tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-85987612044487192522024-03-07T22:00:33.604-08:00Andrew Weeraratne ReflectionsAbility to think freely and having the candor and courage to express those views and then change your mind when/if others prove you wrong by giving you facts is the zenith of civilized mind. To live any other way is to be a mental slave.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8598761204448719252.post-77192271245874425562010-03-19T08:20:00.000-07:002010-03-19T08:20:26.332-07:00Hundred-Million-dollar-lead-man Propaganda Journalist and the want-to-be emulators of the Media Echo Chamber—A modern day version of “Invasion of the (mind) Body Snatchers”Would you agree that we cannot have a democracy or free market and capitalism without free media? Freedom to speak not necessarily has to be taken away through legal censorship but could be taken away through depravation of access to media. For example, if all the audience could hear are Masters of Propaganda promoting a strategy of welfare for the rich and nothing except the notion of “hope” for the working people then enough people could be brainwashed to agree on such a cockamamie theory destructing themselves, the same way some immature children carry on suicide bombing listening to leaders who advocate religious violence and a place in heaven.<br />
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Masters of Propaganda will get at you first by applying to your most basic fears and agreeing with your most basic prejudices making you to agree with them before they take away your power to think freely. Then before you know, the propagandist have turned you into a Zombie accomplice to murder of 120 fellow citizens per day depriving them of healthcare (a phenomenon happens only in the USA among rich countries). This is the power of media in a society gradually losing its freedom to think.<br />
If a person could look right at you and make a baseless statement (B.S.) and get you to agree with him once, then they will keep on increasing the frequency in which you will agree with all other B.S. that they will barge on you. Once you agree to enough of their B.S. they got you hooked, like a drug addict hooked on to drugs. This is how people have been brainwashed throughout history. The perpetrator normally doesn’t disagree with you upfront but agrees enough times to convince that they are in the same team with you. Watch a master propagandist in action: He will cry like a baby one time and the next time smile impressively with you gaining your affirmation applying to your basic insecurities, before the poison is put on you to self-destruct. Your eventual destruction is their monetary gain. The best slave is who has no more power to think for himself.<br />
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The logic of the propagandist goes as follows: any government doing anything for the common man is socialism. But it is ok for every power group in the nation to have a lobbyist influencing congress to pass legislation providing them welfare as long as these power groups advertise with the media enabling the hundred-million-dollar man’s compensation. It is only a sucker (born every minute) would take anything such a journalist says seriously. Think of this next time you see the propagandist.<br />
In his classic fiction “Nineteen Eighty-Four,” George Orwell defines freedom as the right to say that two and two add up to be four. For example, the government trying to give affordable healthcare, even if hurts the profits of drug companies and their middlemen the insurance companies, is not socialism regardless how the masters of propaganda (who are paid by the industry) twist it; understanding this has to be as simple as adding two and two together.<br />
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The situation in the USA today also reminds me of an old classic movie, “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.” That movie is about a town where the townspeople are in fact being replaced by perfect physical duplicates, simulations grown from plantlike pods. The “pod people” are indistinguishable from normal people, except for their utter lack of emotion. The Pod People work together to secretly spread more pods — which grew from "seeds drifting through space for years" — in order to replace the entire human race. The day you see a huge segment of the population not being able to distinguish between right and wrong is the day society has been taken over by “pod people.”<br />
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One way to do your duty to protect democracy and capitalism is to speak out and let those who control our media know that we are not that easily brainwashed, thus warning them not even to think of trying any such trick on us with 24/7 propaganda. If the Russian people had a way to tell their king that they were ready to throw them out before the revolution and if the king had listened to the true grievances of his people and done something to alleviate them before it was too late, rather than getting involved in foreign wars, then there would have been no Russian Revolution and the eventual takeover of the country by even worse murderous dictators. <br />
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Would you say anything if someone pays you $100 million per year to say it? People kill people for much less. For hundred million dollars, some people may say things to trigger bombing a whole nation slaughtering millions of people if that process will transfer billions in profits to a few companies in the defense industry. Thus if not kept in check we may be soon heading there or some of you may say that we have already been there. Either way it is our duty to stop killing innocent people.<br />
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No one pays a newsman $100 million to tell the truth but pays it to market something or to carry on propaganda in such a sleek manner that the innocent and naive listener, will believe, if not every word but most of what they hear. Be aware that who you see/hear in your favorite political show is an amazingly well-paid, super salesman (the lead man) who has the looks, the intelligence, the charisma and the skills to sell you what they are paid to sell. Also be aware that the rest of the members of the U.S. Media would like to make $100 million also. Thus we have a media echo chamber where the other journalists also repeat anything the lead 100 million-dollar man says, hoping that if they say somewhat similar to the things the lead man says they also will be paid somewhat close to the lead man by those super wealthy who pay the lead man. It is your duty as an intelligent listener (buyer) to beware. Otherwise you are no different than any other religiously or socially brainwashed poor soul.<br />
