HOW ITALIANS WITH HAMMERS DEFEATED THE “GRINCH” January 5, 2010
Posted by Bob Aronson in Uncategorized.add a comment
Until this Christmas (in my eighth decade of living) I thought the “Grinch Who Stole Christmas” was just a story. Grinches don’t really exist, right? Ah, but they do! And — I think the Grinch’s last name is Murphy, that damned Irishman who has followed me around for decades sabotaging my work. I’ve always believed in Murphy’s laws and now I believe the Grinch is a Murphy sibling only he’s far worse than any of his relatives (the Grinch is male isn’t he?).
Here’s the story. My lovely wife Robin is a highly talented artist. She makes very colorful jewelry from anodized aluminum, titanium and niobium and she does her own anodizing. That means that the brilliant colors in her jewelry are part of the metal. They can’t fade, won’t rub off and they’re all hypoallergenic. Robin has been very successful selling her creations at art shows all over the South and Midwest, so successful that we are travelling to a show almost every weekend. After considerable thought we decided staying in motels, boarding our dogs (Ziggy and Reilly) and eating in restaurants was expensive and inconvenient, not to mention boring. We also thought that we needed a little adventure so we bought a 2010 20 foot camper and a full size van to pull it. The experience has been wonderful and the dogs love it, too. Actually I am writing this piece while in the camper at an RV site that provides internet service.
We had two other cars, a 2006 Toyota Sienna minivan and a 2003 Honda Accord. The Accord was in mint condition, not a scratch on it. Not needing three vehicles we put the Honda up for sale on the internet and surprise, surprise we had a buyer in a couple of days. A man from Pensacola, Florida wanted it as a Christmas present for his 16 year old daughter.
Overwhelmed with my success as a used car salesman I had the car fully serviced and detailed — it looked like it just came off the showroom floor. The buyer told me he wanted to pick the car up on December 24 so he could give it to his daughter that night. I parked the Honda in my driveway and didn’t drive it again for fear something would happen to it.
At noon on December 23rd, one of Robin’s visitors backed out of our driveway and, CRASH, ran into the side of the Honda, just 24 hours before it was to be driven away by its new owner. Never have I been so furious. While the offending driver was never aware of it I ranted and raved, cursed and expressed my misgivings about the legitimacy of her birth.
Serrano’s body shop is about a half mile from our home. I had never done business with them before but they were close and Italian (I’m half Italian) so I brought the car to their shop and asked if they could repair it in less than a day. Amazingly they could and did. I called the new owner and told him what happened. Fortunately he was unshaken and still wanted the car as long as it could be repaired perfectly. It was, it looked better than new! At noon on Christmas Eve he picked up the car happy with his purchase and looking forward to experiencing his daughter’s delight at his generosity and thoughtfulness.
Thanks to Serrano’s body shop in Jacksonville we beat the Grinch who almost stole a 16 year old’s Christmas joy. There is a Grinch and his name is Murphy but he is not omnipotent, he can be beaten, you just need to find some Italians who can help you “fix” things. I have always believed in Italian power, I had just never experienced it before. Think about it, have you ever heard of an Italian Grinch? They don’t exist — anymore.
Please comment here or by email bob@baronson.org. Also, please read and comment on my Organ Donation and Transplantation blogs on http://bobsnewheart.wordpress.com . You can visit my Facebook site, Organ Transplant Patients, Family and Friends at http://tinyurl.com/225cfh OR — my Facebook home page http://www.facebook.com/home.php
A.I.G., Blue Cross & Blue Shield and Government Hubris March 19, 2009
Posted by Bob Aronson in Executive Pay and Mismanagement.1 comment so far
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubris
Hubris (/hjuːbrɪs/) or hybris (/’haɪbrɪs/) (ancient Greek ὕβρις), mythology is a term used in modern English to indicate overweening pride, superciliousness, or arrogance, often resulting in fatal retribution. In ancient Greece, hubris referred to actions which, intentionally or not, shamed and humiliated the victim, and frequently the perpetrator as well. It was most evident in the public and private actions of the powerful and rich. The word was also used to describe actions of those who challenged the gods or their laws, especially in Greek tragedy, resulting in the protagonist’s downfall.
