New Zealand Today Response Edited The article that I wrote was published in the New Zealand Today magazine Unfortunately for my writing Allan Dick the editor chopped the article up I m not particularly upset that he chopped it up for its length but some of the cuts he made pretty significantly changed the meaning of what I was saying In any event the article that was published in the magazine is visible below The red areas are words that he added into the article the yellow areas are words that were excluded from the magazine strong Edited Article strong While taking a rather enjoyable and short span style background color ff6666 Origin Pacific span flight from Christchurch to Dunedin I came across span style background color ff6666 Allan Dick s Talkback in NZ TODAY span span style background color ffff99 a seven page article in an NZ Today magazine written by editor Allan Dick With a bolded introduction proposing my thoughts in return for 100 and a supply of tea I could not refuse the offer I love tea span My background in brief I am an American citizen twenty five years of age and have been traveling this fine country for the past seven months I hold an honors degree in Mathematics and have resided in the state of Texas most of my life I am generally employed as a computer programmer or web developer but I love to write especially when there is some degree of philosophy involved I am of the age where I still believe I can help the world and my future ambitions include working with NASA and even running for president of the United States span style background color ffff99 Dear Mr Dick span I found your views of the world fairly entertaining and certainly captivating enough for a travel through the sky There are a few things I disagree with and I would like to use this time to share them with you span style background color ffff99 Firstly span I would like to comment on your thoughts regarding toll roads and tax increases on petrol span style background color ffff99 Allow me to note early on that span I am much more in favor of toll roads over petrol taxing span style background color ffff99 The reason is fairly simple span toll roads ultimately create a simpler albeit more expensive passage from points a to b I doubt span style background color ffff99 very sincerely that span a toll road that whisks drivers to an uncharted area will be built or that an existing road will be tolled without the existence of alternate perhaps somewhat longer routes Because of this I see a toll road as a luxury a luxury affordable to those who are willing to pay its toll Petrol tax is amongst other things a highly regressive tax span style background color ffff99 You can assume that as I have found my way to New Zealand such a tax increase would not ruin me and I will assume that since you are a published editor that it would not ruin you either but it seems somewhat unfair to simply include you and I in this mix span The people that it hurts are those near the poverty line They pay the same 5 cent per liter increase as an example that you or I would only it is significantly more of their income with each liter pumped I have been asking myself why you make petrol cost comparisons to the UK Europe and Japan but fail to include the United States span style background color ffff99 Not surprisingly these comparisons follow the same introduction that claims Petrol in this country is too cheap span Petrol in New Zealand by any American standard is incredibly expensive Even with gas prices currently high in Texas I would expect to pay no more than 1 30 US gallon 0 51 NZ liter A Californian who would probably pay the most within the US might shell out around 2 40 US gallon 0 94 NZ liter Within that range prices can vary significantly around the United States span style background color ffff99 but any way you dice it it is still considerably less expensive than anywhere in New Zealand span That brings me to your claim that if petrol was not so inexpensive that New Zealanders would all be driving smaller cars span style background color ffff99 Again using my homeland as an example the SUV Explorers Land Runners etc has been on the rise for years now span Americans want their cars larger and the car companies will stop at nothing short of being able to transport your entire estate in the backseat I realize that this is the same idea that you describe occurring in New Zealand but what s wrong with it Your claims are not geared at being more efficient nor reducing gasses in the atmosphere but rather your argument is with respect to transport and traffic problems span style background color ffff99 Not only that but specifically if people want to fix the aforementioned problems they will need to expect an increase in petrol tax span I did not say I have a PhD in mathematics but lets see if I can get the algebra right If I drove a truck that only got 14 miles gallon and tax on gas is roughly 40 cents per gallon then I am giving the government roughly 2 8 cents per mile of travel On the other hand if I drove a mini that got 40 miles gallon with the same tax rate then I am paying the government only 1 cent per mile traveled The distance is the same but I am ultimately paying a higher tax rate to drive that gas guzzling vehicle Also as the truck s four wheels do not harm the roads any more than the mini s four wheels the road maintenance cost is the same for both Don t get me wrong I am not advocating further pollution of the Earth but you neglect to discuss green politics and thus I am simply arguing that driving smaller cars hurts the government s revenue rather than helps it This is especially true when we throw diesel into the equation span style background color ffff99 Another point I would like to make is regarding your visit to a Challenge petrol station Perhaps you are much wealthier than I but the ability to save money is just that Your blurb about a man thinking he would save 20 on petrol at a Challenge station over a BP station is humorous but its connotation is also somewhat arrogant Years ago I would ask my mother why she spent the time to cut out market coupons in the Sunday paper even though I knew we could afford our groceries without them Her response was always you don t become wealthy by wasting your money It seemed silly to me when I was ten but it is perfectly logical now Consistently saving 2 cents per liter of gas adds up quite quickly and claiming the savings are not worth your