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Of course, this is not true. There is NOTHING being done whatsoever. If a nation forbids all jets flying over it, and this anti-jet sovereign action spreads, then we might see a reduction in jet travel. Of course, I detect virtually no interest in killing off jet travel so the entire ‘let’s stop global warming’ business is a hoax. Aside from that, one of the potentially biggest agricultural growing regions on earth happen to be the Canadian and Siberian plains that are now not used for cultivation due to the permafrost.
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On top of being an excellent place to grow grains, both landmasses are gigantic as well as has huge amounts of solar hours for growth in summer, being near the top of the planet! Dire fears of drought elsewhere will be balanced by this immense potential bounty. But then, this means the planet’s ecosystems change. And guess what?
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This is the history of this earth: it constantly changes. And the few periods where we saw major extinctions tended to be when volcanoes and asteroids disrupted everything very badly. Both are still potentially very active and very probable. We can be hit by extraterrestrial objects at any time. And volcanoes are always lurking underfoot, too. Now on to human messes created by the Bilderberg sort of people, ie, the ‘elites’:
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Freddie to Request Further Handouts – WSJ.com
Together with Fannie Mae, which said on Thursday it would need a $15 billion capital injection, the tab for the U.S. government’s bailout of both mortgage-finance giants has climbed over the past year to $112 billion, making it one of the costliest government interventions ever to stabilize housing and financial markets. .
The U.S. Treasury has agreed to provide as much as $200 billion in capital to each company by buying preferred stock that pays 10% dividends. Regulators took control of Fannie and Freddie through a legal process known as conservatorship 14 months ago.
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Our entire mortgage business has to be rethought and rejiggered and redone. It is a total mess. Here is a link to Hulu – Hidden Potential, a TV show all about real estate deals in New York and New Jersey. I have done a lot of real estate in both areas and know it very intimately. If you go into the show’s archives, you can see the 2006-2007 shows which are hair raising!
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The wretched, ugly little shanties in this show all were selling for much, much more than my gracious, architecturally beautiful historic mansion in South Orange sold for in 1987. I had a landscaped, large property with elegant trees, a two story brick carriage house and the mansion itself had 8 bedrooms and a center hall bigger than most houses.
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And was a total pain in the neck to renovate. I couldn’t wait to finish and sell it! Well, the poor saps in this TV show were shown ugly, wretched houses and then told, they could renovate it by spending around $100,000+ which happens to be the price of prebuilt houses you can buy from a dealer! So, after pouring immense sums to make silk purses out of sow’s ears, the overall price of these wretched little places would be nearly a million dollars!
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And I am betting, all the people in these shows are now in very serious financial distress! The housing bubble was totally insane. There was no logical economic basis for the rise in housing values to this degree. It was only 20 years between my selling mansion (everyone was shocked about me getting over $300,000 for it back then! They thought this was amazing!) and 2006 when people selling dirty little shacks didn’t blink, asking for this sum!
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We are now all saddled with this expensive mess and already are pouring hundreds of billions into the massive mortgage entities we now collectively own and it is not staunching the hemorrhage of red ink. On the other hand, we are losing a trillion dollars with our stupid wars. But this merely means our finances are bleeding all over the planet.
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Reed Says ‘I’m Sorry’ for Role in Creating Citigroup (Update1) – Bloomberg.com
John S. Reed, who helped engineer the merger that created Citigroup Inc., apologized for his role in building a company that has taken $45 billion in direct U.S. aid and said banks that big should be divided into separate parts. .
“I’m sorry,” Reed, 70, said in an interview yesterday. “These are people I love and care about. You could imagine emotionally it’s not easy to see what’s happened.” .
Citigroup was formed in 1998 when Citicorp, a commercial bank, combined with Sanford I. Weill’s Travelers Group Inc., which owned the investment firm Salomon Smith Barney Holdings Inc. The New York-based company lost $27.7 billion in 2008 and took $118 billion in writedowns. Now 34 percent-owned by the Treasury Department, Citigroup sought help in the wake of a credit freeze that claimed three of Wall Street’s biggest firms and led to the deepest recession in 70 years.
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Why can’t these guys imitate the Japanese and commit suicide by running a sword into their bellies? Only then wil will we forgive them. Maybe. Now, on to the Wall Street Journal. The ‘Daily Pfenning’ author gets to editorialize there. No major publication wants to hear my own editorials because I am annoying. Well, here is a heartless editorial from a very jolly man who, incidentally, is removing himself from the US and living ‘internationally’ so he can sail merrily above the wreckage:
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What’s the REAL Unemployment Rate?
Another number that was encouraging for economists was the large jump in non-farm productivity. US worker productivity spiked up an annualized 9.5% in October as employers found ways to squeeze more work out of existing employees instead of hiring new ones. This jump demonstrates one of the positive aspects of a severe economic slowdown. Contrary to what some reader’s of the Pfennig seem to believe, neither Chuck nor I are happy that the US continues to be mired in this economic recession. But business cycles are inevitable, and the more we ‘spend to extend’ the longer it will take for the recovery to take hold. The jump in productivity is one positive that comes out of an economic downturn. In the good times, companies become fat and happy, with many companies becoming very inefficient. The severe slowdown causes companies to rethink all of the processes, and worker productivity increases. This need for higher efficiency also encourages innovations to the manufacturing and service sectors.
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Another piece of data due out this morning will illustrate another positive aspect of the economic slowdown. US consumer credit is expected to show another $10 billion drop. The highly leveraged US consumer is continuing to draw in their purse strings, ignoring calls from the administration to resume their old borrow and spend attitudes. While some of this belt tightening has been forced on consumers by the credit crunch, hopefully we will see this adjustment continue. This isn’t good news for retailers as we approach the holiday season, but if the global imbalances are to be corrected, US consumers are going to have to continue to increase their savings rate and decrease debt.
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So there are a few silver linings to the economic cloud hanging over the US. The United States will eventually emerge from this economic storm with a leaner and meaner manufacturing sector and a much weaker dollar enabling it to better compete in the global arena.
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Here is my reply I posted there: I love it when guys making money by moving money around talk about ‘lean and MEAN’. Yes, the workers are working harder. The ones who still have jobs are seeing lots of pressure and pain thanks to a refusal to hire more workers. This is a mean and nasty system we call ‘working people to death’.
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Unlike the author here, I actually know people whose productivity is going up and who are very, very unhappy about how this is done. We also call this ’slave driving’. Reducing wages while shoveling more work on top of people is also immensely cruel.
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But the author here doesn’t do hard labor. He doesn’t have to work extra hours no matter what. He gets richer if workers are lashed harder and harder. So he loves this. Of course, a lot of people love this, that is, the people whipping workers.
