2 Responses to “What would YOU do differently?”

1. andy Says:
   September 24th, 2008 at 7:09 pm

   Here are some things I would kick around:

   Heathcare:
   attempt to address the huge number of malpractice lawsuits. They inflate insurance premiums and help cause healthcare costs to increase. I read a study where one hospital started ignoring their lawyers, admitted fault, apologized to patients and worked to make the problems right. Their malpractice lawsuits dropped significantly.

   Energy:
   we need to break our energy independence on foreign powers and get into more efficient/alternative energy sources.
   1) tap resources in US (Alaska, off shore)
   2) provide incentives for companies to invest in alternative energy
   3) promote alternative energy industry for new jobs in US (incent companies to “buy american” and move jobs here)

2. Pablo Says:
   September 25th, 2008 at 6:50 pm

   I like how you commented on your own post. My silence is less about disagreement and more about apprehension.

   I found that I agreed with your first “What I believe” post almost entirely, and but less so with the second one. I don’t have any idea what I would do. What I would like to see is the financial sector take responsibility for their actions without destabilizing the economy, and since I’m not even particularly sure how to stabilize the economy, that’s one more variable than I’m currently able to juggle.

   Mostly I just don’t know the answer. i think the government has enough money to do what it needs to do. I think the government is completely awful at spending the resources it has, and giving it more money doesn’t solve the core problem. I think we should be making steps toward paying down national debt, and I think if we spent money efficiently, we could run on the existing revenues and still pay down the deficit.

   I think healthcare is organized completely incorrectly. Calling it insurance isn’t even the right word. Insurance is something you’re not supposed to use. I have no idea how to solve this problem either.

   I have a more free-market view for energy. I think letting energy prices increase stimulates alternative sources until they level out. My uninformed opinion says we should move towards plug-in cars, because there’s economies of scale in producing energy wholesale rather than as you drive, cars could charge during off-peak hours. Incentivise electric cars and alternative energy with tax breaks. I wonder if the carbon credit idea could be translated into an foreign-oil credit idea. If we tariffed foreign oil instead of taxing it at the pump, we could possibly keep the same tax revenues but move the burden from consumers to the oil companies. Eventually it trickles down to the consumer, but now the oil companies feel it as well?

   Foreign policy: my opinion diverges from reality a bit. I don’t think we can effectively prevent small scale attacks and I think we can probably stop large scale attacks with intelligence. I think the foreign policy focus should be on re-establishing ourselves as a role model for the world. Also, Russia scares the shit out of me, I think they’re losing their minds. China’s monetary policy is also annoying.

   Other issues: consumer protection for imported goods. We should levy import tariffs based on a countries record of safe imports. If you send us garbage, we have to spend more to inspect it, so you pay more tariffs. This helps deal with the china import situation, which is mostly a safety concern.

   Ramble, ramble.

   Hope you’re doing well.

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