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This is briefly what is happening with the US media today. We are fast losing the free media that tells the people the truth and is interested in discussing facts as to how their government could do things for the common good of its people. Instead we have a media that is being taken over by extremely wealthy individuals using their corporate structure. The media makes a good chunk of its money through advertising revenue. Such advertising revenue comes to them only through a handful of businesses (that are also mostly corporations big enough to spend billions in advertising) that control the US and international markets. There is nothing wrong in being large successful businesses in the global market but what is wrong is the way these business interests have taken over the government. The U.S. Government is no longer the government of the people, by the people for the people, but has become an entity of, by and for the lobbyists. The purpose of these lobbyists is to pass legislation so that the US government uses its trillion-dollar-treasury to give this handful of businesses welfare in all sorts of sophisticated ways<br />
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In a way we cannot blame these journalists for the pathetic situation our media is in today. After all they know that if they don’t peddle propaganda someone else would do it. It is like being a policeman in a nation controlled by drug dealers. The boss drug dealer may tell the policeman to take a bribe, live a comfortable life and support them or face the consequences of his loved one being brutally murdered as an example for the rest. When faced with a situation like that the option that any smart person would take is quite clear. Similarly a man or woman in the USA who wants to be a journalist is given a clear choice: Take a good salary and peddle propaganda handed over to them or face the consequences of living in a society with no healthcare, no retirement and a job that would not pay enough to live without borrowing. The choice for the journalist in a society run by lobbyists is as clear as to the choice for the policeman in a society run by drug dealers. <br />
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Once you see the journalism in the USA in that context you will see why the majority in the media oppose any legislation that may give anything, even if it the most basic right, for the common man and woman. It is just not enough that they want the Government to give away the wealth of the nation to the very wealthy but they also want the government to give no breaks to the common man and woman. The corporations do not want any competition from anyone, including from the government, but want the people to buy everything they need, especially the essential services they need to survive, from the monopolies that the very wealthy have set up, at whatever the price they want to sell them. As you can imagine that is not how the free market system should work. In a capitalist economy there should be enough competition for goods and services so that the prices will be determined by market forces and not by monopolies.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8598761204448719252.post-87913994022589230772009-12-24T02:33:00.000-08:002009-12-24T02:33:12.577-08:00How to stop 45,000 Americans dying each year due to lack of healthcare and save close to a million bankruptcies due to healthcare cost.The fate of the most recent healthcare bill that turned from a promised universal healthcare option to another giveaway to the insurance companies illustrates the power of the lobbyists for the insurance companies and the healthcare industry in the USA. With a huge war chest of profits, neither the health insurance companies nor the healthcare industry will let any legislation pass to help the needy Americans at the expense to any portion of their extraordinary profits. It is about time for the progressives in the country to understand that this is a losing battle. Since the money being made, with no competition by a handful in the country through people getting sick is so huge that they will never relinquish that privilege. Why would they? It is easy and sure money since one can guarantee for people to get sick. So progressives must look for another, a more practical way to win this war rather than waiting for the government to do it for them. If they use their imagination, than waiting for the government to do it then they can achieve their goal of saving 45,000 American lives yearly and stop bankruptcy of half a million individuals by properly using the resources available under capitalism. I cannot figure out why only liberals worry about saving American lives that is being lost due to corporate profits.<br />
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To elaborate more on the crisis at hand, America may be the only country in the world where a handful of people could exploit people getting sick to make huge personal profits. In other countries it is provided by the government or by not-for-profit organizations because they hold the view that people do not get sick out of choice. According to a study done by Harvard University, 45,000 Americans die each year due to lack of healthcare. Also illness and medical bills caused half of the 1,458,000 personal bankruptcies in 2001 according to a study done by “The Journal of Health Affairs.” According to the same study, most people who had to go bankrupt by not being able to pay healthcare expenses already had health insurance and they have been paying the expensive health insurance monthly premiums almost religiously.<br />
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Although the majority of Americans are outraged over these dreadful statistics, and the ruthless behavior of the insurance industry, unfortunately a significant number of people in the USA do not find any need to treat all Americans as they should be treated. This group, that could be as high as 40% of the population, fanatically believes in a screwed-up and self-serving version of individual responsibility (expecting unemployed and under-employed to find money to pay unaffordable and compulsory health insurance, almost like the income taxes one pays to a legitimate government). Ironically some of the people in this group are themselves victims and often do not carry health insurance or can afford to go to a doctor. Yet they, almost on a suicidal mentality, hang on to the survival-of-the-fittest doctrine that had been handed over to them in some indoctrination process during their young impressionable days.<br />
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The economist John Kenneth Galbraith in his book “The Culture of Contentment” describes this significant minority in the USA as the contented population.<br />
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Any time, a member of the contented group feels guilty about their indifference to a major segment of needy Americans (ironically often includes themselves) who live in fear of life praying for miracles to keep them healthy, all they have to do is to listen to the rightwing media. In the rightwing media they will find the most charismatic journalists (who are paid millions by the corporate-owned media to keep the welfare for the rich going) not only assuring them that there is no need for them to feel any guilt over their beliefs but also that they turn furious over liberals advocating healthcare for all Americans. This contended population is pretty selfish, uncaring and ruthless to begin with making it easy for the media since all they have to do is to confirm their brainwashed beliefs that it is ok to ignore the death of so many Americans. To contrast, if a foreign power kills 45,000 Americans per year, this same group will go on protest marches (orchestrated by the rightwing media willingly available to lobby for the defense industry) demanding the government to spend whatever it takes to stop it. <br />