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And this is the entire problem. We didn’t have excess labor, when everything collapses due to dropping wages, there are fewer people getting or buying things so employment drops which leads to more people unable to buy stuff and this is the vicious depression cycle we all dread…except for those people who hold whips and lash workers with these whips. They love this sort of ‘mean and lean’ world where they are fat and mean and workers are skinny and starving.
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Aside from all this, the US is NOT gaining export ground on other nations. We are seeing our own deficits fall only because our economy is bad. But here is another news story that shows how the dynamics are working in this free trade universe:
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Looking Abroad for Health Savings – Prescriptions Blog – NYTimes.com
Offshore medical care is usually significantly less expensive than in the United States, and the wait times are often shorter. A heart operation that might cost $130,000 in this country could cost $18,500 in Singapore or $10,000 in India. ..
Estimates of the number of Americans traveling abroad for treatment — “medical tourism,” some call it — vary widely, from 75,000 to 750,000 last year. But many experts consider it a growth industry…. ..
…“The industry is poised to expand, and they are really going after insurance companies and employers,” said Judy Dugan, research director and health policy advocate for Consumer Watchdog, a nonprofit, nonpartisan consumer advocacy group in California.
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This is not an ‘industry’…it is a ’service’. I wish writers would keep these things in separate classes! ..
“That’s where the money is,” Ms. Dugan said. “They see that as the way to get a much larger market.” The industry push comes as health care costs continue to climb about 8 percent annually and as employers seek deeper and deeper savings. ..
“This is fruit just waiting to be plucked,” Ms. Dugan said, although she advocates caution until more outcome data are available and some recourse is available to patients if things go wrong. ..
Large employers especially are interested in offshore treatment, Mr. Keckley said, in part because the bills in Congress would not allow them to participate in the new insurance exchanges, or marketplaces, that may be established. Such exchanges, and the possibility of competition among commercial insurers from a government-run plan, could lower insurance costs for individuals and small companies.
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So, this ties up all my stuff here in a nice bow: US corporations will now force people to jet away to distant lands to get surgery because our nation is ‘too expensive’. And so we offshore healthcare completely! Of course, this makes our trade imbalance worse. And it increases global warming according to the beliefs of the rich who are the ones pushing us to jet to other countries for surgery….HAHAHA.
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And this brings me to ‘wishful thinking’: there is a lot of that and precious little direct thinking about consequences to the present system. As we offshore everything, our trade balance gets worse. And as we remove even the service industry from our own economy, we have more unemployment here at home. Our country continues to collapse!
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This collapse will lead directly to a loss of sovereignty. It will not mean we will be healthier or wealthier, it means we will be poorer and have civil wars, mass hysteria, starvation and other unpleasant things going on in the future. We can’t walk away from our debts without penalties and these penalties can be very severe.
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This is why sane people avoid too much debt in the first place! This is why we have to beware of letting things get out of hand. This is why we need regulations that keep things under control. The US experimented with free trade and easy credit and we got very badly burned but we seem to not have learned any lessons. So now we have to passively wait until all our social systems collapse?
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This is why empires die! I have a vested interest in keeping the US sovereignty vital and healthy. So I am very upset when things go awry. Just like I am upset when jets fly low over my house and make the windows shake.
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51 Comments
November 8, 2009 at 4:30 pm
One goes where the best treatment at the best price is. For the last 55 years or so, people all over the world had been coming by jet and boat and caravan to the USA for medical treatment. Now the best treatment at the best price is somewhere else. Quel Surprisé folks go where the best treatment at the best price with the least inconvenience is.
$117,000 difference for the same procedure buys a lot of carbon offsets if one is of a mind to piss away money on that sort of thing.
Nice Health Care Reform the USA passed yesterday. No funding for female specific issues should cause a few raised eyebrows but we must think of the zygotes first. But the absolute best part is how the bill encourages nay guarantees that part time employment will be the only employment offered by rational firms.
Invade the world
Invite the world
In debt to the world
ya gotta love sovereignty; misguided, misplaced and democratic sovereignty.
A few days ago, in a grand show of sovereignty, the US house voted 344 to 36 ( 22 brave sovereignty supporters sat on their hands ) to condemn the Goldstone report. A few calls from AIPAC and sovereignty is a dead issue.
November 8, 2009 at 5:21 pm
I wish medical costs would come down in France..they weigh on the social costs of every business so much.
November 8, 2009 at 7:07 pm
hmmmm…..
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6907681.ece
November 8, 2009 at 8:30 pm
Just some info regarding doctor’s fees:
While I and my ex-wife, who was an intern, still lived together, I decided to try and figure out what she was really earning per hour as an intern at a university hospital. I was a stay-at-home father.
She worked on average 60 to 80 hours a week and was often gone 36 hours straight. This was normal for all interns. It was not normal for regular doctors, who worked the interns to the point where they made many mistakes due to fatigue and lack of sleep.
I found that my ex-wife was making 6 dollars an hour as an intern. That was in 1999 and 2000. The doctors, who rarely did anything at all, billed the patient as if they had done all the work. The average bill was 75 dollars for 10 minutes.
The goal was to “see” as many patients as possible per day. The doctors “saw” each patient for about 5 minutes, sometimes 10 minutes. That means they could see 10 patients an hour or 60 to 80 patients a day. That comes to 4,500 in billing per day per doctor for just office visits.
Many of my ex-wife’s peers were determined to see at least 60 to 70 patients a day, and they told her so. After finishing their nightmarish internship, the average doctor would go wild after landing their first job and buy a new car and a new mansion. Their student loans (if they had any) would just have to wait. At age 30 or so, they were ready to live high on the hog. And of course, they expected the interns to do all their work for them, just as they had been forced to do before.
I got a very inside look at our medical system, so if anyone wants to ask me anything about it, go ahead.
November 8, 2009 at 8:37 pm
10) Goldman Sachs boss says banks do “God’s work”
“LONDON (Reuters) – The chief executive of Goldman Sachs, which has attracted widespread media attention over the size of its staff bonuses, believes banks serve a social purpose and are doing “God’s work.”"
November 8, 2009 at 8:40 pm
@Blues
Thanks, that’s been my thinking for weeks now. Why don’t we just have more doctors! Cuba did this. In fact they ‘export’ a lot of their physicians to countries like Venezuela. Instead in the U.S. you are likely to be $100’s of thousands of dollars in debt before you start your practice.
November 8, 2009 at 10:09 pm
does someone know if this story makes sense?
November 8, 2009 at 10:16 pm
and parts 2/6 ..
etcetc
November 8, 2009 at 10:16 pm
Doctors ought just accept less pay.
Many of us already have.
I have.
