I am retired critical care nurse, started my nursing career in 1973, retired in 2015. I will be ever grateful to my profession, the changes I saw in those years was phenomenal . The atmosphere of working together however slowly disintegrated, by the time I retired the writing was on the wall. We went from a cohesive, well run unit to one plagued with management cuts, intrusiveness by management and an attitude of “ if you don’t like it , don’t let the door hit you on the way out!” Fortunately, or unfortunately, I retired before Covid hit, actually thought about going back because I KNEW what my fellow nurses were facing. As we all know, it’s been a gradual decline in care, services, and I am so grateful I had my time when I did. My heart goes out to every single medical professional trying to do what they were trained to do. All I know, if you have someone in hospital, make sure someone is with them. Especially if they cannot advocate for themselves😞
It seems our society has been corrupted by the all-mighty dollar. Making money used to be the end result of good business practices but as of late the acquisition of wealth has overtaken the want to produce a product worthy of their corporate efforts. The desire to make something lasting that withstands the test of time and holds some degree of social relevance has been replaced by the procurement of insignificant pieces of paper depicting various monetary denominations. The dollar has been crowned king, sorry Donnie. As a society, we have become obsessed with the lust for wealth. Sadly, it's an end that will elude most of our dreams. We get up every morning and play the lottery without purchasing a single ticket. It's the gift given to us by a society that has lost its way. The value of life has been replaced by that of the dollar. Even in death those we leave behind squabble over what we have left them because of our passing, grief gives way to greed. Puck's words still ring true.
I will reiterate a comment I left previously. The day after Christmas, 1974, my wife and I took a walk and encountered a couple of little boys playing with a puppy. We stopped to make over the little guy and the one boy, no doubt the owner, was all smiles. The other boy stood by, a scowl on his face, Finally he blurted out, "My daddy's gonna get me a better puppy. It costes a hunnerd and three dollars."
From the mouths of babes. Here's a kid, about six or seven, prioritizing the dollar value over the love for a puppy. There, in microcosm, lies the SICKNESS of our culture., and the sure guarantee of its demise. As David Broder, former president of the Sierra Club, once commented, "Everything that can be dollarized, will be." As world becomes ever more under the thumb of the debt mongers, it will sell off everything of real value to keep the wolves of debt out the door. God help us all.
I see that in my grandkids. I spent 3 months building a kitchen into a former living space in my daughter's home. My 13 year old grandson had absolutely no interest in what I was doing or how I was doing it. On substantial completion his comment was "this looks like we are rich."
As the separation of wealth becomes increasingly greater, all those who work for as living are more enslaved by those controlling the money.
Steve--Out of the mouth of babes, what that young boy said reflected the conversations he hears at home on a daily basis, a product of his environment. How about the 6 year old that shot his teacher in the face, heard later saying "I killed the bitch." God help us all.
Exactly my sentiment at the time. That kid wasn't born with that warped value system. Like Trump's seeming popularity, he's a reflection of the times and conditioning. I submitted my thoughts to the local paper at the time and they printed it with a graphic of a sad-eyed puppy with a price tag on its ear.
Steve--I knew a friend in Clearwater Florida, Mike Doll, we cut lawns together for a summer. The lackadaisical manner with which some people raise their children today leaves little wonder as to why so many young adults go bad. When spanking, done appropriately, was remover from the homes and our schools we lost control of our future. NO respect.
The kid may not have had a warped value system; at least, not the way I think you mean. I think he's a sociopath, and mental health experts are split over hard-wiring versus nurture in those cases. Could be, the kid was born with zero empathy or conscience.
Two kids standing on the corner, pre-1980s. One says to the other, "There goes John Johnson. He makes the best furniture in the county. I want to be like him."
Two kids standing on the corner, post-1980s. One says to the other, "There goes John Johnson. Did you know he cleared 100 grand last year pushing that plastic crap? What a great scam! I want to be like him.."
Joined by a young person with a marketing degree today ..."I am not building anything. I am letting Third World slaves (some even our enemies) do it for me, and then I don't care if my neighbors buy it or not. I am marketing it worldwide." "The yellow metal sickness."
Steve, thank you for your valuable, insightful observation. The puppy is "better" because it costs more. Money has become a status symbol, and you can never have enough of it. The Constitution forbids honorific titles, so money and material possessions confer honor on us. In egalitarian societies individuals find ways to raise themselves above the rest. It is in our nature, and religious leaders fought it in vain, and so did the communists. The great danger is when individuals use power to gain status, as Donald Trump is doing.
You missed the Scrooge McDuck comic book when you were a kid. It has been like this for a long time. Check out The Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study of Institutions (1899), by Thorstein Veblen, economics and sociology, and a critique of conspicuous consumption as a function of social class and of consumerism, which are social activities derived from the social stratification of people.
Much of this is the fault of tax policy, like the IRS code of 1952. Like trickle down BS.
In the beginning, America was envisioned as a country of yeomen farmers. independent, but for enumerated authority. As soon as the Constitution's ink was dry, it was amended with a Bill of Rights.
The idea of a professional education was that as soon as the sheepskin was dry, the bearer could set it up as a shingle to independently run a business. We discussed Ralph Waldo Emerson Self-Reliance (1841) and the philosophy of independence in junior high while we played "store" and learned how to manage a checkbook, fill out an IRS return....males had to take "shop" and girls had to take "home ec."
Before the Great Society, most kids quit school at that level - 8th grade... to work for someone else. Those who went on could work for someone else, and my school district was accredited to send workers to the mills. ( I was once their lawyer and can speak authoritatively about accreditation.) But over time kids had to borrow and therefore had no incentive to be free agents and work for themselves.
I reject your characterization at the very end, last sentence. "kids had to borrow and therefore . . . had no incentive to be free agents and work for themselves"(?) That break in the middle of the above sentence represents a true gap in understanding. I was one who "had to borrow" and yet you fault me for having no incentive. I had every incentive to be a free agent, but I barely even had enough money for bus fare at certain times in my life. "Needing to borrow" only adds another layer of oppression on the poor, because once you go below the line, you'll be paying higher interest and extra fees. If you are born beneath that line, your chances of ever getting above it are very low. And, you can't get above it unless you borrow enough to qualify yourself for a job tha t pays enough for you to get above that line, or, if you win the lottery.
Daniel--I didn't miss the old penny pinching version of Donald himself. As for managing a check book we did that to, however, mine seems to be beyond saving for it is always empty. Good points.
So that's that? The End? Might cynicism be a defense against actually feeling all of our feelings, really feeling them? Cause if we were to choose to let go of the cynicism, where might that lead?
Selina--If you're referring to my post what I was attempting to say isn't cynicism its reality. I don't like it any more than you do but our world loves wealth, no matter in what form it may present itself. If more people see the change as cynical maybe we can alter the direction in which we are traveling.
When you've taken action in your personal life, has it been because of something you're drawn to or escape something that's unbearable? Feelings and emotion move us. Cynicism is anger and disappointment and helplessness intellectualized. Heady. Static. Guts, fire in the belly, inspiration, heart, courage all coupled with Will to Act - move us. Cynicism either observed in others or one's own attitude is a form of passivity.
Selina--I'm anything but passive. As for being cynical, I see things as they are. Robert put this topic up for discussion because he feels the same way I do about our current social direction. For far too many of us it isn't "in God we trust" it's in the dollar we have deliver our soul on to.
Each of us needs to find out unique way to contribute to the common good. Findings group that we can support and that can support us when we get discouraged.
Very well said! A problem with durable products, by the time they're finally worn out, & you look to replace them with more of those great, lasting products, they're out of business, & you have to settle for some unproven, inferior product.
Some of us have knocked on so many doors we are exhausted. It's easy to say "effect change", but in some of the places I have worked, an employee would be fired for trying to change the attitude of management.
Eric--Case in point, Maui. Lets see how the rebuilding process goes. Will reconstruction recreate the laid back flavor of the old Maui or will huge hotel concerns commercialize the entire area into another tourist trap. Adventures in paradise, aboard the Tiki, 1959.
I understand your interest in the detour, but do you really think the left is less interested in making money? Their war is about money and power, their alphabet soup government agencies are about making money for those who control them...I see a growing uniparty, which saddens me which brings me full circle back to your desire for a detour.
Let us remember our history. Tony Coelho, a very liberal Congressman from California's Central Valley, called the Democratic Party's attention to the fact that we were getting beat like a gong by GOP money and we needed to go out and get some money too. So we did.
Martha Ture: Yes, Unions were being destroyed and donations from them were drying up forcing Coelho, circa 1980, to go after $$$ from big business -- a Faustian bargain that harmed the blue collar / middle class immensely. Prof. Reich made this clear in one of his talks at Harvard (I think it was) a few years ago. It's been hopeless INEQUALITY ever since until President Biden said, "I'm tired of the middle class getting fleeced " and managed to navigate some helpful legislation thru a difficult Congress. It seems that the Democratic Party has, or wants to, come home to labor. Please, please let's elect many more Democrats. I plan to devote time, money, and energy to this election cycle like never before because, as Kamala Harris has said, Democracy is fragile and needs its citizens to fight for it. How to communicate this to the uninitiated is the challenge; it can be done by plain speaking, I hope.
P.S. We could do much worse than Kamala as a back up and we should proudly tout her credentials for the oval office. Also, Ralph Nader is a few years older than President Biden and still sharp as a tack mentally. The latter said the other day that his age has given him some wisdom, something we might learn to respect more in this country.
I'm compelled to say: Doris Kearns Goodwin, the eminent Historian of U.S. history, and U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota have both publicly called for Campaign Finance Reform (CFR). Interesting.
Bernie Sanders also remains very sharp, & although several years younger, Robert Reich as well as Elizabeth Warren & Hillary Clinton all show no signs of slowing down.
Oi vei is mir. Carlos, I don't know where to start with your view of history. Let's see. Unions were being destroyed. . see the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947, which bans union contributions to political candidates, restricts the power of unions to call strikes that "threatened national security," and forced the expulsion of Communist union leaders (the Supreme Court found the anti-communist provision to be unconstitutional, and it is no longer in force). The unions campaigned vigorously for years to repeal the law but failed.
I mostly think of the egregious medical establishment in the US.
Who is going to back Universal health care?
Who is going to change abortion rights?
As the world moves further to the right (sceptical about France at present) after Macron finally goes but I do think the US should look at alternatives to the Dems/Repubs.
Yes, although at this critical time we can't afford to split the anti-fascist left-moderate coalition, I hope that, as the Republican Party ideally disintegrates, a strong, truly progressive party can emerge to the left of the Democratic Party, & they compete with each other. Then we might finally get strong, pro-environment/climate legislation that we so urgently need, much greater economic justice & a progressive tax system, universal healthcare & other progressive programs & policies.
RFK Jr is a lunatic. A certified whacko. Dig a bit deeper and you will find a damaged person who denies the realities of science and sees conspiracies around every corner. His family is probably considering an intervention which would hopefully involve parking him somewhere where he will cease to be a danger.
I was very impressed by RFK JR. until I heard his take on Israel and his total disregard for the Palestinians and the Apartheid state Israel has imposed on them. I don't understand how someone who is so correct on so many issues can be so blind on this one, and it makes me question his moral compass. Sad.
What is he fighting for that you approve of so much? I mainly hear how he's fighting against vaccines & support for Ukraine, but I no longer hear anything from him about the environment, for which I used to admire him. I am sincere in my question since I think the news I've been getting about him is incomplete & one-sided.
As a whole, the Democratic Party, with all its flaws, & there are many, is orders of magnitude better (or less bad, if you prefer to look at it that way) than the Republican Party. All the good Congress members are either Democrats or Independents leaning Democratic (& I'm not including Kristin Sinema), such as Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Jeff Merkley, Sheldon Whitehouse, Cory Booker, Ed Markey, Raul Grijalva, Ro Khanna, Jamie Raskin, Adam Schiff, Katie Porter, Barbara Lee & the Squad. They may be on the verge of gaining control of the party (although I've been hoping for that for ages).
Good lord. Hop a track over to a different tune pertaining to what you think might be possibilities /needed to un-glue the status quo you describe so despairingly (and from an already "give upness" attitude). What can you and I do to begin booting ourselves out of the citizen passivity/apathy Wolin describes so well?
That "track" is the solution. Our denial of truth is our enemy. Amoral Capitalism is our weapon of choice. The gilded age has returned with even more desires. Unfortunately we can't find enough people below us to lay the blame on. So we continue to be grifted by the Kings and Queens as our saviors. We Peasants are far too busy keeping those cigs spinning with our purchases of larger TVs to even care enough that our Supreme Court is now firmly in the grips of those in theirs thrones polishing their crowns of glory. All hail the Bling du jour and remember to fling sand, from your sand boxes at anyone who doesn't have the same ethics as the ex POTUS has. Nixon taught them well.
It's honest advice and I'm taking it myself. But sure, keep telling me I'm mean while you're the one making personal insults. I'll take that lesson real deep to heart.
Which is exactly one of the problems with America - it relies and has always relied on slave labour to provide it economic superiority and they intentionally make it difficult to leave. I've been saving for decades for this moment. I don't think it's easy, but I bet everything - literally - that it will be worth it for myself and my future generations.
Sounds more like seeking refuge than occupying, although, kind of like climate chaos, there might not be any safe place on Earth to which we can flee from the chaos that an unstable or fascist US government could cause in this world.
I don't think anything can save the US right now. As hard as Republicans cheat at elections, I consider their eventual takeover certain and nothing good to come of it. I want out while the getting is good. I live only with women and Republimerica will not welcome them.
Endless Nameless...What a cowards response. At least you aren't a business owner falling on hard times. You'd definitely close shop and not seek a different route that could salvage the business.
Only the fifth person to call me a coward. So original and friendly and boy that just makes me want to stay here with you pleasant people.
Listen here you fucking nobody who doesn't know a fucking thing about be - I lived half my life with drive-bys, I was homeless for months, I had to eat out of dumpsters and fight for my life repeatedly. I had to crawl my way to a damn hospital and this is just shit I did AS A TEENAGER. You don't know a fucking thing about courage and that's before I worked for decades for a country that showed about as much loyalty as you do intelligence.
Go deep throat a goat - you're the coward taking the easy way out by not disrupting your precious life to pull up the tent stakes and go to the next city. Bet you'll never guess where I learned that saying either.
*investors are what turned me away from continuing in my chosen field as an executive chef. Fancy name for a once upon a time cook who enjoyed his lower staus vs power, money and privileges of Management.
Thank you for your honesty. As far as giving up on our fellow citizens, friends ,family and yes even our foes, and fleeing to another time zone, I've a farm in Brazil, have for nearly 20 year's now. Also I returned early after retiring at 47 because of a frugal lifestyle I chose, and still live, coupled by investors lust for ever higher profits. Also my distain for how much more amoral capitalism is becoming. In part due to another B-actor we hired to Lord over us with trump's same belief that it's never the fault of our country. Tis' much easier to lay blame elsewhere. Sadly he's nearly untouchable, his history is proof of this, along with the real leaders the Kings and Queens holding the purse strings will never enjoy seeing one of them being taken down. I made some selfish gambles and lost a major amount of my savings. At 47, I returned and started anew. Having shared that tidbit, I have an option that the majority of our neighbors do not have. So yes, if the fight becomes too difficult I too can throw up the white flag. Integrity has absolutely nada to do with our past. trump and a good portion of the political hacks along with our discovery that the Supreme Court can be bought for concert tickets and shiny bling for the mistresses and real stones for the wifey. Integrity is actually becoming a lost art, along with civility. And if you're insulted by being called a coward for abandoning your neighbors, family, friends and fellow citizens by a nobody on a platform designed for good civil debating about the ills plaqueing the USA, or just a quick review of your enemies if so inclined, then that's on you, and I shall not apologize for my childish tactic of silly name calling. I'll leave it up to you to decide my sincerity or lack of on that as well.
Have a peaceful week, and never allow those who disagree with you to change your moods .Happiness and understanding our true selves are much more important than this short exchange of wordsmith.