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The more ruthless and uncaring this segment of the population becomes more profits there are for those who pay the salaries of the journalists. The media is so sophisticated and teach the contented slogans, such as “obamacare is death for grand ma” etc. that the contended could repeat like a mantra any time any guilty conscious seeps through their minds. One of the most favorite mantra of the contended is the “healthcare for the illegal using our tax dollars.” They would cheer loudly when a CEO of the healthcare industry take a huge bonus using their tax dollars by denying healthcare benefits to people (or pretend not to know about it) but if they find out that healthcare has been provided to a dying child of an illegal they would shout as if the sky is falling on their heads. This is the power of indoctrination; humanity is secondarily to an illogical idealism. <br />
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It is because of this contended group that the politicians can get away taking open, legalized bribes from the healthcare industry lobbyist disregarding the plight of the people due to rising healthcare cost that rise as rapidly as, and in sync, with the year-end bonuses of the executives of the healthcare industry. This significant contended minority, as any fanatical group would be, is a sold voting block for the rightwing while the rest of the population is so tired of politics stay away from voting. So as long as this group exists in the USA (and they will always be), progressives have no chance of getting government legislation to stop this uniquely American death toll or the bankruptcies.<br />
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Therefore, instead of waiting for the President or the legislative body to do anything about this nightmare, the progressives could solve it by setting up their own health insurance company and a chain of hospitals that can be financed through the public stock market. This is how capitalism could solve this problem through competition. The progressives who already have managed to raise even more money than the conservatives for their political movements, mostly thanks to the Internet, could easily set up a movement to find the capital to set up an insurance company and a chain of hospitals. Then they can treat all Americans who have no health care at an affordable cost.<br />
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Progressives could set up two public holding companies. One company will manage a health insurance company and the other will set up and manage a chain of hospitals. The initial capital to set up these organizations could be raised through an Initial Public Offering (IPO) via the Internet. The insurance company could provide health insurance both to those who already have insurance at a better rate and then begin to selectively provide affordable health insurance to those in low risk category who already do not have any health insurance. Then as the company becomes profitable it can begin to provide health insurance even for those who could be classified as high-risk people if they are not eligible for Medicaid. At the end of the year if the insurance company has profits then instead of paying the management huge bonuses the company could send rebates to insurance holders giving them the option to turn these rebates into a stock purchase program of the insurance company. The mission of the insurance company should be to have a loyal client base that they will not betray.<br />
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Also the progressives could do an IPO for the company to set up a chain of hospitals. They could set up state-of- the-art hospitals, initially mostly general hospitals that would take care of common illnesses with the insurance company paying for more complicated problems to the other private profit-oriented hospitals. Eventually the progressive Hospital Company could build more sophisticated hospitals to take care of all problems. Through a marketing campaign and education such a movement could get a huge client base who would buy insurance from a company dedicated both to serve the clients and stockholders as opposed to paying excessive compensation to a handful of people. Also they would prefer to go to a hospital run by a company that think of service first and profits secondarily. Both the insurance company and the hospital chain could find trusted investment advisors to invest their extra funds collected through the IPO and premiums to get a good return on investments to keep the companies solvent and further their cause.<br />
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The beauty of this plan is that it would take the form of a profit-oriented public company, serving the stockholder base which could be the same as the clients of the company who get healthcare. The charter could provide an allowance to treat the poorest segment of the population through a charitable arm of the profit-oriented company. Even now many public companies have charitable arms to which they contribute or match contribution by their shareholders. So it could be arranged in the same manner.<br />
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By setting up a service-based health insurance Company and public hospitals financed by the public through the capital markets even if we won’t be able to solve the problem of healthcare in the USA immediately it would set the movement in the right direction. Also as there is competition from outsiders, the health insurance cartel that dominate the market now will have no choice but to bring down the premiums and the hospitals will have to bring down the cost so as to compete with the progressive hospitals. Thus the healthcare services will be affordable for all Americans. At a time when about 15% of the Gross Domestic Product is being absorbed by the cost of healthcare, a movement such as this based on the principles of capitalism could be the only way we could solve this crisis.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8598761204448719252.post-13831479302442386582009-12-02T23:46:00.001-08:002009-12-07T20:39:10.031-08:00US Healthcare system—the Sickest Scam in human history<i>Transparency International </i>a civic organization based in Europe composes an index each year called <i>Least Corrupt Country Index</i>. They score 180 countries in the world based on the propensity of the system to avoid corruption. The highest scoring countries are called the Least Corrupt Countries and hold the top places in the list and the least scoring countries are called the Most Corrupt Countries in the world. In 2009, the USA holds the 20th position in this list. This is an abysmal position to be held. It is at the bottom of the rest of the developed world’s standing; a position set at the borderline of developed world and the Third World where there is abject poverty strictly due to their corruption. <br />
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American people, who are some of the greatest people in this world, should not let their country rank so low among the civilized nations. Especially when you look at it, this reputation as a corrupt nation to the USA comes only because of a handful in the nation. This handful of corrupt people who control the world of finance, media and the government (through lobbyists) are who warrant this reputation. So even if 90% of the people in the USA are honest, this 10%, because they are powerful, create a society so corrupt to deserve this reputation. <br />
