In 2017 my Website was migrated to the clouds and reduced in size.
Hence some links below are broken.
One thing to try if a “www” link is broken is to substitute “faculty” for “www”
For example a broken link
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Pictures.htm
can be changed to corrected link
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Pictures.htm
However in some cases files had to be removed to reduce the size of my Website
Contact me at 
rjensen@trinity.edu if you really need to file that is missing

Tidbits Political Quotations
To Accompany the February 15, 2018 edition of Tidbits
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/2018/tidbits021518.htm             
Bob Jensen at
Trinity University




USA Debt Clock --- http://www.usdebtclock.org/ ubl

In September 2017 the USA National Debt exceeded $20 trillion for the first time ---
http://www.statedatalab.org/news/detail/national-debt-surpasses-20-trillion-for-the-first-time-in-us-history

How Your Federal Tax Dollars are Spent ---
http://taxprof.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341c4eab53ef01b7c8ee6392970b-popup

To Whom Does the USA Federal Government Owe Money (the booked obligation of $20+ trillion) ---
http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/politicalcalculations/2016/05/25/spring-2016-to-whom-does-the-us-government-owe-money-n2168161?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl
The US Debt Clock in Real Time --- http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 
Remember the Jane Fonda Movie called "Rollover" --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rollover_(film)
One worry is that nations holding trillions of dollars invested in USA debt are dependent upon sales of oil and gas to sustain those investments.

To Whom Does the USA Federal Government Owe Money (the unbooked obligation of $100 trillion and unknown more in contracted entitlements) ---
http://money.cnn.com/2013/01/15/news/economy/entitlement-benefits/
The biggest worry of the entitlements obligations is enormous obligation for the future under the Medicare and Medicaid programs that are now deemed totally unsustainable ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Entitlements.htm

How Americans Get Health Insurance ---
http://ritholtz.com/2017/08/americans-get-health-insurance/

 

Sometimes the grass is greener on the other side because it's been fertilized with more bullshit.
Anonomous

 

The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal.
Aristotle

 

How many times have we heard ‘free tuition,’ ‘free health care,’ and free you-name-it? If a particular good or service is truly free, we can have as much of it as we want without the sacrifice of other goods or services. Take a ‘free’ library; is it really free? The answer is no. Had the library not been built, that $50 million could have purchased something else. That something else sacrificed is the cost of the library. While users of the library might pay a zero price, zero price and free are not one and the same. So when politicians talk about providing something free, ask them to identify the beneficent Santa Claus or tooth fairy.
Walter Williams

 

Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.
Eric Hoffer.

 

The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.
Winston Churchill

 

Shoot for the space in between, because that's where the real mystery lies.
Vera Rubin
https://www.brainpickings.org/2016/12/28/remebering-vera-rubin/?utm_source=Brain+Pickings&utm_campaign=f053a9c4e2-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_01_07&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_179ffa2629-f053a9c4e2-234390133

 

Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.
T.S. Eliot

There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.
Leonard Cohen

Be brave enough to start a conversation that matters.
Margaret Wheatley
Even conversations that are not politically correct.

That government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline themselves.
Thomas Jefferson

Why, we grow rusty and you catch us at the very point of decadence --- by this time tomorrow we may have forgotten everything we ever knew. That's a thought isn't it? We'd be back to where we started --- improvising.
Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (Act I)

It's hard to beat a person who never gives up.

Babe Ruth, Historic Home Run Hitter
What's sad is to witness what Syria has become because nobody will give up.

And "because they're nonstate actors, it's hard for us to get the satisfaction of [Gen.] MacArthur and the [Japanese] Emperor [Hirohito] meeting and the war officially being over," Obama observed, referencing the end of World War II. 
President Barack Obama when asked if the USA of the future will be perpetually engaged in war.
http://www.businessinsider.com/obama-on-americans-being-resigned-to-live-in-a-perpetual-war-2016-7

We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us. 
Joseph Campbell

If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking. 
George S. Patton

And many writers have imagined for themselves republics and principalities that have never been seen or known to exist in reality; for there is such a gap between how one lives and how one ought to live that anyone who abandons what is done for what ought to be done learns his ruin rather than his preservation: for a man who wishes to profess goodness at all times will come to ruin among so many who are not good.
Niccolo Machiavelli

If you don't know where you're going, you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Happiness is like a butterfly: the more you chase it, the more it will elude you, but if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder.
Henry David Thoreau

You can get a lot farther with a smile and a gun than you can with just a smile.
Al Capone

Speak softly and carry a big stick, and you will go far.
Teddy Roosevelt

New York governor Andrew Cuomo has made huge claims and drawn sharp criticism with his higher ed policies. The numbers show neither his biggest boasts nor his angriest detractors are entirely correct.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/02/14/despite-big-rhetoric-all-sides-andrew-cuomos-budget-priorities-bow-economic?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=b58b2cd924-DNU20180111&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-b58b2cd924-197565045&mc_cid=b58b2cd924&mc_eid=1e78f7c952

f one totaled black income and thought of us as a separate nation with our own gross domestic product, black Americans would rank among the world's 20 richest nations.
Walter E. Williams (Professor of Economics)
https://townhall.com/columnists/walterewilliams/2018/02/14/black-history-month-n2447891?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=

Merkel warns of rising anti-Semitism on Holocaust remembrance day ---
https://www.thelocal.de/20180127/merkel-warns-of-rising-anti-semitism-on-holocaust-day

China Bans Hip-Hop And Other 'Sub-Cultures' From State Television ---
https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/hiphop-ban-01262018105320.html

Why Democrats And Republicans Did A Sudden 180 On The FBI ---
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-democrats-and-republicans-did-a-sudden-180-on-the-fbi/

No, Russians Bots Aren't Responsible for #ReleaseTheMemo But partisan Democrats tried to use a fake news scare to quash it anyway ---
http://reason.com/archives/2018/01/26/the-russia-fake-news-scare-is-all-about

Snopes:  What the GOP Memo Says (and Doesn’t Say) ---
https://www.snopes.com/2018/02/02/gop-memo-says-doesnt-say/

