Archive for the 'News' Category

Oh no… Obama wants to socialize our healthcare system!!!

Published
by
seanb
on 22 June 2009
in Elections, News, Obama and Voting
. 0 Comments

One of the fundamental economic issues facing our republic in today’s world is the “problem” of healthcare costs spiraling out of control.

In most Western economies, healthcare is provided by a national health system paid for by everyone through various taxing schemes (income, value added, etc.). In this regard, most Western economies do provide healthcare “from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs,” if Karl Marx will please excuse my profane use of his oft-cited quotation. It is argued by many on the right that were the United States to move in the direction of such a nationally-provided healthcare system, our quality of care would suffer and stagnate because of added layers of bureaucracy that would be added.

Even President Obama in his desire to pass some form of healthcare reform has declared such a single-payer system to be “off the table” for the purposes of this year’s attempts at passing this, yet many on the right continue to rail against Obama’s plans as a potential “back door” to allow single-payer healthcare at a later time.

What I’d like to know is: what makes our congressional leaders (in both houses) so much better than us that they can obtain health insurance for themselves AND their spouses for roughly $290 per month? On top of this, they have access to physicians at their place of work, and have access to the Naval medical centers so prevalent around DC. If they happen to need prescriptions (with the mean age of them approaching 60, who of them could POSSIBLY need that), they have a great prescription drug plan.

We already pay these people $175,000+ per year, which is slightly more than four-times what the average Joe the Plumber makes… add to that the health benefits, and these are some pretty cushy jobs that you and me pay for.

So what I’d like to see happen for healthcare is either you and me get the option of choosing the healthcare plan of our senators and/or representative, or this same congress cobbles together a plan, like Medicare, that is made optional for those of us who have no health insurance, or who think we can get a better deal on the national plan.

Chances are I’d stick with my employer-provided option, because I’m quite happy with the HMO that I have been enrolled in.

But the time has come to level the playing field between us and our worldwide competitors when it comes to getting EVERYONE access to the best healthcare we ALL can afford.

Accept it… embrace it… learn it… let’s move on!

Published
by
seanb
on 24 March 2009
in News, Newspapers and Society
. 0 Comments

In reading this article from the New York Times, about four Michigan daily newspapers that will either cease publication or will move to an on-line format, I find myself asking: “Why all the hubbub about the death of the daily newspaper?”

For sure, dailies nationwide have been the source of much important journalism, shining a disinfectant spotlight on corrupt politicians, standing up for the common man, and, in general, writing about the local. But just because newspapers are moving away from the environmentally-unsustainability that is the paper and ink with which they have been printed, this does not necessarily need to be the maudlin affair most newspapers have cast it in.

Of course, this is me writing: someone who has sworn off paper anything and, who for the last couple months has been able, by and large, to practice what I preach when it comes to being paperless. “There are those out there who don’t read the news online, and who won’t be able to get riled up by looking at a web page with the news on it,” may be the response.

My question to them is: “why not?” For years, the quarter you’ve paid the newsstand vendor has never really ever paid for the content of the paper. It’s gone to pay for the distribution of the content – namely the delivery boy, or that newsstand vendor I just mentioned. Papers have, for years, existed off of their advertising revenue, and have, for years, relied on this revenue to pay their reporters, editors, and clerical staff to run their huge organizations.

My response to this is: “Grow up.” The Internet has come of age. Stop trying to control content, and embrace it. We still need good journalism to keep that spotlight shone on those corrupt politicians. Find a way to work with your advertisers to move your ads to the Internet. Google has been able to do this on a worldwide scale, you locals should be able to do this for that which is local.

To those who refuse to get their news via the Internet, I also say “Grow up.” Get used to the digital. Sure, paper can be recycled, and that does help reduce the amount of energy put into its production; but, really, do you absolutely have to hold that newspaper in your hands, getting that toxic ink all over the place, in order to be satisfied that you’re getting the best news from anywhere?

Realize this: the PAPER portion of the NewsPAPER industry is dead. There is absolutely no way it can be sustained – economically or environmentally. Those NEWS organizations that realize this will understand this. They will Accept it… They will embrace it… they will learn it…

Let’s move on.