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Taking a look at the US healthcare system should give us one good reason why Transparency International ranks the USA so low in the list. <br />
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The welfare provided to the insurance companies in the form of indirect taxes to the US taxpayers hidden in the form of health insurance premiums must be the largest such largess provided to any handful of people in the history of mankind. Let me explain the logic behind this artful maneuver.<br />
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When you look at it analytically you could see that the USA has the craftiest socialized healthcare system. This is why a huge portion of the GDP (about 17%, which is way bigger than in any other nation) goes to healthcare. However, just like the few other expensive welfare deals in the USA, welfare in the form of healthcare is provided also only to the most powerful and the wealthiest people in the country. The people who concoct such inequality must think that most common people are pretty ignorant in the country. However, a careful look at the history of the world should give them pause. This sort of unfairness could not last long in any society unless it becomes a dictatorship or those who device such crafty ways only to help a handful, find a way to brainwash the population so diligently making them incapable of thinking right and not see right from wrong. <br />
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For example, none of the legislators, the media personalities or the powerful corporate executives pays a penny in health insurance premiums in the USA. They are paid either by the taxpayers directly (in the case of legislators) or indirectly through tax deductions to the corporate employers of the media personalities and corporate executives. <br />
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When paying auto insurance or any other personal insurance, the above-mentioned privileged people in the society, pay it out of their own pocket from after tax dollars just like the rest of the population (granted in the case with some corporate executives, even that is paid by their corporations). Thus there is competition in the country for auto insurance etc making it affordable for all the citizens. But when it comes to healthcare, because it is socialized—only to help out the most powerful in the county—the healthcare remain too expensive for the rest of population making it unaffordable for a huge segment of the population.<br />
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If the powerful group, mentioned above, is required to pay health insurance the same way they pay their auto insurance then they will feel the pain of high premiums (that go up many times more than the rate of inflation each year) and will take appropriate action to increase competition by health insurance companies and bring down the cost of healthcare insurance premiums. In the USA the consensus of this powerful group is all that matters because they are the only ones who have access to the media. The rest of the population is shut out of the media. True, there is a handful of journalists who speak for the rights of common man but the rest of the journalists are there to disseminate corporate propaganda and brainwash naïve people to stay ignorant of such obvious corruption in the country. <br />
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When it comes to health insurance the rest of the population pay the most regressive taxes, ever conceived, in the form of health insurance, based on their income levels, while 40 million of citizens, go without any healthcare because they cannot afford it. The US system must be the only system in the world that has facilitated a few anti-competitive group of insurance companies to collect taxes paid by the citizens that is deducted right off their payroll (to emphasize, most regressively). The insurance companies, by the order of Congress, are exempted from anti monopoly rules so they can fix the prices by collusion and charge insurance premiums to the population at will.<br />
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There is no difference between a government taxing people for health insurance and giving it to the insurance companies or allowing the insurance companies to collect such hidden taxes in the form of health insurance premiums directly as is being done in the USA. For example in most of the other developed countries (that are considered the Least Corrupt Countries) the government collects taxes so they can provide healthcare to their citizens. But only in the USA this taxes are directly paid to insurance companies. The major difference is that in other developed counties this tax is progressive with the richest people paying a higher share while in the USA it is regressive with the richest people paying the lowest rate of taxes.<br />
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How could this be possible in the greatest democracy?<br />
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It is possible because there is an open system of legalized bribery going on in the USA. The insurance companies not only pay huge sums to Congressmen and Senators but also hire spouses and other relatives of these powerful politicians as highly paid employees of their companies thus causing them to pass legislation to make this welfare program possible. Under any civilized system, this would be construed as a direct conflict of interest but the US legislators seem to find no inconsistency with this practice. Well obviously because it serves them so well. However, let me say that there are some fantastic upright citizens who hold the positions of legislators in this country, in spite of them being attacked severely by those at the media who do the propaganda for the handful of powerful people who are turning the USA into one of the corrupt nations. I hope that citizens of the USA would have the right judgment to recognize the good from the bad. <br />
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Why the media does not do enough to inform the public these issues?<br />
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The media in the USA is also owned by a few corporations and they depend on advertising from these insurance companies and the others in the healthcare business to increase their revenue. The system as it is practiced today is good for the media and they have no reason to make any changes to it. It is just wishful thinking if the citizens really believe that the US media is interested in helping the average person in the country. The motive of the media is to make profits for their owners and stockholders. They are not here to tell the truth. Also when it comes to journalists, there are a few journalists who are dedicated to telling the truth and take their responsibility seriously and do what they can do to facilitate the rights of people. Again, I hope the citizens of the USA will have the right judgment to recognize those who speak for their rights and those who pander to the powerful groups since lack of press freedom is the surest way to the decline of a society.<br />