Connie Botke, what you said is exactly my experience as an RN working in healthcare, as a patient , and as the daughter of dying parents in this financial system we call healthcare. It feels like a nightmare when I recollect some of the scenarios I found myself in as patients died prematurely and suffered needlessly because profit must be squeezed out of the system like the last drop of blood draining on the floor of the trauma room in an ER. Bernie Sanders' answer is "Medicare for All." The majority of the people know this and want it, but the majority doesn't rule anymore, if we ever did. The founders created this system to protect themselves, the opulent, from the majority encroaching on their fortunes. I don't believe they could have envisioned this would be our ultimate end; but it is. I won't give up. I can't because I love my children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren, and I want them to survive and thrive. We must have Universal Basic Income and Medicare for All to begin pulling ourselves out of the depths we have fallen into.
Yes! I never realized until just this year and I’ve been our 8, that I was suffering from PTSD, I prided myself in being certified in my specialty , attended major seminars every year, most of the time at my expense, achieved the highest nursing award( not rooting my horn) given at my facility of over 1500 nurses. The point being, I strived and pushed myself to be as good as I COULD be! The “cost “ of that was huge. So much trauma, so much responsibility , so many people suffering and dying. Sorry docs, SO many arrogant egotistical physicians, screaming, when WE were there first line of defense! Nurses chewing up younger nurses, I put a protective barrier around me!!! And no one really knew ME! . It stole my soul, I shudder each time I have to enter a hospital. Getting better, past is past. But, beware all those still working this environment, it will eat you up!!!😞
We learn to assume "the nurse mask" to hide our trauma and to function. Continuing to work in nursing was going to kill me. Unless you can become a robot, as some of my colleagues succeeded in doing (or distanced themselves from the chaos by entering administration), you can't do it. Look at nurse suicide statistics and the so-called "accidental overdoses." Look at the national stats for everybody and the declining longevity in the US while the longevity of other "civilized countries" with universal healthcare continues to increase. We must have UBI and Medicare for All. We have PTSD as nurses and as US citizens.
More power to you. And as feminists/suffragettes and unionists and Vietnam protesters know - it is in organizing and persistence and risk taking beyond our comfort zones in massive actions over time, that a national killing narrative/policy changes.
Thank you Gloria for stating facts. As painful as it is we must face this crisis of humanity face on.
It doesn’t change anything when we say “ it has always been this way”. We are supposedly smarter, wiser, than that. Make it different. I have no miracle answer to change the vision from the $$$$$ sign to a sign that gives hope to all. But having been raised during the late 40’s to now I have begun to doubt the legitimacy of this so called Capitalism that is wide open to corruption. Regulation and fair taxation can still allow those who think only of money to be comfortable. And fair wages and taxation of the wealthy (no loopholes) can give everyone a chance to be part of a healthy middle class.
How often I hear from people coming into America that they are here to get rich. Make a bundle and then “go back home”..... give them a reason to stay. Make the playing field about the middle class, about union wages, about government investment in the building of a safe and beautiful society that we can all be proud of. In building public schools that are confident in supporting the teaching of facts so all have a chance to contemplate what has worked and what has not.
A way to then measure what becomes useful to a healthy society and what has simply caused its’ demise.
We can start with healthcare: now big business only.
Housing: now big business only,
Two powerfully important sections of what allows a healthy society to exist.
If we can’t support ourselves as humans by making sure it doesn’t “just be this way always”, then we will live (or not) with the consequences of giving in to power and greed.
Like I said above, it's in big businesses' interest to get Medicare for all. The problem is tat the insurance industry has coopted the business lobbying groups -- National Manufacturers' Ass, Chambers of Congress etc.
In this sense they are as stupid as the 90% of Republicans who vote contrary to their own economic and health well being.
Many Unions do the same thing as the 90% of Republicans. They argue over decreasing benefits and increased costs with "Management" rather than avoid the whole argument and support MFA.
The unions I am alluding to were made up of the workers who in fact worked for the workers and along side the management for the benefit of company and employees. It actually was a fine marriage.
Every other civilized country takes care of their people. And civilized countries should be rendering unending aid to those who have no health system at all! Every nurse, physician, medical professional should volunteer in a third world country administered aid, meds, diagnosis, care,shoes to people who have NOTHING!!!
We have people in this country with nothing and no healthcare. Two of my siblings died because they had no health insurance, hence no healthcare. Do you mean civilized countries with healthcare should come here and help us? Parts of the US are "third world." I don't understand what you mean.
Nicholas Kristof has a long opinion piece in today's New York Times about the poor quality of our healthcare. I only scanned it and thought it should have been larger in scope, but certainly, he makes a point about health care deserts in places like Mississippi.
This used to be my subject. I heard Medicare appeals for 10 years. I have held hearings in most of the places mentioned in the article. At the same time I also heard Social Security disability cases. I got most of the hospice appeals from all over the world.
I was also an officer of the ABA and when "Hilarycare" was in Congress was co-chair of an ABA task force. I think that Medicare is great, and that if Medicare for all could replace private insurance for everyone, but most especially the big corporations that pay for employee healthcare would benefit. The main problem is greed. For example, physicians in the Dakotas, where there are scarce resources make on average more than physicians in most other places.
Pikeville, KY started a medical school. They had lousy care, just like the Mississippi example. But now they are the center of a medical industry. Many schools have graduate programs in health sciences that easily could have warped into an equivalent.
If Medicare for all were enacted with the elimination of the "collateral sources" rule in litigation, all insurance premiums would drop. The premiums we pay for Part B would drop because the base would be expanded to include younger, less sick people. Employers would not have to pay these fringe costs.
Agree with all you say about Medicare for All (MFA) with a couple of exceptions.
1) If you poll Americans you find that 70% favor MFA (and politicians like Sanders and Warren love to quote this statistic). But if you ask the follow up question: "By the way, you do understand this means you too?" then support drops to 35%. So we think that when Americans hear MFA, they think it means universal healthcare, and also suggests that more than a third of Americans are happy with their (employer-based) commercial healthcare. A better approach might be to say MFA for all who want it. Then you have to deal with all the little old ladies who say "but I worked for my Medicare, why should we give it away to young people?" and make it clear that Medicare would cost younger people. Also, as a lawyer, would it be possible to mandate that corporations offer Medicare along with commercial insurance?
2) MFA does not address the issue of physician autonomy, which is closely linked to burnout.
I think the best system would be one in which the government puts out a bucket of money and then encourages doctors to compete for it, the same way they do with defense contractors. I don't approve of most defense spending, but cannot deny that the US makes the best weapons of destruction in the world.
Likewise, in a peaceful context, such funding would raise standards by promoting intense competition between doctors, who are mercilessly (and largely appropriately) critiqued on the internet. To keep doctors honest, there would have to be strict regulation. For example, if my group owns an MRI scanner, we would be allowed, say, 1.2 MRI scans for each new patient and, say, 0.05 scans for each follow-up. After that, we are scanning for free. This would enable doctors to practice Medicine seamlessly, without allowing gaming of the system. Doctors would get paid in proportion to the number of patients they see, not the number of procedures. They would also be incentivized to keep patients out of the hospital, which would further reduce costs.
Exactly, look under a bridge in America ( the beautiful?) and look in the wooded areas of cities and look on the streets of major cities. Try and wrap your head around the fact that we are a mess. Homeless and mental illness do not make a country great.
We have miles of poverty , piles of homeless, millions of mentally ill , that’s “ill “folks. People who suffer mental illness are not bad, they are ill.
No different than getting cancer..... except cancer is a money maker!!!!😱
In addition to the universal basic income we need a universal maximum income so that those who have benefited the most from our culture don’t acquire all the power with brides and gifts. Philanthropy has long been a voluntary club for the elite and some Uber rich citizens have done laudable work with their excessive wealth. Let’s just make philanthropy involuntary and driven by the needs of all those on whose shoulders they stood.
"But the biggest single action to drive harmful private equity firms out of the economy would be to simply put all investment funds under the(Investment Company) 1940 Act regulations with no exceptions, thereby limiting the leverage that is the mother’s milk of private equity. The societal value of allowing PE firms to load debt on companies is questionable and the harms can be great. The tools exist today to stop it, in a law written 82 years ago".
Are the Democrats in Congress pursuing this course of action?
In the article, which is a year old, the author says that some of the provisions he’s recommending are in Elizabeth Warren’s Stop Wall Street Looting Act. I don’t know what happened to that but I suspect it went nowhere or we would have heard. But these ideas are hopeful. I had never heard of David Dayen, the author, but I intend to seek his writing out now. This seems to be a seminal article, Tim. Thank you so much for posting the link.
Being accompanied in any hospitalization began in the 1990s as a recommendation to any Nurse, friend who found themselves hospitalized. That's when business, which was brought in by MDs to increase profit, decrease the empowerment of Nursing that was peaking ( and peaked), and deconstructed mental health care, substance abuse care, home care, hospice home care , then rest homes, nursing homes. CARE gone, PROFIt UP. Those poor ole doctees never imagined they would become second class citizens to business!!
Vicki, you are so right about the deterioration of the ability to provide care. The rich white folks in many places will never have to deal with that because their top drawer insurance and their own money will make sure of that, but the rest of us, get whatever is left over. We have a hospital in my community that was an excellent facility until the community lost so many of our businesses moving south to non-union jobs, going overseas where wages are so small as to be hardly noticed and working conditions can be whatever the corporations want. The hospital is failing, hardly able to provide any care to the community and it is the only hospital within the immediate area. The hospitals outside the immediate area do not particularly like caring for the impoverished community next door. Until the rich folks in charge feel the pain, nothing will happen to make things better. I do wish we could get universal healthcare as opposed to medicare for all because if things go on as they are now, Medicare for all would have huge loopholes that would let private entities in which would ultimately undermine the whole system as they are trying now to undermine Medicare. We need some people to step up and put together a plan for transforming what we have now into a universal healthcare system for this entire nation. We could do it but need a plan people can see and understand. Then, how do we fight the corporate money that will oppose it at every step? Too much money and power in too few hands, and those hands dirty with abuse of that power and money is what we are dealing with.
Your post reminds me of what one if my mom's caregivers told me when my mom was in assisted living. She said none of the staff on the floor had time to do what they were trained to do. Each staffer was responsible for caring for 15 people, which meant residents would have to wait for help while another resident was being helped. One resident can't be left on the toilet to go see what another resident needs. Over half the residents were in wheelchairs. Twice the number of caregivers were needed, but the money people would not permit hiring additional caregivers. The staff cared very lovingly for my mother, but the profit motive got in the way of providing the best care. Greed is killing America.
Connie, as a patient numerous times during the period you describe, I experienced the change in care and it was not the fault of the nurses and doctors. When they had the moment to check in with me, they were terrific, but those times were few, even in times when I was in serious pain. I worked as a chaplain and medical ethicist in a hospital in the '80s and saw changes happening then, a bit at a time, just over 3 years or so. I have no doubt private equity had something to do with recent changes in patient care and the use and abuse of nurses and other staff. For the protection of all of us, we need to get some serious interventions going. You chose an extraordinary career and I have been blessed to work with and be cared for by remarkable human beings, nurses, doctors, and housekeeping staff. I would love to see the ability for medical and other staff to care for their patients as they would like, to come back. It won't happen on its own, the rich corporations have proven that. I am guessing we are going to have to fight for it.
I'm encouraged, in a twisted way, to read what is happening in health care in other places. I thought my clinic was unique with the way it has declined during the past decade.
Jim, yes, and they are using and abusing older residents at will, hiring people who have not been fully trained to do the work as if it does not matter who cares for the residents there. The medical staff tries, but the salaries are often low, non-competitive and the working conditions can be harsh. My grandmother and aunt, both rather independent women were in a facility where because they didn't act like good little girls, were drugged into submission. The corporation that owned the facility was OK with that as a general practice until they were caught at it. I think someone on their board either worked there or was a resident and had that happen to them. Whenever I visited, there were rows of people sitting in wheelchairs up and down the halls, just waiting for death. I understand there are a lot of corporate-owned facilities like that, many of them private equity corporations. Inexcusable.
Can one of you seeming to have all this knowledge of these horrific crimes happening please send your proof, etc. to a serious independent investigative group - for example The Lever - so it can be publicized beyond our Reich comments section?! My God!
They already have hospice care. Why isn't anybody exposing Matt Gaetz and the family hospice business having been sued by Medicaid for fraud. They have sold it, but somebody's influence is shaping a path for the for-profit hospice corporations to create a system to save Social Security and Medicare countless dollars. Look up "stealth euthanasia." Not enough people are aware of what is happening until it happens to their loved one. Patients not it pain are being coerced/forced into taking the lethal combination of morphine and the tranquilizer, Ativan. The Washington Post and ProPublica have written a series and articles exposing what I believe is an impending holocaust of the elderly.
Gloria, I don't know much about the "homicide actions you are describing, but I do know about the drugging into submission as that happened to my grandmother and aunt. We tried to protest, but were told it was to protect them from injury. That made no sense, of course, but we could get nowhere. Letting private equity, that valuesless set of corporations get involved with Hospice or anything else is a doom scenario. We the People need to stop them!
Hospice convinces elderly persons who are exhausted from keeping track of medical bills, "We'll take care of all your medical bills if you sign here." They don't tell them that they stop their medical treatments like their heart or Parkinson's medications. Many are not even terminally ill. Then they start pushing morphine and Ativan. Soon the person is not even eating or drinking. Hospice employees tell the family this is the "dying process." It's the killing process. I'm not denying that there are terminally ill patients in pain that can benefit from hospice. But this is less often the case. Hospice is a big, profitable business. I worked in long-term-care for years and protecting people through regulatory agencies is a joke. The long-term-care lobby bribes the politicians like in ever other industry. Be afraid!
Sorry honey they have. For profit hospice "recruiters" stalk the halls of nursing homes and hospitals getting names from employees...used to be they bribed 'em, now it's business as usual. If the "referral" is dual eligible everybody gets paid. If the "referral" is "self pay" they have to have a family who is willing to take them home and provide most of the care. They peddle loving care but it's all about the money and don't forget how the hospice "movement" played into the early of the opiate e
Be with them, as much as you can! And if you think for a minute your physician is advocating for you! Think again! You are the only one who will or does advocate for yourself and your loved ones! Be present and learn as much as you can!
Pam, you mean rich valuesless corporations should care about poor or disabled persons! What are you thinking!!! They are the ones who are "working" so hard to keep those valuesless corporations from getting even more of the wealth they don't deserve. That is a major reason so many local hospitals are being closed, and communities undermined with crappy properties being rented out for huge sums with no controls.
We (the US) have become a country where we value wealth above all else. I speculate the modern gold rush found its legs in the 1980s. Celebrity publicity & worship exacerbate the problem. We have not given our children good role models to follow, so they learn that blind pursuit of money is the meaning of life. It’s a philosophy that perpetuates itself. I cannot think of an answer to save ourselves from ourselves. I am a Baby Boomer.
Pam, I, too am a baby boomer and have been reading a lot about the way the economy works. It seems the money worship has been going on for a very long time, at least a couple of hundred years. The severity of the disease waxes and wanes. I would agree that the current insanity got wound up with Reagan who clearly loved money and those who had it. His union-busting had so much to do with giving the haves even more and setting things up so the haves almost couldn't lose and the new haves would be able to exploit the new openings made for them while the actual workers, the ones who made the money for the haves were left out of the discussions almost entirely. Politicians who were allowed to get away with it by their constituents bought into the BS and saw money as the only value. They have only gotten richer and the haves have added tremendously to their fortunes while the rest of the nation gets to live on the leftovers from the intense greed. We should be able to do better, but alas, not yet. There are too many who believe they will get rich one day and so will support anyone who passes the lie of upcoming wealth on to them. The whole private equity industry is a product of that greed and discounting of the majority of people because we are in their book next to irrelevant.
The Reagans were personal friends with Ayn Rand, whom they received while they were in the White House. Nancy was particularly enthralled. This is where they got their capitalist orientation. I think Rand was singularly responsible for this "greed is good" movement in America. It's hard to put down her compelling books and one can come away as a true believer. I can't believe we saw her as a philosopher for American values, when actually she was an extreme reactionary against the Russian Revolution; and sad to say, that's ALL she was. She never really "got" America.
