9 posts tagged “money”

A new Harvard study estimates that nearly 45,000 Americans die each year because they don’t have health insurance — and that’s after other factors like income and unhealthy behaviors are taken into account.

"Deaths associated with lack of health insurance now exceed those caused by many common killers such as kidney disease," an article by the Cambridge Health Alliance reports.

The study says the uninsured have a 40% higher risk of death than people who have private health insurance — like the insurance you get through your job. Or, to put it another way, a person dies because of a lack of insurance every 12 minutes. 

Of course, some people neglect their health. But many, we suspect, don’t see a doctor because they’re afraid of the cost. Doctor visits and tests can add up to an intimidating amount, even if you’re uninsured but have a good income. A CNN story put a human face on some of these avoidable deaths — a freelance cameraman, a self-employed mother of two, and a 25-year-old woman who worked in a movie theater.

Source: Smart Spending Blog

Healthinsurance

Let me explain my stance on the matter.  I am not a fan of insurance in principle.  The idea of paying for something in the case that something “might” happen is a similar model to what the mafia used during its protection racket heyday.  The sad truth is that healthcare costs have become so astronomical that the “necessity” of insurance has become a prominent concern for everyone.  I happen to believe that insurance is one of the leading contributors to the rising costs, but that is merely my opinion. 

I happened to have an enormous amount of medical bills, and don’t have insurance.  While I won’t get into the fact that if you ever do get sick insurance companies will do ANYTHING they can to get rid of you, I will admit that having insurance initially could have saved me a lot of money.  With that being said, there is no doubt that my overall costs would be unaffected because I would have been dropped from any policy that I may have been on. 

Last night, I was notified that DeVry and Keller School of Management students HAVE TO have insurance through the school.  This really pisses me off, and screams of a cash grab by the university.  We don’t have an option and the minimum cost of $280 will automatically be applied to our accounts.  I am all for healthcare for everyone, but I don’t want the private sector making it mandatory!  This is especially true when the policy is something that I have no control over! 

Governors of five U.S. states urged the federal government to provide $1 trillion in aid to the country’s 50 states to help pay for education, welfare and infrastructure as states struggle with steep budget deficits amid a deepening recession.

The governors of New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Ohio and Wisconsin — all Democrats — said the initiative for the two-year aid package was backed by other governors and follows a meeting in December where governors called on President-elect Barack Obama to help them maintain services in the face of slumping revenues.

Gov. David Paterson of New York said 43 states now have budget deficits totaling some $100 billion as tax revenues plunge.

“It’s clear that the federal government needs to step in and jump-start the economy,” said Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts.

The latest package calls for $350 billion to create jobs by building or repairing roads, bridges and other public works; $250 billion to maintain education; and another $250 billion in “counter-cyclical” spending such as extending unemployment benefits and food stamps, which are typically a responsibility of the states.

The remainder would be used to fund middle-class tax cuts, stimulate the embattled housing market, and stem the tide of home foreclosures through a loan-modification program.

Governor's Call for Stimulus Package

Who didn't think that our leader's would jump at any chance they can to get free money?  Do you want to know the strange part?  I am potentially for this proposal.  It makes sense for the governor's to call for such spending given Obama's stance on stimulating the economy.  What it would take for me to support such a measure would be a HIGH level of accountability.  I am not talking the laughable accountability that our leaders accorded the jackals in the finance sector, or the nincompoops in the auto industry, but real accountability.  I hope that the Obama administration can accomplish this.  I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt this time, in the hopes that his team can truly accomplish something in Washington. 

Wait!  There is more!  The U.S. steel industry is calling for Obama to implement a public works plan that could be worth $1 Trillion over two years.  Guess what?  I am for this as well.  As you know, I am typically against government spending, but that is because they typically spend it on asinine projects that further the croneyism of our Capital.  I am for infrastructure spending, and so is Obama, so it makes sense that the struggling steel sector would appeal (I still hate lobbyists) to this opportunity and try to capitalize. 

I do NOT approve of bailing out the fools on Wall Street who actually thought of ways to create money out of thin air, or the morons in Detroit who caved to Union demands while not having any vision for their companies for the future, but I do approve of giving money to projects that can have tangible results.  That is the key difference here.  With these two spending proposals, we get something tangible.  With the financial bailout for example, we get this:

Doom & Gloom Today 

zero accountability and nothing that benefits the citizens of this nation.  I can stand behind tangible results.  I hope that Obama can hold these entities accountable.  If so, we may actually be able to get out of our financial crisis. 