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It is quite clear the democracy that is going awry in the USA currently is being run with the help of two corrupt institutions that are called the legislative body and the media. It is because of these two groups, that the healthcare industry led by insurance companies, are making such huge profits paying the handful of people at the top over hundreds of millions in bonuses while the majority of the population live in insecurity. There is a huge cost hidden in this system. For example, in the USA we currently have the largest prison population in the world amounting to about 25% of the global prison population. Most these prisoners live in the most deplorable condition that will turn even the most rational person to a hardened criminal by the time they come out of prisons. The crimes being committed in the society are not heard of being committed in any other developed country in the world. When it comes to the level of crimes being committed, the USA takes the form of a Third World nation (this could explain why it is rank as a corrupt nation nearing the positions held by Third World nations). These are the hidden consequences of a system with a tightly controlled media and a legislative body that the money can buy.<br />
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According to a study, about 40,000 Americans die each year without health insurance and a huge portion of personal bankruptcies occur due to healthcare expenses. Those who have no health insurance, if they face an emergency could go to emergency room in a hospital and get care at the expense of the taxpayer. No doubt the healthcare providers love that process since each time an uninsured person walks into the emergency care unit they could charge what they wish and bill the taxpayer for that amount. It is in spite of this runaway cost of the emergency care units that 40,000 people still die each year without access to healthcare, according to the study.<br />
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As long as this healthcare industry making billions in profits hold the USA hostage, the situation in the country could never get any better but the country will be in a downward spiral just like Rome was in its history as it was going down due to its corruption. All those who love the USA should take this situation seriously and do everything in their power to send a message to those who have designed this system, which apparently has put in place only in the last few decades. According to what I have read, it was not this way till about the 1970s. If so, there is still time to change this, if people are aware of this problem and speak out by opposing a handful who gain huge sums in profits at the expense of the health of its people. <br />
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To stop this healthcare scam and make healthcare affordable for all citizens is a simple process. All we have to do is to eliminate the tax deduction for the health insurance payments and require all the citizens, including the legislators to pay their individual healthcare premiums the same way they pay their auto insurance premiums. Let’s not forget that the elimination of this tax deduction for health insurance also will help balance the US budget that is going out of control. <br />
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Once the powerful people (including the legislators and the media personalities) begin to pay health insurance premiums from after tax dollars from their own pocket, they will make such a noise making their opposition to high insurance premiums known to the insurance companies. Then the legislators will pass immediate laws allowing competition in the health insurance industry and such competition will bring healthcare insurance to make it as competitive as auto insurance and thus making it affordable to all the citizens. Until this happens there is no way to curtail the cost of increasing healthcare cost in the USA.<br />
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Let’s hope that brave American people will not allow them to be brainwashed by a handful in the media to help a handful in the society to make wealth at the expense of the health of this great nation. Let’s hope that right judgment by people will prevail to fight back and take their nation to be run by people for the people.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8598761204448719252.post-82252605491319607332009-10-30T06:13:00.000-07:002009-10-30T06:13:08.018-07:00Uncommon Common Sense: The Brainwashed Generation<a href="http://uccsw.blogspot.com/2008/09/brainwashed-generation.html#links">Uncommon Common Sense: The Brainwashed Generation</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8598761204448719252.post-64566285980087402352008-12-13T04:19:00.000-08:002008-12-13T04:25:39.102-08:00How to Eliminate "Death by Starvation" in the WorldEinstein said that we could solve any problem if we can define the problem right. So the best way to solve the problem of Death by Starvation in the world is to define what causes that problem and then find solutions to that. So here are the causes for death by starvation:<br /><br />1.Corrupt leaders and their corrupt associates who hold the global resources to themselves without letting the population have even the minimum that is needed to live.<br /><br />2.Absence of benevolent leadership who can empathize with the pain of starvation.<br /><br />3. Egotistic leadership and their egotistic associates, although basically good people yet too arrogant to listen to anyone with any sense and empathy.<br /><br />4.Indifference of the general population who are also basically good people but too busy to think of the starving children etc. thus go on with their daily survival like sheep.<br /><br />5.The brainwashed population, who although not sharing the wealth and power with the corrupt and egotistic leadership and their associates as above but still embrace the survival of the fittest political strategy those people advocate as if being brainwashed. Some of these people have stopped thinking but embrace anything that is put to their minds without any question.<br /><br />If we can get rid of corruption we can eliminate starvation because there is enough food and water on earth for all the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">habitants</span>. It is the corrupt leaders that won’t allow foreign aid from going into finding solution to poverty, but divert those to their personal benefit.<br /><br />Imagine what would have happened if Europe, Japan and the rest of the nations had corrupt leaders in place as the USA was giving them massive financial aid through the Marshall Plan. All we could have gotten were a bunch of criminals with money in foreign banks as opposed to the wealthy countries that we can trade with as it is now. Europe, Japan and the other recipients of the Marshall plan fortunately had statesmen who cared about the nation and not personal gain and thus we have managed to build an association of great nations. Take country by country throughout history and you will see that it is the people led by a benevolent leader that has made that country wealthy. If the people were smart the country would be rich and vice <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">versa</span>. Well there are exceptions some times, even when the people are smart if the country is taken over by a ruthless, greedy dictator that one man could turn the whole country into a place with desperate starving people.