November 8, 2009 at 10:33 pm
Thanks Buffalo Ken. I am glad to hear that.
Medical care should be about, well… caring. It should not be about profiting excessively off of other people’s suffering.
I find this to be one of the most shameful aspects of America. I do not know of any other country that has the same view towards the practice of medicine. Even the Germans view medical care as a right and not an opportunity to loot people of their life’s savings.
At least, that was 25 years ago.
November 8, 2009 at 11:06 pm
Oh my! Just took a break from work and watched CNN (always an eye-opening experience for me). Some warmongering clown named Fareed Zakaria was interviewing Mushaf Perez (or something like that — I think he was a former dictator in Pakistan).
Well, according to these two men (hang onto your hats) Afghanistan is now “firmly under the control of Indian intelligence”. Also, Pakistan is “worried” about this, and wonders what will happen when the US leaves Pakistan.
You know, I do not pay much attention to all the religious crap coming out of Jewland, but one thing I do know: Muslims and Hindus do not like each other, and frequently fight bitter wars over a single province between them.
Can someone explain to me how Afghanistan, a Muslim country (I think), would be under the control of India, a Hindu country, and what is the point of this news being broadcast to millions of Americans right now?
Are we going to war with India?
November 9, 2009 at 12:47 am
“We” need to scare those #&($$^%@& Indians for buying 200 tons of gold and dumping billions in treasuries to do it.
November 9, 2009 at 12:50 am
“US corporations will now force people to jet away to distant lands to get surgery because our nation is ‘too expensive’.”
Thats a little naive, Its going to be the justification for ending employer provide healthcare coverage. Hey you can go somewhere cheap but you refuse to because you want a “cadillac” coverage plan. You employees are greedy and are “bankrupting us.” Go to a foreign country and get healthcare there. No excuses, i don’t care if you can’t afford to travel, etc.
People are going to be angry and hopefully they decide that socialized medicine may not be so bad after all.
buffalo ken: Doctors ought just accept less pay. Many of us already have. I have
Its easy to lay all the blame on greedy doctors. The problem is the insurance companies and the pharmaceutical companies profiteering and bribing doctors.
If you get sick you can’t shop around or negotiate away a serious aliment. Healthcare is a lot like water, you have no choice but to pay whatever price your quoted or are able to negotiate.
Doctors aren’t angels but their greed pales against the insurance/pharmaceutical corporation’s
DeVaul: Thanks Buffalo Ken. I am glad to hear that. Medical care should be about, well…caring. It should not be about profiting excessively off of other people’s suffering
Medical care is a service and not a charity. Doctors invest 7-10 years of their lives in education and training to make money not to “help” people. Most of the profiteering is not from the doctors but from the hospital (some are doctor owned), insurance, pharmaceutical, and medical device industries.
Being a doctor is a high skill profession with no real substitute so doctors have great leverage in demanding a high payout in return for their service.
I’m not a fan of the cult of “high tech medicine” but i’m not going to demand that they get payed 40-50 grand because i’m quite certain we will quickly develope a doctor shortage. Doctors work long hours and endure high stress (people dying and having to face their relatives takes a “toll”) so they will need some higher form of compensation (i.e increased prestige or subsidized education/housing etc is going to be required)
November 9, 2009 at 4:31 am
“Yes, the workers are working harder. The ones who still have jobs are seeing lots of pressure and pain thanks to a refusal to hire more workers. This is a mean and nasty system we call ‘working people to death’.”
Yeah, well, I guess I’m going to repeat this until it sinks in… a corporation is not a jobs program.
The purpose of a corporation is not to provide employment to the masses. The purpose of a corporation is to provide a return on investment to the shareholders.
You’re a department head and you want to hire more people in this economy? Make a business case: show how this person or persons you plan to hire will be paid for out of your current budget and what they’re going to do to earn their keep, because you’re not getting any more cash this fiscal year and next fiscal you may get even less.
November 9, 2009 at 4:46 am
Elaine, dear… here’s a piece of that NYT piece you omitted:
“Among employers that have embraced the medical tourist concept is Hannaford Brothers, a supermarket chain based in Maine, with 27,000 employees in five states. Two years ago, the company offered to send its employees needing knee or hip replacements to Singapore. The medical costs would be so low that the company would pay the employee’s insurance co-payment of about $2,500 and the travel expenses for the employee and a spouse or companion. The move attracted the attention of hospitals in Maine and Boston, and they offered to match the Singapore price. Michael Norton, a spokesman for Hannaford, said that none of the employees had traveled overseas for the operation, but that 10 had had it performed in the United States.”
That’s what you call your competition, there.
“The government should create its own medical schools and charge much, much less for medical education. … Then these government medical schools should roll out an army of doctors who will compete with the absurdly high-priced, often lousy doctors from the private schools.”
Blues, Blues, Blues… expensive doesn’t always mean good, but cheap always means crappy.
That said, I have nothing against a two-tier healthcare system. Quick cheap and dirty should always be an option.
November 9, 2009 at 5:17 am
why would you want everyone to be able to trade or buy the american dream ‘home ownership’ under a equitable solvent market… when we can have egregious account manipulation that allows government to fuel its own tax base through perverse rewards that re-invest future taxes into over paid morons 401ks
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oil is the most precious resource on earth ‘although cheap’ for the next 1000 years…. and we manage it in a obtuse government energy policy….
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energy deregulation defined the end of state driven markets of efficient energy production to compete in a global economy of scale
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so nuclear is bad green is good and oil is doomed
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and we need more taxes to pay for it all
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but check this out solar/wind farms that use gigantic fuel cells in california/south west markets to ballance production…. got salt water = hydrogen production
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may not be 100 percent efficent… but very easy to dial in…. and thats got to be worth something in the sun/wind/green market
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aC12rv281Sg&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fvideo.google.com%2Fvideosearch%3Fq%3Dimortal%2520tyrants%26oe%3Dutf-8%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26um%3D1%26ie%3DUTF-8%26s&feature=player_embedded
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equal access is a political football
November 9, 2009 at 5:32 am
Health Care FARCE Voted Up Last Night
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/2009/11/08.html
But nowhere in The Constitution is the power found to force people, under penalty of law (including fines and imprisonment), to pay private parties for services they do not desire to purchase.