thought is capitalistically incorrect It is incredible what amount of money a shrewd shopper is able to save in a year saving on petrol is just one of those savings span span style background color ffff99 Furthermore scoffing at the consumer for his or her desire to save a few pennies undermines the goal and ability of a free and competitive market to work for the consumer You point out in the same passage how even though only a few pennies could be saved via Challenge the BP station was still empty It is by that very example that the BP station would ultimately have been forced to lower its petrol prices by 2 cents in order to resume business If Challenge then wished to drop another cent or two it could do so thus regaining control of the local market and BP would have to match it and so on and so forth Eventually both stations would assume a financial level where they could no longer afford to drop their prices and the competitive market has been a success the consumer is now paying the most nominal price for his or her petrol In regards to your overall argument this does not adversely affect what the government collects as the tax rate on petrol remains constant If anything the government is able to collect slightly more from this local market as people may be more inclined to consume higher quantities of petrol finally available at a cheaper rate span span style background color ffff99 As for your concluding paragraphs in this section I tend to agree We could probably solve a lot of problems in the world if real solutions were provided and the powers that be ie politicians stuck to those solutions instead of finding ways to mend them for personal financial gain Since however we do not live in such an idealistic world we need to work with what we have Flat taxes can be great in certain areas specifically when some of the proceeds will help those that the tax hurts most Increasing petrol tax does not do this There is zero return a poor person will expect to gain over a wealthy person with reduced traffic or better roads Choosing between your two options the toll road only financially hurts those who choose to drive it You could argue that it s the same thing where higher petrol taxes only affect those who choose to purchase petrol Unfortunately for many that is similar to arguing that increasing food prices only affects those who eat definitely a true statement but immensely unfair given the necessity span If you d like to use my math from above to help your government increase revenue get rid of those small engine anti gas gobbling span style background color ffff99 three span cars you have Instead buy a car that gets 1 kilometer to the liter You ll be paying the government the full tax rate for each kilometer traveled The ozone hole over Alexander span style background color ff9999 in Central Otago span may slightly increase but you ll get to work faster thanks to reduced traffic from increased government profits span style background color ffff99 Another section of your article that I would like to comment on is regarding the assassination of John F Kennedy I certainly am not picking on you in this matter as there are literally millions of people that have written about the conspiracies that may or may not have existed The point that I would like to bring across especially when depicting American history in a New Zealand magazine is that Kennedy contrary to popular belief is not that unique span span style background color ffff99 Ask any American which presidents have been assassinated and you ll most definitely hear Kennedy A generous proportion will also tell you Lincoln I doubt very sincerely however that you will hear the likes of James Garfield or William McKinley both assassinated The fact is that 4 of 43 presidents have in fact been killed just over 9 of our complete presidential history Moreover 4 additional presidents have suffered assassination attempts the most famous probably being Ronald Regan yielding roughly an 18 chance that someone may try to kill you while president of the US Why then is Mr Kennedy so famously credited with being assassinated span span style background color ffff99 I have no idea whether or not there was a conspiracy to kill JFK but what I do know is that is that we as humans tend to make up better stories about the more popular or controversial figures There is nothing terribly surprising about that logic but it does put a nasty thorn in the side of conspiracy theorists because scientifically speaking the control group less popular figures has suffered just as many occurrences So what was the great conspiracy to kill McKinley or Jackson or even Truman Gerald Rudolph Ford had assassins after him twice why didn t Oliver Stone make a movie titled GRF span span style background color ffff99 The reason is simply that there just is not enough controversy and mystery to dig up Truman approved the incineration of tens of thousands of people in minutes you would think we could find good reason to discuss gunner Oscar Collazo at the same level as Oswald but the time was different WWII did not have the same controversy as the Vietnam war The media format of the time was different and there was not a tremendously sized hippy movement in the 40 s as there was in the 60 s Best of all Collazo was not Japanese and the assassination attempt had nothing to do with the atomic bombs at all but rather issues regarding Puerto Rico span span style background color ffff99 The elements just happen to line up for JFK That does not take away from the notion that there could have been a conspiracy but rather that it s easier for us to believe there must have been one instead of considering that perhaps we are over examining one moment in time It does seem that Oswald could not have acted alone but why is it so impossible to accept that perhaps his partner s in crime got lucky and ultimately got away Plain and simple span span style background color ffff99 Will we ever know Most likely we will not But quoting you in public life perception is often more important than reality I could not agree more with that statement and would like to use it for my own benefit We will always be more infatuated with the perception that the government set all of pieces moving rather than the possibility that one or two radicals didn t like Kennedy Either way given he was just one of eight presidents targeted for removal in American history his assassination is not quite as unique as we have made it out to be for 40 years span span style background color ffff99 I hope you will find my comments insightful and fully worth a supply of tea span