<br /><br />It is the greed aided by corruption that lead some people to grab all the resources and keep it for themselves in unlawful means than sharing those resources with the rest of the population who would be willing to work to get a fair share of those resources. The corrupt would grab the limited resources for their gratification and turn the country into barren land with no resources.<br />This is what creates hunger. It is not that the average person does not want to work.<br /><br />It is the lack of this corruption due to built-in civilized legal framework and regulations that avoid starvation in the most civilized nations in the world. If you look at it logically you will agree that there is a good reason for having no starvation in civilized countries but finding it only in uncivilized countries, where there is no respect for laws and regulations. So one has to be quite skeptical when powerful people push for too much deregulation. It is like allowing people to drive on highways with no traffic laws.<br /><br />Since we know that within every few seconds a child dies of hunger, to disregard this fact and be indifferent to it is to be an accomplice to mass murder. Just because we don’t hear the crying and the pleading of children and their families who die each second we cannot pretend that we don’t know that it exists. People who ignore the death of children out of starvation are no different than the good Germans who ignored the existence of death camps in some remote neighborhood.<br /><br />A slow death by starvation must be quite painful. Compared to that a quick death by any other means may be less <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">sufferable</span>. If you think of it that way, there cannot be any excuse for letting a huge population in the world suffer such a painful death. Instead people and the media should be as outraged as they usually are when one nation declare war against another nation and kill many innocent lives. Keeping that in mind, during this holiday season here is a way every citizen in the world, who has enough to eat, could help alleviate starvation and death.<br /><br />1. Don’t make a habit of eating any meals at regular times. Wait to eat till you get real hungry. Then when you feel real hungry give yourself one additional hour before you eat and during that precious hour that you are suffering from hunger think of all the children in the world crying out for food and dying each second within that hour. There is no better way to empathize with the hungry than thinking of hunger when you are hungry.<br /><br />2. Regardless of how hungry you feel during that hour, avoid the temptation to eat and continue to contemplate on the starving kids. As you do that, you will find enough energy to turn your hunger into outrage. Then ride on that energy and write letters and emails to the powerful people in the world claiming that the reason for starvation is corruption and demanding that these people do all in their power to eliminate corruption.<br /><br />You can begin by writing to the editors of the major media, then to the President and the legislative body and to the major non profit organizations such as Bill Gates foundation.<br />Here are some points you should consider writing about to the above mentioned powerful and influential people that I request you to write.<br /><br />3. The major moral crisis in this world is being the starving death of kids it makes no sense to allow the existence of useless organizations such as the United Nations, the World Bank or the International Monitory fund financed by the hard working tax payers of the world. Most of the people who work for these international organizations are bureaucrats (don’t take my word for it, make a visit to one of those places and observe what they do). It is a real pity that people mostly in the developed world have to work so hard and pay taxes to pay the salaries of these people. You should take the time to find out what they do about eliminating corruption in the world that is the main cause for starvation. You could raise these questions to the legislative body and the media asking them to look into the agenda of the international organizations.<br /><br />What we need in the world is an international police or a military force represented by the countries with civilized leaders and systems instead of the UN and the World Bank that live off of taxpayer money. When a rogue dictator comes to power in a country and begin to use it as his private company and commit corruption and let the people of the country go hungry through that process, we should send this international police force to capture that dictator and put him in prison as we did with the dictators of Panama and Iraq.<br /><br />Request the media to take the time to research and report the countries with corrupt leaders. With that exposure the leaders of the civilized countries could send a warning to the corrupt leaders through their respective embassies (again there is no need to have a United Nation posturing at our expense and doing practically nothing). If these rogues do not heed such warning then we should send in the international police force to get rid of the rogue leader.<br />As we get rid of corruption, the world could get together as one people and then come up with a way to provide adequate water for all the people. If there is access to water then people could grow food, fish and be self-sufficient. For example the tribes who live in Amazon forests do not go hungry. We can begin with that minimum requirement and then go into giving them education etc.<br /><br />If every citizen in the world who has enough food to eat do as above, we can eliminate starvation (and all the other repercussions come along with it) in a matter of a few years. Nothing else would eliminate hunger, human rights violations and all the other suffering of mankind. All the talks of 10-year plans to eliminate world hunger are just plain talk of those who have enough to eat and never have to suffer the consequences of starvation, when the answer to this is quite simple. In plain words, eliminate corruption and we an eliminate hunger!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8598761204448719252.post-57636456275091781692008-11-25T10:04:00.000-08:002008-11-25T10:07:19.823-08:00Warren Buffett—The One- Eyed- King in the Land of the Blind, where anyone has an equal chance of being wealthyEach time when there is discomfort and squirm in the U.S. financial markets as it is now, people tend to form inconclusive opinions that fall in the realm of exaggeration. One of those exaggerations is to boast about a few people as genius because they seem to be able to weather every financial storm.<br /><br />This is simply not fair. Instead of overrating our capitalist system, that contain the self-correcting mechanism, people often overrate people who make it good within the system. This is the case with statements about Warren Buffett as he is constantly being rated as a genius. This is especially true at a time when financial markets go down, along with a few other so-called geniuses, while Buffett could be seen standing solid with his avuncular smile.