Sandra, I tried reading Rand's book "Atlas Shrugged" and got through chapter 2 before I realized I didn't like the writing style or the world she was presenting. I didn't know anything about her until later (my attempt was while I was in college and it seemed a lot of people were reading it). I suspect Reagan was a fan of her style of thinking even before he knew her. He was not a very good governor of CA from what I have read and what people who lived there have told me. He seems to have had a one-track mind and whatever track he got on, it was really hard to move him from it. He got on the property tax thing and saw "high" property taxes as the root of all evil, then it was unions, then trickle-down economics as the savior of the world, and so on. I guess people like one-track minded people because so many of them get elected. They get a phrase that means nothing and run with it: morning in America, 1,000 points of light (Bush Sr,), MAGA. The best part for them is they never have to define it, just spout it regularly with enthusiasm. At least "Yes we can" had some plans and positive ideas attached to it even though when Obama was saying it, he knew he and we would be facing the worst recession since the Great Depression. What did MAGA celebrate, a racist, misogynistic, xenophobic ignorant man and his desperate need to be cheered and worshipped, a reality TV star with only insults, lies, and a lack of knowledge to offer the American people. We need to do better. Global warming is making that imperative!
As a physician I couldn't agree more. I am even old enough to remember the days when "Healthcare" was known as "Medicine," "providers" were known as "doctors and nurses," and when my practice included house calls. I loved the ICU, and discovered there a treatment for status epilepticus..
Now we have a small number of gleaming hospitals that are run incompetently by accountants, and by clueless CEOs making $10 million a year, jostling for rankings on US News and World Report. Doctors and nurses are burned out, and there are now 75 million Americans who are uninsured or underinsured.
My ICU treatment would never have seen the light of day.
Thank you, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and the denizens of Wall Street.
And I too am an MD, I remember the 80s, when The House of God was an ethnography not a novel but we were working our tails off because it was good and right. No more. They have put us in our places for sure. RVUs, click bait to keep your notes billableand your MIPS covered. And now you are one of the undifferentiated white coated "provider" bots wearing electronic trackers just like Amazon warehouse workers at Fulfillment Centers. Young NPs and PAs are cheaper and more obedient than old doctors. Young doctors have too much debt and no experience with wise old primary care doctors so they go into high tech procedural subspecialties. But it's only business.
I refused to continue working in the hospital and never regretted the decision. Sad to see that 75% of physicians are now employed there. The accountants and MBAs who run things are putting junior doctors in charge of stroke units. Why? Because they are cheap and they don't answer back. They also don't listen, yet you can tell they're terrified.
When I was a resident I was cocky, but we always knew the guys with the grey hair were the gods, and we would always defer to them - because it's about human lives. Now that I've become a god, the little doctors have become atheists.
Connie, a nurse approaching retirement. I agree with everything you wrote. For profit healthcare is horrible. The average patient doesn’t know how short staffed and undertrained the workers are. Yes, make sure you have an advocate/family/friend with you. I’ve recently switched to a job that is non-nursing. It’s been wonderful, yet I’m concerned about the medical field and my own healthcare insurance costs.
I am a nurse too, Connie, and I also retired from the "mainstream" medical community because of the change from providing great care to making a great deal of money. I have always thought it should be illegal to profit from the healthcare of people.
I replied to you, but my comment appears elsewhere for some reason. Please read my comment below and I thank you for sharing your experience. It's always good to feel we're not the only one.
ABSOLUTELY — I worked on a small newspaper owned by the dean of a medical school. He decried the changes in medical education. Students arrived eager to help humanity, and they had it pounded into them that they would be in the business of providing health care. As independent practitioners, they would be running businesses. He was very sad about that.
I can relate to the advice by Ms Boyle to advocate for your loved one in hospital. My Wife’s Mother was admitted several times before she past away and we plus paid Caregivers were with her 24/7 until she could come home. The staff was shorthanded and over worked with too many patients per staff ratio in place.
They were dedicated but simply not able to put in the time to provide the attention she needed. The presence of family and familiar faces helped her recovery. We were confronted by the attending physician and told we were in denial and her health and were unable to accept the fact that she was about to die. She recovered and lived three more years. I’m sure if we had listened to the doctor she would have died in short order.
Absolutely true, Connie! RN x decades. Loved my patients and felt I was making a difference. Then the bean counters bought the hospital systems.
Staffing cuts. Working short staffed. More acute (sicker) patients. Larger number of patients. "Zero raise (again) this year because there's no money in the budget" while the suits in the C-suite got their gigantic bonuses. When I realized nursing care to them was nothing more than a line on a spreadsheet, voted with my feet.
I’m a retired& tired nurse also if hospital did not treat nurses as a expense on the budget things would be better .RN stands for Refreshments & Narcotics as the corporate world takes over. My fellow nurses put your nurses cap back on. They can’t doit without you . Be professional you have the power it’s how you get there. Forever one & with you.
You have eloquently expressed the nature of our greatest socio-economic problem. It is the economic side of a valueless society. Excuse me, I meant to say, a society which has as its sole value the accumulation of wealth. This value is now degrading the idea of productive labor, with the capitalist cost savings achievable by robotics and artificial intelligence. We are a species now rushing headlong into self-destruction by ignoring every common sense metric of happiness. We can't even learn about what is occurring in our world because reporting itself has become subordinate to wealth creation, whose sponsors have decided that knowledge is less lucrative and therefore less valuable than entertainment.
Kerry. Amen.. we ignore... I ran away from God as headlong stubborn as a 20!some year old could.. and still ended up running right into His arms anyway.. he is so big.. most of us will stay stubborn, prideful, and still still reject Him.. it doesn’t matter.. His love won’t be undone.. “turn away from our isms” his predecessor preached! And then.. He came. He overcame.. He made a way.. The Gate.. the rest, like you said @Kerry.. “is history”😌😌😌
I was thinking about "It's A Wonderful Life" as I read it. In the film George and his family run a Building and Loan company to help the townspeople that are working-class to build their own homes. They do so because they believe people that work hard deserve to live well and provide a comfortable living for themselves and their families. People were not living merely to survive and make money to increase their employer's profit.
But we can also see through the wealthy businessman Mr. Potter that some people such as him care only about themselves and their comfort. Potter was not concerned for the people in Bedford Falls, he thought people were like cattle, he only wanted to profit from their labor and he even rented homes to the majority of the town.
The film was released in 1946, the year Professor Reich was born and the economy rebounded after the war. I also believe it's. the year in which business began the shift to stakeholder capitalism? Businesses were interested in making great products to make money to improve the lives of their workers and the community.
FYI, my father owned the largest department store in a town named Beaver Falls. It was forced out of business in 1971 after national chain stores, one of them a K-mart, opened shopping centers outside of the downtowns where that store and two others he owned were located. The downtowns of all three cities have never recovered.
And the thing I didn’t like about the movie was that Mr. Potter mistakenly came into the $8000 that caused the run on the S&L yet he kept it, never fessed up and he was never held accountable. Prophetic or what?
You're right. I should have included that point. Yes, Mr. Potter stole the money. It could be said he didn't steal it but he knew it was the Building and Loan funds. It was exactly the $8,000 that George told him was missing. It does seem to foreshadow the future.
You are omitting from your list of money makers universities and colleges, which now function on "the business model', which means that the Humanities are dropped - history, foreign languages, English, Greek, Latin, no good, don't make money. Business depts. are expanding as Humanities are either pushed into basements or dropped altogether. And of course administrators are placed and paid ahead of professors. Where will this lead us if we produce an uneducated 'college' graduate?
Laurie, yes, and then, there's the sports, especially men's sports that bring in a lot of money, but it is not clear that it is sufficient to cover the amount of money the college gives to keep those sports going, then the athletes get little of the money. If they are playing, they often do get their education paid for until they are hurt or can't play anymore, then their education is dropped and they are left with nothing. Yep, just like a business. I had read somewhere that the highest paid state official in many states is the state university football coach. We could do better if we could say no for a change, but the dollar signs in the eyes glow at the thought of more money pouring in, nearly always benefiting those who don't need the benefits. Affirmative action just dumped, pretty much opens colleges and universities to the white and Asian students who have the advantages and never have to know what it is like to live in poverty and fight every day just to get to school and to learn when there due to the confusion, huge class size, poor physical condition of the buildings, and curriculum demands that don't reflect the lives of the students. I am guessing there are private equities involved with charter schools too, because there is so little regulation of them and their purpose is to undermine our public schools, another goal of private equities. Their job will be easier if they can manipulate brainwashed or totally indifferent students to just not see what is being done to them and our nation.
Yes, at least some charter schools are run by private equity. I don't know which is worse, those or the ones Arkansas is planning to let the Catholic church operate. And speaking of college football, I just got encouraged to meet up with other alums from my university to cheer on the winning football team. I was fantacizing about starting an alum group for people who hate the game, but I suspect it wouldn't be large.
Progwoman, I hadn't heard about the private equities involved with charters, just guessed it would be a good target for them. I like sports but didn't go to any while in college since my school only had bowling and tennis and grad school because no one I hung out with was a sports lover. I don't mind there being a good sports program but there need to be some serious modifications like, if a student is chosen for a team that pays its students' costs, those continue until graduation with programs designed to help the athlete be ready for a job after college sports: broadcasting, coaching, writing, public speaking, if they don't want a career in science, the humanities, medicine, law, or other fields. No student athlete should be able to be pushed out of the college/university without a degree if the person wants to acquire one and the skills that go with it. These athletes should not be seen as tools to bring in the bucks, then left dangling if they are not among the very lucky to move on to professional sports.
I'm trying unsuccessfully to track down the young man I knew who left a venture capital operation to work for a charter network in Boston, so perhaps I responded carelessly.
... but one could also assert "All *prior* art is destroyed for profit" - which is subtly different (but no less true), i.e. the issue is less one of the nature of innovation & more one of the rules of the game (should private equity receive special treatment if, in the long term, it does no better at managing companies than any other greedy entity)?
Robert Reich hits the nail on the head as usual. Today, unlike 30 years ago, many academic publishers exemplify the new commercial mindset: quantity of output is nearly the sole determinant; the books are often priced too high for individual purchase. Books are now the outcome of metrics, numbers speaking to numbers. Most editors have no understanding of the books they publish - they don't have time to read them, just reader's reports - and they do not market or promote or advertise. Publishers intend to sell their books by the cartload to be downloaded from university servers for an annual fee which will reward shareholders, not the authors. It's a simple money-go-round.
Decades ago, I had the frustrating experience of having an algebra book that cost over a hundred dollars and had numerous errors. It was challenging enough for me to do college level math , but the book was useless.
Laurie, just think what the Florida teachers and students are going through and will be in the future when the racist misogynistic new texts come out as well as lying videos about historical figures. Those will also be useless, but very expensive and districts will be forced to buy them over better more honest resources, by pathetic Ron DeSantis, a fool, but an evil one if ever there was one.
Ruth, I suspect the intent, which I fear will spread to other states, is to create a docile, passive, non-engaged generation who don’t know their history and, thus, are less inclined to ask questions and be skeptical, much less put up a fight. That kind of orthodoxy can kill a democracy—or worse.
Barbara Jo, I suspect this Gen Z is not as passive as a lot of folks would like. They really do care, but the preceding generations have offered them very little to help them get going. We allowed schools to return to segregation days (I taught in such a district of mostly Black students and the lack of funds that came to our district compared to our neighboring white districts was appalling. We decided that only math and reading are important to teach because that is what the standardized testing covered, so other subjects like science and social studies were presented as afterthoughts. Our parents act like helicopters hovering over every move their children make, not permitting any but the narrowest of independence. We have allowed all sorts of corporations to destroy our planet bit by bit leaving these young people with a nearly unfixable mess. We have addicted them to junk foods (as we were addicted to it), online garbage (some good stuff too), and poor quality throw-away materials and equipment. We have permitted about 1 in 5 children to live in poverty and poverty can be a destroyer of lives. We can call this generation Z all kinds of things like uninvolved and passive, but I don't think they are. They have stood for gun control, education equity, stopping global warming, and other issues of concern. It seems to me it is the older generations' duty to help them get active, show them how and where to vote, identify quality leadership and encourage them, and more depending on our abilities and their needs. Maybe we can help them with their "mob actions" that have been occurring. Instead of robbing stores, maybe turn them toward fixing up a playground for neighborhood kids or cleaning up a neighborhood with all the support they can use. Help those young folks to feel valued for who they are and what they can contribute. Just a thought.
Ruth, I would not dispute any part of your statement. Instead, I will underscore that my comment referenced the “intent” of an increasingly larger bloc of Republicans, whose project, were the electorate to allow it to proceed, would aim to curb both speech and thought. Accordingly, I see no way forward but to win races up and down the ballot.
It's interesting to think about how much the printing industry has changed over the years. It used to be that many Americans worked in the printing and allied trades, but with advancements in technology, we're now able to produce print in a more efficient and effective way than ever before. Despite this, there are still plenty of individuals who have a passion for producing print in limited quantities. It's clear that print is not dead and there are many printers and publishers who have succeeded by staying ahead of the curve and embracing new technologies.
Private equity is a concept that may seem like work to those who are involved in making money, but it has nothing to do with the hardworking laborers of America. For those of us who work with our hands and enjoy creating something from raw materials, it's clear that those who manipulate money for their own gain will never understand the satisfaction that comes from physical labor.
Unfortunately, many people in America are enslaved by the private equity market and those who profit from it. These individuals believe that their money manipulation schemes are in the best interest of the country and that the benefits will eventually trickle down to everyone. However, it's clear that this is not the case and that the continuation of private equity and money manipulation will only lead to negative consequences for America. It's hard to have hope or faith in a system that is so focused on profit over people.
Henry, I am not sure Private equity "firms," or the people enslaved to them in the market, care one bit about the good of anyone but themselves and how they can bring in more money. They do not care about the best interests of this nation or anyone in it beyond themselves. They know what they are doing as they dissolve companies, get rid of employees, destroy hospitals, family farms, and so much more. Bringing in the bucks is all there is. They will do or approve whatever they think will get them even more no matter who is hurt. I am so glad there are artisans who care about making things. No matter ow good technology is, art made by people will always be superior because it is human, hand made. There are things AI and machines can make well, but because at least right now people have control of what is being created. When money and power are all one sees, none of that matters unless it brings in more money and lets them, then have power through that money. That is amoral and something we do not need.
Nice comment, true. There is a lot of history that supports the notion that what is going on with and in America might well end badly for everyone over the actions of a distinct minority of the total population at some point in the future.
I don't know that I agree that private equity has NOTHING to do with hardworking laborers. It's more likely that laborers are paying rent to someone who owns a property that they work at, or laborers are waiting on raises because debt to the investors has to be paid back first, or any number of other arrangements.
Imagine a modern blacksmith - working with his hands, working with metal, making stuff for order, say beautiful artisanal knives or something. He needs a heavy metal press, which costs $20,000. He can borrow that money, but the banks may not lend it because this guy doesn't own any collateral. If he can find investors, he might be able to expand production. Private equity could make that feasible - public equity will not. He will have to make enough money in the smith to pay the investors their share - but this is probably how we actually created a world where people named themselves "Mr. Smith" or "Mr. Miller" or whatever else, based on the work that they did in capital projects that they otherwise could never have created themselves.
The problem that I believe Prof. Reich is addressing isn't that sort of private equity. Rather, imagine a private equity player that sees thousands of smiths using that $20,000 press, fully dependent on it for their livelihood. What if that press needs $100 a year in spare parts, and there's only one supplier? What if you raise those prices to $1000 a year? Suddenly, you could drive all the smiths out of business by exploiting a very specific monopoly...which nobody knew about before you created it. Maybe that's the sort of anipulation private equity is doing with publishing, printing, newspapers, and more.
Thank you for your comment, DRM. Your explanation of the problem at hand is spot on. I am unsure of how or why our country has strayed so far from reasonable relations between industries involving millions of workers earning living wages to the state we find ourselves in now. Whether it be a blacksmith or a printer, America needs its trade workers for the country to function properly. The issue with those who buy and sell companies, and have been granted vast means to ply their trade, is that no one is trying to take away their future or livelihoods. What workers, traders, the government, and hopefully American society want is co-existence. The nation needs cooperation, communication, and collaboration. Instead of the country seemingly tearing itself apart, driving political division among equal segments of society, etc., the well-off money and power families, corporations, shareholders, and board members should work hand in hand with individuals and companies to get to a place where all elements of American society feel invested. I have yet to meet anyone involved in any manufacturing segment as a worker, manager, administrator, or owner that was against trying to make things work for everyone. The hope and faith is that those who are tipping the scales to extremes to secure profit above all else for themselves will come to their senses and engage in America and Americans again before things unravel further, and the country ends up as yet another failed civilization for the history books.