The Supreme Court's Big Public Sector Union Case Is Really About Free Speech
Can public sector unions force recalcitrant workers to pay dues, or does that violate the First Amendment? ---

http://reason.com/blog/2018/01/24/supreme-courts-big-public-sector-union-c

The Grammys snubbed hip-hop yet again — and it fits a trend of rewarding safe, apolitical pop music ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/grammys-snubs-hip-hop-again-favors-apolitical-pop-2018-1
Hip Hop falls well short of rock music in popularity.  Maybe listeners are growing tired of all the anger and repetitions ---
https://www.statista.com/statistics/253915/favorite-music-genres-in-the-us/

Mark Zuckerberg and others continue to tout the potential of personalized learning, pointing to decades-old research that’s been practically impossible to duplicate ---
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2018/01/the-outdated-study-that-education-reformers-keep-citing/551804/

How the Swamp Drained Trump ---
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/01/swamp-trump/551807/

The Atlantic:  The Danger of the Anti-Trump Recoil Going Too Far ---
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/02/jeff-sessions-anglo-american/553292/

Harley-Davidson electric motorcycle coming in 2018 ---
https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/harley-davidson-electric-motorcycle-coming-in-2018/

“Since September 29, the Department of State has been contacted by 19 U.S. citizens who reported experiencing symptoms similar to those listed in the Travel Warning after visiting Cuba,” a spokesperson for the State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs told the Miami Herald in an email. “We continue to urge U.S. citizens to reconsider travel to Cuba,” she added ---
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article197255084.html#storylink=cpy

The point of infrastructure spending is to build infrastructure, not create jobs ---
http://reason.com/blog/2018/01/30/sanders-warren-infrastructure-trump

An 8-year-old Jewish boy in France was beaten by strangers for wearing a kippa, the last in a string of anti-Semitic attacks ---
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/8-year-old-beaten-latest-french-anti-semitic-attack-child-article-1.3789967

CNN:  After Trump tariffs, Chinese solar company says it will build U.S. factory ---
http://money.cnn.com/2018/01/30/news/economy/jinko-solar-us-china-trump/index.html

The Vanguard Group is bringing down the cost of investing and there’s nothing Wall Street can do about it despite its best efforts ---
https://www.bloomberg.com/gadfly/articles/2018-01-30/wall-street-can-t-hold-back-vanguard-s-low-fee-ocean

Trump gives a speech making it sound like the biggest issue in the United States, the biggest threat is MS-13, a gang nobody that doesn't watch Fox News has ever heard of. So he makes it sound like they're the biggest threat
MSNBC's Racist Joy Reid

Joy Reid frequently is a source of racially-charged fake news, and MSNBC does not seem to care
http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2018/01/18/joy-reid-backtracks-comments-on-conservative-david-french-after-bipartisan-twitter-beat-down.html

Scratching Each Others' Backs
Executives at some of the nation's top investment firms donated hundreds of millions of dollars to the University of Michigan while the university invested as much as $4 billion in those companies' funds ---

https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2018/02/01/university-michigan-endowment-donor-funds/1066143001/?elqTrackId=c447a899aed945c59c64131be41e1d0e&elq=89a9c36b46e142b2b53e415c79f70aba&elqaid=17703&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=7797

The Olympic Village will be stocked with 37 condoms per athlete ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/winter-olympics-the-olympic-village-is-stocked-with-110000-condoms-that-is-37-per-athlete-2018-2
Is this part of the recommended exercise program?

The (London) Times:  Labour's antisemitism is worse than it looks ---
The party’s latest row over Zionism reveals much about the views of the governing body that surrounds Jeremy Corbyn

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/comment/labour-s-antisemitism-is-worse-than-it-looks-2srt736hc

Why Don't People Want to Buy Manhattan's Mansions ---
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-31/manhattan-townhouses-for-sale-are-lingering-on-real-estate-market
It's not like San Francisco where Nancy Pelosi's mansion is worth a mint

Tesla is working to secure lithium from Chile’s largest producer ---
https://electrek.co/2018/01/29/tesla-tsla-secure-lithium-chile-sqm/
Jensen Comment
The lithium in nearby Nevada is either too little in amount or too costly to extract or too environmentally dangerous to extract --- or all of the above.

Forbes:  Could you migrate to the US, Canada, or Hong Kong? Check our merit calculator ---
https://qz.com/1049331/merit-based-immigration-where-could-you-move/

The IRS Scandal, Day 1730: Department Of Justice Settles Last Targeting Case; IRS Apologizes For Delaying Pro-Israel Group's Application For Tax Exempt Status For Seven Years ---
http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2018/02/the-irs-scandal-day-1730-department-of-justice-settles-last-targeting-case-irs-apologizes-for-delayi.html

No way to run a railroad: Three fatal AMTRAK crashes in 49 days ---
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/02/no_way_to_run_a_railroad_three_fatal_amtrak_crashes_in_49_days.html

No One Disputes This FBI Scandal
NYT:  As F.B.I. Took a Year to Pursue the Nassar Case, Dozens Say They Were Molested ---

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/03/sports/nassar-fbi.html

Federal Student-Loan Program Is Rapidly Losing Money, and Income-Based Repayment Is to Blame, Report Says ---
https://www.chronicle.com/article/Federal-Student-Loan-Program/242426?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=2a503f8ef1ec4ddea1d6a52b0f961112&elq=8eff659a071a4960a59a01bdd60974a7&elqaid=17720&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=7805

The unexpected role librarians are playing in Sacramento’s homeless crisis ---
http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article197270849.html

Angela Merkel is not the climate angel the world thinks she is ---
https://qz.com/1198278/angela-merkel-is-not-the-climate-angel-the-world-thinks-she-is/

Vox:  Millions of Americans as destitute as the world’s poorest? Don’t believe it ---
https://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2018/2/1/16959634/millions-americans-destitute-2-day-worlds-poorest-deaton-aid

If Philadelphia is any indication, it might be better for a city not to win a Super Bowl ---
http://time.com/5133456/super-bowl-2018-philadelphia-aftermath/?utm_source=time.com&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-brief&utm_content=2018020519pm&xid=newsletter-brief&eminfo=%7b%22EMAIL%22%3a%22MOt2LMJiSIk%2fSjadSWyB4I9Monw61fXF%22%2c%22BRAND%22%3a%22TD%22%2c%22CONTENT%22%3a%22Newsletter%22%2c%22UID%22%3a%22TD_TBP_D67FCAE7-F3B7-4357-9082-476F8ACD8245%22%2c%22SUBID%22%3a%2284575328%22%2c%22JOBID%22%3a%22639405%22%2c%22NEWSLETTER%22%3a%22THE_BRIEF_PM%22%2c%22ZIP%22%3a%2235864237%22%2c%22COUNTRY%22%3a%22%22%7d

