Medicare Premiums and Other Musings

The private insurance one buys is usually based on market value, demand, etc. But, when the government forces you to buy insurance, well, it takes on a whole different "value."

At this site http://questions.medicare.gov/cgi-bin/medicare.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=2100 the government says Part B premium is $96.40 per month.
Ah, but notice the asterisk. (Part B: (Medical Insurance) Premium$96.40 per month*)

Scrolling down to the asterisk one reads this, --*Note: If your income is above $85,000 (single) or $170,000 (married couple), then your Medicare Part B premium may be higher than $96.40 per month. For additional details, see our FAQ titled: "Medicare Part B Monthly Premiums in 2009"-

And the link will lead you to a page that has the "real" progressive premiums for those of you who might have worked two jobs and saved your money for a better life. Now you are being punished for your effort. If you are married but you file a separate tax return from your spouse and your yearly Income is above $128,000, your premiums will be a whopping $308.30 per month, more than 3 times the minimum. If you are unmarried and single you will pay a monthly premium of $308.30 for an income of over $213,000.

Imagine a business that tells its customers the price for a product or service will be based on their income! The business would not survive, unless it could use force on its customers and tell them they must pay for the product, and they must use the product. The government is a mob because it uses force and aggression against its customers.

Could an airline charge an obese person more for a ticket because it requires more fuel to carry extra weight? No, don't even try it. The government is the only organization that has the power to discriminate.
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("In one week, we can choose hope over fear, unity over division, the promise of change over the power of the status quo," Obama said. "We can come together as one nation, and one people, and once more choose our better history. That's what's at stake.""Unity over division.")

Same meaning, different words, when George Bush said he was a uniter, not a divider. If one lived a thousand years they would eventually learn that speeches from popes, kings and politicians are all the same.
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("In one week, at this defining moment in history, you can give this country the change we need," he (Obama) says in prepared remarks. "As I've said from the day we began this journey all those months ago, the change we need isn't just about new programs and policies. It's about a new politics - a politics that calls on our better angels instead of encouraging our worst instincts; one that reminds us of the obligations we have to ourselves and one another.")

Senator Obama, you mean we will be obligated to the government mob don't you Senator? And you will make sure some are obligated more than others. We make millions of voluntary obligations each day among ourselves that are in our best interest. You sir, want to force obligations on us that are in your best interest.

("What we have lost in these last eight years cannot be measured by lost wages or bigger trade deficits alone," he (Obama) said, "What has also been lost is the idea that in this American story, each of us has a role to play. Each of us has a responsibility to work hard and look after ourselves and our families, and each of us has a responsibility to our fellow citizens. That's what's been lost these last eight years - our sense of common purpose; of higher purpose. And that's what we need to restore right now." "And I'll help pay for this by asking the folks who are making more than $250,000 a year to go back to the tax rate they were paying in the 1990s.")

Asking?? You mean you will use force and aggressions on them to confiscate their production don't you Senator Obama? Why did you not tell your followers you would use "force" instead of asking? Your crowd would have foamed at their mouths with delirium, the same orgiastic crowd behavior when George Bush started to beat his war drums a few months after he was elected.

Obama has made another great speech. With his orations he has become the Messiah. Only the naive believes he can deliver. They live on hope. Their future is only an illusion. It is not reality. Eight years of listening to Obama's sophistry and platitudes will shorten my life, so I will try to avoid listening.

Bilbo Baggins

The per person cost of the bailout

If the financial bailout of 2008 costs 800 billion, that equals to a $2600 tab for every man, woman, and child in the U.S. Most of the cost will be paid by the producers which are about 150 million people, thus they will pay the cost of almost $5000 per producer.

In an essay by William Graham Summer titled "The Forgotten Man"
http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Essays/Best/SumnerForgotten.htm Summer talked about the costs associated with government programs. The bailout will take $5000 from the "forgotten man" who could have used the money in a more efficient way to make the economy grow.

Others have paid a high price by the government's enabling of easy credit. They were living on artificially inflated values of their assets. Now they have to pay the price. Not only were their assets inflated, so were their expectations. Our expectations are inflated because we have been told by our government schools that we are all equal and 'deserve' equal respect. We are told by our government that we are "entitled to--". Feminism has told women they do not need a man so her expectations of self are inflated. American Idol and American Gladiator have inflated the expectations that we all will get our 15 minutes of fame. The romance media has inflated our expectations that the prefect mate is out there.

If you think our expectations are not inflated, try to imagine the expectations of one living 100 years ago, or a thousand years ago. Try to imagine the expectations of one living in a cave ten thousand years ago.

Charles Tolleson
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"Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word: equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude." (Alexis de Tocqueville, in a speech to the French Assembly, September 12, 1848.)
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"And what are the people but a herd confused,
A miscellaneous rabble who extol
Things vulgar, and well weighed, scarce worth the praise?
They praise, and they admire they know not what,
And know not whom, but as one leads the other." John Milton

Credit Squeeze

We keep hearing about how the credit market is drying up. One way to reduce the credit squeeze and increase lending is to suspend the state usury laws for 2 years.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usury

Another way would be for interest income earned on loans by private individuals to be tax free for the next 2 years.

These two practices would be more of a free market where risk is assessed daily by millions of participants. Of course, no one really wants a free market with all the perceived chaos and individual responsibility.

The pundits seem to think if some consumers cannot get credit to buy a car the economy will crash. Their advocacy for easy credit is what led to this credit crisis in the first place. Many consumers should NOT be buying on credit because they pay more in the long run for a product if they bought with cash. Many consumers should NOT buy on credit because they do not have a positive cash flow in their daily economics.

The pundits also say many small businesses cannot get loans from their banks. Many small businesses should NOT get credit. Many small businesses are operated inefficiently and should go out of business. The advocates want these poorly run businesses to have easy credit. Easy credit is what caused the current credit squeeze. When these poorly run businesses fold the existing businesses will provide the necessary services.

The aristocracy loves to get in front of a microphone and exalt free markets, and lauding the American way as the best way, pretending in their encomiums that the American society is a free market society, while they caterwaul for even more government involvement in the market.

The whole banking system has been a government controlled market since the Federal Reserve Bank was created in 1913. There was no need for the Federal Reserve Bank. In a free market people will find a way to trade and store their money. The bankers wanted the government to help eliminate risk in their industry. Other economists had economic dreams, like an architect has dreams of building something grand. This centrally planned banking system, less than 100 years old, is about to collapse, like all centrally planned and regulated systems collapse.

The bailouts of 2008 are not for Wall Street or main street. They are for the government. It needs a healthy host to suck blood from. I think we should do a complete disk "Recovery" of the economy, like we do a computer recovery. After all the junk and cookies are removed from the economy, it will be like new, running smoothly.

Charles Tolleson