To bring people to their senses regulation and prudent policy making is essential. See Tim Baldwin’s comment above. Senator Warren has the antidote for the Clinton years, IMHO.
Senator Warren proposed antidotes for an awful lot more than just that - BUT as brilliant as she is, a lot is going to fall into our laps to keep working on.
Some of her arguments may be a few decades ahead of their time. Wealth tax? Yes, but we need to invent an entirely new story of why - just as it took decades of work to create an income tax (and decades of work after creating it to make it start working). But she's mortal: our job is to look at the vision (and she and Prof. Reich overlap on so much of it as far as I can tell) - and do what we can to get these antidotes delivered to a polity riddled with people profiting from selling poisoned apples.
Thank you, Henry. I'm not totally sure how much of my thinking diverges from our hosts - but the way I see it, today's great "deviation" may actually be more like a reversion to normal than we realize (which would shock the Baby Boomers - but not their elders and their successors).
What if it has ALWAYS been the case that extreme inequity existed in America - but wasn't measured very accurately? Much as women were ALWAYS crucial contributors to GDP, but their work tended to be skipped over unless they had a job that paid taxes?
I suspect public and private equity have responded to a world of income taxes since America created it with the 16th Amendment - evolving new plays and means, the value of that "captured market" is not JUST the income it produces, but the livelihoods and the pride of all those smiths. If someone can capture that, they can exploit thousands of people similarly situated - then maybe give a few coupons for saying how honest and ethical the new owners are (while acting cruelly - but not illegally).
It may look like the country is tearing itself apart. But it also may be the case that we are actually putting ourselves back together, bit by bit, better than we were.
Those who exploit opportunities to get rich with little work by hurting other people are nothing new. But you and I have a job to do stopping them. Let's figure out how best to do that. (Luckily, we have a host of people giving ideas, including our host here.)
Well, thankfully Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner's edifying book These are the Plunderers: How Private Equity Runs and Wrecks America, where KKR figures prominently, got outbin time as published in 2023 by Simon and Schuster itself !!! Hey, maybe that is why..
Oscar Wilde said, "A fool is someone who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing." This process of hollowing out any remnants of meaningfulness in our society has had near-fatal collateral damage. Walk through any store, a supermarket, a drug store, a stationery store, a toy store, a hardware store, a coffee store, a car dealership; everything is wrapped in plastic, made of plastic, and laced with plastic. There is plastic in whatever they are selling, the goods and the food and the wrapping. It cheapens whatever you are buying, and it poisons the buyer. According to a World Wildlife Fund study, consumers are ingesting a credit card sized amount of plastic every week, in the air and in products. Even soil samples taken from our precious national parks found tiny plastic particles throughout. To counter this pervasive "leaching out of every other value" we have to be vigilant consumers and activists in support of important organizations like https://greenamerica.org/ . They encyclopedically comb through and provide stories of brave grass-roots groups whose meaningful, inclusive work serves as a vanguard and a guide to counter this hollowing out. Their energetic explorations serve as a beacon for people who insist on consuming from, growing, and investing in green projects that promote social justice.
In addition to Private Equity buying up larger firms, syndications are buying up the smaller, main street firms that in the past were the vehicle that individuals from the lower or middle class could work their way into ownership and create some capital. Due to the unfair pricing justified under "economies of scale", success and growth has been to get big or get out. Specifically, keep opening more locations to gain lower pricing to compete against the largest corporations. Now we are seeing industry specific conglomerates buying up independently owned car washes, dry cleaners, house cleaners, any local business that can benefit from having a chain of locations that can combine their purchasing power to create larger profit margins. This keeps individual business from competing on the sales price because the individual business costs are higher and their profit margins are much lower. Main Street Businesses are more and more owned by large corporations either through buyouts or creating franchises.
Even barber shops owned by actual barbers are beginning to be replaced by large, corporate owned entities. The owners never having done the job of serving clientele themselves. I am one of the few in my area. I'm glad I'm not the last, and so are my customers.
Laurie, I am sure your community appreciates you. I wish there were a way to let current owners and communities know what pushing out the locals means for the community. No one from outside who doesn't even know the business can care for and provide for the community as well. I get it that when people are ready to retire, they often sell to the quickest buyer willing to buy them out, but that is often a group that really just wants to make the buck no matter who is pushed out. I just wish we had a mechanism to inform people and give them other alternatives.
I'm a retired research scientist from one of America's most prestigious institutions you've never heard of, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). NIST has *five* Nobel Laureates on staff; how many other organizations can make that claim? Two of them are personal friends of mine. An organization does not win Nobel prizes by taking the short-term profit path--"profit," in this case, being a quick return-on-investment (ROI) for whatever the stated "profit" might be. Only through long-term investment involving people who care way more about doing world-class science than becoming millionaires (maybe billionaires is now more appropriate lingo) is this possible. It seems to be harder and harder as things progress. If you haven't read Michael Lewis' "The Fifth Risk," you should: It explains in livid detail what Republicans in general and the MAGA crowd in particular are trying to do within the government as well as industry and commercial enterprises. When Steve Bannon calls for, "The Deconstruction of the Administrative State," his aim is to do away with organizations like NIST, which have over the last century or so (NIST was founded as the National Bureau of Standards in 1901 to promote American commerce) been the engine of US dominance in science and technology.
No science, no technology=no commerce and no dominance. I'm not exactly sure what their end-goal is--or if they've actually thought it through. My guess is they haven't; all they want is a quick buck.
Recent book you might love - "The Emperor of all Maladies" - because it's an astonishing defense of the often completely unnoticed, quiet work of meticulous, brilliant people working to cure cancer. It's not just the celebrity geniuses who matter - but that vast group of geniuses interacting, sharing, building together, occasionally reaching amazing breakthroughs...but always through putting in decades of work and thought on data that nobody else can even understand (seriously, the Pap Smear was a result of a doctor/scientist studying guinea pig menses for how many years???). Just a suggestion: sounds like something you'd love.
But there's a lot to be said about how 'science' as it is done interacts with 'science' as some would prefer it to be done. The free and open exchange rather than assuming that one person's personal brilliance was sufficient to fix anything. The contribution of cumulative players...and of course, standards and measures agreed upon by the participants that make it possible to collaborate and question.
Private equity takes an interesting view of the work of those scientists. Gooses laying golden eggs? Sometimes, but that's not really the issue - they're not necessarily any better as fortune tellers than anyone else. I don't think that's actually the problem with science and private equity today.
Private equity MAY HATE the open, public, painstaking, years-long without any profits work of science - not just because they want a "get rich quick" plan involving low-hanging fruit, but because science creates uncontrollable risks that they may not be able to effectively exploit.
Private equity wants scientists to be THEIR scientists - they want standards to favor THEIR assets - they want to ensure nobody anywhere can interfere with their schemes. For private equity, it's OK if someone produces a fraudulent diagnostic device that supposedly measures any number of issues - so long as they KNOW about the fraud early, and nobody else does - then they can get in, get out, and let other people pay for the whole thing.
Private equity wants to "privatize" science to create opportunities to profit at other people's expense. That's a far easier way to obtain golden eggs than locating a magical goose.
Public equity is a bit different. If a bunch of major petrochem players want to build $100 billion worth of petrochem plants in Louisiana, they care very much about climate change and flooding risk - they will NEVER bet that much money on something that they haven't explored every device to protect or insure. They may say "climate change isn't proven" in one context (more likely they'll question whether anyone can be held accountable) - but they'll use it if the science says its there to build their own assets, and they'll do that every time without exception because they will be publicly held accountable.
Private equity is different. Private equity might build $100 billion in petrochem plants, but more likely, they'll want to build $1 billion in housing near the petrol plants, on the flood plains that the petrochem engineers intentionally avoided because of the risk of a 100 year flood. Then they'll sell that $1 billion for $5 billion, and tell people that it's "safe" land - you're next to spots the engineers said is the safest in the area (which will be true)- knowing that most people won't be able to figure out that the actual properties they are buying are at risk not just from a 100 year flood, but every decade or more. The buyers will pay 3-4x what the property is worth. The private equity will screw them.
Private equity LOVES "birthers" and other "fact adverse" customers - the more they dispute climate change or whatever, the more easily they can be bought and sold. Sell them a $300k house that should have been worth $50k because of flood risks. The buyers aren't stupid - they'll try to protect themselves, but how can they really do so? When the floods hit, most of them lose everything. Then rebuild, make marginal improvements, and repeat the whole cycle again 10-20 years later with the next group of suckers.
That sort of scheme is threatened by scientists saying "climate change is real" - and it is threatened by anyone else who actually does the engineering and work to explore the valuation and spot the mismatch. But such work requires professional rigor - people who know what they're doing and know to look beyond what they've seen to what the science says is reasonably probable. The standards that the scientists use to gauge that make the scam difficult; the processes the scientists use to do that PUBLICLY make it possible that the scam could not only be discovered, but their benefits might even be disgorged.
Private equity isn't hostile to science - just to free, independent scientific inquiry that cannot be captured and permanently caged to serve their ends.
“….tock, tock, tock, at the tone, 5 hours, thirty-three minutes, Coordinated Universal Time, BEEP, tock, tock, tock….”
I blew gasket when I heard the Trump so-called administration wanted to shut down WWVB, WWV and WWVH, even though it was precisely what I expected they would try to do.
My alarm clock synchronizes to WWVB. I love not worrying about having the exact time, because I know it is exact as can be.
Now all I have to do is repair my shortwave receiver.
I have no idea what you did at NIST, but thank you.
The Health Care Business SHOULD NOT BE A BUSINESS It should be to provide GREAT HEALTH care and break even Shameful that its all about bottom line not letting humans live in good health and be good citizens
Agreed, except would allow deficits and money infusions to keep the vital services operating because it should not be a business. Rather, it’s a public good. The notion that it’s not worth providing is if it can’t pay for itself is obscene.
My wife owns a business and receives at least one call a week from private equity “prospectors”. She will no longer talk with them. She puts it this way: “Private equity has no soul.”
This is happening everywhere! They are risking our lives and our pets lives all for the love of money! They are buying every last Mom and Pop shop including Veterinary offices, local restaurants either closing them or turning them into something the community doesn’t want! It is also happening in development of a new thing putting warehouses wherever they can get away with it. In our backyards down grading housing prices for the owners that have these giant monstrosities to look at looming over their homes. It’s hard to make it work anymore for the majority of us who are at the low end of the totem pole as we watch the rich getting richer everyday. It will collapse if the greed doesn’t stop soon! It is sickening what money can get away with!
This happened to my local veterinarian recently. We didn't realize it at the time, only after realizing that the quality of care had gone downhill severely. Then we looked it up and realized it had been sold to some PE firm specializing in acquiring vet offices. The original owners, who were the primary veterinarians for decades, had retired and sold out -- but the office still keeps their pictures up as though they're still working there. The PE website boasted "the fastest growth of all veterinarian collectives" or some nonsense like that. Who is looking for that in their vet?? How is that a benefit to anyone?? I want people who know me and my pet and demonstrate care, not people getting cycled in and out for profitability.
Cass it is horrible what is happening! They only care about how much money they can make. We took my son’s rabbit who is 11 and the place we went to for years tricked him into getting X-rays for something they couldn’t even fix if she had it because of her age. We just went for a quick check up. They were talking really fast. My son had a stroke a few years back at 25 and he has aphasia. So you can confuse him. They charged over $600! It was outrageous what they did. The original rabbit vet sold the place. Really sad and they were jerks. I was really tired and wasn’t paying attention. Should have refused to pay the bill. I seriously hate them now after doing that. So now there is nowhere to go in an emergency as it is hard to find rabbit vets!
Adding to above we have literally stripped the soul out of our lives and homogenized everything! That connection we had going to local stores where it was owned by local families and everyone knew each other is sadly gone.
In Prof. Reich's class, he polls some 300+ Berkeley students on whether they prefer to live in a community with small, local shops or big box stores. They prefer the small, local. In answer to the question of whether they shop for the best deals, and find themselves shopping online or going to the big boxes and skirting those selfsame local shops, most of them shop for the best deal. Similarly, in response to the issue of paying workers well on airlines and in local book shops, the dilemma of well-educated, well-intentioned students at the "best public university in the country" shows that they do not walk the walk. Do we?!
Thank you! We ALL need to collectively - where possible - "vote" with our wallets as well as our ballots. Example, avoid Amazon, Whole Foods when possible ... buy less from these parasites.
Exactly. And seek out products that are not wrapped in plastic and are plastic-free, household cleansers and toiletries. Shop at a farmers' market and avoid even their occasional plastic clamshell filled with blueberries (bring your own container and hand them back their plastic). Buy second hand at thrift shops and flea markets. Pick up a book at one of the proliferating book swaps, and leave a book. And yes, buy less. You probably don't need it if you think about it.
I knew those stores, those people, I am old enough at 71 to remember “ the butcher” and the gal who “ checked you out at the cash register” and gave you a sucker to chew on as you left! The milkman, the post man, the pastor. A regular “ Mayberry “ in the Midwest. I wouldn’t give that up for all the money in the world 🥰
Corporations were chartered by governments to accomplish certain public goods, roads, bridges, railroads and more. Nineteenth century anti-monopoly law, as honed by the courts, observed that corporations are a creature of the state, therefore the state not only has the right, but the responsibility to regulate corporate activity.
I am retired critical care nurse, started my nursing career in 1973, retired in 2015. I will be ever grateful to my profession, the changes I saw in those years was phenomenal . The atmosphere of working together however slowly disintegrated, by the time I retired the writing was on the wall. We went from a cohesive, well run unit to one plagued with management cuts, intrusiveness by management and an attitude of “ if you don’t like it , don’t let the door hit you on the way out!” Fortunately, or unfortunately, I retired before Covid hit, actually thought about going back because I KNEW what my fellow nurses were facing. As we all know, it’s been a gradual decline in care, services, and I am so grateful I had my time when I did. My heart goes out to every single medical professional trying to do what they were trained to do. All I know, if you have someone in hospital, make sure someone is with them. Especially if they cannot advocate for themselves😞
Vote left.......enough of this centrist capitalism.
It seems our society has been corrupted by the all-mighty dollar. Making money used to be the end result of good business practices but as of late the acquisition of wealth has overtaken the want to produce a product worthy of their corporate efforts. The desire to make something lasting that withstands the test of time and holds some degree of social relevance has been replaced by the procurement of insignificant pieces of paper depicting various monetary denominations. The dollar has been crowned king, sorry Donnie. As a society, we have become obsessed with the lust for wealth. Sadly, it's an end that will elude most of our dreams. We get up every morning and play the lottery without purchasing a single ticket. It's the gift given to us by a society that has lost its way. The value of life has been replaced by that of the dollar. Even in death those we leave behind squabble over what we have left them because of our passing, grief gives way to greed. Puck's words still ring true.
I will reiterate a comment I left previously. The day after Christmas, 1974, my wife and I took a walk and encountered a couple of little boys playing with a puppy. We stopped to make over the little guy and the one boy, no doubt the owner, was all smiles. The other boy stood by, a scowl on his face, Finally he blurted out, "My daddy's gonna get me a better puppy. It costes a hunnerd and three dollars."
From the mouths of babes. Here's a kid, about six or seven, prioritizing the dollar value over the love for a puppy. There, in microcosm, lies the SICKNESS of our culture., and the sure guarantee of its demise. As David Broder, former president of the Sierra Club, once commented, "Everything that can be dollarized, will be." As world becomes ever more under the thumb of the debt mongers, it will sell off everything of real value to keep the wolves of debt out the door. God help us all.
I see that in my grandkids. I spent 3 months building a kitchen into a former living space in my daughter's home. My 13 year old grandson had absolutely no interest in what I was doing or how I was doing it. On substantial completion his comment was "this looks like we are rich."
As the separation of wealth becomes increasingly greater, all those who work for as living are more enslaved by those controlling the money.
Steve--Out of the mouth of babes, what that young boy said reflected the conversations he hears at home on a daily basis, a product of his environment. How about the 6 year old that shot his teacher in the face, heard later saying "I killed the bitch." God help us all.