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Health Care FARCE Voted Up Last Night
i would have to agree… an unaportionaed direct tax is completely unconstitutional no matter how un-required it is
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in other words a public option is legal… even if you opt in cuz you cant pay because we all pay and have indirect access… but you cant force people at the federal level to purchase anything as it becomes a ‘illegal’ direct tax… or a legal citizen required ‘indirect tax’ produced by the federal congress that is unequitable and unaportioned…
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i still have high hopes…. the government cant regulate healthcare even tho it has a monopoly…. or whatever is left of ‘the monopoly’ that hasnt been stolen by private enterprise…. health insurance would be a competitive product if not for government…
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bet they would even require mc-donalds priceboards and magazines for primera cost competitive analysis ‘a penny saved is a penny earned’
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no-one wants to die…. so everyone has a month to live…. and a real look at what a whore health insurance has become is the first thing we sweep under the rug
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people need to earn 12x the poverty level to survive
November 9, 2009 at 5:38 am
heres another thing… if doctors are routinely used to work overtime for the ER or basic procedures
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maybe we should hire more doctors and break up the big hospitol conglomorates….
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they arent that efficient if theres no planning anyways cuz healthcare is so expencive and theres not enough doctors…
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possibly emergency care is a business model ‘like insurance wants to give up that part of premium business via a government option model’
November 9, 2009 at 11:06 am
@Matheus
According to biblical legend, wasn’t it Jesus who went to the temple of the jewish moneylenders and turned over their applecart in a sputtering rage?
November 9, 2009 at 11:53 am
Third world countries all can host cheap healthcare because the vast majority of the population can’t access it. So it has lots and lots of spare time to give to providing services to foreigners. And it is cheap not because the doctors are getting paid little.
It is cheap because the doctors’ incomes are vastly greater than the surrounding population who can’t see these doctors! So the doctors get huge profits which can buy many servants and services doctors in first world countries can’t get.
This is good old colonialism: someone who was a low level clerk in London could hike over to India and live like a pasha, for example. Low level bureaucrats could have mistresses, house servants and be carried about in rickshaws, for example, if only they left London and relocated in China or Burma, etc.
This force is still very much at work! If we pressure doctors here too much, they will relocate in these colonialist areas and open shop there. So healthcare at home will continue to decline until it matches the care in third world nations (that is, all the poor people here live very short and miserable lives).
November 9, 2009 at 12:34 pm
No one is talking about third world nations, India, Singapore, Brazil are not third world nations.
No one is talking about living like a 1700’s pasha off the backs of the navvies. A trip to a hospital, a treatment by a doctor as good as and 1/10th the price of the Merkin price and home. This is not colonialism this is “free trade” that benefits the recipients.
ΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩ
ELAINE: India’s great masses are in dire straits. They are NOT rich, they still struggle to simply eat.
November 9, 2009 at 12:36 pm
EMS opines: “If we pressure doctors here too much, they will relocate in these colonialist areas and open shop there.”
Oh Lordy Me the doctors are going Galt.
We’re doomed we’re doomed
must enslave the doctors too.
November 9, 2009 at 1:17 pm
“Third world countries all can host cheap healthcare because the vast majority of the population can’t access it”
Not necessarily, emergency rooms and primary care are accessable but overcrowded. The hospitals that you can’t access are the “elite” hospitals that are subsidized by tax payers but charge a “fee” that is only capable of being meet by someone with substantial amount of cashs (i.e. only upper middle class and above need apply).
I meet several Mexican doctors in working class areas and the visits/consultations are free but you have to pay for each service provide. They will quote you a price that you can negotiate down by about 20-40%.
check ups are about 20-80 bucks and surgeries are anywhere from 1/4 to about 1/10th of the prices here in the US.
Dental care is quite affordable and competent. I’ve had several wisdom teeth pulled and several fillings.
My wisdom teeth were 40 bucks for an exposed tooth and about 80 bucks for those requiring surgery. Porcelin fillings are about 40 bucks a tooth and a deep root scaling about 60 bucks (entire mouth not a quadrant).
I went to a high priced female dentist because i was most comfortable with her. You have to interview the dentist and negotiate with them the prices. I was thrilled with the prices because they were about 1/10th the prices i would be charged in the US.
Here in the US i hated the fact that they would quote me a price but end up charging me a totally different price. Pulling a wisdom tooth was initially 200 bucks but they increased it to 480 bucks per tooth and 600 bucks for anasthesia (specialist demanded more money and the dentist that consulted me said he doesn’t do tooth pullings). Bait and switch and the you need this or you’ll never have another girlfriend (YES, the dentist told me my bad wisdom teeth would make my breath stink and that girls hate bad breath).
I’m not a fan of general anasthesia and had no desire to have all my wisdom teeth removed at the same time. In Mexico the lady told me she that a local anasthesia was all that was necessary and that it was included in the price. I could remove only as many as i could tolerate and wait for it to heal before removing another.
Porcelin filling are identical to that in the US (same suppliers) and it takes about 15 mins for the whole process to be included.
I was quite happy with the entire process and have no problem with spending 160 bucks on gas to save 80-90% on prices compared to those in the US. I always stock up on ampicilina and other medicines when i visit Mexico so that i make my gas investment worthwhile. penicilin is about 20-40 bucks for a bottle of 50 pills and you don’t need a doctors prescription for anything except for certain pain killers. You’ll never be regretful about buying penicilin because you will save a huge amount of money when you or a family member gets a bacterial infection. My bother got a boil and it costed him 800 bucks for the penicilin, ampicilina is Ampicillin and is the antibiotic prescribed for ear, urinary and most general bacterial infections. 20 pills are necessary to cure an infection (10 days 2 pills every 12 hours) and the bottles have enough for 2.5 doses.
Mexico is affordable for Americans and moderately incomed Mexicans because mexico has multiple generic manufacturers and there is less bureaucracy.
My dad has family living in Mexico city and they have no problem paying for healthcare. They are not rich most of them are working class and are covered by mexico’s public healthcare system. The indigent, isolated, and indigenous population are the ones that can’t easily access the healthcare system. Its very similar to how our healthcare system treats minorities and the poor.
Elaine, Mexico’s healthcare system in not medievel or inaccessable. Mexicans live to be 76.06 years while Americans live to around 78.11 years. Mexico is not subsharan africa or a war-torn nation. There is tremendous poverty but no one is starving or dying from lack of healthcare.
The US healthcare system is high tech but mediocre at providing decent healthcare for about a 1/4 of the population. Its too focused on treatment and ignores that prevention and basic medical care are better at increasing wellbeing. Mexico provides vaccinations at no cost and everyone in Mexico can go to a hospital and receive treatment (its the law, its flouted at times but emergency rooms accept everyone). The only problem is that there is a huge shortage of specialist and inadequate infrastructure. Lots of crowding but basic healthcare is quite good the only problem is that advanced care is inaccessable if you aren’t middle class or above.
November 9, 2009 at 1:35 pm
Elain you have a problem of lumping all nonwhite countries together and making idiotic statements about their healthcare systems that you have no experience or knowledge of.