U.S. ISIS Recruits Were the Worst, Most Ended Up In Boring Cooking and Cleaning Assignments ---
http://www.newsweek.com/us-isis-recruits-were-worst-most-ended-boring-cooking-and-cleaning-assignments-800202

50,000 GM Factory Workers to Get $11,750 Profit-Sharing Checks
54,000 Ford Factory Workers  to Get $7,500 Profit-Sharing Checks
40,000 Fiat-Chrysler Factory Workers to Get $5,500 Profit-Sharing Checks

https://www.cnsnews.com/blog/michael-w-chapman/50000-gm-factory-workers-get-11750-profit-sharing-checks

CNN Blames Trump Tax Cuts for Stock Drop ---
http://finkelblogger.com/2018/02/06/cnn-blames-trump-tax-cuts-for-stock-drop/
Will stocks soar when Democrats repeal the tax cuts?

It looks like the anthem protests hurt the Super Bowl ratings — and it should set alarm bells ringing on Wall Street and Madison Avenue ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/it-looks-like-the-anthem-protests-hurt-the-super-bowl-ratings-and-it-should-set-alarm-bells-ringing-on-wall-street-and-madison-avenue-2018-2

College Republicans threaten to sue UW over $17,000 security fee for Saturday rally ---
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/education/college-republicans-threaten-to-sue-uw-over-17000-security-fee-for-saturday-rally/?elqTrackId=7aba1152f98d4a489496626f49aa5c35&elq=d26c17b9c4bd498a880eb6733db0f5fe&elqaid=17755&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=7833
At long last liberals found a way to silence Republicans on campus.

Falcon Heavy: SpaceX stages an amazing launch – but what about the environmental impact of more frequent launches?
https://theconversation.com/falcon-heavy-spacex-stages-an-amazing-launch-but-what-about-the-environmental-impact-91423

Swiss university launches country's first-ever bachelors and masters degrees in yodeling ---
https://www.thelocal.ch/20180130/swiss-university-degree-in-yodelling-lucerne-singing-music?elqTrackId=b287d715523b4824ad496658cd7c07c0&elq=d26c17b9c4bd498a880eb6733db0f5fe&elqaid=17755&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=7833
Jensen Comment
I wonder what these college degrees add in lifetime earnings for yodeling. It would seem that the top yodelers are more likely to result from talent and practice.

This would eliminate one of the best job fringe benefits in the USA:  A whole lot fewer men will run for office if this is finally enacted
House Votes To Force Lawmakers to Pay for Their Own Sexual Harassment Settlements
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/chrisreeves/2018/02/06/house-votes-to-force-lawmakers-to-pay-for-their-own-sexual-harassment-settlements-n2445284?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=

What’s the difference between sexual abuse, sexual assault, sexual harassment and rape?
https://theconversation.com/whats-the-difference-between-sexual-abuse-sexual-assault-sexual-harassment-and-rape-88218

Catholic Strategist: Pope Francis’s Failure to Address Abuse Allegations Jeopardizes His Papacy ---
http://time.com/5135338/pope-francis-sex-abuse/?utm_source=time.com&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-brief&utm_content=2018020711am&xid=newsletter-brief&eminfo=%7b%22EMAIL%22%3a%22MOt2LMJiSIk%2fSjadSWyB4I9Monw61fXF%22%2c%22BRAND%22%3a%22TD%22%2c%22CONTENT%22%3a%22Newsletter%22%2c%22UID%22%3a%22TD_TBR_9341E248-F74B-4FC4-8A5B-F29E5D8E9ECB%22%2c%22SUBID%22%3a%2224083557%22%2c%22JOBID%22%3a%22640722%22%2c%22NEWSLETTER%22%3a%22THE_BRIEF%22%2c%22ZIP%22%3a%22035864237%22%2c%22COUNTRY%22%3a%22%22%7d

Bermuda Has Become the First Country in the World to Roll Back Same-Sex Marriage Laws ---
http://time.com/5138941/bermuda-same-sex-marriage-repeal/?utm_source=time.com&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-brief&utm_content=2018020812pm&xid=newsletter-brief&eminfo=%7b%22EMAIL%22%3a%22MOt2LMJiSIk%2fSjadSWyB4I9Monw61fXF%22%2c%22BRAND%22%3a%22TD%22%2c%22CONTENT%22%3a%22Newsletter%22%2c%22UID%22%3a%22TD_TBR_9341E248-F74B-4FC4-8A5B-F29E5D8E9ECB%22%2c%22SUBID%22%3a%2224083557%22%2c%22JOBID%22%3a%22641723%22%2c%22NEWSLETTER%22%3a%22THE_BRIEF%22%2c%22ZIP%22%3a%22035864237%22%2c%22COUNTRY%22%3a%22%22%7d

Harvard:  CEO Pay is Even More Outrageous Than It Seems
https://hbr.org/video/5728073095001/ceo-pay-is-even-more-outrageous-than-it-seems
Bob Jensen's threads on outrageous executive pay and benefits ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen//FraudConclusion.htm#OutrageousCompensation

United Kingdom:  Government to review its relationship with Oxfam after 'Caligula orgy' allegations against senior staff ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/government-to-review-its-relationship-with-oxfam-2018-2

The Pay-for-Performance Myth
 by Eric Chemi and Ariana Giorgi, Bloomberg Businessweek, July 22, 2014 ---
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-07-22/for-ceos-correlation-between-pay-and-stock-performance-is-pretty-random?campaign_id=DN072214
Aside from outrageous compensation levels of top executives, my biggest gripe is how executives are paid outrageous salaries and golden parachutes even when they fail ---
See below

High School Diploma Mills
The D.C. Public School Attendance Scandal: Where's the Outrage?

https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2018/02/08/the-dc-public-school-attendance-scandal-wheres.html?cmp=eml-enl-eu-news2&M=58374719&U=2290378
FBI Investigating D.D. Public Schools ---
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/District_Dossier/2018/02/fbi_and_us_dept_of_ed_investigate_dc_schools.html?cmp=eml-enl-eu-news2&M=58374719&U=2290378
Also see
https://theconversation.com/dc-graduation-scandal-shows-how-chronic-absenteeism-threatens-americas-schools-89840