Consequences of Neighborhood Governance photo 190695 740 0 right I found this parody slogan on the web and thought it was perfectly appropriate to my message photo It has long been my belief that the City of Austin places an undue burden on its citizens when it comes to developing commercial land The costs are outrageous and many of the city s policies ignore basic individual property rights one of the fundamental tenants of our entire democracy What most people don t seem to understand is that these developmental burdens don t necessarily prevent commercial growth they just ensure such growth is dominated by corporate interests Firstly let me state that I am NOT opposed to local regulations at all I think they are protective generally well intended and necessary for society to function But there is a line of reason that the City of Austin crossed long ago and is increasingly aiming to further surpass Anyone who has spent any time trying to develop in the City of Austin knows that developers are notoriously at the mercy of city staff and neighborhood groups No matter how many concessions are made there always seems to be something else holding up development This becomes a huge financial burden The problem stems from a mentality of collectivism gone awry For whatever reason Austin communities regularly feel entitled to dictate the specifics of new projects They are willing to spare no expense when it comes to the already cumbersome design process meanwhile enjoying the convenience of not having to pay the bills required to accomplish this And the city allows it to happen There often appears to be an engrained mentality that if the development exceeds a single family bungalow the developer s must be in cahoots with local officials and be extremely deep pocketed But in my development experience this is rarely the case This would be a more understanding perhaps even forgivable point of view if Austin took a more lenient attitude to zoning and development But the unbelievably complicated set of a href http www amlegal com austin_nxt gateway dll Texas austin title25landdevelopment fn altmain nf htm f templates 3 0 City Ordinances in Chapter 25 a better known as the a href http www amlegal com austin_nxt gateway dll Texas austin title25landdevelopment fn altmain nf htm f templates 3 0 Land Development Code a make it virtually impossible to negatively impact neighboring properties An application for a small commercial project will be reviewed by literally dozens of city staff and will likely take a minimum of a year to get city approval assuming the application gets approved at all In my personal opinion commercial development projects and residential projects for that matter should be governed on a case by case basis where common sense is applied to a common community goal It s not hard to comprehend why we might want to prevent people from building a chemical supply store in the middle of a neighborhood or a strip club next to an elementary school but Austin s approach is to design a black and white playbook for any scenario and this just doesn t work Moreover it creates a hugely disproportionate fee to valuation ratio This essentially means that a one hundred thousand dollar project is subjected to the same level of scrutiny and consequently cost that a one million dollar project would be This makes smaller projects very costly I strongly believe that this mentality will be the undoing of Austin within the next ten to fifteen years I won t go into all of the details in this post but the Keep Austin Weird mentality is a fading notion of the past it is a marketing tool for the city and increasingly just a hoax Unless one is backed by huge corporate coffers it is virtually impossible to surmount the sea of local development bureaucracy and that makes it damn hard for weird people to develop their visions The irony is that the very people in Austin who likely reject corporatism are the ones on the front line demanding more costly and impassible bureaucratic regulations Which brings me to my most recent experience on the subject strong 2200 Tillery Street strong I ve sat on the East MLK Combined Neighborhood Planning Contact Team since 2007 It was a group I helped to reboot after it sat defunct for almost six years Like all other planning contact teams the contact team is responsible for creating a long term vision of a planning area It also oversees future land use cases one half of Austin s zoning maze and helps dictate Capital Improvement Projects CIPs The group has absolutely no legal authority and its rulings are never binding But curiously it is codified by the City a href http www amlegal com nxt gateway dll Texas austin title25landdevelopment chapter25 1generalrequirementsandprocedu f templates fn altmain nf htm q 5Brank 3A 5Bsum 3A 5Bstem 3Acontact 5D 5Bstem 3Ateam 5D 5D 5D x server 3 0 sect 25 1 805 a and developers seeking to change future land use tables are still required to seek approval from the team For the past five or so months our team has heard and debated arguments over a commercial piece of property located at a href http maps google com maps q 2200 tillery austin tx hl en ll 30 285382 97 702596 spn 0 003197 0 004823 sll 37 0625 95 677068 sspn 33 984987 79 013672 hnear 2200 Tillery St Austin Texas 78721 t h z 18 layer c cbll 30 286033 97 702389 panoid dA6I98n4 bWD1UZ3RwBWiw cbp 12 218 42 0 2 2200 Tillery St a We have met with Richard Crank the property s representative at least two times since October of 2011 We have also met with representatives of the JJ Seabrook Neighborhood Association on several different occasions At our January meeting we heard again from the president of the JJ Seabrook Neighborhood Association And once again the contact team was asked to support a measure that would postpone the planning commission hearing for another month This would be the third consecutive postponement of the hearing and would bring the property owner s to the seventh month they have had their property tied up with City of Austin business The property is currently zoned commercially and has a future land designation of mixed use The previous property owner defaulted and the mortgage company now owns the property the mortgage company wishes to sell the property The property is not particularly