Does any of this sound familiar? Not only does it pertain to the A.I.G. situation but to several others as well. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Dakota is a mini-A.I.G. but even worse is the fact that the very politicians that are berating A.I.G. for its excesses, are quietly ripping off the very taxpayers they represent. Let’s start with North Dakota Blue Cross and Blue Shield (BCBS). “North Dakota,” you say? Yes, North Dakota a small state with an abundance of hubris (you think New York has a monopoly on arrogance?). www.in-forum.com (The Fargo Forum newspaper charges for access to archived stories).
North Dakota’s biggest health insurance company has had a policy of rewarding key employees and their spouses with trips to exotic places to participate in unnecessary meetings. This reward was given in spite of the fact that North Dakota BCBS lost $9 million last year. The most recent absurd perk was a trip for some executives and spouses to the Cayman Islands at a cost of a quarter of a million dollars of member’s money. Money they paid to get health insurance at rates that go up every year. It would seem to me that members of BCBS of North Dakota (and elsewhere) have a right to expect that their money will not be used for frivolous purposes ever…never mind when the company is losing money. It makes you think — how many other insurance companies are doing the same thing, charging outrageous prices for their product and then spending the money on ridiculous perks for incompetent executives?
But North Dakota BCBS didn’t stop the nonsense with the $250,000 trip. When the outrage over the travel perks got so loud they couldn’t stand it they fired CEO Mike Unhjem. “Hooray,” you say. Not so fast — they fired him but gave him $2 million to get out. He was given two million dollars for losing $9 million and then rewarding his subordinates for their poor management skills. Maybe if he had been involved in an armed robbery they would have given him four million.
And then, according to the National Taxpayers Union there are members of the U.S. House and Senate along with other federal employees who (http://www.ntu.org/main/press.php?PressID=343) enjoy a vast web of perquisites that benefit them personally as well as professionally, including:
- Pension benefits that are two to three times more generous than those offered in the private sector for similarly-salaried executives. Taxpayers directly cover at least 80 percent of this costly plan. Congressional pensions are also inflation-protected, a feature that fewer than 1 in 10 private plans offer.
- Health and life insurance, approximately 3/4 and 1/3 of whose costs, respectively, are subsidized by taxpayers.
- Wheeled perks, including limousines for senior Members, prized parking spaces on Capitol Hill, and choice spots at Washington’s two major airports.
- Travel to far-flung destinations as well as to home states and districts. Despite recent attempts to toughen gift and travel rules, “junkets” are still readily available prerogatives for many Members.
- A wide range of smaller perks that have defied reform efforts, from cut-rate health clubs to fine furnishings.
· Exemptions and immunities from tax, pension, and other laws that burden private citizens — all crafted by lawmakers themselves
On October 3, 2007 MSNBC reported an Associated Press story headlined, GAO finds employees used $146 million on unjustified premium-class travel (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21107902/)
WASHINGTON – Federal employees wasted at least $146 million over a one-year period on business- and first-class airline tickets, in some cases simply because they felt entitled to the perk, congressional investigators say.
A draft report by the Government Accountability Office, obtained Tuesday by the Associated Press, is the first to examine compliance with travel rules across the federal government following reports of extensive abuse of premium-class travel by Pentagon and State Department employees.
The review of travel spending by more than a dozen agencies from July 1, 2005, to June 30, 2006, found 67 percent of premium-class travel by executives or their employees, worth at least $146 million, was unauthorized or otherwise unjustified.
Where was the congressional outrage about the GAO report? It’s almost as much as the amount paid out by A.I.G. in bonuses to the employees that ran the company into the ground. The point in this blog is that we can’t have double standards — one for business and the other for government. I think A.I.G. and North Dakota BCBS actions are reprehensible, but I also think that the standard should apply to our elected and appointed officials as well.