Mexico is an upper middle-income country filled with hardworking and civilized people. They don’t eat people over there elaine, you make it seem that all thirdworld countries are filled with starving and disease ridden barbarians.
Elaine, you may be skeptical but they do have electricity and modern medicine in most uppermiddle income nations.
China, India, and Russia all have more disfunctional healthcare systems then Mexico. china has a life expectancy of 73.47, Russia’s is 66.03, and india’s is 69.89.
life expectancy is a good proxy for healthcare and wellbeing, owning two cars and having climate controlled housing are luxuries and not necessary for your wellbeing.
November 9, 2009 at 1:48 pm
You have also disparage japan’s healthcare system that is so backwards and medievel that they have to reuse needles.
Please elaine guess who has a superior healthcare system?
The japanese have a life expectancy of 82.12 and they are the highest ranked non-micro state. Our Hepatitis infection rate is greater so does that mean we also reuse needles?
You make spurious claims based on limited information. Hepatitis infection are not a proxy for reusing needles. That claim is unscientific and based soley on your “white” feelings of superiority. You claimed that they reuse needles because their healthcare system is so inadequate.
Elaine: The japanese are starving their population and forcing them to reuse needles. Their horrible faith will be ours if we don’t stop our elite from mimicking the japanese.
We have more poverty and malnourished than japan so your claim that they are “inferior” to us is a blatant fabrication.
November 9, 2009 at 2:15 pm
Elaine: I want debate and a scientific discussion of issues. No one has a perfect understanding of all issues so discussion is necessary to expand our base of knowledge. blah blah blah…
Reality: I want a slavish devotion to my cult and i don’t want to hear minor disagreements or criticism of my blanket statement about thirdworlders. I’m the master of the universe who has a wide knowledge of japan, the “thirdworld” and every subject imaginable (medicine, astronomy, economics, politics, immigration, lawbreaking, healthcare are only a few of the areas that you posses extensive knowledge of). You know everything and anyone who disagrees with even one tiny detail are a bunch of conspiracist, christian fanatics, rich people supporters, etc. Your ability to predict the future is scientific and not a simple lets look at history and see if we can’t see any paralles with today.
I remember your tarrot card reading and that is unscientific. You claim you were hit by lightning and this was a catalyst for your “scientific” discussions of society and your ability to predict the future. Your ability to predict the future because of your lightning inspired spiritualism reqires “faith” and faith is nothing but a belief without any proof/evidence.
I like your blog because it is entertaining and provocative. Most media is corporate owned and nothing but propaganda for free-trade, less regulation, etc.
Most economic blogs are by libertarian economist like mish or your typical apologist for the rich.
Most other blogs are just conspiracies and other bs.
Your blog is more in the middle and is a genuine expression of your thoughts and not just a propagandic advertisement for a pet belief or conspiracy.
No one is perfect and i overlook your hippy spiritualism (hippies were just stupid white people pretending to be native americans, yeaaah native americans were a bunch of orgist living in harmony with nature blah blah blah) and tarrot card bs because everyone has their faults.
November 9, 2009 at 2:23 pm
Mexico has a middle class. And certainly has the very rich. But the vast bulk of people there are NOT rich or middle class.
And why are the vast masses struggling to come into the US illegally? Because they have lots of money at home?
Of course not. Yelling at me doesn’t change facts. The cheap dentists in Mexico are cheap because Mexico is overall, cheaper than the US.
And this is why US industries are moving there: labor is cheap because it is desperate.
Here is the CIA report about Mexico:
Mexico has a free market economy in the trillion dollar class. It contains a mixture of modern and outmoded industry and agriculture, increasingly dominated by the private sector. Recent administrations have expanded competition in seaports, railroads, telecommunications, electricity generation, natural gas distribution, and airports. Per capita income is roughly one-third that of the US; income distribution remains highly unequal. Trade with the US and Canada has nearly tripled since the implementation of NAFTA in 1994. Mexico has 12 free trade agreements with over 40 countries including, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, the European Free Trade Area, and Japan, putting more than 90% of trade under free trade agreements. In 2007, during its first year in office, the Felipe CALDERON administration was able to garner support from the opposition to successfully pass a pension and a fiscal reform. The administration continues to face many economic challenges including the need to upgrade infrastructure, modernize labor laws, and allow private investment in the energy sector. CALDERON has stated that his top economic priorities remain reducing poverty and creating jobs.
Mexico is #12 in world GDP. But is #81 in per capita income!!!! This is pretty obvious proof that the gap between the rich and poor there is IMMENSE.
Industry is 35% of GDP and agriculture is only 3.8% of GDP while agricultural workers are 15% of the population while labor in factories is only 25% of the population!
So my comments are correct and the people screaming at me here are totally WRONG. Thank you.
November 9, 2009 at 2:27 pm
India’s GDP in the world is #5
India’s income in the world rankings is #166. This is MUCH WORSE than Mexico’s differential ratings! This means the gap between GDP overall and what the populace ekes out from it is VERY MISERABLE.
60% of the populace labors on farms. 12% is in industries. The 60% of the people in agriculture gets a totally miserable 17.6% of the GDP which is much, much worse than Mexico which is already pretty bad!
So next time anyone gets in a snit against my analysis of things, go check the stats before whining about this. Sheesh. Makes me very pissed off.
November 9, 2009 at 2:30 pm
Domingo, I do tarot cards because they work when I do it. Why? HAHAHA. They work. I enjoy doing this. And that is that.
I happen to subscribe to the belief that if someone can see the future, they prove this the very simple way of seeing their predictions be exact and coming true. I am pretty good at this.
You hate my analysis many times not because I am wrong but because you don’t like the results and want wishful thinking. This is plain silly.
If I make a wrong prediction then I am wrong. But shouting at me about being right is dumb, I would suggest.
November 9, 2009 at 3:00 pm
emsnews
November 9, 2009 at 11:53 am
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This force is still very much at work! If we pressure doctors here too much, they will relocate in these colonialist areas and open shop there. So healthcare at home will continue to decline until it matches the care in third world nations (that is, all the poor people here live very short and miserable lives)
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or we can have the most technologically advanced healthcare in the world and just destroy the peoples credit and currency to further a domestic policy that polarizes the haves and have nots rite to life and death
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were willing to do it so bad management in banking can de-lever there position in debt markets by selling into tax/government faith and credit entity’s…. pay off congress to not regulate…. then lever up again
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who cares
November 9, 2009 at 3:02 pm
doctors are at least as important as bankers
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and if it werent for lawyers no one would listen to any of this bullshit
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so their important as lawyers too
November 9, 2009 at 3:24 pm
Your post is a dodge elaine. You made a broad statement that healthcare is not accessable by the vast majority of thirdworlders. This is false and based on nothing more than your “i’m the master of the world attitude”, basic care is accessible the only thing that isn’t accessible is advanced care that requires specialist and expensive equipment.