viable in its current configuration not because it s a useless building but because the city s parking space calculator inhibits the type of use most suited for the structure As an aside street parking is not factored into these calculations despite it being overwhelmingly abundant in the area The owner feels it would be difficult to sell the property for its current use but a number of city ordinances prevent the owner from using the building for what it was originally intended I have asked on several occasions since October what the JJ Seabrook neighborhood association would ultimately like to see happen to the property Unfortunately the only consistent response I receive is with respect to mixed use and or residential development I even received an email from someone in the neighborhood association on September 28th 2011 that stated I think that the bank mortgage holder should demolish the building and devide sic the land into 4 lots at least 10 000 sq ft quarter acre to build single family detached homes Sufficed to say I quickly wrote back the many reasons why this would not occur Unfortunately the amount of money that would be required especially within the city s complicated guidelines would be financially devastating to the owner and thus not reasonable Although my position on the matter has been consistent since October I once again presented an economic case at our January hearing According to TCAD a href http www traviscad org travisdetail php theKey 204474 the property is valued at 834 857 a At a 2 3 tax rate this means the property owner pays over 19 000 a year in taxes alone In the seven months that the property has been tied up in the Austin bureaucracy they ve paid over 11 000 in taxes for a property they can t currently do anything with This figure does not even factor the few thousand dollars of filing fees they ve had to pay the City of Austin nor whatever fees their engineers and lawyers are collecting for handling the case possibly tens of thousands of dollars But it does not stop there Richard Crank has been completely transparent about the owner s intentions has met with multiple neighborhood bodies numerous times and has been willing to restrict a dozen uses from the property with a conditional zoning overlay He has even been willing to enter into a private contract with the neighborhood outlining specifically desired improvements and limitations My argument is that unless the neighborhood association has a specific compromise that they re willing to consider it is not fair for them to continue delaying the process while the property owner is left to front the bill Thus far the immediate neighborhood has rejected my position It was even suggested to me by a JJ Seabrook representative after I presented my economic argument that I should not be defending or sympathizing with the mortgage company I abhor banking and mortgage companies I speak and write against them regularly However this should not and legally does not change the fact that they have just as many rights to fair case management and expediency as everybody else In fact I am often left surprised that the City of Austin has not been hit with a class action suit for allowing this type of negligent behavior to hold up property cases I will be very curious to see what happens but even more curious to try and learn what the total cost of doing business with the City of Austin works out to be for this developer My guess is that they lose over 50 000 to the Austin bureaucracy or more than 6 of their current valuation So my problem with the entire system is simple There is far too much power granted to neighborhood associations and similar groups to raise problems that may not even exist while private entities are left to front the bill In some cases the neighborhood groups do not even represent the true intentions of a community Rather they represent the desires of a fractional segment of that community Incidentally the segment that is very vocal and interested in regulating everything not belonging to them I know for a fact that our contact team in no way represents the greater community We are essentially a group of twelve relatively young white people debating cases for a community of more than 17 000 people most whom are minorities But my intent is not to condemn neighborhood associations nor our own contact team I participate in many and believe they serve a very good purpose Rather my intent is to condemn a city that grants neighborhood groups the power to stop development while simultaneously forcing the developer to conform to thousands of regulations all of which have already been designated by the community in the first place and all while paying a premium to do so One of these systems has to give and until it does I don t see how the problem is going to get any better My personal preference is a simple five fold approach ul li Work to ensure that neighborhood associations are strong and well represented li li Get rid of the one size fits all development regulations codes and fees every development is different and has unique challenges and obstacles li li Have a single individual case worker for each commercial development and require them to serve a the liaison between the active parties li li Have a legal appellate process set in place for cases that cannot be resolved li li Require that all development projects have a fixed time in which business is resolved li ul So then coming full circle why would I tie this into corporatism Because as the problems that I ve described continue to worsen and they are definitely worsening the ability of small businesses to develop anything on their own trends towards being impossible The average business cannot simply float tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of a year while attempting to stay financially afloat and be expected to meet the minute demands of community activists A community might see a few light poles as nice to have but the developer of a 200 000 project is required to see them as 10 of his or her budget It is simply not possible to fulfill these demands especially with the regulatory oversight costs read C Y A required by the city This essentially means that as Austin continues to mature more and more corporate interests will be served as they re the only ones with the time and money required to overcome these hurdles If the residents of Austin desire to see corporate interests take over the skyline that s fine by me though I personally don t support it I only ask that the city stop toting itself as weird because in my opinion there s nothing worse than turning a way of life into marketing ploy for corporate America