Exactly my sentiment at the time. That kid wasn't born with that warped value system. Like Trump's seeming popularity, he's a reflection of the times and conditioning. I submitted my thoughts to the local paper at the time and they printed it with a graphic of a sad-eyed puppy with a price tag on its ear.
Steve--I knew a friend in Clearwater Florida, Mike Doll, we cut lawns together for a summer. The lackadaisical manner with which some people raise their children today leaves little wonder as to why so many young adults go bad. When spanking, done appropriately, was remover from the homes and our schools we lost control of our future. NO respect.
The kid may not have had a warped value system; at least, not the way I think you mean. I think he's a sociopath, and mental health experts are split over hard-wiring versus nurture in those cases. Could be, the kid was born with zero empathy or conscience.
Two kids standing on the corner, pre-1980s. One says to the other, "There goes John Johnson. He makes the best furniture in the county. I want to be like him."
Two kids standing on the corner, post-1980s. One says to the other, "There goes John Johnson. Did you know he cleared 100 grand last year pushing that plastic crap? What a great scam! I want to be like him.."
Joined by a young person with a marketing degree today ..."I am not building anything. I am letting Third World slaves (some even our enemies) do it for me, and then I don't care if my neighbors buy it or not. I am marketing it worldwide." "The yellow metal sickness."
Sad
Steve, thank you for your valuable, insightful observation. The puppy is "better" because it costs more. Money has become a status symbol, and you can never have enough of it. The Constitution forbids honorific titles, so money and material possessions confer honor on us. In egalitarian societies individuals find ways to raise themselves above the rest. It is in our nature, and religious leaders fought it in vain, and so did the communists. The great danger is when individuals use power to gain status, as Donald Trump is doing.
David BROWER. David Broder was a Washington Post journalist.
You missed the Scrooge McDuck comic book when you were a kid. It has been like this for a long time. Check out The Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study of Institutions (1899), by Thorstein Veblen, economics and sociology, and a critique of conspicuous consumption as a function of social class and of consumerism, which are social activities derived from the social stratification of people.
Much of this is the fault of tax policy, like the IRS code of 1952. Like trickle down BS.
In the beginning, America was envisioned as a country of yeomen farmers. independent, but for enumerated authority. As soon as the Constitution's ink was dry, it was amended with a Bill of Rights.
The idea of a professional education was that as soon as the sheepskin was dry, the bearer could set it up as a shingle to independently run a business. We discussed Ralph Waldo Emerson Self-Reliance (1841) and the philosophy of independence in junior high while we played "store" and learned how to manage a checkbook, fill out an IRS return....males had to take "shop" and girls had to take "home ec."
Before the Great Society, most kids quit school at that level - 8th grade... to work for someone else. Those who went on could work for someone else, and my school district was accredited to send workers to the mills. ( I was once their lawyer and can speak authoritatively about accreditation.) But over time kids had to borrow and therefore had no incentive to be free agents and work for themselves.
I reject your characterization at the very end, last sentence. "kids had to borrow and therefore . . . had no incentive to be free agents and work for themselves"(?) That break in the middle of the above sentence represents a true gap in understanding. I was one who "had to borrow" and yet you fault me for having no incentive. I had every incentive to be a free agent, but I barely even had enough money for bus fare at certain times in my life. "Needing to borrow" only adds another layer of oppression on the poor, because once you go below the line, you'll be paying higher interest and extra fees. If you are born beneath that line, your chances of ever getting above it are very low. And, you can't get above it unless you borrow enough to qualify yourself for a job tha t pays enough for you to get above that line, or, if you win the lottery.
Actually, you make the case.
Daniel--I didn't miss the old penny pinching version of Donald himself. As for managing a check book we did that to, however, mine seems to be beyond saving for it is always empty. Good points.
So that's that? The End? Might cynicism be a defense against actually feeling all of our feelings, really feeling them? Cause if we were to choose to let go of the cynicism, where might that lead?
Selina--If you're referring to my post what I was attempting to say isn't cynicism its reality. I don't like it any more than you do but our world loves wealth, no matter in what form it may present itself. If more people see the change as cynical maybe we can alter the direction in which we are traveling.
When you've taken action in your personal life, has it been because of something you're drawn to or escape something that's unbearable? Feelings and emotion move us. Cynicism is anger and disappointment and helplessness intellectualized. Heady. Static. Guts, fire in the belly, inspiration, heart, courage all coupled with Will to Act - move us. Cynicism either observed in others or one's own attitude is a form of passivity.
Hope is playing the lottery.
Selina--I'm anything but passive. As for being cynical, I see things as they are. Robert put this topic up for discussion because he feels the same way I do about our current social direction. For far too many of us it isn't "in God we trust" it's in the dollar we have deliver our soul on to.
Each of us needs to find out unique way to contribute to the common good. Findings group that we can support and that can support us when we get discouraged.
I’ve never heard that definition of cynicism, but it rings absolutely true. Describes someone close to me.
Very well said! A problem with durable products, by the time they're finally worn out, & you look to replace them with more of those great, lasting products, they're out of business, & you have to settle for some unproven, inferior product.
Cynics are irresponsible, lazy and weak. Do something at grass roots level to make change happen. How many doors have you knocked to effect change?
Some of us have knocked on so many doors we are exhausted. It's easy to say "effect change", but in some of the places I have worked, an employee would be fired for trying to change the attitude of management.
Eric--Every thing I post is a knock on someone's door.
Eric--Case in point, Maui. Lets see how the rebuilding process goes. Will reconstruction recreate the laid back flavor of the old Maui or will huge hotel concerns commercialize the entire area into another tourist trap. Adventures in paradise, aboard the Tiki, 1959.
Good point—the latter.
Good morning, Donald, what's a nice guy like you doing in a joint like this?
@ Martha. Aha ha ha ha!
Martha--Waiting to meet a nice intelligent woman such as your self. If you're not scared yet you should be. LOL
I understand your interest in the detour, but do you really think the left is less interested in making money? Their war is about money and power, their alphabet soup government agencies are about making money for those who control them...I see a growing uniparty, which saddens me which brings me full circle back to your desire for a detour.
Let us remember our history. Tony Coelho, a very liberal Congressman from California's Central Valley, called the Democratic Party's attention to the fact that we were getting beat like a gong by GOP money and we needed to go out and get some money too. So we did.
Martha Ture: Yes, Unions were being destroyed and donations from them were drying up forcing Coelho, circa 1980, to go after $$$ from big business -- a Faustian bargain that harmed the blue collar / middle class immensely. Prof. Reich made this clear in one of his talks at Harvard (I think it was) a few years ago. It's been hopeless INEQUALITY ever since until President Biden said, "I'm tired of the middle class getting fleeced " and managed to navigate some helpful legislation thru a difficult Congress. It seems that the Democratic Party has, or wants to, come home to labor. Please, please let's elect many more Democrats. I plan to devote time, money, and energy to this election cycle like never before because, as Kamala Harris has said, Democracy is fragile and needs its citizens to fight for it. How to communicate this to the uninitiated is the challenge; it can be done by plain speaking, I hope.
P.S. We could do much worse than Kamala as a back up and we should proudly tout her credentials for the oval office. Also, Ralph Nader is a few years older than President Biden and still sharp as a tack mentally. The latter said the other day that his age has given him some wisdom, something we might learn to respect more in this country.
I'm compelled to say: Doris Kearns Goodwin, the eminent Historian of U.S. history, and U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota have both publicly called for Campaign Finance Reform (CFR). Interesting.
Bernie Sanders also remains very sharp, & although several years younger, Robert Reich as well as Elizabeth Warren & Hillary Clinton all show no signs of slowing down.
Oi vei is mir. Carlos, I don't know where to start with your view of history. Let's see. Unions were being destroyed. . see the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947, which bans union contributions to political candidates, restricts the power of unions to call strikes that "threatened national security," and forced the expulsion of Communist union leaders (the Supreme Court found the anti-communist provision to be unconstitutional, and it is no longer in force). The unions campaigned vigorously for years to repeal the law but failed.
Certainly here in France they are.
I mostly think of the egregious medical establishment in the US.
Who is going to back Universal health care?
Who is going to change abortion rights?
As the world moves further to the right (sceptical about France at present) after Macron finally goes but I do think the US should look at alternatives to the Dems/Repubs.
Yes, although at this critical time we can't afford to split the anti-fascist left-moderate coalition, I hope that, as the Republican Party ideally disintegrates, a strong, truly progressive party can emerge to the left of the Democratic Party, & they compete with each other. Then we might finally get strong, pro-environment/climate legislation that we so urgently need, much greater economic justice & a progressive tax system, universal healthcare & other progressive programs & policies.
On that last note, I like what RFK Jr is doing and fighting for.
So what is it that RFK Jr. is doing and fighting for that you think is likeable.
Please. I ask because he is on record as being a liar and funded by the GOP.
The guy is a nut job that even his family is running far and wide from.
Are you Russian agents?
Paid MAGATS to provide disinformation?
Ouch, why the vitriol? I deplore King Donald and don’t know how any woman could possibly support him
or just misled MAGAs? Guess it doesn 't make much difference.
RFK Jr is a lunatic. A certified whacko. Dig a bit deeper and you will find a damaged person who denies the realities of science and sees conspiracies around every corner. His family is probably considering an intervention which would hopefully involve parking him somewhere where he will cease to be a danger.
I was very impressed by RFK JR. until I heard his take on Israel and his total disregard for the Palestinians and the Apartheid state Israel has imposed on them. I don't understand how someone who is so correct on so many issues can be so blind on this one, and it makes me question his moral compass. Sad.
indeed
What is he fighting for that you approve of so much? I mainly hear how he's fighting against vaccines & support for Ukraine, but I no longer hear anything from him about the environment, for which I used to admire him. I am sincere in my question since I think the news I've been getting about him is incomplete & one-sided.
As a whole, the Democratic Party, with all its flaws, & there are many, is orders of magnitude better (or less bad, if you prefer to look at it that way) than the Republican Party. All the good Congress members are either Democrats or Independents leaning Democratic (& I'm not including Kristin Sinema), such as Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Jeff Merkley, Sheldon Whitehouse, Cory Booker, Ed Markey, Raul Grijalva, Ro Khanna, Jamie Raskin, Adam Schiff, Katie Porter, Barbara Lee & the Squad. They may be on the verge of gaining control of the party (although I've been hoping for that for ages).
Let's look at how to get someone into office, Jennifer.
What does it take?
Bernie managed to get into the Dems?
And blocked by the Democratic establishment machine.
Sadly true!
Vote to the right. it was the left (dems) & Hillary Clinton who ruined healthcare
NO
GTFO of America you fucking communist TWAT.
IF 'lefties' take no money from corporate powers like Bernie did it would work or get more leftists into the D party.
Good lord. Hop a track over to a different tune pertaining to what you think might be possibilities /needed to un-glue the status quo you describe so despairingly (and from an already "give upness" attitude). What can you and I do to begin booting ourselves out of the citizen passivity/apathy Wolin describes so well?
Patronize small businesses. Help them thrive.
That "track" is the solution. Our denial of truth is our enemy. Amoral Capitalism is our weapon of choice. The gilded age has returned with even more desires. Unfortunately we can't find enough people below us to lay the blame on. So we continue to be grifted by the Kings and Queens as our saviors. We Peasants are far too busy keeping those cigs spinning with our purchases of larger TVs to even care enough that our Supreme Court is now firmly in the grips of those in theirs thrones polishing their crowns of glory. All hail the Bling du jour and remember to fling sand, from your sand boxes at anyone who doesn't have the same ethics as the ex POTUS has. Nixon taught them well.
Teach the Children Well! ✌️
Leave the US. Easy cure.
You chose the cowardly way to be mean.
It's honest advice and I'm taking it myself. But sure, keep telling me I'm mean while you're the one making personal insults. I'll take that lesson real deep to heart.
Endless, I do not believe you.
Sorry, but please use your name. I hope you have a happier life where ever you are going. Good luck.
So another question is don't you think it's kind of privileged to think that we Americans can just go occupy some other country?
Which is exactly one of the problems with America - it relies and has always relied on slave labour to provide it economic superiority and they intentionally make it difficult to leave. I've been saving for decades for this moment. I don't think it's easy, but I bet everything - literally - that it will be worth it for myself and my future generations.
Real Americans can spell "labor."
The question is don't you think it's colonialist to think you can go occupy another nation? After all, US national policy is anti-immigrant. Here is a list of nations that will welcome US citizens. https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/countries-seeking-american-immigrants
Sounds more like seeking refuge than occupying, although, kind of like climate chaos, there might not be any safe place on Earth to which we can flee from the chaos that an unstable or fascist US government could cause in this world.
"Love it or lump it" isn't really public policy.
I don't think anything can save the US right now. As hard as Republicans cheat at elections, I consider their eventual takeover certain and nothing good to come of it. I want out while the getting is good. I live only with women and Republimerica will not welcome them.
"Hope springs eternal-"; here's to better days ahead!
But take your 401K's with you when you leave the rest of us the mess. Nice.
If it helps any, I've been disabled about a decade and don't have any 401ks.
I appreciate your response—and perspective. Good luck as an ex-pat.
Endless Nameless...What a cowards response. At least you aren't a business owner falling on hard times. You'd definitely close shop and not seek a different route that could salvage the business.
Only the fifth person to call me a coward. So original and friendly and boy that just makes me want to stay here with you pleasant people.
Listen here you fucking nobody who doesn't know a fucking thing about be - I lived half my life with drive-bys, I was homeless for months, I had to eat out of dumpsters and fight for my life repeatedly. I had to crawl my way to a damn hospital and this is just shit I did AS A TEENAGER. You don't know a fucking thing about courage and that's before I worked for decades for a country that showed about as much loyalty as you do intelligence.
Go deep throat a goat - you're the coward taking the easy way out by not disrupting your precious life to pull up the tent stakes and go to the next city. Bet you'll never guess where I learned that saying either.
An aside here: Every single country has the exact type of government that it deserves to have.
*investors are what turned me away from continuing in my chosen field as an executive chef. Fancy name for a once upon a time cook who enjoyed his lower staus vs power, money and privileges of Management.
Thank you for your honesty. As far as giving up on our fellow citizens, friends ,family and yes even our foes, and fleeing to another time zone, I've a farm in Brazil, have for nearly 20 year's now. Also I returned early after retiring at 47 because of a frugal lifestyle I chose, and still live, coupled by investors lust for ever higher profits. Also my distain for how much more amoral capitalism is becoming. In part due to another B-actor we hired to Lord over us with trump's same belief that it's never the fault of our country. Tis' much easier to lay blame elsewhere. Sadly he's nearly untouchable, his history is proof of this, along with the real leaders the Kings and Queens holding the purse strings will never enjoy seeing one of them being taken down. I made some selfish gambles and lost a major amount of my savings. At 47, I returned and started anew. Having shared that tidbit, I have an option that the majority of our neighbors do not have. So yes, if the fight becomes too difficult I too can throw up the white flag. Integrity has absolutely nada to do with our past. trump and a good portion of the political hacks along with our discovery that the Supreme Court can be bought for concert tickets and shiny bling for the mistresses and real stones for the wifey. Integrity is actually becoming a lost art, along with civility. And if you're insulted by being called a coward for abandoning your neighbors, family, friends and fellow citizens by a nobody on a platform designed for good civil debating about the ills plaqueing the USA, or just a quick review of your enemies if so inclined, then that's on you, and I shall not apologize for my childish tactic of silly name calling. I'll leave it up to you to decide my sincerity or lack of on that as well.
Have a peaceful week, and never allow those who disagree with you to change your moods .Happiness and understanding our true selves are much more important than this short exchange of wordsmith.
♥️😂🎶
I hear Africa is nice this time of year! Large petting zoo's everywhere! /S
Lions and tigers and jaguars, oh my!
Warlords, Pestilence, famine, OH YES!
Nowhere is safe. The USA is the only place to stay.
Defend its small "d" democracy and keep it safe.
VOTE D straight party line. BIDEN 2024!