As I and many others have said for as long as I can remember, the United States (and arguably, the world) is rigged so that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.  

According to an OECD report on income equality and poverty, the income of the riches 10 percent of people is, on average across OECD countries, nearly 9 times that of the poorest 10%.  In the United States, that gap is even greater.

In the United States, the richest 10 percent earn an average of $93,000 - the highest level in the OECD. The poorest 10 percent earn an average of $5,800 - about 20 percent lower than the OECD average. 

Madoff has been charged with a single count of securities fraud. He declined to enter a plea in Manhattan’s U.S. District Court and was released on $10 million bail. He faces up to 20 years in jail and a $5 million fine if convicted.

Given the speed at which the federal government is throwing money at the financial crisis, the average taxpayer, never mind member of Congress, might not be faulted for losing track.

CNBC, however, has been paying very close attention and keeping a running tally of actual spending as well as the commitments involved. Try $4.28 trillion dollars. That’s $4,284,500,000,000 and more than what was spent on WW II, if adjusted for inflation, based on our computations from a variety of estimates and sources*. Not only is it a astronomical amount of money, its’ a complicated cocktail of budgeted dollars, actual spending, guarantees, loans, swaps and other market mechanisms by the Federal Reserve, the Treasury and other offices of government taken over roughly the last year, based on government data and new releases. Strictly speaking, not every cent is directed a result of what’s called the financial crisis, but it arguably related to it.

Some 68-percent of the sum falls under the Federal Reserve’s umbrella, while another 16 percent is the under the Treasury Asset Relief Program, TARP, as defined under the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, signed into law in early October.

(The TARP alone is bigger than virtually any other US government endeavor dating back to the Louisiana Purchase.)

http://www.cnbc.com/id/27719011

I can't stand it.  The bailout money that was supposed to be used to unclog the credit system which was preventing banks from providing much needed funds for individuals and businesses is being used to pay for BONUSES!!!  Approximately $20 BILLION is being paid to these crooks!  Why? 

The rationale?  It is reported that the financial industry pays base salaries in the range of $80,000 to $600,000 and apparently that is simply not enough to keep some of the best and brightest working to keep their companies profitable. It seems that if they were paid only this meager amount, the company would risk mass defections. That would be a real problem...or would it?

Maybe it is time to peg annual bonuses to something meaningful like profitability. As I recall, not only are these the firms that have been losing money (as is evident by the need for a massive multi-billion dollar bailout) but they have also been shown to be the creators of securitization, derivatives, sub-prime mortgages and other toxic credit that is the root cause of this historic global economic catastrophe!

Maybe I am being too harsh? Perhaps management is entitled to hundreds of millions in bonuses for the hard work they do, day in and day out. You have to feel sorry for them as most have had to give up their private jets and instead fly in a cramped seat in first class. Surely most will now have to wonder how they will deal with the excess workload as they have had to fire thousands of employees. Also, they will need to use a good chunk of that money to rebuild their retirement plans as much of their wealth was tied up in their company's stock which, under their leadership, could be down more than 60% just this year alone.

This whole thing is just sick.  Our entire country is ran by people who have created a system to keep themselves in power and wealth.  Our version of capitalism might as well be socialism.  Given the state of our economy (the worlds even), I think that the United States is poised on the precipace of disaster.  Just look at how much money they are throwing at these companies who created their own problems!  On top of that, other industries are lining up-auto industry anyone?  Poor management and a system designed to swindle people can only balance atop the pyramid for so long before it topples.  If we keep enabling them, change will never come.

I am absolutely f*cking sick of it.  If you combine this with what is going to be a surefire disastrous election (where the f*ck is the outrage over vote flipping!!!???) I have a hard time loving this country like I used to.  What started out so great, has become so terrible. 

The cost of the Iraq war has $1 trillion dollars (that's $1,000,000,000,000).  There is a curious silence among the media about this fact.  Why?  The obvious answer is that they are all too busy discussing the election.  While certainly viable to a degree, it clearly reeks of a business angle vs. informing the populace.  The other answer is that people can't comprehend such a large number.  Studies have shown that numbers in the billions and above are too large for the average person to understand.  Enter Rob Simpson.  He has decided to quantify that number in terms that the average person can understand.  Some of the results are humorous:

• He calculates $1 trillion could pave the entire U.S. interstate highway system with gold -- 23.5-karat gold leaf. It could buy every person on the planet an iPod.