A happy couple with smiling woman enjoying their time inside a restaurant at night A woman with brown hair and a man with beard are looking with a smiling face posing for a picture sitting in a hall with people in background. In a closed area, with tiny lights in the background; a man with trimmed mustache and beard is seated beside a blonde woman and they are smiling. a man with and a blonde women are smiling as they are sitting in an auditorium with audience in the background. A man and woman are smiling showing teeth. Lady with brown hair. Man wearing striped T-shirt. A lot of people standing behind. The room is lighted. The man and woman smiling with happy faces in their chairs and enjoying with other people sitting for the occasion. A young white blond woman and a young white bearded man take selfies inside a structure with holes in the roof. There are other people and lights behind them. A man with a thick brown beard wearing a white and black striped shirt smiling next to a woman while enjoying a night

American Healthcare Part IV An Unpredictable Event On the evening of April 8th 2009 I was in a motorcycle accident just a few miles from my home When I awoke I was laying on my side in the middle of a four lane road surrounded by people The next sixteen hours provided me with a first hand glance of how our emergency care system purports itself to work as well as how it actually works At a time when I legitimately needed to ensure my own well being the events following the crash tested my principles far more than my pain tolerance The background of the accident is fairly a straightforward story As I traveled northbound on a local arterial road the driver of a vehicle three cars ahead of me slammed on the brakes and made an unexpected illegal left turn through a median at the bottom of a hill The two cars in front of me were forced to slam on their brakes as well narrowly avoiding one another in the process I was later told that pedestrians in the vicinity heard the screeching of their tires saw smoke rising from the burning rubber and witnessed a red motorcycle crash into the back of a Ford Explorer and its passenger launched through the air Although I had seen the entire chain of events unfold before me and took every evasive action I could the brakes on my motorcycle locked and threw me into a skid Unable to control my motorcycle I veered directly towards the back of the SUV I turned the bike sharply to the left as a last ditch effort to avoid the car but evidently did not come to the decision quickly enough My motorcycle slammed into the vehicle instantly throwing me forward As I flew forward through the air my legs clipped the handlebars and the right side of my body forcefully slammed into the back of the Explorer I wound up landing headfirst several feet away on the hard asphalt below Had I not been wearing a helmet and minimum safety gear I suspect the impact would have killed me or at least left me with a severe brain injury To those immediately on the scene I appeared as nothing but a lifeless body laying in the fetal position It is still unclear whether I fell temporarily unconscious but I certainly was not moving yet After some unaccounted period of time I found myself peacefully gazing up through my helmet s visor at a growing crowd of people Some sounded emotional others as if they were trying to control the space around me but to the best of my recollection all sounded legitimately concerned about my well being I could hear several speaking with emergency dispatchers from their cell phones As I began hearing sirens in the distance it occured to me what the ensuing medical costs would be for a medical transport and I decided at that moment I would need to take some action Much to the verbal dismay of the onlookers I carefully stood up in a mild stupor brought my motorcycle upright and proceeded to walk it off of the road so the growing traffic jam could pass A number of individuals helped me to the side of the road and sat me down on the grass to wait for the fleet of emergency vehicles to arrive One of the girls helping me was on the phone with EMS and told me an ambulance was on its way Despite the condition I was in I asked her to tell EMS that I did not require their assistance as I was not interested in paying the several hundred dollar price tag that I knew would be associated with it She did relay this message but it was the policy of the emergency crew to show up on the scene anyway When the medical team arrived on the scene they asked me a number of questions related to my condition and performed a very basic examination of my neck and spine Even though they suggested it was in my best interest to go to the hospital with them they were polite and professional as I declined their services The chief police officer on the scene was incredibly considerate throughout the ordeal and ensured that I did not wish for any additional medical services before eventually waving the ambulance off As the ambulance drove off and the traffic flowed regularly those who had stopped to look slowly began to disperse In the end the car that had turned illegally was nowhere to be found and my collision with the Explorer was ruled a no fault accident by the police I managed to get a ride back to my house from the local motorcycle towing company on the scene but my ordeal with American healthcare was just beginning I first attempted to get in touch with my insurance provider to determine if this sort of incident would be covered by my catastrophic plan I ultimately gave up after about forty five minutes as I was unable to get in touch with anyone though I did later find out that any costs would simply have been applied towards my catastrophic deductible With my pain worsening by the minute particularly as the adrenaline from the accident had worn off I was clearly in need of medical attention I relayed the details of the accident to an ex girlfriend and she graciously came to my assistance and took me to the hospital Torn bloodied and unable to move my right arm I hobbled into the emergency waiting room and spoke to a nurse about needing medical attention Seeing the condition I was in she quickly brought me into the admittance room to check my vitals and gather