Two things...
from Jeff Jarvis that are worth your time. First up is an original idea in health care. Jeff is a "bottoms up" kind of guy. By that I mean he understands that most business models are basically upside down and need to be inverted to succeed. On that note he discusses the problem with our current form of health care competing interests for the same dollars. Everyone is trying to maximize their utility and simultaneously guard against privation. In the end, we all end up losing. He shows how a confluence of interests would serve everyone better. To be sure, when HMO's were first designed the idea was to create a system focused on wellness, not sickness. Prevention is much cheaper than cure. Keeping people seeing doctors for checkups and paying them to work out would preclude any surprises and help Fat America get off the couch and into the gym. It didn't turn out that way for reasons too long to discuss here but read Jeff's article.
Second, he makes and apples to kumquats comparison of what we could buy for $700 Billion. I've oft argued that Democrats should have focused on the cost of the Iraq war rather than the legality or morality of it. The cost of both the war and this current bailout is staggering. I'm no fan of government spending but if we're going to spend it we ought to be damn sure we're spending it in the right places. Think about what we could have done with a half a trillion dollars. I will qualify this by saying that we needed to do something with Iraq but the GOP's wailing and moaning about federal spending rings a bit hollow when you've seen the Iraq War, Medicare Drug plan and now this bailout fiasco. Where are our priorities indeed?
Second, he makes and apples to kumquats comparison of what we could buy for $700 Billion. I've oft argued that Democrats should have focused on the cost of the Iraq war rather than the legality or morality of it. The cost of both the war and this current bailout is staggering. I'm no fan of government spending but if we're going to spend it we ought to be damn sure we're spending it in the right places. Think about what we could have done with a half a trillion dollars. I will qualify this by saying that we needed to do something with Iraq but the GOP's wailing and moaning about federal spending rings a bit hollow when you've seen the Iraq War, Medicare Drug plan and now this bailout fiasco. Where are our priorities indeed?
Comments