Yesterday....between meetings and without alot of press coverage.....it kinda came out that a number of Democrats (a very small number presently).....want dental care and mental health care as part of this universal health care package being discussed. This wasn't mentioned in the original public discussion....so folks getting a little bit more of the view on this entire package now.
Dental care could pump up the price a fair bit.....and if you allowed full unrestricted mental health care....plus alcohol and drug rehab to be pushed into it....this would be a fairly expensive episode. They won't discuss numbers in public....but you could probably double the original estimate of how much a guy would have to pay....to make this work.
The Germans kinda tie both into the system with their universal care program.....but then there are some severe rules. You get up to three rehabs.....and then it's a strike-out. They also will rig up the paperwork on the final episode.....with a mental exam somewhere in the midst of it....and if you can't readily pass the situation....you might be staying forever in a German "rest-house" (you'd refer to them as mental institutions, but Germans have kind words to substitute into a phrase like this).
The problem I see with offering something like this as the total package....is that forty percent of America is fairly rural surroundings....with a dentist living twenty to one hundred miles away. For mental health? You might have to drive three hours. So there is a fair problem to both being made part of the whole package.
Thursday, 11 June 2009
Venezuela and Coke Zero
Shockingly enough....and not mentioned much by any of the big-time news organizations....yesterday, Venezuela (our friendly neighbor to the south, run Hugo (You know) Chavez, pronounced Coke Zero as a threat to the nation. Naturally, this means an immediate ban to Coke Zero.
The best we can say....is that Hug finally got convinced that there was a danger to your health. He didn't terminate plain Coke, or Pepsi, or even Mountain Dew.....just Coke Zero.
The quote by the health minister: "The product should be withdrawn from circulation to preserve the health of Venezuelans."
The truthful thing about Coke Zero....is that it does contain artificial sweeteners. For a long time, the experts have taken a dim view of this artificial sweetener business. It's kind like the smokes industry where tar and various chemicals added to cigarettes.....and you kinda get the impression that's more to get you addicted than to really add taste to the smoke. I'd suspect the same thing for Coke Zero.
Me? I've had two sips of Coke Zero in my life. You'd be just as well off having a full glass of water and squeezing half a lemon into it....and probably getting a better taste.
What happens next? There's probably 500,000 folks in Venezuela who are addicted to Coke Zero. Seems to me....black market Coke Zero will erupt, with 12-year old kids running across the border and bringing a case back....to sell to these poor addicted Coke Zero fans. Face it.....no cop is going to arrest young kids for dealing in Coke Zero or illegally selling it.
Kingdom of the Czars
Dang, as if by magic....another Czar position was created yesterday. At the present rate, I think there will be over fifty Czar's in the Obama administration by 2016. The curious thing...is that they all report back to the president...so naturally, they are vying for positions with the special diplomats that he hired that run the state department over Hillary, and then those dang cabinet posts. Oh, so we don't forget...that VP Biden dude...who probably gets eight minutes each week to meet with the boss.
This week's Czar? "Compensation czar".
I realize....you folks from Ripley and Red Bay sit there...scratching your head. You might be thinking this is the guy in charge of forcing GM or Chrysler to pay you for crappy cars that you buy....but no. This is a guy who would set salaries and bonuses in corporate America.
Naturally, I pulled out my copy of the Constitution....spent five minutes looking through it....and came to discover that this function in life...for the president or the government...was never written in. Probably a mistake by that Jefferson dude...but still, you would have thought that guys meeting in Philadelphia would have discussed this matter.
As the White House say.....they just want to reshape pay situations across corporate America.
Their aim with this deal is mostly any company that screwed up and triggered the bailouts. This would include companies like Bank of America, GM, Chrysler, Citigroup, and at least a hundred other companies. Here in the start....they would be the "blessed" group. I would have said "punished", but it just wouldn't be fair.
So what would happen next? I'm guessing some executives will meet with this Czar and tell him how unfair this is. He might react. If not, then the executives would go to their favorite senator and have him write a bill and get it passed. At some point, the Czar would wake up and realize that he was fighting the wind mostly. For companies with no success in this....they'd just give up and start acting like a government-run company....mostly staying a failure....and relying on bailout to survive year to year.
The more we swim into this current....the more it looks like we should have stayed on the beach and just let the businesses fail....like any company that we let fail each day of the year.
Meanwhile, I still have hopes of a baseball Czar, a wrestling Czar, a Tennessee River Czar, a tampon Czar, a cigar Czar, and a afternoon TV Czar (I was hoping Jerry Springer could be in charge).
This week's Czar? "Compensation czar".
I realize....you folks from Ripley and Red Bay sit there...scratching your head. You might be thinking this is the guy in charge of forcing GM or Chrysler to pay you for crappy cars that you buy....but no. This is a guy who would set salaries and bonuses in corporate America.
Naturally, I pulled out my copy of the Constitution....spent five minutes looking through it....and came to discover that this function in life...for the president or the government...was never written in. Probably a mistake by that Jefferson dude...but still, you would have thought that guys meeting in Philadelphia would have discussed this matter.
As the White House say.....they just want to reshape pay situations across corporate America.
Their aim with this deal is mostly any company that screwed up and triggered the bailouts. This would include companies like Bank of America, GM, Chrysler, Citigroup, and at least a hundred other companies. Here in the start....they would be the "blessed" group. I would have said "punished", but it just wouldn't be fair.
So what would happen next? I'm guessing some executives will meet with this Czar and tell him how unfair this is. He might react. If not, then the executives would go to their favorite senator and have him write a bill and get it passed. At some point, the Czar would wake up and realize that he was fighting the wind mostly. For companies with no success in this....they'd just give up and start acting like a government-run company....mostly staying a failure....and relying on bailout to survive year to year.
The more we swim into this current....the more it looks like we should have stayed on the beach and just let the businesses fail....like any company that we let fail each day of the year.
Meanwhile, I still have hopes of a baseball Czar, a wrestling Czar, a Tennessee River Czar, a tampon Czar, a cigar Czar, and a afternoon TV Czar (I was hoping Jerry Springer could be in charge).
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