some information from me The check in process itself was very fast and efficient and there was no wait to be assigned to a private trauma room As the nurses concluded the check in process and wrapped the iconic medical bracelet around my left wrist I paused and asked them what I assumed at the time was a very common question I asked them how much the examination was going to cost Both nurses appeared almost startled that I would be asking such a question under the circumstances One of them responded very curtly that she did not know and that it was unimportant given my current condition I felt as if I had asked her something offensive I explained calmly and clearly my understanding of how it would be difficult to provide an exact dollar amount and that I was merely asking for a ballpark figure I even went on to explain that I simply wanted a very basic medical examination to be sure that I did not have any internal bleeding and that my skull was not fractured Anything more would be a huge bonus to me Regardless of this clarification I was again told that it would be impossible to give me any sort of a figure and that I should not be concerning myself with the medical costs After pushing for what seemed like several minutes one of the nurses eventually relented to my increasing agitation and informed me that the medical attention would likely cost between five and seven thousand dollars Although I did plead unsuccessfully for a more reasonable price particularly given the attention I felt I needed I informed the hospital that I could not justify paying such a high fee for the basic care I was seeking and that I did not want to receive medical treatment The stunned expressions on the nurses faces left quite an impression upon me and I was promptly asked to leave the admittance room Literally dripping blood with each step I slowly hobbled back across the waiting room towards the front door and was driven back home My ex girlfriend brother and another dear friend kept their eyes on me throughout the evening as I waited for the local urgent care facility to open Ten hours after the accident I was taken by my brother to an urgent care facility and finally received a full and much needed medical examination Doctors examined my neck and spine checked for signs of head injuries and internal bleeding tended to dozens of lacerations took and interpreted eleven x rays of my arm leg head and neck and provided me with antibiotics and pain medication I paid my bill in full on the spot without any type of insurance for a grand total of 252 almost twenty times cheaper than the lowest figure the emergency room nurse had estimated em continued in a href blog 2129 American_Healthcare__Part_V_Impractical_Expectations Part V Impractical Expectations a em

The Death of Sparkle Motion photo 2369 213 300 right Sparkle Motion after I painted the flag of New Zealand on her photo If you are not already familiar Sparkle Motion is the name given to our mighty Kiwi flag bearing Subaru Rather than bore you with details we will get right down to her last voyage strong From Dunedin to Queenstown strong a href tags Sean Peterson Sean a a href tags Tisa Peterson Tisa a and myself left Dunedin on Wednesday afternoon amazingly enough right on schedule of 3 00pm Before taking to the road we aired up the tires tyres in N Z properly and filled the pipes with oil to ensure a safe trip to Queenstown about 4 hours to the southwest of Dunedin Within about 20 minutes of passing Mosgiel just outside of Dunedin the car started smoking from the right part of the hood We continued on for a short while longer with small bursts of white smoke every so often until eventually pulling over to find out that the radiator had sprung a leak and was steaming hot smoke onto the battery We were not concerned with the battery but knew without a proper cooling system the car would overheat After trying to go a few more kilometers the temperature began rising and we were forced to turn back with the intent of heading back to Dunedin About 10km back towards Dunedin we stopped in at a B P and had a look Not only was the radiator pressure not holding but there was no coolant left in it Worse off is that they seem not to use anti freeze in this country and so the radiator has small rust deposits here and there from water erosion Much to our surprise we were able to pick up a small bottle of radiator solder We added this magic potion into the radiator pipe as instructed by the package and the serviceman and within minutes the hole had disappeared and the radiator was fixed or at least holding for the time being We drove to Queenstown monitoring the area and car temperature all the way without any problems Upon our two days in Queenstown and Wanaka much hilarity and shenanigans ensued but thats a different story strong From Lake Wanaka to Ranfurly strong After an afternoon of fishing in Lake Wanaka we reeled in 1 salmon and 1 trout we began heading back for Dunedin at about 5 00pm Sparkle Motion was running quite well as we passed through Cromwell Upon getting to Alexandra we decided that we would take the scenic route between there and Dunedin so we could see more of the country This took us down Route 85 Upon traveling down Route 85 for an hour or so we noticed that the car had begun smoking again The problem was the radiator leaking once more and so steam was shooting out from the right side of the car the drivers side in NZ We continued driving but kept a close eye on the temperature We finally came upon a town called Ranfurly which is about 130km from Dunedin We stopped in Ranfurly to check the radiator but also noticed a worse smell As it had happened some oil had begun dripping onto the engine and was being burned off This of course created even more smoke and smelled terribly After checking the oil level and thinking that everything was A OK we took back to Route 85 After about 10km of driving we were noticing heaps of white smoke shooting out the rear exhaust and then a bit more coming out of the front We deduced that we had put in too much oil and it was overspilling and furthermore burning We continued on but with extreme caution but at about 7 00pm and still 110km from Dunedin the car began handling poorly as we had just turned off of Route 85 and onto Route 87 which is the even more scenic route into Dunedin a href tags Sean Peterson Sean a and I got out of the car to investigate the matter but could see nothing more than