The Zombie Confidence Fairy - NYTimes.com
If they're talking about confidence, they're full of it. It's just that simple. NPR has joined Faux News in this silly mythology. Why? Because that's what their financial overlords tell them to say.
Businesses don't hire people because they can't sell what they've already got on hand.
Why? Because people are out of work. Because workers don't get paid enough to buy stuff. Because most of what you spend on goods and services over and above the cost of production goes to wealthy shareholders and owners, not to the workers who produced it.
Saturday, January 11, 2014
Wednesday, January 8, 2014
that's so 2013...
Great news for Obamacare: Americans are bored with it
My not too tongue in cheek prediction is that the House will continue to try to repeal the Affordable Care Act longer than the American people will remember what it is.
My not too tongue in cheek prediction is that the House will continue to try to repeal the Affordable Care Act longer than the American people will remember what it is.
Tuesday, January 7, 2014
Gentlemen, choose your statistic!
Good news! Health spending as a share of the economy is shrinking.
Funny how the story I heard on the supposedly "liberal" NPR this morning seemed to say the opposite.
Of course it's all a matter of what statistic you look at: nominal health care costs in terms of inflation, vs. health care expenditures as a percentage of GDP.
Funny how the story I heard on the supposedly "liberal" NPR this morning seemed to say the opposite.
Of course it's all a matter of what statistic you look at: nominal health care costs in terms of inflation, vs. health care expenditures as a percentage of GDP.
Sunday, January 5, 2014
Any excuse to believe in BS
ScienceGymnasium: Scientists have found that memories may be passed down through generations in our DNA
Note that on careful reading, the study does not show that "memories" are passed down. What it shows is that experiences in life can result in heritable change in the genome.
But there is a world of difference between a traumatic association with the smell of cherry blossoms being passed on as a fear reaction to that smell, and the completely goofy idea of "racial memory," as in the Science Fiction idea of alien invaders with bat-wings, horns, and barbed tails being responsible for the iconic images of demons.
To paraphrase The Animals:
I'm just an scientist whose research is good,
Oh Lord, please don't let me be misunderstood.
Note that on careful reading, the study does not show that "memories" are passed down. What it shows is that experiences in life can result in heritable change in the genome.
But there is a world of difference between a traumatic association with the smell of cherry blossoms being passed on as a fear reaction to that smell, and the completely goofy idea of "racial memory," as in the Science Fiction idea of alien invaders with bat-wings, horns, and barbed tails being responsible for the iconic images of demons.
To paraphrase The Animals:
I'm just an scientist whose research is good,
Oh Lord, please don't let me be misunderstood.
Friday, January 3, 2014
Cui buono?
Which Is More Important: Military Drones Or A Cure For Cancer? - Forbes
Maybe we should just go back to calling it the War Department. I mean seriously, what credible military threat do we face? And what good are expensive weapons systems that don't even work and the Pentagon doesn't want?
Our politicians are much more interested in lining the pockets of the Military Industrial Complex than in ensuring the general welfare of, or in securing the "blessings of liberty" for the people.
Maybe we should just go back to calling it the War Department. I mean seriously, what credible military threat do we face? And what good are expensive weapons systems that don't even work and the Pentagon doesn't want?
Our politicians are much more interested in lining the pockets of the Military Industrial Complex than in ensuring the general welfare of, or in securing the "blessings of liberty" for the people.
The lousy arguments you'll hear on all of Murdoch's "news" outlets.
Disinformation on Inequality - NYTimes.com
It's sad, really. The Wall Street Journal has always had a very strong Plutocrat bias, but now it's just pathetic.
It's sad, really. The Wall Street Journal has always had a very strong Plutocrat bias, but now it's just pathetic.
Thursday, January 2, 2014
Poor people and emergency rooms
Study: Expanding Medicaid doesn’t reduce ER trips. It increases them.
ISTM that there's a pretty clear reason why suddenly giving people health insurance results in increased visits to the emergency room: That's what poor people have done to get the care they couldn't afford in the past.
There are a number of inappropriate things people do when they don't have money and/or power. When I worked in a grocery store, people thought that complaining to the company about poor service would do no good; they just gave the person at the store Hell. The thing is, the person at store level doesn't decide how much help to schedule, nor when to schedule it. They get numbers from on high, and that's what they've got to deal with. I would love to have been able to give the customers the help to which they were entitled, but middle-management had their quotas and formulas to follow, and if people shop at odd hours in poor neighborhoods, so much the worse for them. After all. it's much more important to have short lines when supervisors are in the store than when customers are.
Similarly, poor people have gone to emergency rooms in the past because they knew they would not be turned away. But if they are now covered by Medicare, an obvious solution presents itself: simply tell them that Medicare will not cover their emergency room visit, but it will cover a visit to the Ambulatory Care Center, or their primary care physician, or whatever. IOW, simply tell them that they are in the wrong place.
They will complain for a while, but eventually they will learn to use their insurance coverage efficiently.
ISTM that there's a pretty clear reason why suddenly giving people health insurance results in increased visits to the emergency room: That's what poor people have done to get the care they couldn't afford in the past.
There are a number of inappropriate things people do when they don't have money and/or power. When I worked in a grocery store, people thought that complaining to the company about poor service would do no good; they just gave the person at the store Hell. The thing is, the person at store level doesn't decide how much help to schedule, nor when to schedule it. They get numbers from on high, and that's what they've got to deal with. I would love to have been able to give the customers the help to which they were entitled, but middle-management had their quotas and formulas to follow, and if people shop at odd hours in poor neighborhoods, so much the worse for them. After all. it's much more important to have short lines when supervisors are in the store than when customers are.
Similarly, poor people have gone to emergency rooms in the past because they knew they would not be turned away. But if they are now covered by Medicare, an obvious solution presents itself: simply tell them that Medicare will not cover their emergency room visit, but it will cover a visit to the Ambulatory Care Center, or their primary care physician, or whatever. IOW, simply tell them that they are in the wrong place.
They will complain for a while, but eventually they will learn to use their insurance coverage efficiently.
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