Please comment here or by email bob@baronson.org. Also, please read and comment on my Organ Donation and Transplantation blogs on http://bobsnewheart.wordpress.com . You can visit my Facebook site, Organ Transplant Patients, Family and Friends at http://tinyurl.com/225cfh OR — my Facebook home page http://www.facebook.com/home.php
Mr. Obama, Crush A.I.G., Fire the Executives, We’re Angry March 16, 2009
Posted by Bob Aronson in Executive Pay and Mismanagement.3 comments
According to the New York Times the American International Group (A.I.G.) will pay or has paid more than $165 million in bonuses to the very executives that nearly caused the company to collapse. The payments to A.I.G.’s financial products unit are in addition to $121 million in previously scheduled bonuses (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/business/15AIG.html?em) this from a company that has borrowed $170 billion in U.S. Taxpayer dollars and is now 80% owned by the U.S. Government.
While U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke have strenuously objected to the plans, the company says the bonuses will go forward because lawyers said the firm was contractually obligated to pay them. A.I.G. argues that the bonuses were promised last year before the crisis and cannot be legally cancelled.
What’s wrong with this picture? I was in the work force for over fifty years when I retired and was never promised a bonus regardless of performance. Frankly, I performed very well in every job I ever had and most often got no bonus at all. My reward was to keep my job. How is it that people get promises of rewards before they do anything? It’s no wonder that the great middle class thinks our justice system is totally biased toward the rich.
Here’s what really grates on me, though. The CEO of A.I.G. Edward M. Liddy says, “We cannot attract and retain the best and the brightest talent to lead and staff the A.I.G. businesses without these bonuses.” What? If these people who; ran the company into the ground, caused thousands of people to lose everything they have, precipitated a huge market crash and cost the U.S. taxpayer billions of dollars, If these are the best and brightest I’d like to know by what measure. By my standards they are the dumbest, densest, most dishonest and dreariest. These people should be fired and perhaps imprisoned but they certainly should not be rewarded.
If we are to adopt A.I.G. standards then perhaps Bernie Madoff should get a reward for doing such a great job of fleecing thousands of people out of $65 billion. Maybe Enron executives who engineered that debacle should be given bonuses and expense paid vacations on the French Riviera and — let’s drain the treasury to pay those responsible for the Exxon Valdez incident for the wonderful work they did in destroying the Alaskan environment.
I have been and am a supporter of the Obama administration’s efforts to pull us out of the financial quagmire that the Bush administration got us into. But, my patience is limited. Are we to say, “Oh, sorry we didn’t know you were contractually obligated to pay bonuses…so we’ll find a way to give you even more money?” Put the brakes on Mr. Obama, or the American public will turn on you faster than a duck sliding through Valdez oil.
If nothing else, the Obama administration should make sure that every bonus penny gets paid back to the taxpayer with interest and they should insist that every A.I.G. executive who was in any way responsible for he corporate collapse be fired. Being as we own 80% of A.I.G. it would seem that we should have some leverage in the way the company is run. To quote Joe Scarborough on MSNBC, “We need to crush those people….crush them.”
Please comment here or by email bob@baronson.org. Also, please read and comment on my Organ Donation and Transplantation blogs on http://bobsnewheart.wordpress.com . You can visit my Facebook site, Organ Transplant Patients, Family and Friends at http://tinyurl.com/225cfh OR — my Facebook home page http://www.facebook.com/home.php
Billy May, Simoniz and the Fix It! Pro Scam March 12, 2009
Posted by Bob Aronson in SCAMS.10 comments
Recently we noted a series of small scratches on the passenger side of my wife’s 2006 Van. Coincidentally Billy May, the screaming and highly annoying pitchman, appeared on TV hawking the Simoniz Fix It! Pro pen. “For $19.99 this pen,” says May, “Will magically erase small scratches on the surface of any automobile.” May even inflicts a scratch on a car and shows how easy the Fix It! Pro resolves the problem (I’ll bet it wasn’t his car).
Normally I don’t order things from TV ads but in this case we thought perhaps we could save a few bucks and I could fix the scratches myself. Begin the nightmare.
First upon calling the Simoniz Fix It! Pro hotline you are greeted by a recording of Billy May hollering at you in a manner that reminds one of fingernails slowly scraping a blackboard. Then an automated voice comes on that can take the order. I simply wanted to order the Fix It! Pro for $19.99 but this hotline doesn’t allow for that. Before you can hang up and finalize your order they offer you everything Simoniz has ever made and you never, ever talk to a human being. The voice recognition software they use does all the work all you have to say is, “Yes,” or, “No.” Right! I denied all offers, all I wanted was the Fix It! Pro pens. I hung up and forgot about it.