a small cloud of white smoke coming from the engine block There was white smoke coming from the engine hot steam spraying from the radiator and a small oil leak on the concrete below We decided to start the car with the hood up to get a better idea and as I turned the key a bucket of oil fell onto the concrete below We had located the problem the Exxon Valdez was nothing compared to our car Assuming that the oil would hold we decided to head back to Ranfurly as we obviously needed repairs About halfway there the car became entirely inoperable as clouds of white smoke covered the air and we left a trail of oil behind us We pulled over at the entrance to a farm and began looking to fix the car We realized fairly quickly that the pressure sensor connected into the oil well that reads the oil pressure had blown apart and thus created a large hole for oil to drain Of course as we drove the oil would get pushed by the wind and hit the hot engine block causing it to burn and produce copious amounts of white smoke Add that to the already existing radiator steaming a href tags Sean Peterson Sean a and I tried to fix the car for about 2 hours with my Leatherman but we just could not wedge anything in there with enough force to combat the 60psi of pressure that the well was yielding About 8 cars had asked us if we needed assistance by now and with an huge windstorm coming in and nightfall upon us we had the 9th car take us back to Ranfurly To make this long part of the story short we found a mechanic still available but after several attempts at fixing the car it needed to be towed back to Ranfurly We gave the hotel manager the fish that we had caught and he put the three of us in a room without charge When we got up the next morning the car had already been fixed and went on our way Minus 150 00 kiwi dollars strong Driving From Ranfurly to Dunedin strong If this were an epic drama this is the part where it would all come together at once We made it back to Route 87 and casually drove along for about 20 minutes or so until slowing for a one lane bridge To those not familiar with one lane bridges a common New Zealand site they are simply one lane bridges where one side yields right of way to the other If the bridge is long enough it will typically have midpoint nooks for cars to wait in while another goes by As I slowed for the bridge I proceeded to down shift in the usual fashion The bridge appeared clear and so I began to accelerate and enter it I accelerated past my next gear speed and as I stepped on the clutch to up shift both a href tags Sean Peterson Sean a and I heard a loud pop So now here we were driving down a one lane bridge in the south of New Zealand with a flag bearing twenty year old Subaru which now had no clutch and consequently no way for me to control the car s speed Again we tried to fix the problem but could barely tell what it was All of the springs seemed to be in tact We finally decided to put the car into first gear start it up while pressing the gas and power shift it into the other gears In case you are not familiar with power shifting it is shifting gears without the use of the clutch This worked But I could neither down shift nor start from a stopping position which posed some problems driving through a mountain range We made it back to Mosgiel about 20 minutes south of Dunedin and when we got to the first traffic light I turned off the car put it in first waited for the green and started it up once again Everything was going fine until we got into Dunedin where there is a giant mountain the highway goes up About 5 6 of the way to the top the car would go no more as smoke began pouring out every which way A passerby had a tow rope and pulled us to the top of the mountain through the speeding traffic The problem was now that we could no longer start the car in gear as something had gone wrong in the gearbox apparently photo 4225 385 300 right Sparkle Motion getting towed away photo So for the next two hours a href tags Sean Peterson Sean a and I worked as a diligent and slightly frightened team to get the car back to my house The procedure worked by having me put the car into first gear and turn the key while a href tags Sean Peterson Sean a pushed This would generate enough spark to get the car going but a href tags Sean Peterson Sean a would have to run along and manage to jump into the moving car as there was no way for me to stop Up and down hills and mountains through yield signs technically Give Way signs in New Zealand traffic and stoplights we eventually got the car back to my house where it stunk of a burning transmission The car let off a light smoke for several hours afterwards from the oil we had burned and there was even a small puddle from all of the radiator fluid a k a water that had leaked out of the rusting apparatus Suffice to say this would be the last time Sparkle Motion was ever started

Mario Van Peebles Mouseman III strong Introduction strong Around November or so of 2002 I went to the PetsMart and decided that I would bring home a mouse to keep as a pet He lived inside of an aquarium in my bathroom and all of his toys and playhuts were custom built by me in the woodshop It wasn t but a few days that I decided I would go back to PetsMart and purchase a few more of these fury little bastards 4 more to be precise strong Mouse Dominance strong This was perfectly fine until I started noticing and subsequently read on the web that mice apparently will attack one another when they are attempting to mate with females Not only will they attack one another but they begin spraying their love all over the place Granted this love scent was confined to the aquarium but after a few days time it really began to stink For this reason alone people seem to recommend only getting all males or all females so that dominance will not be such an issue Well sadly enough it was not long before my mice starting dying One was dead one day another the next and the cycle went on for about 2 more weeks There were finally only two mice left in the cage and though they both seemed to be doing ok I was sure they would die within the next few days I was half right one of them did Obviously I wasn t too hopeful that the other one would survive at this point but I continued to build him things to crawl on ladders to climb etc photo 35998 739 0 right Mario Van Peebles Mouseman III photo photo 35982 739 0 right Profiling for the camera photo strong Naming the