Tagged with '2008 election'
It's the economy, stupid
Hidden in the intro to this BusinessWeek article - ostensibly about the health-care industry - is an jaw-dropping nugget of information. See if you find it:
If you really want to understand what makes the U.S. economy tick these days, don’t go to Silicon Valley, Wall Street, or Washington. Just take a short trip to your local hospital. Park where you don’t block the ambulances, and watch the unending flow of doctors, nurses, technicians, and support personnel. You’ll have a front-row seat at the health-care economy.
For years, everyone from politicians on both sides of the aisle to corporate execs to your Aunt Tilly have justifiably bemoaned American health care—the out-of-control costs, the vast inefficiencies, the lack of access, and the often inexplicable blunders.
But the very real problems with the health-care system mask a simple fact: Without it the nation’s labor market would be in a deep coma. Since 2001, 1.7 million new jobs have been added in the health-care sector, which includes related industries such as pharmaceuticals and health insurance. Meanwhile, the number of private-sector jobs outside of health care is no higher than it was five years ago.
Did you catch it? Here, let me highlight it for you:
the number of private-sector jobs outside of health care is no higher than it was five years ago
Or, phrase it the other way around:
the only sector that produced any net new jobs in the U.S. economy between 2001 and 2006 was health care
For even more mind-boggling details, read the latest installment in CJR’s series on the looming general election, which links a number of reports on the state of the US economy.
Shorter version: it’s much, much worse than I thought.
An All-White Elephant
This is an excellent, surprisingly well-linked, op-ed by the NY Times’ Frank Rich on race issues in this year’s US election. I particularly like this quote:…
Bowling 1, Health Care 0 - New York Times
This is a brilliant op-ed / media criticism by Elizabeth Edwards for the New York Times. It’s remarkably well-written, and I particularly like this quote:…
Massachussets-style health-care reform: results are in
A group, Physicians for a National Health Program, has an interesting press release, distilled from an “open letter” signed by 250 doctors in Massachussets…
It's a cliche, but...
Today is Canada Day, the Canadian answer to the 4th of July in the US. (I still occasionally get friends or relatives in the states asking me if they have the 4th of July in Canada. Yes?…
Sam Brownback Is an Idiot
Sam Brownback, Republican Presidential candidate extraordinaire, tries to explain why he wants to have his cake and eat it, too... Er, I mean, does and…