Several days later I received a box from Billy May and the Simoniz people. It contained six (6) Fix It! Pro pens (I only ordered one) three (3) Turbo Vac car vacuum cleaners (I ordered none) two (2) polishing cloths (I ordered none) 3 containers of metal polish (I ordered none) and three books of Simoniz Rebate coupons all for the price of about $135.00. Wait! I only wanted to spend $19.99.
Reigning in my rage, I called the Simoniz people and quietly told them I had received a bunch of stuff (it’s hard to be articulate when you are steamed) I didn’t order and sought to return all of it but one Fix It! Pro pen. The lady (a real person this time) said I could keep the three vacuum cleaners because they were free except for postage and handling which was $9.95 per vacuum but they could not refund the postage and handling. “Matter of fact,” she said, “We can’t refund the postage and handling on any of it but you can keep the vacuum cleaners, the pen and I will credit your account for $30.00. Please,” she said, “Return the other items ASAP.” Let’s see, I wanted to spend $19.99 but somehow it cost me $105.00. I attempted to argue but was stonewalled by the humorless person on the other end of line. Bottom line, I’m out 105 bucks. They have not, however, heard the end of this.
I don’t know if others of you have had the same experience but I’d sure like to hear from you. As far as I’m concerned I will never buy another Simoniz product again. The only saving grace in all of this is that I can blog about it. Billy May you are a huckster and you work for a scam company!
Please comment here or by email bob@baronson.org. Also, please read and comment on my Organ Donation and Transplantation blogs on
http://bobsnewheart.wordpress.com . You can visit my Facebook site, Organ Transplant Patients, Friends and You at http://tinyurl.com/225cfh OR — my Facebook home page http://www.facebook.com/home.php
How Great was the “Great Depression?” March 11, 2009
Posted by Bob Aronson in The economy.add a comment
The doomsayers on TV are continually reminding us that we may be headed for another “Great Depression,” the worldwide economic downturn that lasted from 1929 until 1942. While the Roosevelt administration was making progress during those bleak years the depression could easily have been longer had it not been for World War ll and the massive spending it required. I don’t want to downplay our current miseries. Things are bad and millions are suffering but it is far too early to compare our present state of affairs to the great depression.
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Yes, we are in a very bad recession that, according to some experts, began in 2007. At last report our unemployment rate in the U.S. was around 8%, a far cry from the depths of the depression when non-farm unemployment was at 37%. For this blog I wanted to offer some information on just how bad the great depression was. Keep in mind, too, that not only were we in the throes of economic strangulation we were further disabled by one of the worst droughts in history— a drought so bad that our famed “breadbasket” was unable to produce much and millions of people were forced off their farms and into the devastated cities. Breadlines were common, healthcare was nonexistent and tent cities or “Hoovervilles” were not unusual (Grapes of Wrath the movie starring a young Henry Fonda, tells the story quite well).
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Wikipedia, a wonderful source of objective information offers the following on the great depression. Remember that in 1929 the population of the U.S. was about 122 million. Today it is estimated to be about 305 million. Here’s what Wikipedia says: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Depression) (click on the numbers in parentheses for more information.
Wikipedia; Effects of depression in the United States[53]:
- 13 million people became unemployed. In 1932, 34 million people belonged to families with no regular full-time wage earner.[54]
- Industrial production fell by nearly 45% between the years 1929 and 1932.
- Homebuilding dropped by 80% between the years 1929 and 1932.
- In the 1920s, the banking system in the U.S. was about $50 billion, which was about 50% of GDP.[55]
- From the years 1929 to 1932, about 5,000 banks went out of business.