You obviously have no idea of or experience with Mexico’s healthcare system.
You stated: “Mexico has a middle class. And certainly has the very rich. But the vast bulk of people there are NOT rich or middle class”
No shit shirlock, Mexico’s definition of middleclass does not mean 30,000 dollars a year. Mexico is not the US and you cannot us a US standard of Middle class to define middle class in Mexico. 5-6 grand makes you middle class in Mexico because of the difference in cost of living. My dad’s family in mexico city is working class and they earn around 55-70 thousand pesos a year (about 5-6 thousand dollars a year) and they have no problem accessing mexico’s healthcare system. None of them have any desire to emigrate because they are quite happy with their quality of life.
You stated: “And why are the vast masses struggling to come into the US illegally? Because they have lots of money at home”
again elaine this is spurious support for your claim that Mexico’s is a shit country with an inaccessable healthcare system. Most people emigrating to the US are from Mexico’s lower class, not from Mexico’s working/middle class. Bankrupted farmers are emigrating because they cannot compete with the better educated and better connected working class for jobs in mexico.
People emigrating is not “proof” that they can’t acess healthcare. You made a claim that you provided no support for and are grasping at straws because you do not want to admit that you made that claim in complete ignorance. You have no idea what is middle class in Mexico or what is or isn’t accessible. You spoke in complete ignorance and don’t want to admit that you were just stating your belief and not a fact.
You dodged the entire subject that Mexico is a upper middle income nation. You continue to paint all the nonwhite nations with one gigantic broad ass brush. You are ignorant of the world and are mouthing nothing more than “white common knowledge” i.e. ignorant belief that all nonwhite countries are backwards nations without sanitation or basic services.
you stated: “Of course not. Yelling at me doesn’t change facts.”
Facts according to Elaine:
1. “Mexico’s healthcare system is inaccessible by the majority of Mexicans.” i.e. the bulk of thirdworlders cannot access the healthcare system and the doctors live like feudal lords.
You provided no evidence to support this “fact” this is your opinion and you have no experience or knowledge of what is accessible or not for the vast majority of Mexicans. The doctors living in mansions is an idiotic claim, Where do you come up with this bs?
2. “The japanese are barbaric and are forcing doctors to reuse needles (you brought up hepatitis infection rates and spun this to mean reusing needles)”
Again elaine you make a huge claim based on the most tenous bs possible. What are your sources for this claim or the previous one?
You stated: The cheap dentists in Mexico are cheap because Mexico is overall, cheaper than the US.
Your point is what? Exactly how does this prove that your allegation that the vast bulk of Mexicans cannot access the healthcare system or that those doctors live in luxurious villas with a bunch of peones?
You claim: And this is why US industries are moving there: labor is cheap because it is desperate
Ignorant doesn’t do this belief justice. Mexico has been losing manufacturing jobs not gaining them. You make broad statements and conveniently forget to cite any sources backing up your contentions. Mexico cannot compete with china, vietnam, philipines, india, etc because these nations are substantially poorer and more “desperate.”
The rest of your post is just derailing. Nothing you quoted proves that “so my comments are correct and the people screaming at me here are totally WRONG. Thank you”
I stated that Mexico’s healthcare system is accessible in terms of basic care like vaccination and general medicine but there is a substantial wait time for non-emergencies. The only thing that is inaccessible is advanced care that requires specialist and expensive equipment. Nothing you quoted proves me WRONG or you RIGHT.
Infantile is the only thing that can describe your “I’m right your WRONG” comment.
You made the allegation, the burden of proof is yours not mine. I do not have to prove you wrong, you have to prove that your “belief” is correct.
November 9, 2009 at 3:48 pm
DeVaul:
The only reason you see skirmshes betwee Muslims and Hindus in India are because of the historcial Islaimic invasions, looting, destruction of temples and conquests. Hindus by the very nature of Hinduism do not hate others, including Muslims.
Afghanistan, like the current Pakistan & Bangladesh has historically been associated with Indic culture. Parts of Central Asia including Afghanistan had moved towards Buddhism. There are theories that suggest this cause population to be more docile paving an easy way for eventual conversion to Islam by the Muslim invaders.
Pakistan had used Afghanistan as a strategy piece of land for its attacks on India. India was meanwhile befriending few factions inside Afghanistan to counter Pakistan and also establish connections to Central Asia.
Karzai, IIRC, had gone to India for his higher studies. He was in New Delhi. So there are small connections here and there that go some ways in cementing relationship.
November 9, 2009 at 3:55 pm
@ domingo- I’d like to ask you a couple of questions about racism in Mexico.
Is it true that the darker skinned Mexicans ( like some of the native Indians in the Mexican Riveria) are very poorly treated and discriminated against by the Mexicans with lighter skin tones ?
Secondly – I heard that the ruling classes ( the elite) within Mexico are the lighter skinned descendants of the Conquistadores. Is this true?
November 9, 2009 at 3:57 pm
Elaine: “You hate my analysis many times not because I am wrong but because you don’t like the results and want wishful thinking. This is plain silly.”
Elaine i have not disagreed with your analysis, i have just pointed out several instances of you sterotyping and disparging nonwhite countries. You have a knack for stating “facts” without any evidence to back them up.
Instances:
chided you for using a childish and made up term instead of the historical “Pax Sinica.” You talk about understanding the past and china has in the past been an imperial power on par with Rome and the Pax Romana.
Explained why illegal alien is racist and insulting and i provide you with multiple other terms that avoided the racialized bs. Your response, It has to have a negative connotation because because because they are inhuman lawbreakers.
I confronted your unsupported allegation of healthcare system in thirdworld countries. This is your opinion and you have to provide evidence backing it up.
Elaine: “If I make a wrong prediction then I am wrong. But shouting at me about being right is dumb, I would suggest”
Brings back memories of third grade logic. That is incredibly juvenile and it defies a rational reply. You going to call me a “poppy head”?
Elaine you haven’t predicted the future by reading tea leaves or busting out your magic tarrot cards. You have looked to the past for parallels and have basically made the rational prediction that something similar will happen today.
“Domingo, I do tarot cards because they work when I do it. Why? HAHAHA. They work. I enjoy doing this. And that is that.”
Elaine, i don’t care if you believe in tarrot card or not. I don’t think garlic has magical curatative properties but I have no problem considering garlic as a medical solution if it works.
“I happen to subscribe to the belief that if someone can see the future, they prove this the very simple way of seeing their predictions be exact and coming true. I am pretty good at this.”
pfft, you do know that i cannot argue with a belief? I can’t prove jesus exist or not because it requires “faith.” Belief by there very nature are not scientific and as such defy the scientific process and analysis.
