Don't let the nastiness and pettiness of others ruin your day. I bet plenty of people (who didn't write a letter) read Marisa's story and got a good feeling from reading about someone who made her life better by seeing something she could change about the way she handled the situation she found herself in.

The people who are cynical and bitter were that way when they woke up this morning, and probably will be when they wake up tomorrow morning too, no matter what you or I do. That is their problem, so let them keep it and deal with it if they choose. If they are ready to make a change, they just might find a little inspiration reading about someone else who did, even if her life story is different from theirs.

We have the same problems as we did yesterday, and the same villains have the same schemes.

But we have an actual leader now. When Bush spoke I usually couldn't make it through a press conference without cursing, changing the channel, and feeling like vomiting. Now I find myself watching the inauguration events and tearing up. This man is my President, Bush never was.

Now we have a President who we believe in, you couldn't miss it if you tried, you saw it all day long, over and over.

Yes he will need the support and advocacy of citizens to make progress. Support him and see how far we can go. Real change is possible now, but not without our continued involvement. It only began with your vote, now see it through and GET involved. Even if you only write an email or call your congressman/senator on a single issue, it will be needed to remind the legislators that this time it really is different.

It shouldn't matter what state you live in. Some people will undoubtedly get screwed if we do some piecemeal approach.

@tonydavisnelson: ..."And frankly, having been to France a few times over the past year, I don't think they have it any better than we do here."

If you are going to France a few times in a year you are not one of us average citizens, but rather one of the privileged few who can go on vacation not once every few years, but a rather a few times in a single year, to Europe no less. Don't try to bullshit us by comparing your lot to ours.

To everyone else, your taxes might go up with single payer, but they might not. The money your employer was using to pay for your insurance (if you are lucky enough to have it) should now be freed up to pay you a higher salary, which should come pretty close to offsetting the costs of paying for medical care from taxes versus employer sponsored insurance.

This is one of those things that I think I often gets overlooked. If you take all of the money that companies ALREADY spend on providing employer sponsored insurance and instead direct it into a single payer system, and factor in the savings from reducing administrative overhead and obligations to executive/shareholder profits, you get more for your money (even your employer has to employ people to evaluate health insurance plans and administer your company plans too).

Sadly a few CEO's of health insurance companies won't be buying yachts and vacation homes in Aspen if we make this change, but I am pretty much OK with that if it means that you and I know that we have access to health care if we lose our jobs. How about you?

That was his best work, and greatest contribution to society.

Thanks Ben, that movie was lots of laughs, just like when "news" programs have you on to analyze economic news of the day.

For F****s sake, aren't there enough college economics professors to go around before asking mediocre actors to provide economic commentary?

Maybe we should just let the clowns keep doing their show in their very own little little three ring circus and move 'real' investing to a new arena?

If they absolutely refuse to change to provide an environment that allows/encourages/requires realistic valuations of stock prices, then isn't the only choice to create a new one and leave them to play out their charades in their pretend market?

I would love to see a new arena arise with a new standard of accounting and business practices that actually rewards investors and companies with real long term plans that are based on ethical business plans. Transparency in accounting would be required, and actually doing something that pays a reasonable dividend to shareholders would be nice too. CEOs of these companies would be mere mortals (well-compensated, but not wannabe kings) and would not be entitled to anything beyond their basic salary if the company doesn't prosper.

Why does this sound crazy? Isn't this how it should have been all along?

Medicare, Medicaid, and the Veterans' Administration have been delivering health care to real, honest, decent Americans for years. And it has not destroyed the country.

Other countries have successfully ran single-payer health care plans for their citizens, but we can't do that here in America because we have to make sure that the profits of insurance companies are sustained at all costs.

For Chrissakes, do some of you mean to suggest that it would be preferable to provide health care to every citizen when it might mean that some people would not pay into to the system exactly enough to offset what they consume?!? Are you insane? Our current system is perfect and only rewards people with wealth commensurate with their contribution to society. Don't you dare rock the F*ing boat by suggesting that anyone without an MBA from an esteemed Business school is entitled to more than they contribute.