A workable solution to America's health care troubles...

Politicians of all stripes have been bickering over health care. Who's going to get health care and how are we going to pay for it? We're already spending $2.3 trillion on health care in this country. That's greater than all the goods and services produced in the United Kingdom, not exactly an economic lightweight.

So what does this spending -- about $7,000 every year -- for each man, woman and child in the United States get? Sub par health care quality with a ranking of 37th worldwide. Woo Hoo! We're number 37!

So we don't do health care very well. As a country, we need to focus on our competitive advantage. At least, that's what Adam Smith tells us to do in "The Wealth of Nations."

As a country, we don't make much of anything anymore. So it is incumbent on our policy makers to focus America's competitive advantage.

We need to abandon health care. We do a crappy job at it. It's a financial sinkhole and we all die in the end anyway. So why bother?

We need to channel our resources where we excel -- entertainment. We don't know the names of the eight chambers of the heart or how the larynx helps us digest our food, but we do know what "Jon & Kate Plus Eight" are having for dinner or Britney Spears' favorite coffee. It's a matter of our priorities.

Policy makers should allocate our resources accordingly. So here's my solution to health care reform: We spend nothing on the sick. We take all that money and dedicate it to fun.

This is how we solve this dilemma:

-- Force every man, woman and child to spend $7,000 a year on entertainment. It can be devoted to consumer electronics, movie tickets, circuses, sporting events, video games, theme park admissions, the theater, and time shares. Not one cent can be spent on health, since it is not economical and doesn't fit with America's competitive advantage.

-- Hospitals will be turned into resorts to reflect our nation's drive to be a fun economy. Hospitals kill more people than theme parks, so theme parks must be better for our nation's health. Society can swap out go the machines that "go ping" in the hospital and replace them with video games. Amusement parks are a better investment than the lousy profit margins offered at health care facilities.

-- This reform will require us to dramatically reshape our workforce. We'll need to retrain our nurses, doctors, pharmacists and other clinicians for new jobs. Our government will have to build a national chain of clown colleges to meet the demands of our new "fun economy." Instead of learning about anatomy & physiology, our clinicians will have to learn how to juggle. Administering an IV becomes a passe' skill, while trapeze work becomes a valued art.

So that leaves us with a dilemma about what do do with the sick. In our new fun economy, sick people won't go the the hospital. They can behave like Super Bowl winners:
They can go to Disney World!
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A Kennedy gives tips about winning friends in politics

When a Kennedy gives advice about politics, you have to take notice.

Edward M. Kennedy, Jr., the son of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and president of Marwood Group, gave a primer on how to be a lobbyist/advocate at a health care industry conference in Orlando in mid-May.

Despite the influence of money and high powered lobbyists in today’s politics, Kennedy said a commitment to an issue dispels the need to costly lobbyists to make your case to legislators. That should not be confused with eschewing politics, since any organization should have a political strategy.

“What really matters is authenticity. You can hire a slick consultant, but there is no substitute on being able to speak on your own behalf or for members of your group,” Kennedy said.

A simple letter to your local legislators or an invitation for coffee at your office could be all that is needed to get the ball rolling.

“Politicians love to look like they are doing something,” Kennedy said half in jest. “They love to be seen and they love to have things to do.”

“Having a coffee session with voters or helping them (the official) get a picture in the paper is another way you can be helpful without writing a big check,” added Kennedy, whose brother is a Congressman from Rhode Island.

Ideally, Kennedy said you want to be in the position of becoming your legislator’s unofficial “cabinet” to comment on issues that are of particular interest. Kennedy said it is impossible for legislative offices to become experts on every single issue and it is important to become part of your local office’s rolodex so they call you for input, making it important to become friendly with your local legislators’ staff.

One word of advice Kennedy provided was that you should not be insulted if your legislator has arranged for a bright, 23-year-old legislative aide to listen to your concerns.

“They are the ones really running our government.”

"The Big Picture" economics blog -- Bailouts and Handouts

Barry Ritholtz explains why businesses are claiming to need government bailouts: "Free Money!" All of these bailouts have turned into a corporate welfare free for all. Too bad this is going to devalue the dollar and still will not really help consumers. If former Goldman Sachs CEO is correct, it could be grim. Check this out: http://www.reuters.com/article/Finance08/idUSTRE4AB7HT20081112

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Trenton's a swamp that needs to be drained

Ballot questions in N.J. are often overlooked when people vote. Most of the time nobody pounds the pavement about them or advertises a point of view on tv (except in California where many things go on the ballot). However, their impact ends up being felt years later when people wonder "How the hell did we get into this mess?" This year, New Jersey had two ballot questions and they were ingeniously unclear. Here's Question 1:

QUESTION
Do you approve the proposed amendment to the State Constitution which
provides that, after this amendment becomes part of the Constitution, a law
enacted thereafter that authorizes State debt created through the sale of bonds
by any autonomous public corporate entity, established either as an
instrumentality of the State or otherwise exercising public and essential
governmental functions, such as an independent State authority, which debt or
liability has a pledge of an annual appropriation as the ways and means to pay
the interest of such debt or liability as it falls due and pay and discharge the
principal of such debt, will be subject to voter approval, unless the payment of the
debt is made subject to appropriations of an independent non-State source of
revenue paid by third persons for the use of the object or work bonded for, or are
from a source of State revenue otherwise required to be appropriated pursuant to
another provision of the Constitution?

Yep, that's what we were able to vote on. Believe it or not, it can impact our states finances, which are a mess from all the debt on its books ($3 billion a year in debt service). The newspapers also didn't have much to say about it either. Therefore, I had to go to the League of Women Voters to get a true interpretation. See page 3 for the implications. Where are the reporters in New Jersey to write about this stuff? Isn't it their role to interpret complex material and improve voter understanding?

Unfortunately, our politicians are not being held accountable either. This is an act of intellectual dishonesty. If our politicians cannot be up front with the public, what good are they. It just leads me to say, Trenton is a swamp that needs to be drained.