You going to give me a specific prediction so that i can have some proof of your clarvoyance?
November 9, 2009 at 4:01 pm
One little point, one cannot just open and practice medicine in the USA ( even with a degree from one of the fine non-merkin med schools ), neither can U.S. doctors just go to another nation and blithely open and practice medicine. Most first, second, third, and fourth world nations maintain a medical monopoly.
November 9, 2009 at 4:03 pm
“poppy head” I think you mean poopy head. A poppy head is an opium toker.
November 9, 2009 at 4:27 pm
SKY: “domingo- I’d like to ask you a couple of questions about racism in Mexico”
“1. Is it true that the darker skinned Mexicans ( like some of the native Indians in the Mexican Riveria) are very poorly treated and discriminated against by the Mexicans with lighter skin tones?”
Before I can answer your question you have to provide me with your definition of racism.
Racism is racial discrimination + power. Problem with Mexico is that the discrimination that exist in Mexico has more to do with ethnicity and various shade of pigmentation and not blatant color lines.
Ethncity/race in Mexico is much more complex than that in the US (no easy white-nonwhite divide); So calling something racist or not is much more ambiguous (i.e the majority in the US with the power are whites but in Mexico you see much more diversity in the elite class). So I hesitate to label something racist or not.
It difficult to say that the maya, zapotec, etc are being exploited because they are darker; its more accurate to state that they face discrimination because they have not ethnically Mexican (cultural discrimination). The exploitation seems to be based more on ethnicity and not skin color. Darker skinned cultural Mexicans are just as likely to exploit cultural indians as lighter skinned Mexicans.
If you want a more specific answer, ask me a more specific question.
2. Secondly – I heard that the ruling classes ( the elite) within Mexico are the lighter skinned descendants of the Conquistadores. Is this true?
Some are some aren’t, Mexico practices co-option and the elite marry the revolutionaries and hence retain their dominant social position. Mexico’s elite are the descendants of the mating of the revolutionaries of 1910 plus the previous colonial elite.
Its overly simplistic to blame white Mexicans or the lighter variety for Mexico’s problems. Being white or light skinned is not a good proxy for “bad elite”
Life is complex and the answers tend to be just as complex.
There exist quite a bit of favortism for lighter skinned Mexicans but it is not something that is overt or likely to harm darker skinned mexican economically. People have used the phrase color continuum to describe latin america’s version of “racism.”
Not sure if that answers your questions. Your questions are quite broad and its difficult to figure out your specific intention.
November 9, 2009 at 4:30 pm
“ELAINE: India’s great masses are in dire straits. They are NOT rich, they still struggle to simply eat.”
And this is relevant to a customer needing surgery how?
November 9, 2009 at 4:42 pm
@ domingo- Thnx for your comprehensive answer.
I don’t have a ‘ specific’ intention. Just wondering…that’s all.
“So calling something racist or not is much more ambiguous (i.e the majority in the US with the power are whites but in Mexico you see much more diversity in the elite class). So I hesitate to label something racist or not. ”
Does the diversity in the elite class include any really dark skinned Mexicans eg of Mayan or Zapotec extraction ?
November 9, 2009 at 5:17 pm
India is still reeling under the aftermath of British Rule. While India is not at its best currently, it has been managing its growth and has been bringing down its poverty level.
November 9, 2009 at 5:42 pm
Sky: Does the diversity in the elite class include any really dark skinned Mexicans eg of Mayan or Zapotec extraction
There is no easy to define Elite in Mexico. There is an elite class which is the “moneyed” and/or “political” but they are divided by specific friendship and marriage groupings and not skin color.
Benito juarez was the first and last pure blooded indian president (1858-1872). Mexico’s presidency has been monpolized by mestizos and whites president since that time.
In 1910 Mexico’s elite was mostly european with a sprinkling of Mestizos (the dictator portfio dias was a mestizo). They were divided into scientificos (pro-industrialization) and conservatives (pro-feudalism i.e. hacienda economy). The only thing they agreed upon was that the rabble (i.e. cucarachas) were not enlightened enough to have a say. Basically only the “gente de razon” should be consulted or be allowed to rule (i.e. only cultural hispanics should rule).
The revolution was mostly a Mestizo and cultural hispanic indians toppling an overwhelmingly european oriented landed elite. The european elite married their children with the children of the mostly nonwhite Mexican revolutionaries.
Mexico’s elite are the children of this revolutionary and colonial elite. Since the 1910 revolution very few indians or darker Mexicans have entered the elite, so a “whitening” of the elite has occured.
I assume that is what you are asking?
The elite have gotten whiter but the process usually reverses itself as they lose touch with ordinary Mexicans and the subsequent revolution/upheaval. It’s dangerous being a “closed” elite that looks or is easy to distinguish from the majority population. The elite have to continue co-opting any potential revolutionaries or they will have a pissed off revolutionary elite hunting them down.
November 9, 2009 at 6:04 pm
@ domingo- The 1910 Revolution – So the Euro elite were toppled. Right ? But what kind of phony baloney toppling was this if the children of the toppled Euro elite were able to maintain their status and marry themselves right back into power ?
What changed ? The bloodlines of the Euro elite are STILL in power.
The Russian Revolution was also not a revolution of the down trodden masses. It was just a bloody power grab by the Reds who were financed by non-Czarist power elites in the west.
The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. It doesn’t matter what the color of the ruling class is or what color the peasants are. It’s all about money and power.
Nothing much changes. It’s a race to the bottom these days.
November 9, 2009 at 6:37 pm
Sky its called co-option for a reason.
The elite’s status quo was toppled but a new status quo was quickly installed.
Most of the revolutionaries are easily seduced into marriage with the elites because they want the same privileges that the previous elite had.
It was a social revolution that was competely internal. The initial elite lobbying for a overthrow of the dictatorship did not expect for the revolution to destroy the status quo. They just wanted to change the leadership class but not any of the institutions or social policies. International bankers were not responsible for the Mexican revolution. These was a social explosions that was quickly co-opted by a new revolutionary elite that did in fact destroy the previous status quo.
Debt peonage was ended, land was redistributed, social welfare was improved, and Mexico did start industrializing.
In 1810 Mexico had about 8 million people, in 1910 Mexico had a population of about 14 million.
The revolution was consolidate by 1920 and they did in fact, improve basic sanitation and invested in social programs that reduced infant mortality and paved the ground for the massive population explosion of the 1930’s-1980’s
The russian revolution was similar, except they were co-opted by a murdering bastard. The communist did improve the living standards of the russian people unfortunately they also murder millions of them for an idiotic ideology.