Connie Botke, what you said is exactly my experience as an RN working in healthcare, as a patient , and as the daughter of dying parents in this financial system we call healthcare. It feels like a nightmare when I recollect some of the scenarios I found myself in as patients died prematurely and suffered needlessly because profit must be squeezed out of the system like the last drop of blood draining on the floor of the trauma room in an ER. Bernie Sanders' answer is "Medicare for All." The majority of the people know this and want it, but the majority doesn't rule anymore, if we ever did. The founders created this system to protect themselves, the opulent, from the majority encroaching on their fortunes. I don't believe they could have envisioned this would be our ultimate end; but it is. I won't give up. I can't because I love my children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren, and I want them to survive and thrive. We must have Universal Basic Income and Medicare for All to begin pulling ourselves out of the depths we have fallen into.
Yes! I never realized until just this year and I’ve been our 8, that I was suffering from PTSD, I prided myself in being certified in my specialty , attended major seminars every year, most of the time at my expense, achieved the highest nursing award( not rooting my horn) given at my facility of over 1500 nurses. The point being, I strived and pushed myself to be as good as I COULD be! The “cost “ of that was huge. So much trauma, so much responsibility , so many people suffering and dying. Sorry docs, SO many arrogant egotistical physicians, screaming, when WE were there first line of defense! Nurses chewing up younger nurses, I put a protective barrier around me!!! And no one really knew ME! . It stole my soul, I shudder each time I have to enter a hospital. Getting better, past is past. But, beware all those still working this environment, it will eat you up!!!😞
We learn to assume "the nurse mask" to hide our trauma and to function. Continuing to work in nursing was going to kill me. Unless you can become a robot, as some of my colleagues succeeded in doing (or distanced themselves from the chaos by entering administration), you can't do it. Look at nurse suicide statistics and the so-called "accidental overdoses." Look at the national stats for everybody and the declining longevity in the US while the longevity of other "civilized countries" with universal healthcare continues to increase. We must have UBI and Medicare for All. We have PTSD as nurses and as US citizens.
More power to you. And as feminists/suffragettes and unionists and Vietnam protesters know - it is in organizing and persistence and risk taking beyond our comfort zones in massive actions over time, that a national killing narrative/policy changes.
Thank you Gloria for stating facts. As painful as it is we must face this crisis of humanity face on.
It doesn’t change anything when we say “ it has always been this way”. We are supposedly smarter, wiser, than that. Make it different. I have no miracle answer to change the vision from the $$$$$ sign to a sign that gives hope to all. But having been raised during the late 40’s to now I have begun to doubt the legitimacy of this so called Capitalism that is wide open to corruption. Regulation and fair taxation can still allow those who think only of money to be comfortable. And fair wages and taxation of the wealthy (no loopholes) can give everyone a chance to be part of a healthy middle class.
How often I hear from people coming into America that they are here to get rich. Make a bundle and then “go back home”..... give them a reason to stay. Make the playing field about the middle class, about union wages, about government investment in the building of a safe and beautiful society that we can all be proud of. In building public schools that are confident in supporting the teaching of facts so all have a chance to contemplate what has worked and what has not.
A way to then measure what becomes useful to a healthy society and what has simply caused its’ demise.
We can start with healthcare: now big business only.
Housing: now big business only,
Two powerfully important sections of what allows a healthy society to exist.
If we can’t support ourselves as humans by making sure it doesn’t “just be this way always”, then we will live (or not) with the consequences of giving in to power and greed.
Like I said above, it's in big businesses' interest to get Medicare for all. The problem is tat the insurance industry has coopted the business lobbying groups -- National Manufacturers' Ass, Chambers of Congress etc.
In this sense they are as stupid as the 90% of Republicans who vote contrary to their own economic and health well being.
Many Unions do the same thing as the 90% of Republicans. They argue over decreasing benefits and increased costs with "Management" rather than avoid the whole argument and support MFA.
Jean,
What does MFA stand for?
The unions I am alluding to were made up of the workers who in fact worked for the workers and along side the management for the benefit of company and employees. It actually was a fine marriage.
Every other civilized country takes care of their people. And civilized countries should be rendering unending aid to those who have no health system at all! Every nurse, physician, medical professional should volunteer in a third world country administered aid, meds, diagnosis, care,shoes to people who have NOTHING!!!
We have people in this country with nothing and no healthcare. Two of my siblings died because they had no health insurance, hence no healthcare. Do you mean civilized countries with healthcare should come here and help us? Parts of the US are "third world." I don't understand what you mean.
Nicholas Kristof has a long opinion piece in today's New York Times about the poor quality of our healthcare. I only scanned it and thought it should have been larger in scope, but certainly, he makes a point about health care deserts in places like Mississippi.
This used to be my subject. I heard Medicare appeals for 10 years. I have held hearings in most of the places mentioned in the article. At the same time I also heard Social Security disability cases. I got most of the hospice appeals from all over the world.
I was also an officer of the ABA and when "Hilarycare" was in Congress was co-chair of an ABA task force. I think that Medicare is great, and that if Medicare for all could replace private insurance for everyone, but most especially the big corporations that pay for employee healthcare would benefit. The main problem is greed. For example, physicians in the Dakotas, where there are scarce resources make on average more than physicians in most other places.
Pikeville, KY started a medical school. They had lousy care, just like the Mississippi example. But now they are the center of a medical industry. Many schools have graduate programs in health sciences that easily could have warped into an equivalent.
If Medicare for all were enacted with the elimination of the "collateral sources" rule in litigation, all insurance premiums would drop. The premiums we pay for Part B would drop because the base would be expanded to include younger, less sick people. Employers would not have to pay these fringe costs.
Agree with all you say about Medicare for All (MFA) with a couple of exceptions.
1) If you poll Americans you find that 70% favor MFA (and politicians like Sanders and Warren love to quote this statistic). But if you ask the follow up question: "By the way, you do understand this means you too?" then support drops to 35%. So we think that when Americans hear MFA, they think it means universal healthcare, and also suggests that more than a third of Americans are happy with their (employer-based) commercial healthcare. A better approach might be to say MFA for all who want it. Then you have to deal with all the little old ladies who say "but I worked for my Medicare, why should we give it away to young people?" and make it clear that Medicare would cost younger people. Also, as a lawyer, would it be possible to mandate that corporations offer Medicare along with commercial insurance?
2) MFA does not address the issue of physician autonomy, which is closely linked to burnout.
I think the best system would be one in which the government puts out a bucket of money and then encourages doctors to compete for it, the same way they do with defense contractors. I don't approve of most defense spending, but cannot deny that the US makes the best weapons of destruction in the world.
Likewise, in a peaceful context, such funding would raise standards by promoting intense competition between doctors, who are mercilessly (and largely appropriately) critiqued on the internet. To keep doctors honest, there would have to be strict regulation. For example, if my group owns an MRI scanner, we would be allowed, say, 1.2 MRI scans for each new patient and, say, 0.05 scans for each follow-up. After that, we are scanning for free. This would enable doctors to practice Medicine seamlessly, without allowing gaming of the system. Doctors would get paid in proportion to the number of patients they see, not the number of procedures. They would also be incentivized to keep patients out of the hospital, which would further reduce costs.
Exactly, look under a bridge in America ( the beautiful?) and look in the wooded areas of cities and look on the streets of major cities. Try and wrap your head around the fact that we are a mess. Homeless and mental illness do not make a country great.
We have miles of poverty , piles of homeless, millions of mentally ill , that’s “ill “folks. People who suffer mental illness are not bad, they are ill.
No different than getting cancer..... except cancer is a money maker!!!!😱
In addition to the universal basic income we need a universal maximum income so that those who have benefited the most from our culture don’t acquire all the power with brides and gifts. Philanthropy has long been a voluntary club for the elite and some Uber rich citizens have done laudable work with their excessive wealth. Let’s just make philanthropy involuntary and driven by the needs of all those on whose shoulders they stood.
Very insightful; I agree 100%. Your comment speaks to a more compassionate society. A pipe dream, but not unrealistic, IMO.
Gloria Maloney: thank you for sharing your comment and stop, for goodness sake, reading my mind!
How to stop private equity firms by cutting off their money spigot:
https://prospect.org/economy/cut-off-private-equitys-money-spigot/ (you have to enter your email address to read the article).
The punchline from the article:
"But the biggest single action to drive harmful private equity firms out of the economy would be to simply put all investment funds under the(Investment Company) 1940 Act regulations with no exceptions, thereby limiting the leverage that is the mother’s milk of private equity. The societal value of allowing PE firms to load debt on companies is questionable and the harms can be great. The tools exist today to stop it, in a law written 82 years ago".
Are the Democrats in Congress pursuing this course of action?
In the article, which is a year old, the author says that some of the provisions he’s recommending are in Elizabeth Warren’s Stop Wall Street Looting Act. I don’t know what happened to that but I suspect it went nowhere or we would have heard. But these ideas are hopeful. I had never heard of David Dayen, the author, but I intend to seek his writing out now. This seems to be a seminal article, Tim. Thank you so much for posting the link.
Thanks for the link
Tim, a good book to read, written by Morris Pearl and Erica Payne and the Patriotic Millionaires: “Tax the Rich.”
Only if we all feel safe and able to survive will the rich feel safe!
No sign of that if you read the Prospect's article about the new DNC chair.
Being accompanied in any hospitalization began in the 1990s as a recommendation to any Nurse, friend who found themselves hospitalized. That's when business, which was brought in by MDs to increase profit, decrease the empowerment of Nursing that was peaking ( and peaked), and deconstructed mental health care, substance abuse care, home care, hospice home care , then rest homes, nursing homes. CARE gone, PROFIt UP. Those poor ole doctees never imagined they would become second class citizens to business!!
Vicki, you are so right about the deterioration of the ability to provide care. The rich white folks in many places will never have to deal with that because their top drawer insurance and their own money will make sure of that, but the rest of us, get whatever is left over. We have a hospital in my community that was an excellent facility until the community lost so many of our businesses moving south to non-union jobs, going overseas where wages are so small as to be hardly noticed and working conditions can be whatever the corporations want. The hospital is failing, hardly able to provide any care to the community and it is the only hospital within the immediate area. The hospitals outside the immediate area do not particularly like caring for the impoverished community next door. Until the rich folks in charge feel the pain, nothing will happen to make things better. I do wish we could get universal healthcare as opposed to medicare for all because if things go on as they are now, Medicare for all would have huge loopholes that would let private entities in which would ultimately undermine the whole system as they are trying now to undermine Medicare. We need some people to step up and put together a plan for transforming what we have now into a universal healthcare system for this entire nation. We could do it but need a plan people can see and understand. Then, how do we fight the corporate money that will oppose it at every step? Too much money and power in too few hands, and those hands dirty with abuse of that power and money is what we are dealing with.
Please Chop wood carry
True dat!!!😏
True!
Your post reminds me of what one if my mom's caregivers told me when my mom was in assisted living. She said none of the staff on the floor had time to do what they were trained to do. Each staffer was responsible for caring for 15 people, which meant residents would have to wait for help while another resident was being helped. One resident can't be left on the toilet to go see what another resident needs. Over half the residents were in wheelchairs. Twice the number of caregivers were needed, but the money people would not permit hiring additional caregivers. The staff cared very lovingly for my mother, but the profit motive got in the way of providing the best care. Greed is killing America.
Connie, as a patient numerous times during the period you describe, I experienced the change in care and it was not the fault of the nurses and doctors. When they had the moment to check in with me, they were terrific, but those times were few, even in times when I was in serious pain. I worked as a chaplain and medical ethicist in a hospital in the '80s and saw changes happening then, a bit at a time, just over 3 years or so. I have no doubt private equity had something to do with recent changes in patient care and the use and abuse of nurses and other staff. For the protection of all of us, we need to get some serious interventions going. You chose an extraordinary career and I have been blessed to work with and be cared for by remarkable human beings, nurses, doctors, and housekeeping staff. I would love to see the ability for medical and other staff to care for their patients as they would like, to come back. It won't happen on its own, the rich corporations have proven that. I am guessing we are going to have to fight for it.
I'm encouraged, in a twisted way, to read what is happening in health care in other places. I thought my clinic was unique with the way it has declined during the past decade.
Scary!
What about the elderly & the disabled????
Wall Street hedge funds are quietly moving into this sector and buying up all types of nursing home services to monopolize.
Jim, yes, and they are using and abusing older residents at will, hiring people who have not been fully trained to do the work as if it does not matter who cares for the residents there. The medical staff tries, but the salaries are often low, non-competitive and the working conditions can be harsh. My grandmother and aunt, both rather independent women were in a facility where because they didn't act like good little girls, were drugged into submission. The corporation that owned the facility was OK with that as a general practice until they were caught at it. I think someone on their board either worked there or was a resident and had that happen to them. Whenever I visited, there were rows of people sitting in wheelchairs up and down the halls, just waiting for death. I understand there are a lot of corporate-owned facilities like that, many of them private equity corporations. Inexcusable.
Can one of you seeming to have all this knowledge of these horrific crimes happening please send your proof, etc. to a serious independent investigative group - for example The Lever - so it can be publicized beyond our Reich comments section?! My God!
Or maybe the attorney general's office(s) in the state(s) you are referring to?
I hope they don’t get their grubby hands on hospice care, which continues to do a remarkable job with end-of-life care, Jim.
Thank you for your insight.
They already have hospice care. Why isn't anybody exposing Matt Gaetz and the family hospice business having been sued by Medicaid for fraud. They have sold it, but somebody's influence is shaping a path for the for-profit hospice corporations to create a system to save Social Security and Medicare countless dollars. Look up "stealth euthanasia." Not enough people are aware of what is happening until it happens to their loved one. Patients not it pain are being coerced/forced into taking the lethal combination of morphine and the tranquilizer, Ativan. The Washington Post and ProPublica have written a series and articles exposing what I believe is an impending holocaust of the elderly.
Gloria, I don't know much about the "homicide actions you are describing, but I do know about the drugging into submission as that happened to my grandmother and aunt. We tried to protest, but were told it was to protect them from injury. That made no sense, of course, but we could get nowhere. Letting private equity, that valuesless set of corporations get involved with Hospice or anything else is a doom scenario. We the People need to stop them!
Hospice convinces elderly persons who are exhausted from keeping track of medical bills, "We'll take care of all your medical bills if you sign here." They don't tell them that they stop their medical treatments like their heart or Parkinson's medications. Many are not even terminally ill. Then they start pushing morphine and Ativan. Soon the person is not even eating or drinking. Hospice employees tell the family this is the "dying process." It's the killing process. I'm not denying that there are terminally ill patients in pain that can benefit from hospice. But this is less often the case. Hospice is a big, profitable business. I worked in long-term-care for years and protecting people through regulatory agencies is a joke. The long-term-care lobby bribes the politicians like in ever other industry. Be afraid!
Sorry honey they have. For profit hospice "recruiters" stalk the halls of nursing homes and hospitals getting names from employees...used to be they bribed 'em, now it's business as usual. If the "referral" is dual eligible everybody gets paid. If the "referral" is "self pay" they have to have a family who is willing to take them home and provide most of the care. They peddle loving care but it's all about the money and don't forget how the hospice "movement" played into the early of the opiate e
epidemic.
No!
I didn’t know any of this!
Thank you for your insight!
Yes! They do❤️
As is the ghoulish private equity prey.
Be with them, as much as you can! And if you think for a minute your physician is advocating for you! Think again! You are the only one who will or does advocate for yourself and your loved ones! Be present and learn as much as you can!
Pam, you mean rich valuesless corporations should care about poor or disabled persons! What are you thinking!!! They are the ones who are "working" so hard to keep those valuesless corporations from getting even more of the wealth they don't deserve. That is a major reason so many local hospitals are being closed, and communities undermined with crappy properties being rented out for huge sums with no controls.
We (the US) have become a country where we value wealth above all else. I speculate the modern gold rush found its legs in the 1980s. Celebrity publicity & worship exacerbate the problem. We have not given our children good role models to follow, so they learn that blind pursuit of money is the meaning of life. It’s a philosophy that perpetuates itself. I cannot think of an answer to save ourselves from ourselves. I am a Baby Boomer.
Pam, I, too am a baby boomer and have been reading a lot about the way the economy works. It seems the money worship has been going on for a very long time, at least a couple of hundred years. The severity of the disease waxes and wanes. I would agree that the current insanity got wound up with Reagan who clearly loved money and those who had it. His union-busting had so much to do with giving the haves even more and setting things up so the haves almost couldn't lose and the new haves would be able to exploit the new openings made for them while the actual workers, the ones who made the money for the haves were left out of the discussions almost entirely. Politicians who were allowed to get away with it by their constituents bought into the BS and saw money as the only value. They have only gotten richer and the haves have added tremendously to their fortunes while the rest of the nation gets to live on the leftovers from the intense greed. We should be able to do better, but alas, not yet. There are too many who believe they will get rich one day and so will support anyone who passes the lie of upcoming wealth on to them. The whole private equity industry is a product of that greed and discounting of the majority of people because we are in their book next to irrelevant.