As the White House social secretary, Jeremy Bernard witnessed the highs and lows of the Obamas' life in office. He tells Ben Hoyle what really went on ---
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/times2/secrets-of-a-white-house-insider-what-i-learnt-about-theobamas-ldnb3c2jl

Jensen Comment
This overlooks some of the worst political actions of the White House --- such as using the IRS to put down political competition

Day 1722, The IRS Apologizes for Targeting Tea Party Group (but lets Lois Lerner's personally off the hook) ---
http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2018/01/the-irs-scandal-day-1722-irs-apologizes-for-targeting-tea-party-group.html#more
Read the comments --- we still don't have evidence of Obama's White House staff involvement

The IRS Scandal, Day 1730: Department Of Justice Settles Last Targeting Case; IRS Apologizes For Delaying Pro-Israel Group's Application For Tax Exempt Status For Seven Years ---
http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2018/02/the-irs-scandal-day-1730-department-of-justice-settles-last-targeting-case-irs-apologizes-for-delayi.html

The IRS Scandal, Day 1735: The End Of IRS Political Targeting?
http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2018/02/the-irs-scandal-day-1735-the-end-of-irs-targeting.html
Jensen Comment
Let's hope this is the beginning of more sensible bipartisan funding of the IRS in the 21st Century

 


What Teenagers Are Learning From Online Porn
New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/07/magazine/teenagers-learning-online-porn-literacy-sex-education.html

'Fiction is outperforming reality': how YouTube's algorithm distorts truth ---
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/feb/02/how-youtubes-algorithm-distorts-truth
Jensen Comment
This is an interesting article but may itself be biased more than the bias it criticizes. For example, it implies that if all political videos were removed from YouTube Hillary Clinton would've won the 2016 election. I hardly believe that the blue collar voters in swing states that swung the election for Trump spent much time watching YouTube political videos or even YouTube videos at all. In my opinion the majority of videos watched on YouTube are entertainment videos that either have no political content (think Alison Krauss) or liberally-biased (think rap stars) or sexual in nature. This article, in my opinion, greatly overplays the interest pro-Republican YouTube videos.
I think TV commercials have much more political clout because most viewers are unwillingly and unwittingly exposed to them when they watch their favorite shows such as when they watch nightly news or late-night comedy shows. YouTube advertisements are neat in that most of them are easily clicked off before they start. And people only watch political videos on YouTube out of choice, and I don't think political videos are a hot item relative to rap and pop stars and sex.
 

 

 




IRS Confessions

Day 1722, The IRS Apologizes for Targeting Tea Party Group (but lets Lois Lerner's personally off the hook) ---
http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2018/01/the-irs-scandal-day-1722-irs-apologizes-for-targeting-tea-party-group.html#more
Read the comments --- we still don't have evidence of Obama's White House staff involvement

The IRS Scandal, Day 1730: Department Of Justice Settles Last Targeting Case; IRS Apologizes For Delaying Pro-Israel Group's Application For Tax Exempt Status For Seven Years ---
http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2018/02/the-irs-scandal-day-1730-department-of-justice-settles-last-targeting-case-irs-apologizes-for-delayi.html

The IRS Scandal, Day 1735: The End Of IRS Political Targeting?
http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2018/02/the-irs-scandal-day-1735-the-end-of-irs-targeting.html
Jensen Comment
Let's hope this is the beginning of more sensible bipartisan funding of the IRS in the 21st Century


Quartz:  What we learned from that new Donald Trump book ---
https://qz.com/1173363/fire-and-fury-the-new-trump-bannon-book-by-michael-wolff-the-main-takeaways/
 

Jensen Comment on What We Learned From Micael Quartz
Quartz provides a pretty good summary or what Michael Woolf writes but overlooks the controversial history of Michael Woolf's integrity as a writer other than to point out that "Wollf's fact checking is nonexistent."
Reviews of the book are pretty skeptical of Wolff's accuracy and integrity but highly positive from liberal media outlets intending to drive Trump out of office ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_and_Fury#Reviews
Personally I hope Trump does not get a second term in office.
But should we drive him out by overlooking our worship for academic integrity and rigor?
The book is an obvious challenge to courses in journalism, history, and political science where "fact checking" should be of highest priority rather than a
wink wink.
The real question to ask is whether Michael Woolf would've had more journalism integrity had be been an insider at the Obama White House or even better --- at the Bill Clinton White House!
I think Michael Wolff would paint the Pope to be a pedophile to make $10 million.
But then there are probably enough facts mixed with fiction in Fire and Fury to make the book fascinating reading.
Like I said, I'm really interested in how much fact checking is a priority in the halls of academe.


The Largest Irrigated Farm in the USA
His 15 million trees in the San Joaquin Valley consume more than 400,000 acre-feet of water a year. The city of Los Angeles, by comparison, consumes 587,000 acre-feet ---

https://story.californiasunday.com/resnick-a-kingdom-from-dust

. . .

The aquifer, a sea of water beneath the clay that dates back centuries, isn’t bottomless. It can be squeezed only so much. As the growers punch more holes into the ground looking for a vanishing resource, the earth is sinking. The choices for the Kern farmer now come down to two: He can reach deep into his pocket and buy high-priced water from an irrigation district with surplus supplies. Or he can devise a scheme to steal water from a neighbor up the road. I now hear whispers of water belonging to farmers two counties away being pumped out of the ground and hijacked in the dead of night to irrigate the nuts of Lost Hills.

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
North of Sacramento our son's in-laws own 5,000 acres of primarily rice land (with some tomatoes and safflower produce). In the darkest time of the recent draught California taxpayers paid these rice and vegetable farmers to not grow crops in order to conserve precious water for nut and fruit tree farmers, because it takes decades to restore dead nut and fruit orchards. The strategy worked when there was almost no snow melt in the Sierra Mountains that supply much of the water for the farm irrigation canals. Now that there is once again heavy snow melt all the farms along the canals are back in business. But the deep water below that sustained the nut and fruit orchards has not been restored to a point where there's not great worry about snow melt droughts in the future.

Irrigation farming that requires ever-deeper wells is a classic social choice problem knowing that underground aquifers, like the great Ogallala Aquifer in the Midwest, are going dry when there's a giant agriculture industry that will also go dry soon afterwards without other sources of irrigation water. This is one of the great social choice problems when an essential resource like water is underpriced in markets. Forced higher prices would make consumers pay more to save an essential resource. For example, perhaps nut growers in the San Joaquin Valley and grain farmers in the Midwest should be severely taxed in order to invest more capital in alternative sources of water like desalinization and/or crops that require much less irrigation water. Or maybe irrigation farmers should be forced out of business before their aquifers run dry!

