Archive for the 'Society' Category

Teabagging… again…

Published
by
seanb
on 2 July 2009
in Healthcare and Society
. 0 Comments

The teabaggers were out at the corner of Le Jeune Road and Coral Way in Coral Gables tonight, protesting “Obama’s Health Plan,” decrying universal health care as being “too expensive”.

I’m not quite sure what “too expensive” is. Of course, on that note, I’m not quite sure what “universal health care” is.

In some fashion, we already provide universal health care in the United States. If you’re dying and walk into Jackson Memorial Hospital, or Celebration Hospital (for that matter) in Celebration, Florida, the hospital is duty-bound and morally obligated to do its level best to deliver their best care to keep you alive.

Who gets to pay for that care? If you can’t, we all do in some way. Either the hospital’s charity picks up the tab, or they get a write-off on their taxes because you can’t pay it.

I don’t sit here contending that we should be paying for everyone’s non-reconstructive cosmetic surgery, Lasik procedures, or peoples’ Sildenafil citrate (google it if you need to…) But as a country, just based on principle, we should be willing to ensure that everyone has the same crack at a liver that Steve Jobs had a month ago, and that crack at that liver shouldn’t be based on one’s net worth.

If we can throw billions after billions at AIG, Bank of America, and their ilk, we can’t afford not to embrace this.

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.

Help me figure this out…

Published
by
seanb
on 11 March 2009
in Congress, Martinez, Nelson, Society and Unionization
. 0 Comments

I wrote all of my elected Federal representatives yesterday, encouraging all of them, in both houses of Congress, to support the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). EFCA adds the ability of a simplified “checkbox” style vote for employees to vote to form a union. My state’s senators, Bill Nelson and Mel Martinez came down on different sides of this issue – and both wrote me to explain their positions; but, both also wrote me two diametrically opposed points of fact.

Continue reading ‘Help me figure this out…’

Why the focus on health care reform?

Published
by
seanb
on 8 March 2009
in Economy, Healthcare, Obama and Society
. 3 Comments

The financial crisis in which we find this country is the worst since the Great Depression, this much has been widely posited by both sides of the aisle in Congress – oh, and Joe Lieberman. I agree that we need to do whatever we can in order to get us out of the mess. But I’m curious about Obama’s focus on health care at a time like this. Why not abandon that hope, for the present, and work on What Seems To Be The Right Thing To Work On? (namely, the economy, stupid – to paraphrase Bill Clinton’s catchphrase from his era)

In speaking some time ago with a very wise individual, my father Larry Bossinger, he told me what he thought was the reason we need health care reform: most other industrial nations have government-provided, or single-payer, health care systems. Health care is not a cost borne by industry – directly, anyhow… it is borne by everyone through taxes. Thus, companies like Toyota in Japan, Volkswagen in Germany, Fiat in Italy, and Renault in France, don’t have the huge bills for healthcare that companies here in the States do – like GM, Ford, and Chrysler, or, dare I say, Lockheed-Martin, Boeing, and Raytheon.

I’m not convinced a single-payer system is what we need to move toward… but I am convinced that we do need to find a solution so that every American, regardless of income or ability to pay, is guaranteed the best possible primary and emergency health care available. I would even go so far as to suggest that access to health care in an economy so prosperous as ours is a fundamental human right.

If we can borrow trillions to invade a sovereign country where it wasn’t required, we sure can figure out this problem in a way that is equitable to all, and levels our playing field.

The Bush Legacy Bus

Published
by
seanb
on 1 October 2008
in Democracy and Society
. 0 Comments

What an awesome idea. A museum on wheels, taking the effects of “Compassionate Conservatism” all the way to the voters. And it will be here in Miami tomorrow, from 11am to 1pm, at “The Shoppes” at 7780 NW 25th St., specifically to help highlight the achievements/failures of the Diaz-Balart brothers.

BushLegacyBus-Rushmore1.jpg

More information can be gotten here: www.bushlegacytour.com

Bail out Wall Street with no strings attached? No… That is not the answer…

Published
by
seanb
on 30 September 2008
in Society and Voting
. 0 Comments

700 Billion Dollars would go a long way toward helping our economy improve itself. The government buying “toxic assets,” as they have now become known, is not the right way to do it. Especially with no strings attached.

On September 21, 2008, Robert Reich, the nation’s 22nd secretary of labor, proposed in his Talking Points Memo, a way that I find acceptable, should any bailout actually be offered, namely:

  1. The government should receive an equity share in any company coming to the trough. This equity share would be substantially equivalent in size to the stake the company wants us, as taxpayers, to assume risk.
  2. The CEO (and the top executive ranks) should forego any compensation until such time that their company rights itself and shows an average profit over five years.
  3. No more campaign contributions from these Wall Street firms, and no more lobbying from them while their companies are held substantially by the US Taxpayers.
  4. New regulations shall be put in place to strongly regulate the activity of these firms.
  5. Bankruptcy judges receive the right to modify the terms of first mortgages.

This country’s government operates for us, it operates BY us. It’s time to take it back.

Free Market? Only when it works…

Published
by
seanb
on 17 September 2008
in Biden, Obama and Society
. 1 Comment

I’m not a proponent of markets completely unregulated. 

While an unregulated market may run efficiently and effectively, rarely does it operate with the broader society’s “best interests” in mind.

Why?

If one looks at a market, one understands that its purpose is for the seller of a good to sell that good at the highest possible price they can get for the good, while the buyer’s goal is to pay the lowest possible price they can get for that good.  This goes without saying, for it is the fundamental purpose of any market.  It’s also a very basic model of a market.  This model precludes any longitudinal forethought to be undertaken prior to decisions.  In other words, markets operate instantaneously. 

