In the 18-century you were old at 30, dead by 40 and the state of medical science was leeches. Broken bones were crudely splinted but, wounds were often an agonizing end. Medical science from the east had been condemned by the church and forgotten.
Global warfare during the 19th century greatly advanced medical science and treatment. Experiments on the casualties built a curriculum for new generation of Doctors. By the beginning of the 20th century these doctors understood how little they really knew about medicine. Even more brutal wars in foreign lands led these doctors to new insights on saving lives.
By the 21st century technological advances in medicine make it possible to keep even the dead, alive. Medicine has become big business and everyone must pay for all the pumps, ventilators, medication, bedpans and around the clock monitoring that keep the body technically alive. Insurance companies are all to ready to pull the plug, while hospitals vote to keep the body alive as long as paitents’ money holds out. Medical personnel stand ready to recycle poor soul’s parts and drug companies invent a more expensive cocktails that promises to raise the dead. Med-business tabulates the profits, forecasting population growth as greater prospects for share holders. The bottom line, the rich get taken, the poor are left in the dust while the middle class goes broke paying Band-Aid freight.
Medical care is on the political agenda this year. Debate centers on the cost and who gets the most Band-Aids. The lines are drawn, insurance companies (vested interest), drug companies (vested interest), Med-businesses (vested interest), medical personnel (vested interest). Who represents the injured and ill, not the legislature (vested interest) looking for votes in the fall?
In an affluent and civilized society necessary medical care should be available to all without social bankruptcy. Debate should really consider what is really necessary care for quality of life. A broken leg, fix them all. Civilizations destroying contagious plague, cure them all. How about a butt lift, or social overhaul while you are unconcious, two operations for one anesthesia, with three you get egg rolls.
There is clearly a need for health care reform but who is best able to draft those reforms, the imperial health care industry or an imperial government? Neither vested interest is capable of objective resolution of conflicting patient interests. All proposals raise the cost of treatment and fail to cure the malady. We are back to the age of leeches now sucking bucks from patients’ wallets.
The medical buzz around a hospital is to have a living will for your treatment. Who do you trust as executor, a government bureaucrat or a Med-business bureaucrat or a prospective heir, maybe even a disinterested stranger walking down the hall? It’s time for serious debate on quality of life care rather than technical possible care.
Monday, April 5, 2010
Ownership 0031510
The financial bull is in the china shop. Both the bull and the shop are now owned by China (PRC). The United States is not the greatest debtor in the world when consider against its GDP but according to government economist it is the greatest debtor in real dollars.
The problem of economics can be linked to the development of computers, now every theorist can crunch their own favored numbers for favored outcomes. That said, comparing debt/GDP of the United States’ 54% against China’s 18% indicates a disparity between the two. America is carrying three times the debt of China. China is also one of the fastest growing economies at 8.7% GDP while America dropped into negative returns in 2009. The U.S. projections are that in the next five years its the Debt/GDP ratio will grow between 15 and 45 % depending on who’s numbers are used, but the trend is to greater debt.
There is little wonder then that the Bush administration went to China to borrow operating funds (selling bonds). China already held massive amounts of American debt and in self-interest had to prop up the dollar. Still faced with a shaky economy the Obama administration has approached the Chinese about devaluing those bonds by financial manipulation. China strongly opposes the figurative ten cents on the dollar deal, which makes their good faith investment a bad debt. Did the U.S. government hire two many Lehman Brothers’ bankers?
Already on a fast track it appears that China will pursue its own economic model. China is building an economic market that may eventually be closed to U.S. participation. China’s Premier Wen Jiabao acknowledges that China economy is in transition and fragile. A massive American default could rip the fabric of growth for a period but the cost to America would be greater.
For most of this century China has been out making friends, providing aid and inking resource agreements around the world. China has oil agreements with Iraq, Sudan, Canada, Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile and is building a pipeline across Afghanistan linking to CAS and Iranian oil fields. America on the other hand finds an increasing number of oil producers are not friendly either on geo-politics and ideology. The Bush missteps in attempting to take over friendly oilfields further alienated producers. America’s history of supporting dissent and encouraging ethnic insurrection in foreign lands while suppressing it at home does not encourage world trust.
In two years seven of the nine seats at the center of Chinese power are up for election. It is the campaign season in Beijing and reversing the American playbook, nothing looks better for a politician than to be tough on the West. Expect China to assert itself, it will not step lightly on the world stage. Chinese memories are long and western exploitation is still fresh in living memories.
The problem of economics can be linked to the development of computers, now every theorist can crunch their own favored numbers for favored outcomes. That said, comparing debt/GDP of the United States’ 54% against China’s 18% indicates a disparity between the two. America is carrying three times the debt of China. China is also one of the fastest growing economies at 8.7% GDP while America dropped into negative returns in 2009. The U.S. projections are that in the next five years its the Debt/GDP ratio will grow between 15 and 45 % depending on who’s numbers are used, but the trend is to greater debt.
There is little wonder then that the Bush administration went to China to borrow operating funds (selling bonds). China already held massive amounts of American debt and in self-interest had to prop up the dollar. Still faced with a shaky economy the Obama administration has approached the Chinese about devaluing those bonds by financial manipulation. China strongly opposes the figurative ten cents on the dollar deal, which makes their good faith investment a bad debt. Did the U.S. government hire two many Lehman Brothers’ bankers?
Already on a fast track it appears that China will pursue its own economic model. China is building an economic market that may eventually be closed to U.S. participation. China’s Premier Wen Jiabao acknowledges that China economy is in transition and fragile. A massive American default could rip the fabric of growth for a period but the cost to America would be greater.
For most of this century China has been out making friends, providing aid and inking resource agreements around the world. China has oil agreements with Iraq, Sudan, Canada, Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile and is building a pipeline across Afghanistan linking to CAS and Iranian oil fields. America on the other hand finds an increasing number of oil producers are not friendly either on geo-politics and ideology. The Bush missteps in attempting to take over friendly oilfields further alienated producers. America’s history of supporting dissent and encouraging ethnic insurrection in foreign lands while suppressing it at home does not encourage world trust.
In two years seven of the nine seats at the center of Chinese power are up for election. It is the campaign season in Beijing and reversing the American playbook, nothing looks better for a politician than to be tough on the West. Expect China to assert itself, it will not step lightly on the world stage. Chinese memories are long and western exploitation is still fresh in living memories.
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