<br /><br />As modest as Mr. Buffett is, he will tell you that he does not consider him to be a genius. He became so wealthy because Buffett is the one-eyed king in the land of the blind with abundance of wealth and unsurpassed opportunity. To give an illustration: take the most recent example of Buffett’s offer to reinsure Municipal Bonds of three major failing insurance carriers. While many others with capital sit on the sideline praising Buffett’s genius all he did was to offer to reinsure the least risky assets, perhaps in the entire world today. Those insurance underwriters are not going down because they wrote insurance on municipal bonds, but because without being satisfied with a conservative investment and a good living, they got into speculating on the latest trend called sub-prime bonds along with the rest of the blind in the society. Now Buffett steps in and says he will take over the good bonds and leave the blind with the bad ones. There is nothing genius about that move. In fact, as Buffett admits, he won’t even get a ticket to heaven for doing that.<br /><br />Having extensively researched the U.S. capitalist system, to write my books, I can submit enough facts to substantiate that almost anyone with access to capital as Buffett had could have done (and still could do) exactly what he had done. The reason others couldn’t do what Buffett did could be better explained by dipping into Zen Buddhism. To better explain the reasons, since Zen is full of tales, let’s begin with a tale: a wealthy man who was feeling miserable, in spite of all his wealth, was once told that a Zen monk has the recipe for happiness. The wealthy man, having sold his business and having traveled a long way, comes to see the Zen monk only to be told that finding happiness lies in two simple words: paying attention.<br /><br />Warren Buffett is living proof that anyone with some capital could make money in the USA today if he or she only pays attention and apply common sense. In that regard, here are the five tenets of Zen Buddhism one should follow to live a life of responsibility and fulfillment:<br /><br />Right judgment<br />Right speech<br />Right company<br />Right vision<br />Right action<br /><br />Take a look at Warren Buffett’s life and you will see how above-mentioned principles fit his lifestyle perfectly. His judgment on picking right companies to invest is impeccable. When you ask him about his ability to have Right Judgment he attributes that to common sense such as buying profitable businesses that you know about (preferably with a barrier to entry, to avoid competition) run by smart management with integrity. The point is anyone with access to capital could do what Buffett does and make money but they don’t. Instead they squander their money on speculation and consumerism. Spending on speculative activities is less painful for most professionals in the business since it is often other peoples’ money. If these professional managers actually invest their own money then they may have the chance of becoming like Buffett.<br /><br />In the market today, when you give money to a broker and when he speculates and wins you both win. But when the broker loses money only you lose. Your professional money manager only shares your upside with you and avoids anything to do with the downside. So if you have the right judgment you have to make sure that your broker will not speculate with your money. Those who invest money with Buffett know that he does not speculate. The reason Buffett does not speculates is because he has paid attention and discovered that speculators lose their money sooner or later and the way to make money is to invest in good companies for the long term.<br />How do you distinguish speculation from investment? That perspective comes with knowledge and Buffett has gained the right knowledge by reading the right books. And that’s how you get the right judgment since no one is really born with knowledge. In that regard, practicality sets Buffett apart from Buddha the leader of Zen Buddhism. To get the right judgment (attain Nirvana) Buddha had to meditate for years (perhaps there were not enough books those days). But Buffett attained his Nirvana by reading books. The ever-practical man, Buffett, has a knack for picking the right books, and, as you will see, to pick the right teachers.<br /><br />To scrutinize Right Speech, have you read some of Buffett’s speech? He never seems to say anything unnecessary. He has a reputation for liking to talk too much, and in most cases those who talk too much seem to bungle and put their foot in their mouth; Buffett seems to be able to even avoid that. I guess it comes from having the right judgment and discipline to follow that judgment. Most people lie because they lose control of their thought and speech. This discipline of being able to control his thoughts must account for Buffett’s ability to be truthful.<br /><br />Warren Buffett’s lifelong business partner is Charles Munger. If you read Munger’s writing you will recognize him as an exceptionally smart person, you are likely to come across in life. Was it just a coincident that they both were born and raised in the Mid West? In fact they both were born in the same neighborhood and as a kid Munger worked in Buffett’s grand father’s store. Generalization is often considered not appropriate but these two people seem to substantiate the inborn integrity and ethics of the people from the Mid West in America. Most probably they had something to do with making America Great!<br /><br />The partnership between Buffett and Munger illustrates the third principle, the Right Company. Luck may have played a part in this too. Buffett inherited his characteristics from his dad. If you wonder why Buffett’s dad having the same characteristics did not become the richest man on earth, there is a good reason for that. Buffett’s dad was a Congressman and as we know there is no money in being a Congressman unless you work for the lobbyists (even then the money is not that substantial and not worth the aggravation). Buffett’s father anyway wouldn’t succumb to making money that way and in addition in good-old days there were not too many lobbyists.<br />Well Buffett’s dad also had a stock brokerage in the later stage of his life and that goes to show that he got the right judgment later in life. But those days the US stock market rose only gradually—as it should be in a free market with no government interference—as the true value of the companies listed on the public markets increase its share of sales and profits proportionately. So those in the ownership society became wealthy gradually and moderately with wealth being spread evenly in the society. But the became an entirely different society right after Buffett invested his money in the market. The US stock market rose so rapidly even the town crier could have become very wealthy by investing in the general market and staying home. Just to give you an idea the Dow Jones began the 1980s around 830 and in the next few years went on to become over 12,500 making Buffett the richest man on earth. So that’s where luck played another major part in his life and no wonder people call Buffett the Forest Gump of Wall Street.