Money and goods change hands at that moment, without regard for what happened previously, or what will happen next.

Perhaps this is the origin of the phrase “caveat emptor,” roughly translated to “buyer beware”.

Was it right for the government to step in to take over Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae?  Was it right for the government to step in to shore up Bear Stearns?  Was it right for the government to provide $85 billion in loan guarantees in return for an 80% equity stake in an insurance company that may or may not survive?

These are definitely complex questions.  Questions that I have no business attempting to answer, because I don’t have the expertise to do so.  However, I do have the expertise to say that in a free market economy, of the sort that Bush has operated, and that McCain/Palin still propose operating (if not expanding), these organizations should have been allowed to collapse without taxpayer intervention, for we have no business being in these businesses AFTER they’ve made their bad decisions, if we weren’t there providing the regulation to try to prevent those bad decisions from being made in the first place.

I’m not suggesting that an Obama/Biden administration would have handled this crisis any differently; in fact, I suspect given the gravity of the financial black hole that would be created should these institutions fail, that they would have made exactly the same decisions to rescue.  What I am suggesting is that perhaps with more oversight, of the sort that would likely be proposed by an Obama/Biden administration, these situations would be rarer.

Somewhere between Jacksonville and Orlando…

Published
by
seanb
on 16 September 2008
in Biden, Elections, Justice, Obama, Political and Society
. 0 Comments

NPR’s Morning Edition is reporting today that John McCain stated at a rally in Jacksonville, Florida that “The fundamentals of the economy are strong,” but changed his tune when he was at a rally later that day in Orlando, Florida to “I know Americans are hurting.” The distance between these two cities, according to Google Maps, is 141 miles, or about a two-hour drive (probably a two-hour flight, too… maybe not, I don’t know if McCain sprung for a flight or travelled by bus.).

I’d like to know why he changed his tune. It could be that McCain has finally come to his senses that the current Executive has lead us down the wrong path, to a point where we now have investment banks – some of the largest in the world – failing, taking out insurance companies in their wake. It could be that McCain suddenly finds himself lamenting the binds in which the working class finds itself. However, I’m more inclined to believe that one of McCain’s advisors whispered to him, “Nice job John… you might want to change your message at the next stop…”

You see, the problem with the McCain-Palin ticket is that they don’t share any links with the working- or middle class voter, aside from Palin’s family (arguably) being from the middle class. McCain has been a staunch supporter of a market free of government intervention; Palin has been a staunch supporter of a “hands off” approach to Federal Government intervention in Alaska.

Barack Obama may not be an economist, but at the very least he knows that what we have now isn’t working – and he HAS known this for a long time.

It’s not something he just learned in his latest 141 mile trip, like McCain did.

Bush defends Iraq war strategy

Published
by
seanb
on 29 January 2008
in Political and Society
. 0 Comments

This article from Al Jazeera English just about sums up my opinion on the State of the Union speech.

I must admit that I was remiss in not listening to the speech personally; however, I feel confident that I would have gleaned nothing more from the speech than I was able to from the several news accountings I have read. I was attending jury duty yesterday, and arrived home late, forgetting about the speech. I will read it, but I expect to not see anything earth-shaking.

I don’t think the administration will attempt to go to war in Iran, primarily because of the recent National Intelligence Estimate that came out indicating that Iran has abandoned their plans to enrich uranium for weapons use; however, also because the Democrats now hold the majority in both houses. However, I must also say that I’m not terribly impressed by the Democrats’ ability to lead.

All I can say is thank goodness it (Bush II) is almost over.

Bush defends Iraq war strategy:

US president warns against early pullout in his final State of the Union speech.

Can Obama Win

Published
by
seanb
on 28 January 2008
in Obama, Political and Society
. 0 Comments

Yes, I’ve supported John Edwards in his bid to become president. Given that he didn’t even win his home state of South Carolina, the odds are long that he’ll make it to be the candidate of choice. So, I’ve looked at the other candidates, and have decided that I like Obama. But can he win?

Let’s see what Richard Florida has to say about it…

Can Obama Win:

Newhoggers asks an important question:

Can a creative class backed candidate at the national level get beyond

his/her high intensity support and create a majority coalition within

the Democratic Party? Obama is the first Democrat in a competitive

situation to gain a majority of votes, so I think this concern has been

allayed.

Meaning his plurality in South Carolina.

Yes, I agree: He can.  Years ago, John Judis and Ruy Teixeira predicted their emerging Democratic majority based on minority plus creative-class like voters in "ideopolises."  The book resonated with me – but I could not see how the numbers would add up. What about older independents and Reagan Democrats? These voters, I believe – and still believe – would be hard to bring into such a coalition.  Bill Clinton may say draw the Jesse Jackson comparison. But Obama has shown his ability to draw from a far broader pool of people – pulling in independents and also mobilizing huge turnouts among young, black and educated or creative class voters.  I think with him, and possibly only with him, the math works. Thus less an emerging partisan majority and more an emerging Obama (alternative) majority.

But that still does not alleviate my main worry. I can see how Obama wins the Democratic nomination. But it’s harder to see his road to a victory in the general election. I’m not saying he can’t do it. With the Republicans seemingly and weighed down with the war issue and the electoral mood shifting to both the economy and "change" (read: throw the bums out), he stands his best possible chance this year. The hurdle I see lies in the electoral college.  He needs to swing the swing states and from what I can tell his voters are mighty concentrated geographically.  It’s America’s concentrated and "sorted" political geography that’s the biggest obstacle to an Obama presidency.