Ogallala Aquifer --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer


Number Of Americans Renouncing Their U.S. Citizenship Fell In 2017, The First Decline In Five Years ---
http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2018/02/number-of-americans-renouncing-their-us-citizenship-fell-in-2017-the-first-decline-in-five-years-.html
Jensen Poem
The big jump
Preceded Trump
The tax bet
Ain't here yet

Added note
The numbers a miniscule in a nation with over 300 million citizens
A major reason, selective service (military draft for males), ended in the 1970s
Other reasons (marriage, tax, politics) still exist but do not have people running for the borders like a military draft
I wonder how much free health care is a factor (think free nursing care) for those that say adios

Repatriation --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repatriation

Repatriation is often the "forgotten" phase of the expatriation cycle; the emphasis for support is mostly on the actual period abroad.[citation needed] However, many repatriates report experiencing difficulties on return: one is no longer special, practical problems arise, new knowledge gained is no longer useful, etc. These difficulties are highly influenced by a number of factors including self-management, spouse's adjustment, time spent abroad and skill utilisation. What is crucial is that every individual perceives these factors in a different way. Reintegration is a process of re-inclusion or re-incorporation of a person into a group or a process, and may contribute to overcoming repatriation.

Direct managers and HR staff often notice the difficulties a repatriate experiences, but they are not always able to act on it. Budget shortcomings and time constraints are frequently cited as reasons why it fails to be an agenda priority. Solutions for repatriation difficulties do not have to be expensive and can lead to great benefits for the company.[ Basic support can consist, for example, of good communication in advance, during and after the international assignment, or a mentor program to assist the repatriate. The expatriate and his/her family should feel understood by his or her company. Support can increase job satisfaction, thereby protecting the investment made by the company.[

You can't go home again ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Can%27t_Go_Home_Again


Steve Wozniak --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Wozniak

Apple Co-Founder:  Steve Wozniak goes on an epic rant against Tesla: 'I don't believe anything Elon Musk or Tesla says' anymore ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/steve-wozniak-rants-against-elon-musk-and-tesla-2018-1

Steve Wozniak says he's tired of Elon Musk's promises and thinks Tesla needs to stop overhyping its self-driving technology.

 At the Nordic Business Forum in Stockholm, Wozniak, a cofounder of Apple, shared his experiences driving — and upgrading — his Teslas.

Now I don't believe anything Elon Musk or Tesla says, but I still love the car," Wozniak said, adding that other automakers were ahead in self-driving technology.

Wozniak says he prefers his Chevy Bolt but drives a Tesla on longer trips, pointing to its countrywide charging network.

 


William McDonough (1934-2018) --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Joseph_McDonough

. . .

From 2003 to 2005, he was chairman of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), a private-sector, not-for-profit corporation created by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 to oversee auditors of public companies.

From July 1993 to July 2003, McDonough served as president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. As president, he served as the vice chairman and a permanent member of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), which formulates U.S. monetary policy. McDonough also served on the board of directors of the Bank for International Settlements and as chairman of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. He joined the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in 1992 as executive vice president, head of the bank's markets group and manager of the FOMC's open market operations.

Continued in article

Also see
http://www.jamesrpeterson.com/home/2018/01/william-mcdonough-ave-atque-val.html


Example:  It costs taxpayers nearly $2.5 million per graduate at Chicago State University
Why Students Are Leaving Illinois in Droves — and Why It Matters -
--
https://www.chronicle.com/article/Why-Students-Are-Leaving/242436?cid=db&elqTrackId=486484e5baea43aa89d6d13b9d0eff66&elq=e6ee8a8c93df4f528184a0af9e0e4b6a&elqaid=17721&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=7806

For the fourth straight year, the University of Illinois system has frozen tuition for in-state students at its three campuses. Announcing the move in January, the system’s president, Timothy L. Killeen, was explicit about its purpose: to stop the hemorrhaging of Illinois residents enrolling at out-of-state colleges and universities.

Many have laid the blame for that exodus at the feet of state leaders. A bruising budget stalemate between Illinois’s Republican governor, Bruce V. Rauner, and the Democratic-controlled legislature, stretching from 2015 to 2017, led to furloughs, layoffs, and emergency measures at several Illinois public colleges. Some observers say the affair created unease among prospective Illinois students about the long-term health of their home-state higher-ed options.

Sure enough, since the impasse began, enrollments at many of Illinois public universities have slid precipitously from year to year. (Just this fall, freshman enrollment at Western Illinois University fell by 21 percent.) And preliminary data indicate that a greater number of freshmen sought higher education outside the state, while fewer out-of-state students chose to study in the Land of Lincoln. In 2016, the state experienced a net loss of 19,195 students, a 15-percent increase from 2014’s 16,000-student gap, and second only to New Jersey’s 29,000-freshmen deficit. The deepening loss was largely driven by more Illinois residents seeking to study in other states.

But the fact is that Illinois has been losing students long before its budget mess. In both 2012 and 2014, before Governor Rauner’s election, around 33,000 Illinois residents attended college as freshmen outside the state. The state filled only about half of that deficit with the enrollment each year of about 17,000 out-of-staters. Over the last decade, Illinois has averaged a net loss of 8,000 freshmen in each of the five years that data were collected. (The federal government surveys colleges about freshmen-migration patterns only in even-numbered years.)

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
The State of Illinois is now the poster child among states for financial mismanagement and corruption. Now education funding is in crisis to add icing to the corruption cake of fraudulent state worker pensions.

Chicago State University is at an extremely low point and probably is not sustainable ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_State_University#21st_century:_2000–present

The low graduation rate amounts to more than $2.5 million spent per year per graduate. Most of that money is paid for by Illinois taxpayers. According to an audit of the University by the Illinois Auditor General. Chicago State University also owes $356.5 million in debt, the majority of which is owed to the state university retirement system pension plan.