Mexico’s revolution was a social revolution whose purposes was to simply get rid of the elite and their hated instituition of haciendas and debt peonage. They weren’t trying to end human nature or create a war-machine capable of defeating the capitalist imperialist.
The communist weren’t all bad, they transformed Russia from a backwards peasant juggernaught into a superpower capable of defeating the nazis war-machine. They improved education and invested in social programs that improved living standards.
Look at china, the communist there murder millions of chinese but they also got rid of the parasitical western elite and set the ground for the eventual rebirth of a united and powerful china.
The world can be a nasty place and its clear that revolutions are something to avoid if at all possible.
About 10 percent of Mexico’s population died during the revolution, an even larger percentage died in the russian and chinese revolutions.
A revolution in the US will more likely be bloody and will be co-opted by a selfish elite. Moral of the story is that the elite always take advantage of the gullible and naive.
I agree that history is a farce but if we are going to have a revolution its best to have a peaceful social revolution that is focused on only removing the elite and their predatory institutions.
November 10, 2009 at 4:01 am
I’ve driven people home from the hospital after surgery and they’re miserable after a 30-minute trip. I just can’t imagine putting someone recovering from hip replacement surgery on an airplane for a 20-hour flight back home, unless that person had several weeks to recover before travelling. One can only hope the patient would get extra leg room in 1st class to help cut down on the chance of developing blood clots.
Even if the employer pays for a companion to travel, how many people have people in their lives who are willing to travel half-way around the world to spend most of their time staying with a sick friend in a hospital? Will the employer pay for lost wages for the travel companion as well? How about childcare arrangements for kids who are left behind? The logistics boggle my mind.
ΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩ
ELAINE: Absolutely correct. I once had to fly after being in the hospital. I thought I was going to die on the plane! It was a nightmare. Barely made it to the gate, collapsed and had to be hauled off again. Awful experience. DO not recommend it to anyone.
November 10, 2009 at 7:45 pm
Existential comment:
“Let’s get this straight,Obama’s health care plan will be written by a committee whose head says he doesn’t understand it. Passed by a Congress that hasn’t read it, and whose members will be exempt from it. Signed by a President who smokes.
Funded by a Treasury chief who did not pay his taxes.Overseen by a surgeon general who is obese.And financed by a country that is broke.”
Now, what could possibly go wrong?
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ELAINE: And the GOP solution is to do nothing and let many millions of Americans die without access to simple doctors.
November 10, 2009 at 9:01 pm
Hi DoesItMatter,
Thanks for that historical info. It was interesting. I did not know what relationship existed between India and Afghanistan since I had never read of one on TV or in the news until CNN dropped it on us out of nowhere.
It bothered me because whenever the MSM starts talking about relationships, it almost always means extending the war to whoever is mentioned as interferring in our distant affairs.
November 10, 2009 at 11:00 pm
Afghanistan is a crossroads. It was the central corridor for the Silk Road that ran from China to Rome. It is prey to many historical forces and is thus, very proud and independently minded and it grinds all conquerers to dust.
November 10, 2009 at 11:14 pm
Hi Elaine,
I have not commented for a while, but here goes. I offer up three personal anecdotes that relates to this post:
First, I recall that, about 20 years ago, I was making a presentation to the board of directors of my employer regarding a restructuring plan to resolve a recent merger. The team’s charter, as presented by the board, was to develop a restructure plan that “improved the capability and efficiency” of the new merger. Two thirds through the full team presentation, our President abruptly thanked us for a good job and announced his plan to meet Wall Street firms the following day to tout our business model and seek improved stock positions for the company. A few weeks later, our team was disbanded and significant layoffs were announced. Other recommendations of the restructuring team were never discussed again. Many of my team members were convinced that we were set up as the fall guys for actions that had already been decided. Our President was far more interested in courting Wall Street than improving manufacturing efficiency.
Second, over the next three years, I was being groomed to move into a Director position. This was an eye opening experience! I found that Directors and above were a very tight knit group, almost always working in close rank formation to present a unified position, right or wrong. The closed ranks often isolated the upper management group fro other contributors within the company. The majority of us in these ranks tended to reflect marketing or financial interests. The fastest risers and most successful in this group were also highly political players. In contrast to earlier decades, the directives and guidance tended to reflect financials over quality.
Third, (and the most disheartening anecdote) about 15 years I started a free lance consultant service contracted by a variety of chemical manufacturing oriented companies throughout the US. In the beginning, most of my contracts involved projects to either improve operations for their existing processes or implement new, more cost effective processes. As time passed, my client base began to shift. In many cases, my client companies began to
be bought out by foreign based businesses who were more inclined to use their foreign personnel for their projects. Over time my clent base switched almost entirely to projects designed to help their operating staff relearn how to operate their long established processes. That is, over time, many comaanies wee replacing experienced staff by inexperienced or shifting their focus to other tasks other than quality operions.
In summary, for at least the past 20 years, I have witnessed companies move from solid manufacturing entities to more Wall Street finance oriented entities, transfer of ownership to foreign entities and move from a fairly well paid, skilled workforce to a smaller less paid but less skilled workforce. My biggest concern is that, as the skill history of a particular manufacturing idustriy is lost, it runs a real risk of losing it totally.
This situation is akin to a Cash Cow strategy. For Cash Cow targets, the main owners essentially derive maximum profit from product sales and often liquid assets, etc. while providing insufficient investment to maintain sustainable business growth. That is, milk the cow until it dies. If such a Cash Cow pratice is feasible for a large enough industry then one could certainly imagine a Cash Cow nation.
November 11, 2009 at 3:26 pm
DeVaul:
Unfortunately the media, the so-called MSM, in USA does a major disservice to the country and its people. The nature of the media has turned out to be one that thrives on bickering, human fears & sensationalism. To top those, the ratio between domestic and foreign coverage is very low. The media does not inform nor entertain these days.
There are so many outlets that are fantastic, good TV programs and news; documentaries, films, debates these never catch the attention of the public. I guess it is a sign of the times we live in.
It is almost a year since I stopped watching CNN. I would rather watch Fox or MSNBC. The 24-hour news channels are a joke.
November 11, 2009 at 3:42 pm
On Afghanistan, prior to Islamic invasion; Afghanistan had Indic Culture in many areas. It is said that the Vedas revered by the Hindus was written around the present areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Powerful kingdoms had Hindu kings. Hinduism and Buddhism freely jostled around in the area. Then the Hindus for some reason made a big move towards the Gangetic Plains in India to make that as their seat of power. After the Islamic conquest; India was repeatedly attacked from its North-West region. Mohammad of Ghazni is notorious, he had conducted 17 raids into India – looted its wealth, and killed people and destroyed temples. It was his version of winter sports.