- Rate hikes facing real people… | Health Access WeBlog – Anthony Wright
- Next Tuesday, the Assembly Health Committee will consider AB52(Feuer), a measure to allow state regulators to deny unjustified and unreasonable health insurance rate hikes. …
"We are currently paying Blue Cross $950 per month for 2 very healthy adults and one equally healthy 8-year old. …in September our premium is skyrocketing to $1400 … We can no longer afford this policy, which isn't even good coverage. It offers limited care with a $500 deductible per person … I would like to go to the doctor for physical, mammogram and pap smear exams, however, since I would have to pay out of pocket for these routine visits, I have not gone. …We are going broke paying for terrible insurance. We had our rates raised by $200 only 6 months ago and 6 months before that and on and on. …our income is not increasing at the same rate."
[To anyone unclear on the facts: Something has gone terribly wrong in California's healthcare "market", and we're hurting. Badly. -L]
- Economic Security Beyond Reach of Many Americans – NYTimes.com
- According to the report, a single worker needs an income of $30,012 a year — or just above $14 an hour — to cover basic expenses and save for retirement and emergencies. That is close to three times the 2010 national poverty level of $10,830 for a single person, and nearly twice the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.
A single worker with two young children needs an annual income of $57,756, or just over $27 an hour, to attain economic stability, and a family with two working parents and two young children needs to earn $67,920 a year, or about $16 an hour per worker.
- WKRP and the Tragedy of the Anti-Commons | Marginal Revolution – Alex Tabarrok
- The tragedy of the commons occurs when no one has the right to exclude users of a resource and, as a result, the resource is overused. The tragedy of the anti-commons occurs when many people have the right exclude users of a resource and, as a result, the resource is under-used. Case in point:…
Notice that no one really gains here from the surfeit of copyright, not even the copyright holders.
…WKRP in Cincinnati is not that important in the grand scheme of things but it is an illustration of how copyright and patent thickets can impede innovation.
- New Outrage! Homeowners Assn. Proposes Ban on Kids Playing | FreeRangeKids – lskenazy
- The problem, defined by the Homeowners Assn., is a lack of open space in the 48-townhouse subdivision. So the kids play on the driveways (oh! the horror!) and in the parking lot (which could be a fine or terrible idea, depending on its size and the number of cars there, etc. etc.). The point is: Kids DESERVE to play outside. It doesn’t even seem like it should be LEGAL to ban this, anymore than banning eating or sleeping.
But of course, it’s all about “safety,” the word that sneaks into so many debates, legitimately or not, and often stuns all common sense.
I hope the kids storm this meeting in their roller skates.
- Wringing out the excesses | Hullabaloo – digby
- Median CEO pay is 9 million dollars a year.
…they really are good at their jobs if their job is strictly defined as a rising stock price. …one can't help but wonder on what rational basis these stocks are rising if the only people in the country with any money to spend are in the top 1%. (In fact, when stocks rise precipitously without any fundamental basis, we usually call that a bubble.)
…the unemployment rate dropped again this month …although the underlying numbers are full of warnings and disappointments. [link] Following the Reagan blueprint as they admit they are, the government and business are simply wringing the excesses out of the economy by squeezing the hell out of the middle and working classes …
And it isn't temporary. For every year that someone is unable to go to college or save for retirement or take care of their health, the cost down the road increase. "Wringing out the excess" really means keeping many people poorer for life.
[My bookmarks live at delicious.com/camryl. In case it needs to be said: I don't agree with every word of everything I link to. Also, signal boosts are awesome! --L.]
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