But many more are striking in the good that they could do the United States and the world in general!  I can't believe what a wasted opportunity this has been.  It merely reaffirms my belief that we should stay out of international matters except under the most dire of circumstances.  The most dire of circumstances being the re-emergence of Hitler.  Please realize that a large portion of malcontent towards our country springs from our sticking our noses in where they are not welcome.  Before anyone flames on, please consider the following and ask yourself what would make life better for Americans:

• It could give every high school student in the United States a free college education. It could pay off every American's credit card. It could buy a Buick for every senior citizen still driving in the United States.  America could double the 663,000 cops on the beat for 32 years. It could buy 16.6 million Habitat for Humanity houses, enough for 43 million Americans.

John C. Dvorak has an excellent article about what our government should do with the bailout money:

Give it to the public

This would equate to $2000 for every man, woman, and child in the U.S.  A family of 5 would recieve $10,000 for a downpayment, or to rent a house and pay off their credit cards thus sending the money back into the system.

From the article:

The trickle-down bail-out is designed to go to the same people who gave themselves huge salaries and ran these firms into the ground? It gets them off the hook. They can then slither out of town when they all should be tarred-and-feathered.

Why not let the public buy up the mortgages at these low-ball prices and move in? Why can’t that be arranged? Use the FHA to do it if the banks cannot. Why do the crooks get to re-buy the bad mortgages at the low price? So they can gouge later?

There has never been economic stimulus from the top down when the money is given to these weasels. These are people who will sell dollars and buy Euros, or horde the money or move to Switzerland to spend the money there. All of the CEO’s of these failed companies have offshore villas. The average Joe spends his money in the USA, not Europe. It stays in circulation. Good things happen.

According to the pro-bail-out “experts” the economy should have melted down on Tuesday hurling us into a depression. Instead the market went up. So how does that work?

Start looking at this bail-out and you start to see that it is an exit strategy for Paulsen and his friends at Goldman, Sachs. There was a need to rush it through before anyone discovered what it was all about.

No oversight, a finance Czar, more free reign than ever.

Exactly why is there such a rush? It’s like the sleazeball salesman telling feeble-minded customers that they MUST buy now. It just makes no sense.

Thank God it failed, but it won't fail for long.  Those bastards.

Our government has continued to reward terrible business practices and even worse management behavior.  The Lehman Bros. fallout the other day illustrates how badly these companies are run.  They also demonstrate how the entire system is rigged to reward those on top and screw those on the bottom.  Want an example?  How about the CEO of Lehman Bros. (despite COMPLETELY running the company into the ground) took home a salary of $75 MILLION this year.  The government needs to wake up!  Throwing obscene amounts of money to your fellow cronies won't fix anything.

The latest example is AIG.  This pisses me off to no end.  These companies are allowed to make terrible business decisions, the executives can bilk the company out of millions, and everyone at the top gets rich.  Instead of investigating these companies for malpractice and fraudulent behavior, our bipartisan (I repeat...BIPARTISAN) elected officials have decided to bail them out with billions of dollars.  Are they too stupid to realize that this won't fix the problem?

"It might not just bring down other financial institutions in the U.S. It could bring down overseas financial institutions," said Timothy Canova, a professor of international economic law at Chapman University School of Law. "If Lehman Brother's failure could help trigger AIG's going down, who knows who AIG's failure could trigger next."

This is a cycle that will only get worse.  Much worse.  Don't worry however, as us taxpayers have nothing to worry about.

Taxpayers will be protected, the Fed said, because the loan is backed by the assets of AIG and its subsidiaries. The loan is expected to be repaid from the proceeds of the asset sales.

Wanna take any bets that we get screwed?  I already bought my vaseline...

I have 48 hours to make a couple of life altering decisions.  Luckily, I get to work for 11 of them tomorrow!  UGH!  I will leave the details out of it, but the bottom line is that all of my money has been taken.  I have no money.  None.  I have no idea how I am going to pay for grad school which starts again Monday (gotta love the year round, 8 week terms...), as well as how I am going to pay any bills this month. 

I was set up so that I was basically draining my savings account and working a couple of jerk-off jobs to get money.  It would appear that has come to an abrupt end.  I am honestly rambling like a f*cking idiot right now, and I apologize.  My mind is somewhere else.

Have a great holiday weekend everyone!