The Reagans were personal friends with Ayn Rand, whom they received while they were in the White House. Nancy was particularly enthralled. This is where they got their capitalist orientation. I think Rand was singularly responsible for this "greed is good" movement in America. It's hard to put down her compelling books and one can come away as a true believer. I can't believe we saw her as a philosopher for American values, when actually she was an extreme reactionary against the Russian Revolution; and sad to say, that's ALL she was. She never really "got" America.
Sandra, I tried reading Rand's book "Atlas Shrugged" and got through chapter 2 before I realized I didn't like the writing style or the world she was presenting. I didn't know anything about her until later (my attempt was while I was in college and it seemed a lot of people were reading it). I suspect Reagan was a fan of her style of thinking even before he knew her. He was not a very good governor of CA from what I have read and what people who lived there have told me. He seems to have had a one-track mind and whatever track he got on, it was really hard to move him from it. He got on the property tax thing and saw "high" property taxes as the root of all evil, then it was unions, then trickle-down economics as the savior of the world, and so on. I guess people like one-track minded people because so many of them get elected. They get a phrase that means nothing and run with it: morning in America, 1,000 points of light (Bush Sr,), MAGA. The best part for them is they never have to define it, just spout it regularly with enthusiasm. At least "Yes we can" had some plans and positive ideas attached to it even though when Obama was saying it, he knew he and we would be facing the worst recession since the Great Depression. What did MAGA celebrate, a racist, misogynistic, xenophobic ignorant man and his desperate need to be cheered and worshipped, a reality TV star with only insults, lies, and a lack of knowledge to offer the American people. We need to do better. Global warming is making that imperative!
That’s when greed accelerated. I saw documentary recently that verified it.
As a physician I couldn't agree more. I am even old enough to remember the days when "Healthcare" was known as "Medicine," "providers" were known as "doctors and nurses," and when my practice included house calls. I loved the ICU, and discovered there a treatment for status epilepticus..
Now we have a small number of gleaming hospitals that are run incompetently by accountants, and by clueless CEOs making $10 million a year, jostling for rankings on US News and World Report. Doctors and nurses are burned out, and there are now 75 million Americans who are uninsured or underinsured.
My ICU treatment would never have seen the light of day.
Thank you, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and the denizens of Wall Street.
And I too am an MD, I remember the 80s, when The House of God was an ethnography not a novel but we were working our tails off because it was good and right. No more. They have put us in our places for sure. RVUs, click bait to keep your notes billableand your MIPS covered. And now you are one of the undifferentiated white coated "provider" bots wearing electronic trackers just like Amazon warehouse workers at Fulfillment Centers. Young NPs and PAs are cheaper and more obedient than old doctors. Young doctors have too much debt and no experience with wise old primary care doctors so they go into high tech procedural subspecialties. But it's only business.
I refused to continue working in the hospital and never regretted the decision. Sad to see that 75% of physicians are now employed there. The accountants and MBAs who run things are putting junior doctors in charge of stroke units. Why? Because they are cheap and they don't answer back. They also don't listen, yet you can tell they're terrified.
When I was a resident I was cocky, but we always knew the guys with the grey hair were the gods, and we would always defer to them - because it's about human lives. Now that I've become a god, the little doctors have become atheists.
Connie, a nurse approaching retirement. I agree with everything you wrote. For profit healthcare is horrible. The average patient doesn’t know how short staffed and undertrained the workers are. Yes, make sure you have an advocate/family/friend with you. I’ve recently switched to a job that is non-nursing. It’s been wonderful, yet I’m concerned about the medical field and my own healthcare insurance costs.
What can those that have no family/advocate do?
That’s a really good question. Communicate all of your needs when staff come in. Some facilities have advocates on staff.
I am a nurse too, Connie, and I also retired from the "mainstream" medical community because of the change from providing great care to making a great deal of money. I have always thought it should be illegal to profit from the healthcare of people.
The oxymoronic "healthcare industry". Sigh.
I replied to you, but my comment appears elsewhere for some reason. Please read my comment below and I thank you for sharing your experience. It's always good to feel we're not the only one.
ABSOLUTELY — I worked on a small newspaper owned by the dean of a medical school. He decried the changes in medical education. Students arrived eager to help humanity, and they had it pounded into them that they would be in the business of providing health care. As independent practitioners, they would be running businesses. He was very sad about that.
I can relate to the advice by Ms Boyle to advocate for your loved one in hospital. My Wife’s Mother was admitted several times before she past away and we plus paid Caregivers were with her 24/7 until she could come home. The staff was shorthanded and over worked with too many patients per staff ratio in place.
They were dedicated but simply not able to put in the time to provide the attention she needed. The presence of family and familiar faces helped her recovery. We were confronted by the attending physician and told we were in denial and her health and were unable to accept the fact that she was about to die. She recovered and lived three more years. I’m sure if we had listened to the doctor she would have died in short order.
Absolutely true, Connie! RN x decades. Loved my patients and felt I was making a difference. Then the bean counters bought the hospital systems.
Staffing cuts. Working short staffed. More acute (sicker) patients. Larger number of patients. "Zero raise (again) this year because there's no money in the budget" while the suits in the C-suite got their gigantic bonuses. When I realized nursing care to them was nothing more than a line on a spreadsheet, voted with my feet.
Right there with you, Ms. Botke.
I’m a retired& tired nurse also if hospital did not treat nurses as a expense on the budget things would be better .RN stands for Refreshments & Narcotics as the corporate world takes over. My fellow nurses put your nurses cap back on. They can’t doit without you . Be professional you have the power it’s how you get there. Forever one & with you.
You have eloquently expressed the nature of our greatest socio-economic problem. It is the economic side of a valueless society. Excuse me, I meant to say, a society which has as its sole value the accumulation of wealth. This value is now degrading the idea of productive labor, with the capitalist cost savings achievable by robotics and artificial intelligence. We are a species now rushing headlong into self-destruction by ignoring every common sense metric of happiness. We can't even learn about what is occurring in our world because reporting itself has become subordinate to wealth creation, whose sponsors have decided that knowledge is less lucrative and therefore less valuable than entertainment.
They are not so interested in entertainment any more either, Kerry. Just their money.
Kerry. Amen.. we ignore... I ran away from God as headlong stubborn as a 20!some year old could.. and still ended up running right into His arms anyway.. he is so big.. most of us will stay stubborn, prideful, and still still reject Him.. it doesn’t matter.. His love won’t be undone.. “turn away from our isms” his predecessor preached! And then.. He came. He overcame.. He made a way.. The Gate.. the rest, like you said @Kerry.. “is history”😌😌😌
Thank you ❤️ Thank you 💚 Thank you💙.. for sharing
,-w
Exactly; you are on my team, do not think this is a joke. I am the Victorious, Book of Revelation.
I was thinking about "It's A Wonderful Life" as I read it. In the film George and his family run a Building and Loan company to help the townspeople that are working-class to build their own homes. They do so because they believe people that work hard deserve to live well and provide a comfortable living for themselves and their families. People were not living merely to survive and make money to increase their employer's profit.
But we can also see through the wealthy businessman Mr. Potter that some people such as him care only about themselves and their comfort. Potter was not concerned for the people in Bedford Falls, he thought people were like cattle, he only wanted to profit from their labor and he even rented homes to the majority of the town.
The film was released in 1946, the year Professor Reich was born and the economy rebounded after the war. I also believe it's. the year in which business began the shift to stakeholder capitalism? Businesses were interested in making great products to make money to improve the lives of their workers and the community.
FYI, my father owned the largest department store in a town named Beaver Falls. It was forced out of business in 1971 after national chain stores, one of them a K-mart, opened shopping centers outside of the downtowns where that store and two others he owned were located. The downtowns of all three cities have never recovered.
And the thing I didn’t like about the movie was that Mr. Potter mistakenly came into the $8000 that caused the run on the S&L yet he kept it, never fessed up and he was never held accountable. Prophetic or what?
You're right. I should have included that point. Yes, Mr. Potter stole the money. It could be said he didn't steal it but he knew it was the Building and Loan funds. It was exactly the $8,000 that George told him was missing. It does seem to foreshadow the future.
Nancy Bookidis, Mediterranean Archaeologist:
You are omitting from your list of money makers universities and colleges, which now function on "the business model', which means that the Humanities are dropped - history, foreign languages, English, Greek, Latin, no good, don't make money. Business depts. are expanding as Humanities are either pushed into basements or dropped altogether. And of course administrators are placed and paid ahead of professors. Where will this lead us if we produce an uneducated 'college' graduate?
We have it now with the loan sharking and lack of access to college for many who want to avoid lifetime debt. Administrators are like CEOs now.
Laurie, yes, and then, there's the sports, especially men's sports that bring in a lot of money, but it is not clear that it is sufficient to cover the amount of money the college gives to keep those sports going, then the athletes get little of the money. If they are playing, they often do get their education paid for until they are hurt or can't play anymore, then their education is dropped and they are left with nothing. Yep, just like a business. I had read somewhere that the highest paid state official in many states is the state university football coach. We could do better if we could say no for a change, but the dollar signs in the eyes glow at the thought of more money pouring in, nearly always benefiting those who don't need the benefits. Affirmative action just dumped, pretty much opens colleges and universities to the white and Asian students who have the advantages and never have to know what it is like to live in poverty and fight every day just to get to school and to learn when there due to the confusion, huge class size, poor physical condition of the buildings, and curriculum demands that don't reflect the lives of the students. I am guessing there are private equities involved with charter schools too, because there is so little regulation of them and their purpose is to undermine our public schools, another goal of private equities. Their job will be easier if they can manipulate brainwashed or totally indifferent students to just not see what is being done to them and our nation.
Yes, at least some charter schools are run by private equity. I don't know which is worse, those or the ones Arkansas is planning to let the Catholic church operate. And speaking of college football, I just got encouraged to meet up with other alums from my university to cheer on the winning football team. I was fantacizing about starting an alum group for people who hate the game, but I suspect it wouldn't be large.
Progwoman, I hadn't heard about the private equities involved with charters, just guessed it would be a good target for them. I like sports but didn't go to any while in college since my school only had bowling and tennis and grad school because no one I hung out with was a sports lover. I don't mind there being a good sports program but there need to be some serious modifications like, if a student is chosen for a team that pays its students' costs, those continue until graduation with programs designed to help the athlete be ready for a job after college sports: broadcasting, coaching, writing, public speaking, if they don't want a career in science, the humanities, medicine, law, or other fields. No student athlete should be able to be pushed out of the college/university without a degree if the person wants to acquire one and the skills that go with it. These athletes should not be seen as tools to bring in the bucks, then left dangling if they are not among the very lucky to move on to professional sports.
I'm trying unsuccessfully to track down the young man I knew who left a venture capital operation to work for a charter network in Boston, so perhaps I responded carelessly.
Agreed! And full time professors are being replaced by adjuncts, who are paid poorly and are part time so no benefits.
And this scares the heck out of me! Where will our young bright minds be😔
Where we are now?
All art is being destroyed for profit. Look what happened to journalism.
... but one could also assert "All *prior* art is destroyed for profit" - which is subtly different (but no less true), i.e. the issue is less one of the nature of innovation & more one of the rules of the game (should private equity receive special treatment if, in the long term, it does no better at managing companies than any other greedy entity)?
Robert Reich hits the nail on the head as usual. Today, unlike 30 years ago, many academic publishers exemplify the new commercial mindset: quantity of output is nearly the sole determinant; the books are often priced too high for individual purchase. Books are now the outcome of metrics, numbers speaking to numbers. Most editors have no understanding of the books they publish - they don't have time to read them, just reader's reports - and they do not market or promote or advertise. Publishers intend to sell their books by the cartload to be downloaded from university servers for an annual fee which will reward shareholders, not the authors. It's a simple money-go-round.
Decades ago, I had the frustrating experience of having an algebra book that cost over a hundred dollars and had numerous errors. It was challenging enough for me to do college level math , but the book was useless.
Laurie, just think what the Florida teachers and students are going through and will be in the future when the racist misogynistic new texts come out as well as lying videos about historical figures. Those will also be useless, but very expensive and districts will be forced to buy them over better more honest resources, by pathetic Ron DeSantis, a fool, but an evil one if ever there was one.
Ruth, I suspect the intent, which I fear will spread to other states, is to create a docile, passive, non-engaged generation who don’t know their history and, thus, are less inclined to ask questions and be skeptical, much less put up a fight. That kind of orthodoxy can kill a democracy—or worse.
Barbara Jo, I suspect this Gen Z is not as passive as a lot of folks would like. They really do care, but the preceding generations have offered them very little to help them get going. We allowed schools to return to segregation days (I taught in such a district of mostly Black students and the lack of funds that came to our district compared to our neighboring white districts was appalling. We decided that only math and reading are important to teach because that is what the standardized testing covered, so other subjects like science and social studies were presented as afterthoughts. Our parents act like helicopters hovering over every move their children make, not permitting any but the narrowest of independence. We have allowed all sorts of corporations to destroy our planet bit by bit leaving these young people with a nearly unfixable mess. We have addicted them to junk foods (as we were addicted to it), online garbage (some good stuff too), and poor quality throw-away materials and equipment. We have permitted about 1 in 5 children to live in poverty and poverty can be a destroyer of lives. We can call this generation Z all kinds of things like uninvolved and passive, but I don't think they are. They have stood for gun control, education equity, stopping global warming, and other issues of concern. It seems to me it is the older generations' duty to help them get active, show them how and where to vote, identify quality leadership and encourage them, and more depending on our abilities and their needs. Maybe we can help them with their "mob actions" that have been occurring. Instead of robbing stores, maybe turn them toward fixing up a playground for neighborhood kids or cleaning up a neighborhood with all the support they can use. Help those young folks to feel valued for who they are and what they can contribute. Just a thought.
Ruth, I would not dispute any part of your statement. Instead, I will underscore that my comment referenced the “intent” of an increasingly larger bloc of Republicans, whose project, were the electorate to allow it to proceed, would aim to curb both speech and thought. Accordingly, I see no way forward but to win races up and down the ballot.
Ruth, Because I’m preparing to start my day, I will reply later tonight.
Barbara Jo, I look forward to your comments. Alas, I will not be back online until Sunday evening. See you then.
As all the money flows to the top companies they become more evil in how they treat the public!
…how they treat their employees!
It's interesting to think about how much the printing industry has changed over the years. It used to be that many Americans worked in the printing and allied trades, but with advancements in technology, we're now able to produce print in a more efficient and effective way than ever before. Despite this, there are still plenty of individuals who have a passion for producing print in limited quantities. It's clear that print is not dead and there are many printers and publishers who have succeeded by staying ahead of the curve and embracing new technologies.
Private equity is a concept that may seem like work to those who are involved in making money, but it has nothing to do with the hardworking laborers of America. For those of us who work with our hands and enjoy creating something from raw materials, it's clear that those who manipulate money for their own gain will never understand the satisfaction that comes from physical labor.
Unfortunately, many people in America are enslaved by the private equity market and those who profit from it. These individuals believe that their money manipulation schemes are in the best interest of the country and that the benefits will eventually trickle down to everyone. However, it's clear that this is not the case and that the continuation of private equity and money manipulation will only lead to negative consequences for America. It's hard to have hope or faith in a system that is so focused on profit over people.
Negative consequences for the entire planet, not just amurica
Henry, I am not sure Private equity "firms," or the people enslaved to them in the market, care one bit about the good of anyone but themselves and how they can bring in more money. They do not care about the best interests of this nation or anyone in it beyond themselves. They know what they are doing as they dissolve companies, get rid of employees, destroy hospitals, family farms, and so much more. Bringing in the bucks is all there is. They will do or approve whatever they think will get them even more no matter who is hurt. I am so glad there are artisans who care about making things. No matter ow good technology is, art made by people will always be superior because it is human, hand made. There are things AI and machines can make well, but because at least right now people have control of what is being created. When money and power are all one sees, none of that matters unless it brings in more money and lets them, then have power through that money. That is amoral and something we do not need.