- By 1933, 11,000 of the US’ 25,000 banks had failed.[56]
- Between 1929 and 1933, U.S. GDP fell around 30%, the stock market lost almost 90% of its value.[57]
- In 1929, the unemployment rate averaged 3%.[58]
- In 1933, 25% of all workers and 37% of all nonfarm workers were unemployed.[59]
- In Cleveland, Ohio, the unemployment rate was 60%; in Toledo, Ohio, 80%.[54]
- One Soviet trading corporation in New York averaged 350 applications a day from Americans seeking jobs in the Soviet Union.[60]
- Over one million families lost their farms between 1930 and 1934.[54]
- Corporate profits had dropped from $10 billion three years ago to $1billion in 1932.[54]
- Between 1929 and 1932 the income of the average American family was reduced by 40%.[61]
- Nine million savings accounts had been wiped out between 1930 and 1933.[54]
- 273,000 families had been evicted from their homes in 1932.[54]
- There were two million homeless people migrating around the country.[54]
- One Arkansas man walked 900 miles looking for work.[54]
- Over 60% of Americans were categorized as poor by the federal government in 1933.[54]
- In the last prosperous year (1929), there were 279,678 immigrants recorded, but in 1933 only 23,068 came to the U.S.[62][63]
- In the early 1930s, more people emigrated from the United States than immigrated to it.[64]
- New York social workers reported that 25% of all schoolchildren were malnourished. In the mining counties of West Virginia, Illinois, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania, the proportion of malnourished children was perhaps as high as 90%.[54]
- Many people became ill with diseases such as tuberculosis (TB).[54]
- The 1930 U.S. Census determined the U.S. population to be 122,775,046. About 40% of the population was under 20 years.[65]
Again, while I seek not to downplay our current travails I think it is important to have some perspective. Do we need action? Yes! Can we let this continue? No! Is President Obama on the right road? To be honest no one can say. We simply don’t know. We can only pray he is doing the right thing. I for one, do not want him to fail because to do so dooms all of us.
Also, please read and comment on my Organ Donation and Transplantation blogs on
http://bobsnewheart.wordpress.com . You can visit my Facebook site, Organ Transplant Patients, Friends and You at http://tinyurl.com/225cfh OR — my Facebook home page http://www.facebook.com/home.php
Help The Economy — Free Some Prisoners? March 4, 2009
Posted by Bob Aronson in The economy.2 comments
Could our faltering economy get some relief if we revamp judicial sentencing guidelines?
As we tighten our economic belts, states are looking at prisons as places in which money can be saved. California for example is going to release thousands of non-violent offenders in order to diminish the cost of incarceration which runs into billions of dollars nationwide.
A 2008 New York Times article puts the problem in perspective. http://realcostofprisons.org/blog/archives/2008/02/1_in_100_us_adu.html. The Times quotes the Pew Center on the States as saying one in one hundred American adults is in jail — that’s well over two million people behind bars and some of them may not belong there. On average, states spend almost 7 percent of their budgets on corrections, trailing only healthcare, education and transportation. And – the National Association of State Budgeting Officers says that costs the nation’s taxpayers $44 Billion a year.
The question we have to ask ourselves is this, “Do all these people belong in jail? Does the judicial system have enough latitude to consider broader forms of sentencing?” For example, there are thousands of DWI first offenders in jail who might more appropriately be in chemical dependency treatment centers (where most of the cost is picked up by insurance).
Today’s New York Times is reporting that, “The state Assembly has announced that it will pass legislation to repeal much of what remains of the state’s 1970s-era drug laws. (Albany Takes Step to Repeal Rockefeller Drug Laws http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/05/nyregion/05rockefeller.html?hp by Jeremy W. Peters)
“The proposal would be the first pivotal step in a push to dismantle the laws that tied judges’ hands and imposed mandatory prison terms for many nonviolent drug offenses. The Assembly’s proposal restores judges’ discretion in sentencing in many lower-level drug possession crimes. Judges would be able to send many offenders to treatment programs instead of prison without receiving consent from prosecutors. In addition, the measure would permit about 2,000 prisoners to apply to have their sentences reconsidered.”
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The Times story goes on to say, “Before any three-way compromise is reached, several sticking points need to be resolved. Those issues include whether drug offenders who do not complete treatment would be sent to prison and whether offenders would first need to be certified as addicted before they could enter a treatment program.
The State Legislature has already eliminated the stiffest provisions of the Rockefeller laws, doing away in 2004 with life sentences for drug crimes and reducing other penalties for the most serious offenses. But supporters of the Assembly plan believe that plan is an opportunity to finish what began in 2004.”
