The best way to fix healthcare would be to outlaw all health insurance and healthcare plans. Everyone just pay cash. Would cause a huge disruption of our healthcare system but would instantly fix it. This will never happen. I would like to see some sort of healthcare CO-OPs. That will probably never happen either. Insurance companies want to be the ones wielding all the bargaining power. God forbid that the actual consumer has the power.

Yesterday Tom Sullivan said out loud on his national radio show that he thought it might be “3 to 20 years” and our gig was up, “just so you can’t say nobody ever told me”. I have listened to Tom all my years in the Sacramento Valley, since 1987. First with a simple money report on TV-voice only, then on local radio after Rush and now after Rush on national radio. Tom was a CHP before getting into finance and one of his favorite expressions is “the white hats usually win”. He is VERY moderate in his assessments and declarations.
Later at lunch with a friend (who never listens to the radio) I mentioned this growing “consensus” regarding the dire straits of the economy (as a friendly warning) and how it would just get worse once healthcare came on line. (Ooops!) To which she said “We are the richest country, why can’t we figure it out? Other countries have all figured it out. They provide “universal healthcare”. When I asked her how “paying a $2,200 fine and receiving no healthcare” was better? She disgustedly said “I have never heard that. I thought they were going to create exchanges and it is based on income.” I replied “No, it only forces people to buy insurance, not healthcare.” She then added “I think most people would buy insurance if it were affordable.” We had a brief exchange on the purpose of insurance (she has a license) and how much healthcare $2.200 would actually buy. I asked about the lack of incentive for the “insured” to keep costs down, i.e. if it is “free” or very low-cost, where is the mechanism to urge individuals to #1 take care of themselves, #2 educate themselves on home remedies, preventions etc. and #3 Not abuse the Doctors time (and insurance companies money) with unnecessary visits? About this time I started to remember she went for years without healthcare insurance, playing the odds, even though she made a couple of million dollars in billboard advertising, more in real estate (which is now “lost”) and double dipping in “liar” loans. She often makes “fun” of me for being conservative, reserved and a non risk taker. She justifies getting around the system to get ahead. In her mind she is playing a big game of how do I get what I want, just like Tony’s description of the child like tantrums of a liberal. No concern for the bigger picture, the destruction to societal infrastructure or a legacy for her child. The kicker, she is a Hmong refugee, here since her mid teens and now naturalized. I was sad the rest of the day. ~C

More importantly the contrarians, austrian economics, W&G, and others have not only made me think about money and finance, but it has opened a door to seeing life and living life a bit differently. This way of thinking has begun to open the door to opportunity. At times I get into the gloom and doom, but also the prospect of exciting things to come no matter what they may be. I like most of us hate the wars, the natural disasters, terroist, crime, and stupid people, I think stupid has it’s own culture, they just aren’t smart enough to recognize it. All these things are a part of life day to day and we all deal with it one way or another, just like we will deal with our own indivdual futures.

The value of studying these views and opionions has allowed me to look to the future and prepare as best we can. This particular line of thinking and conversation prepares us not only for possible disaster but the ability to thrive in the good times and calmly negotiate the trouble times.

These are the benifits I get from the various articals, opinions, newsletters, and the comment sections. It is much more than just the money, but the fun of pursueing life.

steve

But they don’t lose money.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/schiff/schiff90.1.html

Back in the WW II days of my childhood, milkshakes were 25¢. We occasionally had the loose money to indulge. I’d get a little whiny when I ‘hit bottom’ and got all those slurpy sounds through the straw. My mother would point out that I’d used up all the milkshake, and had thus used up all the money.

Governments haven’t been as wise as my mother about how much money could be spent on fancy living–and have persuaded all too many people that the money supply is unlimited.