Thanks, Ruth, for giving it up for art and all that follows. You are so right about the value of real hands-on art. This is why I paint.
Right on, Ruth!
Nice comment, true. There is a lot of history that supports the notion that what is going on with and in America might well end badly for everyone over the actions of a distinct minority of the total population at some point in the future.
I don't know that I agree that private equity has NOTHING to do with hardworking laborers. It's more likely that laborers are paying rent to someone who owns a property that they work at, or laborers are waiting on raises because debt to the investors has to be paid back first, or any number of other arrangements.
Imagine a modern blacksmith - working with his hands, working with metal, making stuff for order, say beautiful artisanal knives or something. He needs a heavy metal press, which costs $20,000. He can borrow that money, but the banks may not lend it because this guy doesn't own any collateral. If he can find investors, he might be able to expand production. Private equity could make that feasible - public equity will not. He will have to make enough money in the smith to pay the investors their share - but this is probably how we actually created a world where people named themselves "Mr. Smith" or "Mr. Miller" or whatever else, based on the work that they did in capital projects that they otherwise could never have created themselves.
The problem that I believe Prof. Reich is addressing isn't that sort of private equity. Rather, imagine a private equity player that sees thousands of smiths using that $20,000 press, fully dependent on it for their livelihood. What if that press needs $100 a year in spare parts, and there's only one supplier? What if you raise those prices to $1000 a year? Suddenly, you could drive all the smiths out of business by exploiting a very specific monopoly...which nobody knew about before you created it. Maybe that's the sort of anipulation private equity is doing with publishing, printing, newspapers, and more.
Thank you for your comment, DRM. Your explanation of the problem at hand is spot on. I am unsure of how or why our country has strayed so far from reasonable relations between industries involving millions of workers earning living wages to the state we find ourselves in now. Whether it be a blacksmith or a printer, America needs its trade workers for the country to function properly. The issue with those who buy and sell companies, and have been granted vast means to ply their trade, is that no one is trying to take away their future or livelihoods. What workers, traders, the government, and hopefully American society want is co-existence. The nation needs cooperation, communication, and collaboration. Instead of the country seemingly tearing itself apart, driving political division among equal segments of society, etc., the well-off money and power families, corporations, shareholders, and board members should work hand in hand with individuals and companies to get to a place where all elements of American society feel invested. I have yet to meet anyone involved in any manufacturing segment as a worker, manager, administrator, or owner that was against trying to make things work for everyone. The hope and faith is that those who are tipping the scales to extremes to secure profit above all else for themselves will come to their senses and engage in America and Americans again before things unravel further, and the country ends up as yet another failed civilization for the history books.
To bring people to their senses regulation and prudent policy making is essential. See Tim Baldwin’s comment above. Senator Warren has the antidote for the Clinton years, IMHO.
Senator Warren proposed antidotes for an awful lot more than just that - BUT as brilliant as she is, a lot is going to fall into our laps to keep working on.
Some of her arguments may be a few decades ahead of their time. Wealth tax? Yes, but we need to invent an entirely new story of why - just as it took decades of work to create an income tax (and decades of work after creating it to make it start working). But she's mortal: our job is to look at the vision (and she and Prof. Reich overlap on so much of it as far as I can tell) - and do what we can to get these antidotes delivered to a polity riddled with people profiting from selling poisoned apples.
Again, thank you so much.
Thank you, Henry. I'm not totally sure how much of my thinking diverges from our hosts - but the way I see it, today's great "deviation" may actually be more like a reversion to normal than we realize (which would shock the Baby Boomers - but not their elders and their successors).
What if it has ALWAYS been the case that extreme inequity existed in America - but wasn't measured very accurately? Much as women were ALWAYS crucial contributors to GDP, but their work tended to be skipped over unless they had a job that paid taxes?
I suspect public and private equity have responded to a world of income taxes since America created it with the 16th Amendment - evolving new plays and means, the value of that "captured market" is not JUST the income it produces, but the livelihoods and the pride of all those smiths. If someone can capture that, they can exploit thousands of people similarly situated - then maybe give a few coupons for saying how honest and ethical the new owners are (while acting cruelly - but not illegally).
It may look like the country is tearing itself apart. But it also may be the case that we are actually putting ourselves back together, bit by bit, better than we were.
Those who exploit opportunities to get rich with little work by hurting other people are nothing new. But you and I have a job to do stopping them. Let's figure out how best to do that. (Luckily, we have a host of people giving ideas, including our host here.)
Negative consequences for the entire planet, not just amurica
Well, thankfully Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner's edifying book These are the Plunderers: How Private Equity Runs and Wrecks America, where KKR figures prominently, got outbin time as published in 2023 by Simon and Schuster itself !!! Hey, maybe that is why..
Talk about irony.
100%.
Oscar Wilde said, "A fool is someone who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing." This process of hollowing out any remnants of meaningfulness in our society has had near-fatal collateral damage. Walk through any store, a supermarket, a drug store, a stationery store, a toy store, a hardware store, a coffee store, a car dealership; everything is wrapped in plastic, made of plastic, and laced with plastic. There is plastic in whatever they are selling, the goods and the food and the wrapping. It cheapens whatever you are buying, and it poisons the buyer. According to a World Wildlife Fund study, consumers are ingesting a credit card sized amount of plastic every week, in the air and in products. Even soil samples taken from our precious national parks found tiny plastic particles throughout. To counter this pervasive "leaching out of every other value" we have to be vigilant consumers and activists in support of important organizations like https://greenamerica.org/ . They encyclopedically comb through and provide stories of brave grass-roots groups whose meaningful, inclusive work serves as a vanguard and a guide to counter this hollowing out. Their energetic explorations serve as a beacon for people who insist on consuming from, growing, and investing in green projects that promote social justice.
Thank you for sharing that information, as heartbreaking as it is!
In addition to Private Equity buying up larger firms, syndications are buying up the smaller, main street firms that in the past were the vehicle that individuals from the lower or middle class could work their way into ownership and create some capital. Due to the unfair pricing justified under "economies of scale", success and growth has been to get big or get out. Specifically, keep opening more locations to gain lower pricing to compete against the largest corporations. Now we are seeing industry specific conglomerates buying up independently owned car washes, dry cleaners, house cleaners, any local business that can benefit from having a chain of locations that can combine their purchasing power to create larger profit margins. This keeps individual business from competing on the sales price because the individual business costs are higher and their profit margins are much lower. Main Street Businesses are more and more owned by large corporations either through buyouts or creating franchises.
Even barber shops owned by actual barbers are beginning to be replaced by large, corporate owned entities. The owners never having done the job of serving clientele themselves. I am one of the few in my area. I'm glad I'm not the last, and so are my customers.
Laurie, I am sure your community appreciates you. I wish there were a way to let current owners and communities know what pushing out the locals means for the community. No one from outside who doesn't even know the business can care for and provide for the community as well. I get it that when people are ready to retire, they often sell to the quickest buyer willing to buy them out, but that is often a group that really just wants to make the buck no matter who is pushed out. I just wish we had a mechanism to inform people and give them other alternatives.
I'm a retired research scientist from one of America's most prestigious institutions you've never heard of, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). NIST has *five* Nobel Laureates on staff; how many other organizations can make that claim? Two of them are personal friends of mine. An organization does not win Nobel prizes by taking the short-term profit path--"profit," in this case, being a quick return-on-investment (ROI) for whatever the stated "profit" might be. Only through long-term investment involving people who care way more about doing world-class science than becoming millionaires (maybe billionaires is now more appropriate lingo) is this possible. It seems to be harder and harder as things progress. If you haven't read Michael Lewis' "The Fifth Risk," you should: It explains in livid detail what Republicans in general and the MAGA crowd in particular are trying to do within the government as well as industry and commercial enterprises. When Steve Bannon calls for, "The Deconstruction of the Administrative State," his aim is to do away with organizations like NIST, which have over the last century or so (NIST was founded as the National Bureau of Standards in 1901 to promote American commerce) been the engine of US dominance in science and technology.
No science, no technology=no commerce and no dominance. I'm not exactly sure what their end-goal is--or if they've actually thought it through. My guess is they haven't; all they want is a quick buck.
Recent book you might love - "The Emperor of all Maladies" - because it's an astonishing defense of the often completely unnoticed, quiet work of meticulous, brilliant people working to cure cancer. It's not just the celebrity geniuses who matter - but that vast group of geniuses interacting, sharing, building together, occasionally reaching amazing breakthroughs...but always through putting in decades of work and thought on data that nobody else can even understand (seriously, the Pap Smear was a result of a doctor/scientist studying guinea pig menses for how many years???). Just a suggestion: sounds like something you'd love.
But there's a lot to be said about how 'science' as it is done interacts with 'science' as some would prefer it to be done. The free and open exchange rather than assuming that one person's personal brilliance was sufficient to fix anything. The contribution of cumulative players...and of course, standards and measures agreed upon by the participants that make it possible to collaborate and question.
Private equity takes an interesting view of the work of those scientists. Gooses laying golden eggs? Sometimes, but that's not really the issue - they're not necessarily any better as fortune tellers than anyone else. I don't think that's actually the problem with science and private equity today.
Private equity MAY HATE the open, public, painstaking, years-long without any profits work of science - not just because they want a "get rich quick" plan involving low-hanging fruit, but because science creates uncontrollable risks that they may not be able to effectively exploit.
Private equity wants scientists to be THEIR scientists - they want standards to favor THEIR assets - they want to ensure nobody anywhere can interfere with their schemes. For private equity, it's OK if someone produces a fraudulent diagnostic device that supposedly measures any number of issues - so long as they KNOW about the fraud early, and nobody else does - then they can get in, get out, and let other people pay for the whole thing.
Private equity wants to "privatize" science to create opportunities to profit at other people's expense. That's a far easier way to obtain golden eggs than locating a magical goose.
Public equity is a bit different. If a bunch of major petrochem players want to build $100 billion worth of petrochem plants in Louisiana, they care very much about climate change and flooding risk - they will NEVER bet that much money on something that they haven't explored every device to protect or insure. They may say "climate change isn't proven" in one context (more likely they'll question whether anyone can be held accountable) - but they'll use it if the science says its there to build their own assets, and they'll do that every time without exception because they will be publicly held accountable.
Private equity is different. Private equity might build $100 billion in petrochem plants, but more likely, they'll want to build $1 billion in housing near the petrol plants, on the flood plains that the petrochem engineers intentionally avoided because of the risk of a 100 year flood. Then they'll sell that $1 billion for $5 billion, and tell people that it's "safe" land - you're next to spots the engineers said is the safest in the area (which will be true)- knowing that most people won't be able to figure out that the actual properties they are buying are at risk not just from a 100 year flood, but every decade or more. The buyers will pay 3-4x what the property is worth. The private equity will screw them.
Private equity LOVES "birthers" and other "fact adverse" customers - the more they dispute climate change or whatever, the more easily they can be bought and sold. Sell them a $300k house that should have been worth $50k because of flood risks. The buyers aren't stupid - they'll try to protect themselves, but how can they really do so? When the floods hit, most of them lose everything. Then rebuild, make marginal improvements, and repeat the whole cycle again 10-20 years later with the next group of suckers.
That sort of scheme is threatened by scientists saying "climate change is real" - and it is threatened by anyone else who actually does the engineering and work to explore the valuation and spot the mismatch. But such work requires professional rigor - people who know what they're doing and know to look beyond what they've seen to what the science says is reasonably probable. The standards that the scientists use to gauge that make the scam difficult; the processes the scientists use to do that PUBLICLY make it possible that the scam could not only be discovered, but their benefits might even be disgorged.
Private equity isn't hostile to science - just to free, independent scientific inquiry that cannot be captured and permanently caged to serve their ends.
“….tock, tock, tock, at the tone, 5 hours, thirty-three minutes, Coordinated Universal Time, BEEP, tock, tock, tock….”
I blew gasket when I heard the Trump so-called administration wanted to shut down WWVB, WWV and WWVH, even though it was precisely what I expected they would try to do.
My alarm clock synchronizes to WWVB. I love not worrying about having the exact time, because I know it is exact as can be.
Now all I have to do is repair my shortwave receiver.
I have no idea what you did at NIST, but thank you.
The Health Care Business SHOULD NOT BE A BUSINESS It should be to provide GREAT HEALTH care and break even Shameful that its all about bottom line not letting humans live in good health and be good citizens
Agreed, except would allow deficits and money infusions to keep the vital services operating because it should not be a business. Rather, it’s a public good. The notion that it’s not worth providing is if it can’t pay for itself is obscene.
My wife owns a business and receives at least one call a week from private equity “prospectors”. She will no longer talk with them. She puts it this way: “Private equity has no soul.”
This is happening everywhere! They are risking our lives and our pets lives all for the love of money! They are buying every last Mom and Pop shop including Veterinary offices, local restaurants either closing them or turning them into something the community doesn’t want! It is also happening in development of a new thing putting warehouses wherever they can get away with it. In our backyards down grading housing prices for the owners that have these giant monstrosities to look at looming over their homes. It’s hard to make it work anymore for the majority of us who are at the low end of the totem pole as we watch the rich getting richer everyday. It will collapse if the greed doesn’t stop soon! It is sickening what money can get away with!
This happened to my local veterinarian recently. We didn't realize it at the time, only after realizing that the quality of care had gone downhill severely. Then we looked it up and realized it had been sold to some PE firm specializing in acquiring vet offices. The original owners, who were the primary veterinarians for decades, had retired and sold out -- but the office still keeps their pictures up as though they're still working there. The PE website boasted "the fastest growth of all veterinarian collectives" or some nonsense like that. Who is looking for that in their vet?? How is that a benefit to anyone?? I want people who know me and my pet and demonstrate care, not people getting cycled in and out for profitability.
I agree, I love my vet and if and when she retires, it will be hard to find someone like her 😞
Cass it is horrible what is happening! They only care about how much money they can make. We took my son’s rabbit who is 11 and the place we went to for years tricked him into getting X-rays for something they couldn’t even fix if she had it because of her age. We just went for a quick check up. They were talking really fast. My son had a stroke a few years back at 25 and he has aphasia. So you can confuse him. They charged over $600! It was outrageous what they did. The original rabbit vet sold the place. Really sad and they were jerks. I was really tired and wasn’t paying attention. Should have refused to pay the bill. I seriously hate them now after doing that. So now there is nowhere to go in an emergency as it is hard to find rabbit vets!
Adding to above we have literally stripped the soul out of our lives and homogenized everything! That connection we had going to local stores where it was owned by local families and everyone knew each other is sadly gone.
In Prof. Reich's class, he polls some 300+ Berkeley students on whether they prefer to live in a community with small, local shops or big box stores. They prefer the small, local. In answer to the question of whether they shop for the best deals, and find themselves shopping online or going to the big boxes and skirting those selfsame local shops, most of them shop for the best deal. Similarly, in response to the issue of paying workers well on airlines and in local book shops, the dilemma of well-educated, well-intentioned students at the "best public university in the country" shows that they do not walk the walk. Do we?!
Thank you! We ALL need to collectively - where possible - "vote" with our wallets as well as our ballots. Example, avoid Amazon, Whole Foods when possible ... buy less from these parasites.
Exactly. And seek out products that are not wrapped in plastic and are plastic-free, household cleansers and toiletries. Shop at a farmers' market and avoid even their occasional plastic clamshell filled with blueberries (bring your own container and hand them back their plastic). Buy second hand at thrift shops and flea markets. Pick up a book at one of the proliferating book swaps, and leave a book. And yes, buy less. You probably don't need it if you think about it.
I no longer go to Whole Foods for years it has gone downhill. I cannot stand Amazon!
I knew those stores, those people, I am old enough at 71 to remember “ the butcher” and the gal who “ checked you out at the cash register” and gave you a sucker to chew on as you left! The milkman, the post man, the pastor. A regular “ Mayberry “ in the Midwest. I wouldn’t give that up for all the money in the world 🥰
As usual, good analysis and good insight.
Corporations were chartered by governments to accomplish certain public goods, roads, bridges, railroads and more. Nineteenth century anti-monopoly law, as honed by the courts, observed that corporations are a creature of the state, therefore the state not only has the right, but the responsibility to regulate corporate activity.