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So one of my questions is, “By revamping sentencing can we accomplish two goals? 1) To alleviate prison overcrowding and therefore diminish the cost and 2) offer help (like treatment which works. I personally can attest to that) to those who need it rather than incarceration.
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What do you think? Have a comment? Write it in the space provided or email me at bob@baronson.org.
Also, please read and comment on my Organ Donation and Transplantation blogs on
http://bobsnewheart.wordpress.com . You can visit my Facebook site, Organ Transplant Patients, Friends and You at http://tinyurl.com/225cfh OR — my Facebook home page http://www.facebook.com/home.php
Communication Advice For Republicans. You’re Blowing It! February 27, 2009
Posted by Bob Aronson in The economy.4 comments
As a semi-retired communication consultant I want to offer my critique of the conservative approach toward President Obama’s stimulus plan. I don’t pretend to think that the plan will solve all of our problems but at least it addresses them. So far conservatives have addressed big deficits and big government but have not even alluded to real people. I learned long ago that you never discuss problems unless you have solutions. Those who oppose the stimulus plan are excellent at discussing the problems it may create; they fail miserably in offering solutions.
While I support President Obama’s efforts I’m going to offer some advice to my conservative friends. Simply put, you’d better start sounding like you give a damn about the average American because right now you appear to care only about being disagreeable.
My personal philosophy is quite simple, “If communication is not your top priority all other priorities are at risk.” Conservatives within and without congress have totally failed to communicate that they care. Nothing proves it more than Rush Limbaugh’s statement that he “hopes President Obama fails.” The obvious inference, then, is that he favors politics over helping Americans overcome adversity. Where’s the Christianity in that statement Mr. Limbaugh? Your hubris is exceeded only by your bombastic thoughtlessness. Even some of your supporters think you’ve gone too far with that utterance.
Here’s where Rush and the loyal opposition to President Obama have gone wrong. The President talks about people losing their homes, conservatives discuss the national debt. He talks about a lack of health care access, they talk about budget deficits. He talks about families that are forced to go to food shelves, they talk about taxes. He talks about millions of lost jobs, they talk about big government.
The fact is when people are concerned about their own well being they simply don’t care about the difference between a billion and a trillion dollar deficit or big government. When people are faced with unemployment or have already lost their jobs they don’t care about taxes. Conservatives have totally ignored the prime tenet of effective, persuasive communication; talk about the audience and their needs — not about yourself and your beliefs.
Perception is ninety percent of reality. If people perceive that you care more about money than you do about them they will quit listening to you, worse yet they will probably turn against you.
The issue here is people, not money. Conservatives would do themselves some good to rethink how they articulate their opposition to the President’s plan. I’m not saying they have to agree with him, they shouldn’t if they feel they might compromise their principles, but if they don’t change their attitude they will come out the big losers in this battle.
So far, Republicans have come across as the party of “No!” Rarely do you hear any of them discuss human misery. Rather — they seem to think they can connect with the public by attacking spending and big government. What they should be doing is to offer some compassionate solutions rather than just saying no. Here is a short list of what people really care about:
- Loss of job and income
- Loss of investments
- Loss of retirement funds
- Feeding their families
- Paying their bills
- Keeping a roof over their heads
- Providing adequate health care for their families
- An adequate number of public safety people to protect them from the rise in crime that always comes with a faltering economy.
- Proper education for their children
Effective, persuasive communication dictates that you speak in terms that have a direct impact on your audience. When people are faced with losing their homes and their ability to feed their families they really don’t care about the national debt or deficit spending, they want solutions, not more problems.
I’ll probably get a lot of nasty email from conservatives but before you send it re-read what I wrote. It is very good advice, the same advice I would offer if I was being paid for it.
Also, please read and comment on my Organ Donation and Transplantation blogs on
http://bobsnewheart.wordpress.com . You can visit my Facebook site, Organ Transplant Patients, Friends and You at http://tinyurl.com/225cfh OR — my Facebook home page http://www.facebook.com/home.php
Keep Kids Home, Send Old Guys To Fight Wars!!!! February 22, 2009
Posted by Bob Aronson in World Views.1 comment so far
A friend of mine from Israel sent me the following post. At age 70 it sure makes sense to me. Enjoy
If you have comments about this blog, write them in the space provided below, or email them to me at jaxbob@gmail.com.