For details click on Illinois at https://www.statedatalab.org/


A survey released last week by the Chronicle of Higher Education found that 52 percent of private colleges and 44 percent of public colleges didn’t meet their enrollment goals this past fall ---
http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2018/02/higher-education-is-headed-for-a-supply-and-demand-crisis.html

Demographics and the Demand for Higher Education ---
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1421424134/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=lawproblo-20&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=1421424134&linkId=1b2a1f1a6d3bcc58f3f3e719af02819c 
[(Johns Hopkins University Press 2017)]


Example:  It costs taxpayers nearly $2.5 million per graduate at Chicago State University
Why Students Are Leaving Illinois in Droves — and Why It Matters -
--
https://www.chronicle.com/article/Why-Students-Are-Leaving/242436?cid=db&elqTrackId=486484e5baea43aa89d6d13b9d0eff66&elq=e6ee8a8c93df4f528184a0af9e0e4b6a&elqaid=17721&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=7806

For the fourth straight year, the University of Illinois system has frozen tuition for in-state students at its three campuses. Announcing the move in January, the system’s president, Timothy L. Killeen, was explicit about its purpose: to stop the hemorrhaging of Illinois residents enrolling at out-of-state colleges and universities.

Many have laid the blame for that exodus at the feet of state leaders. A bruising budget stalemate between Illinois’s Republican governor, Bruce V. Rauner, and the Democratic-controlled legislature, stretching from 2015 to 2017, led to furloughs, layoffs, and emergency measures at several Illinois public colleges. Some observers say the affair created unease among prospective Illinois students about the long-term health of their home-state higher-ed options.

Sure enough, since the impasse began, enrollments at many of Illinois public universities have slid precipitously from year to year. (Just this fall, freshman enrollment at Western Illinois University fell by 21 percent.) And preliminary data indicate that a greater number of freshmen sought higher education outside the state, while fewer out-of-state students chose to study in the Land of Lincoln. In 2016, the state experienced a net loss of 19,195 students, a 15-percent increase from 2014’s 16,000-student gap, and second only to New Jersey’s 29,000-freshmen deficit. The deepening loss was largely driven by more Illinois residents seeking to study in other states.

But the fact is that Illinois has been losing students long before its budget mess. In both 2012 and 2014, before Governor Rauner’s election, around 33,000 Illinois residents attended college as freshmen outside the state. The state filled only about half of that deficit with the enrollment each year of about 17,000 out-of-staters. Over the last decade, Illinois has averaged a net loss of 8,000 freshmen in each of the five years that data were collected. (The federal government surveys colleges about freshmen-migration patterns only in even-numbered years.)

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
The State of Illinois is now the poster child among states for financial mismanagement and corruption. Now education funding is in crisis to add icing to the corruption cake of fraudulent state worker pensions.

Chicago State University is at an extremely low point and probably is not sustainable ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_State_University#21st_century:_2000–present

The low graduation rate amounts to more than $2.5 million spent per year per graduate. Most of that money is paid for by Illinois taxpayers. According to an audit of the University by the Illinois Auditor General. Chicago State University also owes $356.5 million in debt, the majority of which is owed to the state university retirement system pension plan.

For details click on Illinois at https://www.statedatalab.org/


Federal Student-Loan Program Is Rapidly Losing Money, and Income-Based Repayment Is to Blame, Report Says ---
https://www.chronicle.com/article/Federal-Student-Loan-Program/242426?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=2a503f8ef1ec4ddea1d6a52b0f961112&elq=8eff659a071a4960a59a01bdd60974a7&elqaid=17720&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=7805


From an MIT Newsletter on February 5, 2018

Tesla’s worker struggles

The car maker is trying to get out from under a cloud that has hovered over working conditions in its Fremont, California factory for some time now.
On the floor: Some employees have said they receive “
near the lowest pay in the automotive industry and struggle to get workers’ compensation. Reports of injury rates have been blamed on the company not following through on policies like rotating workers every two hours.
A push for change: The Tesla Fremont plant is the only non-union, US-owned automotive plant in the country. Elon Musk was
not happy about the push to unionize last year as a result of dissatisfaction with working conditions.
Making things safer: Tesla is getting set to automate worker rotations. According to
Buzzfeed, it is also hiring a medical director, and looking to increase the number of doctors it staffs on site. Tesla expects its serious injury rate for 2017 to be below the national average, a major improvement from 2015, when it was double the average.

Jensen Comment
To add pain to misery, Fremont is in the high cost living region of the San Francisco Bay. Living costs are much greater than for auto workers most anywhere else in the USA, including those fearsome California taxes on everything imaginable and the highest-cost gasoline in the USA..


Veblen Good --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veblen_good

The Extraordinary Rise And Sudden Decline Of Law School Tuition: Veblen Effects In Higher Education ---
http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2018/02/the-extraordinary-rise-and-sudden-decline-of-law-school-tuition-veblen-effects-in-higher-education.html

Bob Jensen's threads on the rise, fall, and rise again of USA law schools ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#OverstuffedLawSchools


Katy Tur Gets Torched on Twitter for Her 'Condescending Analysis' of Tax Reform Benefits  ---
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/cortneyobrien/2018/02/06/katy-tur-tax-reform-n2444776?utm_source=thdailypm&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl_pm&newsletterad=

Confusing NYT Analyses
NY Times: The Republican Tax Act Could Turn Texas Blue ---

http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2018/02/ny-times-the-republican-tax-act-could-turn-texas-blue.html

Jensen Comments
Talk about poor reporting. The New York Times fails to note it's own "Tax Reform Calculator" that claims 75% of American taxpayers "would will get a tax cut."
The states hardest hit were already blue states. I seriously doubt that Texas and other red states will become a blue states over this issue, although there are other issues that could paint Texas red.
The 75% is a number that you will never hear about on MSNBC or CNN choir-preaching channels.
If Congress eliminates the caps on local and state taxes it will probably raise taxes somewhere else such as by raising rates or lowering the standard deduction.

Of course poor people aren't getting much of a break in this tax reform legislation, but nearly half of all USA taxpayers did not owe any income taxes before the 2018 tax reforms . It's hard to get a big tax break when you don't pay any income taxes in the first place.

The New York Times Interactive Tax Calculator
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/12/17/upshot/tax-calculator.html

. . .

Over all, about three-quarters of Americans would get a tax cut in 2018 under the version of the tax bill that was recently released by a joint House-Senate conference committee. But as the accompanying chart shows, there’s a lot of variation, even for families that look similar on paper. How families ehttps://townhall.com/tipsheet/cortneyobrien/2018/02/06/katy-tur-tax-reform-n2444776?utm_source=thdailypm&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl_pm&newsletterad= arn their money, whether they make large charitable contributions and other factors can affect how they would fare under the bill.




