Letters to the Editor
curmudgeon2
Published Letters: 414 Editor's Choice: 64
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Medical Costs
[Read the article: The health (care) of nations]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Medical costs are rising because of the refusal of the American people to take responsibility for their own health and the collusion between the government and medical industry to make us all chronic patients. The FDA and the USDA are completely controlled by the industries they are supposed to regulate. Drugs and foods are sold that are essentially poisonous. Obesity, diabetes, and osteoporosis are seen as medical conditions rather than the results of improper lifestyle. Most Americans suffer from vitamin D deficiency, but the use of sunblock is pushed and Fosamax and its ilk are prescribed for the resultant osteoporosis. Type 2 diabetes is treated with drugs instead of simple lifestyle changes. Many Americans see medical care as some sort of consumer good, in which the more you spend the better off you are. A large number of doctors get some sort of well-laundered kickback from pushing prescription drugs. These kickbacks take the form of lectures at fancy restaurants and resorts. Most of us have to pay for our vacations and fancy meals. Surgeons routinely perform unnecessary operations to line their pockets. However, I do not believe that the medcial profession is utterly cynical. They are as confused as the rest of us about proper treatment. The fault lies with government, Big Med and Big Ag who routinely push lies and propaganda regarding medical care and food.
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Strong leaders vs communal endeavor
[Read the article: Cheap labor vs. a worker's cooperative]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I have always believed that one smart driven person at the top is worth dozens of cooperating average guys. Which organization is more likely to succeed? An organization of a dozen 110 IQ people or a eleven 100 IQ and one with 140. One smart guy or gal is worth dozens of average joes. One of the interesting and scary things about intelligence is that a small difference in the average has huge consequences in the tails, assuming similar distributions. An average difference of a few points might mean that there would be 10X as many people with 130 IQ in the group with the higher average. Asians might have a slightly higher average, and a hell of a lot more really smart people. How do we compete in such an arena? Especially in a society where we have allowed our social support costs to go completely out of control. I've started several high tech businesses that were technically successful, but failed as businesses. Being smart is not enough, you have to also be driven. A smart driven person at the top can energize lots of normally undriven people to perform far better than they normally would.
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To poeslygeia
[Read the article: Cheap labor vs. a worker's cooperative]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I was not referring to government, nor was I recommending a dictator for the US, although the Texas Oil Oligarchs and their Saudi buddies would love to see a Saudi type government in the US. A democracy, which I wish we had, needs to be sloppy and inefficient. An efficient gobvernment could easily be a tyrranical government. Within the society we need lots of organizations doing what they try to be good at. People need the freedom to move from organization to organization as they wish. Organizations need to be able to fail if they are non-competitive.
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Cowardice of Democrats
[Read the article: Bulletproof politics]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I wonder how much of the cowardice of Democrats on the war is due to where they get their campaign contributions. I suspect that well-laundered Oil, Saudi, and related big business campaign contributions are a major source to both parties. If that is true we have turned our country over to people who have no belief in democracy, and would much prefer a compliant king (GWB being a prime example of what the would like).
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How to cure the desire for more
[Read the article: No rest for the richest]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]When I was a young engineer I read an article about how to survive despite the relatively low income of engineers vs other professions. Three rules stood out: bring your lunch to work, avoid commercial entertainment, and join a church. Bringing your lunch to work saves about $1500 a year in todays dollars or $70,000 of lifetime income or probably about a quarter of a million if income from that money is included. Minimal commercial entertainment costs could easily equal that. Although a church requires contributions it provides a lot of entertainment and socialization at low cost. It's also a form of insurance; if you get into problems your fellow church members will pitch in to help you out, at no cost.
We took up athletic pursuits, like backpacking, to teach us how to get along on very little. If you have to live for a week on what you can carry on your back, you quickly learn how little you need to be happy. The ideal vacation for us is still living on our small sailboat in the wilderness. We have taken vacations where our costs were a couple of hundred bucks for a week, most of which was driving to the launch ramp or trailhead. For example we lived on our $8000 sailboat for two weeks in Desolation Sound on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia for well under $1000, most of which was the gas to get there and the fees for four ferry trips to tranport our boat to the launch point. Memorable pleasures don't need to cost much.
It is far better to get self-affirmation from simple low-cost pleasures, like running a half-marathon, than to desperately seek it from spending vast amounts of money eating in fancy restaurants, or going to expensive resorts for some phoney pampering.
It amazes me that so many people require things like a daily one or two Starbucks visits to be happy with themselves. It costs less than a dime to make your own coffee even if you use the most exotic blends.
The end result of low-cost living is that you end up healthier, happier, and richer than those who require spending vast amounts of money on ultimately futile pursuit of self-affirmation.