Also, please read and comment on my Organ Donation and Transplantation blogs on
http://bobsnewheart.wordpress.com . You can visit my Facebook site, Organ Transplant Patients, Friends and You at http://tinyurl.com/225cfh OR — my Facebook home page http://www.facebook.com/home.php
When’s The Last Time You Had A Salad? The Sorry State Of Our Health. February 17, 2009
Posted by Bob Aronson in Healthcare.5 comments
In the United States we spend more on healthcare per capita than any other nation on earth and no wonder – we are the most technologically advanced, have the very best professional people and can boast of the best facilities. Why then do we lag so far behind much of the world in terms of our national health? What’s wrong with this picture?
Our health care system is seriously broken and no amount of glue, patchwork fixes or insurance adjustments is going to repair it. We need a complete overhaul, one in which patients have access to affordable health care unencumbered by the scores of entities attempting to “manage” our care.
I am at a loss in trying to explain how Blue Cross and Blue Shield, United Health Care and all the others are helping to improve access and lower the cost of our care. Insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, high tech medical equipment manufacturers are all making money, yet we as a nation are getting sicker.
The December 1, 2008 issue of Time Magazine the article “The Sorry State of American Health” http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1860289_1860561_1860562,00.html
tells a grim story of just how bad things are in the United States. To quote from the article: “If you’re like 67% of Americans, you’re currently overweight or obese. If you’re like 27%, your blood pressure is too high. If you’re like a whopping 96% of the population, you may not be able to recall the last time you had a salad, since you’re one of the hundreds of millions of Americans who rarely eat enough vegetables. And what you do eat, you don’t burn off — assuming you’re like the 40% of us who get no exercise. Most troubling of all, if you’re like any parent of any child anywhere in the world, you may be passing your health habits to your children, which explains why experts fear that this generation of American kids may be the first ever to have a shorter life span than their parents do.”
I don’t know if that paragraph upsets you but it should. Can you believe that 96% of Americans can’t remember the last time they had a salad? Maybe because I had a heart transplant eighteen months ago I’m more health conscious than most but these are alarming numbers and if you don’t care enough about your own health for heaven’s sake what about your kids?
Here’s more — Time makes it clear that “The biggest problem with the U.S. health-care system is that it has long been designed to respond to illness rather than prevent it.”
Now some scary, I mean really scary data. “In 2005, the most recent year for which data are available, about 7 babies out of every 1,000 live births in the U.S. died before their first birthday. That rate represents a 2% reduction in deaths from the year before, which continues the steady improvement seen throughout the 20th century. But globally, it still places us 29th in the world, behind Cuba and Singapore and on a par with Poland and Slovakia.” 29th in infant mortality? Behind Slovakia? Even worse, there are about forty five million Americans who are uninsured and whose only access to care is through their hospital emergency room — and guess who pays for that?
Quoting further from Time, “Between 1980 and 2004, the prevalence of obesity in the U.S. doubled among adults, surging to 72 million, or one-third of people ages 20 and older. Worse, the percentage of overweight or obese kids rose to 17%. If all those numbers could be cut by even a third, the ripple effect would in turn slash rates of hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, joint damage and more, not to mention the myriad costs associated with fighting these illnesses.”
I have but two suggestions for readers of this blog. 1) If you care about yourself and your family, think about adopting a healthier life style, think about getting some preventive care. Think about living! 2) If you care about the future of your family and the rest of America, start putting pressure on your elected representatives to do something about this sorry state of affairs.
If you have comments about this blog, write them in the space provided below, or email them to me at jaxbob@gmail.com.
Also, please read and comment on my Organ Donation and Transplantation blogs on
http://bobsnewheart.wordpress.com . You can visit my Facebook site, Organ Transplant Patients, Friends and You at http://tinyurl.com/225cfh OR — my Facebook home page http://www.facebook.com/home.php
Bob Aronson