<br /><br />Buffett was the best student of legendary Benjamin Graham who is considered the best investment teacher ever lived. Graham wrote the book Security Analysis that still people consider the bible of investment. Anyone who had a teacher like Graham and followed his advice couldn’t fail in life. For that matter all of Graham’s loyal students are quite wealthy in the country today. Buffett had read Graham’s book as a teenager, and made a wish to learn under the master. Finally when Harvard University rejected Buffett as a student (reflect on the judgement of Harvard to pick so many bad apples including the future CEO of Enron and turn down Buffett!) Buffett got his opportunity to attend Colombia and study under Graham.<br />One of the rules of the book Security Analysis is to invest in companies only when the value of stocks reach below its intrinsic value keeping a margin of safety. When Buffett entered the world of investments, the stocks were still over valued and had he followed the rules in Security Analysis to its finality, he should have stayed away from the market till the market corrected itself bit more. In fact, Ben Graham, according to an account advised Buffett to stay on the sidelines a little longer since there was still more space for correction for the market to reach intrinsic value. Had he adopted that strategy then that would have cost him the opportunity to cash in on the steepest rise of stock market, associated with early years of a long bull market because a pullback to buy stock at less than intrinsic value never materialized during that period.<br /><br />Then according to an account, it was Charles Munger who persuaded Buffett to invest in stocks even without a margin of safety or at above the intrinsic value. Munger’s proposition was to buy stock of excellent companies at reasonable prices (even in a bit overvalued market) and then to keep on buying more of the same stock, if prices continued down. So at this point Buffett had the right judgment not to follow what the Bible of investment laid down, but to go along with the trends in the society as pointed out by his company. Perhaps both Munger and Buffett watched the political and economic trends and saw what’s in the offing in the coming decade.<br />With due respect to Ben Graham, let me add that technically he was not wrong about waiting for a further correction because his strategy and contribution was to make money in a free and a transparent society operating under rule of law. So Graham couldn’t have imagined what is to come. In fact, I doubt even Buffett and Munger team thought the stock market would rise that high considering that it took Dow Jones close to 200 years to get to 830. I doubt not only Graham but even Buffett, Munger team anticipated that in the ensuing decades, the US government would be capable of borrowing so much money to turn the greatest creditor nation to the biggest debtor facilitating most of such borrowed money to end up in the stock market. Also I bet that none of these intelligent investors had any clue as to the chutzpah of the Federal Reserve Board, not to be outdone by the treasury, to print so much money and pump into the market. The historian the Graham was, with the memory of Germany (out of control hyperinflation caused by indiscriminate printing of money and perhaps contributing to inflame the world in a major war) fresh in mind, thought that smart people would not be capable of repeating any part of that bitter history. Nevertheless Buffett was a major beneficiary of that recklessness. His 4 billion invested in the market in the 1970s ballooned to over 20 billion dollars by the 1990s.<br /><br />What could have made Buffett/Munger team insightful at that time in history? Perhaps they witnessed the end of the Gold Standard and saw the beginning of unfettered monetarism, and being the practical men they were, made no objection to any of it (perhaps sensing the futility in that) but rode the trend to their benefit. Also witnessing the Japanese experience with monetarism that ran the Japanese stock index also over 1500 percent may have added to a vision of some remote possibility of the USA going in the same direction.<br /><br />On the point of Right Vision, Buffett’s expectations are quite simple. He wants to be happy doing what he likes to do. I doubt he has any goals of changing the world or helping out the victims in the society, although he has the capacity to do so. Many eastern philosophers in history have pointed out that trying to help all the victims in the world as an impossible task. Thus they have spread their wisdom teaching people to take life for what it is and be happy within those constrains. Buffett in that regard, in contrast to another similarly smart and wealthy man George Soros—who spends his time and money performing active and constructive charitable deeds—do not actively involve himself in charitable activities.<br /><br />On the point of Right Action, Buffett lives a simple, uncomplicated life and that is right if you believe the purpose of life is to be happy. Trying to accumulate material goods and compete with others and be in a rush to make money is the root cause of unhappiness. Living a humble life with people you love to be with is the way to ultimate happiness. Buffett does not buy expensive cars or shop at expensive places or eat at expensive restaurants. He is reputed to visit McDonalds so often that they have given him a platinum card so he can eat at any McDonalds for free; it definitely pays to be rich.<br /><br />The price of Berkshire Hathaway (his company) stock began at $5.00 per share and now stands at $139,000 per share and often moving up or down $2,000 a day. It is the most expensive stock in the world. As you may know all those who invested with Buffett in the early days are now worth lots of money. However, let’s not forget although Buffett does not live an extravagant life with money he makes, as the stock of his company appreciates, the others who own the stock live very flashy and extravagant lives. He has nothing against anybody being happy doing what they want to do.<br /><br />Getting back to the tale that we brought up before, the wealthy man who went to see the Zen Monk to find happiness, having heard the simple rules to being happy, asked the monk if being happy is that simple why not everyone is equally happy. The Zen master replied it is because most people do not like to find simple answers but for some unexplainable reason complicate all matters.<br /><br />This is the same answer Warren Buffett gives to those who ask him, if making money is that simple (as he often claims) then why not everyone is wealthy as he is: because most people have a pervasion to complicate simple things in life. In that regard, let me hastening to correct myself for calling him the One-Eyed King, instead say that Warren Buffett is as close to a Buddha on Wall Street; a task quite simple to do since it is all in one’s mind.<br /><br />As the Zen philosophy advocates anyone could become Buddha by following above-mentioned five tenets. Similarly anyone can become wealthy in America by paying attention and following the simple rules followed by Buffett. Don’t take my word for it; ask Warren Buffett. He may say that the opportunity to cash in the most money comes when the blind followers in the market panic and run scared and when the baby is thrown out with the bath water. Your goal should be to let the blind buy the bath water (they will buy the bath water since they knew it was once hot) while you look for the baby.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0