Doing the Right Thing

"Neither of us knows where Burma is." Ouch. As one who earned a Geography degree back in the day, that stings! Also, it's known as "Myanmar" now, but "Myanmar Shave" doesn't roll off the tongue quite as nicely as "Burma Shave."

"It's Istanbul, not Constantinople..."

"Should you support the town's new eco-upright market? Or protest its owner's anti-union practices and public stance against universal health care?"

I agree with the majority of this article and I enjoy your column, I try to be eco-conscious as well.

Personally I support their stances on these issues. People should be able to unionize, but unions have become so powerful they are like the Union Industrial Complex.. they have powerful lobbyists and they are highly profitable. This is not the purpose of unions. Unions are supposed to be a way for workers to unite against unfair labor practices or as a tool for bargaining. It should be up to the individuals working for a company if they want to be involved with a union, or better yet form their own. The internet is the kind of place that could potentially provide tremendous organizational resources for workers to form their own unions without having to give up so much to unions that have become established. These established unions are often forced on workers who hold certain types of jobs.

Universal healthcare will lead to a LACK of healthcare. Doctors already are getting paid too little while the cost of healthcare is too high. I know this doesn't make much sense, but this is due to collusion between government, the medical industrial complex and insurance companies. They have lobbyists in DC and our politicians are so bought off that any sort of legislation coming out of their that gives more power to government will benefit the lobbyists who are paying for that legislation. In this case the medical industrial complex benefits.

To help ensure that everybody receives medical care, we need to drastically reduce the COST of health care. I don't mean the cost that we pay when we go in, I am talking about the overall price that is paid whether by the government or through an insurance company. Either way WE pay for it.. and buy instituting a government health care program, the costs will increase and the amount of care will decrease. We will pay for the higher costs in the long run, and less people will have good medical care. A black market for health care will form where people can receive treatment, and again the most wealthy individuals will still receive the best care and the poorest individuals will be stuck with an awful health care system.

(cont..)

If we reduce the TRUE cost of healthcare by getting the medical industrial complex out of the current legislation in DC, and increase the amount of alternatives available and allow free speech in medicine (i.e. the FDA says that Cheerios cannot claim that it reduces cholesterol by a certain amount in studies, even though it does, because then it would be considered a "drug".) I know that you know the key to health is what we eat. The FDA has the attitude that eating good food cannot help prevent any specific conditions. That's complete hogwash. They just want to be able to patent anything that makes a health claim for profits and you cannot patent whole grains (although I'm sure Monsanto has tried..)

We need to take away the tax subsidy for companies to give health insurance to their employees and give individuals an offsetting tax break so they can purchase their own insurance instead of going through their company. This will get rid of the problem we have with pre-existing conditions, because people will not have to switch healthcare when they switch jobs. Most people will not be fully insured. I know I won't, I would only get catostrophic coverage. If I had to go to a doctor, I would call up some doctors around town and see who had good rates. Right now there is NO mechanism to reduce costs because everybody is either fully insured and only pays a copay (thanks to legislation in the 70s that gave the tax subsidy to companies to give health insurance to their employees), or the government pays, or it is completely unaffordable. When there is a large contingent of people who are demanding healthcare at affordable rates, prices will come down, so those who have full insurance will have their rates lowered. Government won't have to pay as much to cover the poor. It is a win-win for everyone. It is a win for free market economics where the government protects private property rights, individual rights and protects against fraud, theft and injury.

Rode my bike to a "welcome home" party Sunday for a grad student returning from Europe. I suspect I saved a couple of penguins somewhere given my choice of transport, though his trip abroad may have clouded our collective carbon math. Following a prescribed responsibility recipe is impossible, and ripe with inconsistency, pompousness and hypocrisy. Humans are a species too, and commerce underwrites our collective existence. Given our planet's population of nearly 7 billion, your kid's Big Mac is helping MCD employees, shareholders, suppliers, franchisees, and perhaps your local heart surgeon and Jenny Craig counselor. Oh, and my friend's PhD dissertation: Global Biomass Cogeneration.

My husband cut this out and put it on my pillow. It made me laugh out loud. You sound like me, Star Shine, and sometimes I drive him crazy, always agonizing over our destroying the planet. I am constantly stopping people who are carrying non-reusable bags full of groceries out of the store. I just have to tell them how bad those plastic or paper bags are for the environment and tell them about the voluntary "Where's Your Bag?" campaign going on in Santa Barbara. I think that I am doing the right thing. I have opened up a lot of eyes to this mindless behavior and gotten people to think about what they are doing.
Just Sign Me, "Choose to Re-Use".