Bob Jensen's health care messaging --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Health.htm

World Wealth & Income Database --- http://wid.world/

OECD Health Statistics 2016 --- http://www.oecd.org/els/health-systems/health-data.htm

Facts and statistics (Fast Facts) --- http://gwu.edu/~gprice/handbook.htm 

Bob Jensen's links to data and statistics ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob1.htm#EconStatistics

Bob Jensen's World Library ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm


Los Angeles Times:  California confronts the complexities of creating a single-payer healthcare system ---
http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-singlepayer-20180209-story.html

. . .

The real challenge, however, lies in the politics of transitioning to a new healthcare system. Advocates of reform often overlook an important aspect of how Americans view the existing system. Although it's roundly cursed in the abstract, most people are reasonably satisfied with their coverage.

Most people seldom or never have difficult or costly interactions with the healthcare system. Horror stories of treatments denied and astronomical bills charged are legion. But the truth is that annual healthcare spending is very heavily concentrated among a small number of people.

The top 5% of spenders account for half of all spending, the top 20% of spenders for about 80%. The bottom 50% of spenders account for less than 10% of all spending. (In one study based on 2009 data, the spending figure for this group was less than 3%.)

 

These are annual figures, so over a lifetime any person may have more contacts with the system. But that may explain why it's hard to persuade Americans to abandon a system many consider to be just good enough for something entirely new, replete with possibilities that it could turn out to be worse.

 

The nurses association is pegging its reform campaign to the uncertainties built into the existing system. "The experience of most Americans is that they're satisfied with what they're getting, but there's a great deal of anxiety," says Michael Lighty, the group's director of public policy. "The No. 1 experience missing from the American healthcare system is peace of mind. People are not afraid that what they have will be taken away, but that what they have will not be adequate for what they need."

In terms of funding, the idea is for the state to take over the $370 billion to $400 billion a year already spent on healthcare in California. (The higher estimate is from the state Legislative Analyst's Office, the lower from the nurses association.) That includes $200 billion in federal funds, chiefly Medicare, Medicaid, and Obamacare subsidies; and an additional $150 billion to $200 billion in premiums for employer insurance and private plans and out-of-pocket spending by families.

University of Massachusetts economist Robert Pollin, the nurses' program consultant, estimates that the program will be about 18% cheaper than existing health plans, thanks to administrative savings, lower fees for drugs, physicians, and hospitals, and a step up in preventive services and a step down in unnecessary treatments.

 

That would leave about $106 billion a year, as of 2017, needed to replace the employer and private spending that would be eliminated. Pollin suggests doing so through an increase of 2.3% in the sales tax and the addition of a 2.3% gross receipts tax on businesses (or a 3.3% payroll tax, shared by employers and workers), instead of the gross receipts tax. Each levy would include exemptions for small businesses and low-income families.

Anyone with experience in California tax politics knows this is a potential brick wall. Taxes of this magnitude will generate intense opposition, despite the nurses' argument that relief from premiums and other charges means that families and business will come out ahead.

 

But that's not the only obstacle. A workaround would have to be found for California Constitution requirements that a portion of tax revenues be devoted to education. A California universal coverage plan would require "a high degree of collaboration between the federal government and the state," Juliette Cubanski of the Kaiser Family Foundation told the committee Monday. Waivers from Medicare and Medicaid rules would have to be secured from the Department of Health and Human Services; redirecting Medicare funds to the state might require congressional approval.

 

A federal law that preempts state regulations of employee health benefits might limit how much California could do to force employer plans into a state system.

Obtaining the legal waivers needed from the federal government to give the state access to federal funds would take two to three years "with a friendly administration," Wood said. "We don't have a friendly administration now."

Advocates of change are understandably impatient in the face of rising healthcare costs and the federal government's hostility to reform. Shocked gasps went up from the hearing audience Wednesday when Wood casually remarked, "It is absolutely imperative that we slow this down." Startled by the reaction, he quickly specified that he meant "slow the costs down."

 

The desire to pursue the goal of universal coverage, whether through a single-payer model or a hybrid, plainly remains strong in Sacramento, in the face of the vacuum created by the Republican Congress and Trump White House.

As Betsy Estudillo, a senior policy manager for the California Immigrant Policy Center put it at Wednesday's hearing, "The nation needs California's leadership, now more than ever."

Jensen Comment
An enormous problem is that California does not have border controls like Canada, and it's climate attracts retired folks who ultimately are the most expensive patients domestically and abroad. The aging population is one of the major reasons national health care plans (think Canada and Europe) are already on life support.

Another problem is that California already incurs the largest cost by far for undocumented immigrants flooding into the state. Universal health care will only add pain to misery for attracting non-citizens in need of expensive medical services (think transplants and long-term nursing care)  ---
http://thefederalistpapers.org/us/new-map-cost-illegal-immigration-state-2

Still another problem is that California is in deep fiscal trouble before trying to implement an expensive universal healthcare state-funded plan. Over 20% of its population is below the state's poverty line, and Governor Brown is appealing the court system to allow him to cut contractual retirement obligations for retired state workers.

And California now has the highest state income taxes in the USA. Higher income residents are already leaving the California for tax purposes (think Nevada and Washington) and immense tax increases to support universal health care will drive more of the people who will pay the most for it out of the state while attracting people who will pay the least into the state. Vermont abandoned dreams of state-funded universal health care and concluded that no one state can probably go it alone. Universal health care will most likely have to be a Federal program and not a state-by-state program.

State Income Tax --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_income_tax

What Americans pay in state income taxes, ranked from highest to lowest ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/state-income-tax-rate-rankings-by-state-2018-2/#california-1

California (highest)
Maine  (something to consider when longing to retire on a the long Maine coast)
Oregon (something to consider when longing to retire anywhere in Oregon)
Minnesota (something to consider if you were a 2018 Super Bowl player)
Iowa (one of the reasons I sold my Iowa farm)
New Jersey (the most taxing state in the Union if you factor in other taxes)
Vermont (where sales tax relief is possible by driving across the border to New Hampshire)
. . .

Arizona
Michigan
Indiana
Pennsylvania
North Dakota (lowest)


Politico:  Europe's Health Care Systems on Life Support
https://www.politico.eu/article/europe-health-care-systems-on-life-support-special-report-drug-pricing-medicines-public-services/
Jensen Comment
This article dates back to 2016, but I've seen nothing to say that things have changed in Europe while matters are growing worse in the USA.
Especially note the world map on our aging population 2015-2050
Can soylent green be far off?

Doctors have been threatening massive strikes in Britain to protest pay and conditions. Italian regions are going bankrupt trying to fund medicines. Drugmakers are pulling diabetes drugs from Germany, blaming government-set prices that don’t let them recoup their investment.

Highly specialized medicines for diseases like cancer are entering the market at sky-high prices, forcing governments to choose between the need to treat their citizens and the need to spend wisely. And in many countries, people head straight to the hospital when they’re feeling sick, which makes treating patients especially expensive.

Health spending flattened after the 2008 economic crisis, but it’s expected to rise from 6 percent to 14 percent of GDP in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development countries within decades if something isn’t done to stem the rise, according to the rich nations’ think tank.

At the same time, Europe’s population is only getting older, straining an already stretched-thin system. Thirty percent or more of nearly the entire European region’s population will be over 60 by 2050, up from between 10 percent and under 30 percent in 2015, according to recent WHO data.

The graying of Europe alone may push up public spending on health and long-term care in the EU by as much as 10 percent of GDP by 2060, the Commission has said.

But state-funded health care systems “can survive with the right policies,” said Chris James, economist and health policy analyst at the OECD.

This includes moves towards more efficiency in delivering health care and a focus on spending only on measures with proven results, according to health officials, economists and drugmakers alike.

Patients suffering from multiple chronic diseases “need a lifelong relation[ship] with the health care system and they have problems that are much more costly than other patient groups,” Sweden’s Health Minister Gabriel Wikström said. The health care system has to stop treating one disease at a time and be more integrated so it can focus on patients who often suffer from multiple diseases at once, Wikström added. Money, money

European health systems tend to fall into one of two categories: They are funded either by general tax revenues or through payroll contributions. Either way, the money coming in fluctuates with economic cycles. That fluctuation has been complicated by austerity measures in some countries following the recent financial crisis.

“It is wrong to have a debate from the perspective that economic crisis and difficulties make it harder to fund health care because you should really see health care services as an investment in human capital,” Wikström said.

In recent years, countries have tried to influence behavior and make an extra buck by introducing so-called sin taxes on products including sweets and alcohol. Hungary, the U.K. and Latvia are part of the trend.

The idea takes aim at the 86 percent of deaths in Europe from chronic diseases often caused by unhealthy behavior: smoking, drinking, a poor diet and lack of physical activity, according to WHO data.

“The real effect on health [disease prevention] is not clear, and the potential to raise more funding is limited,” said Rita Baeten, senior policy analyst at the European Social Observatory, a think tank.

Miklós Szócska, a former Hungarian health minister who introduced a tax on soft and energy drinks, sweetened products and salty snacks in 2011, countered with his country’s experience. The tax in Hungary added between €0.02 cents and €1.6 per kilogram or liter of salty snacks and sugary drinks and raised almost €70 million in 2012, the year after it was introduced.

“We taxed the stuff that makes you unhealthy and we used the resources generated from it to increase the salaries of doctors,” he said.

Former Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron surprised many with his proposal to tax soft drinks after initially ruling out a levy as part of a strategy to combat obesity.

Traditional prevention may be the simplest but perhaps hardest way to cut costs. Unlike sin taxes, it may be the hardest to quantify and lacks powerful lobbyists, so it’s vulnerable to the budget ax.

“Whenever countries have a shortfall in funds – look at the financial crisis from 2008 – the first thing that gets cut is health promotion and prevention,” the OECD’s James said.

The move is shortsighted, he said, as it will result in bigger health care costs down the road.

The privatization route

European systems generally draw from taxes on employment or general tax revenues to finance health care. In the Netherlands and Switzerland, health systems are financed from a mix of compulsory public and heavily regulated private insurance.

It doesn’t make the system cheaper for the public, according to James.

And private solutions are unlikely to emerge as a dominant form in Europe, said Pedro Pita Barros, a professor of economics at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa in Portugal and member of the European Commission’s expert panel on effective ways of investing in health.

Continued in article

Bob Jensen's health care messaging --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Health.htm


 


Bob Jensen's threads on health coverage are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Health.htm

 

 

Bob Jensen's Tidbits Archives ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbitsdirectory.htm 

Bob Jensen's Pictures and Stories
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Pictures.htm

Summary of Major Accounting Scandals --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accounting_scandals

Bob Jensen's threads on such scandals:

Bob Jensen's threads on audit firm litigation and negligence ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Fraud001.htm

Current and past editions of my newsletter called Fraud Updates ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm

Enron --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudEnron.htm

Rotten to the Core --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudRotten.htm

American History of Fraud --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudAmericanHistory.htm

Bob Jensen's fraud conclusions ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudConclusion.htm

Bob Jensen's threads on auditor professionalism and independence are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Fraud001c.htm

Bob Jensen's threads on corporate governance are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Fraud001.htm#Governance 

 

Shielding Against Validity Challenges in Plato's Cave ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/TheoryTAR.htm

·     With a Rejoinder from the 2010 Senior Editor of The Accounting Review (TAR), Steven J. Kachelmeier

·     With Replies in Appendix 4 to Professor Kachemeier by Professors Jagdish Gangolly and Paul Williams

·     With Added Conjectures in Appendix 1 as to Why the Profession of Accountancy Ignores TAR

·     With Suggestions in Appendix 2 for Incorporating Accounting Research into Undergraduate Accounting Courses

Shielding Against Validity Challenges in Plato's Cave  --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/TheoryTAR.htm
By Bob Jensen

What went wrong in accounting/accountics research?  ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm#WhatWentWrong

The Sad State of Accountancy Doctoral Programs That Do Not Appeal to Most Accountants ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm#DoctoralPrograms

AN ANALYSIS OF THE EVOLUTION OF RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS BY THE ACCOUNTING REVIEW: 1926-2005 ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/395wpTAR/Web/TAR395wp.htm#_msocom_1

Bob Jensen's threads on accounting theory ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm

Systemic problems of accountancy (especially the vegetable nutrition paradox) that probably will never be solved ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudConclusion.htm#BadNews

Bob Jensen's economic crisis messaging http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/2008Bailout.htm

Bob Jensen's threads --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/threads.htm

Bob Jensen's Home Page --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/