Survivor strong Days and then weeks went by before it occurred to me that this mouse was not going to die which incidentally was good news to me I rewarded him with a name for having outlasted all of his brethren And so was born strong Mario Van Peebles Mouseman III strong a k a Mousie Many people have asked me over the years where the name actually came from While on a Rioudosa NM skiing trip in 2001 with a few friends of mine I built a snowman one night The next morning my dear friend Preston Graham saw it and for whatever reason named him Mario Van Peebles Snowman The III suffix was later added to the snowman s name and so when I purchased the mice months later I brought the name back into play photo 35966 739 0 right Mousie s new cage photo photo 35974 739 0 right Maybe the emails really did come from Mario photo strong Departing the Company of Mario strong I kept Mousie as entertained as one could for several months I played with him often built him complex mazes to run through would let him swim around in a lukewarm bath and really all of the other things one does with a pet mouse But as my travels to New Zealand were nearing I needed to find him a temporary sitter My sister agreed to care for him during the year I would be abroad She sent me webcam pics of him with some regularity see below and otherwise did an excellent job of keeping me informed of his life in Arkansas where she was attending college strong The Fate of Mousie strong I gave Mousie to my sister around mid June of 2003 and left for New Zealand I had Mousie for about 8 months prior to this As I said before my sister kept me informed of his status with emails and pictures while I was away in New Zealand with Tisa though I was looking forward to getting to see him when I returned to the states I got back from New Zealand in late March of 2004 and for whatever reason Mousie was not around because my sister had not yet returned from college for the summer Regardless since I didn t have my apartment setup back in Austin just yet I asked my sister to hang on to him for just a little while longer My sister and her boyfriend were coming up to Austin to see a concert in June of 2004 and I was finally going to be reunited with Mousie after having not seen him for over a year The day they came up Kim organized all of his things packed up his toys and cleaned his cage one final time before bringing him back to me Midday I received a call from my mother telling me to call Kim as she was horribly upset I rang her and she was crying rather hysterically After calming down a bit she explained to me that Mario had just died We re really not sure what killed him though the best we could come up with was the stress of moving him around to clean the cage There weren t any chemicals used to clean the cage and in any case it was entirely open thus he would not have inhaled them It is a sad fact to face I ll never see Mario Van Peebles Mouseman III again strong The Memorial strong Apparently my sister posted this link about Mario on some site named a href http www ilovedmypet com view asp id 11849 I Loved My Pet a It says the link will only be active until August 28th 2005 but this has persisted for years Here is what she wrote em Mario Van Peebles Mouseman III Mousie was born in a PetsMart in Austin Texas and was loving adopted along with 4 of his siblings by Kevin Ludlow Mario truly embodied Darwin s survival of the fittest outliving all of his relatives and ultimately becoming Kevin s adored pet Kevin and Mousie enjoyed each other s company and the many memories of their brief life together live in Kevin s memory daily Kevin s moved to New Zealand forced him to relinquish his beloved pet to his sister Kim Ludlow of Houston Kim sent Kevin countless pictures and updates which allowed him to keep track of Mousie s progress Kim and Mario ultimately moved and Mousie enjoyed a stint in Arkansas before eventually returning to Houston in route to Austin where he would once again live with Kevin Unfortunately Mario was never able to experience a reunion with his original owner and tragically he passed away moments before his journey home to Austin began em

American Healthcare Part II The Healthcare Divide There are few things responsible for creating more division in the United States than when politicians express radical stances on hot button issues These issues mysteriously tend to pop up around election cycles and are particularly good at distracting voters from real problems that much more significantly impact the nation For years politicians have been utilizing this method to prey upon human emotion and sway voter opinion in the direction they choose In one manner of thinking this is exactly what politicking is but it is the abuse of this methodology that has hit an absolute tipping point That tipping point is resulting in dire consequences for the country In more recent years politicians have included topics such as abortion gay marriage government spending gun control and immigration just to name a few Though these issues are certainly relevant to public discourse and should be debated they typically receive a significantly disproportionate amount of attention when compared to other issues This is not because they are important topics that will affect the majority of American citizens They are instead political fluff for well oiled campaign strategies Regardless of how intense politicians may appear to stand on these issues or how frequently they may bring them up rarely will we hear any type of legitimate stance be it for or against For example Republicans have frequently rallied behind their strong opposition to abortion but never have I heard a plan or even a strategy for how they would intend to reverse the landmark 1973 Roe v Wade decision Similarly for years Democrats have toted themselves as the party that promotes equality for all and yet only a select few have shown the political fortitude to speak in favor of same sex marriage despite the glaring discrimination it presents to gay and lesbian Americans And so it goes that every election cycle the general electorate is treated to what appear to be intense debates but somehow remain oblivious to the fact that nothing substantial is ever being said Unfortunately this has become somewhat of the political norm for politics in America Although this behavior is discussed in a later chapter I have included a brief summary here to remind readers of how disheartening the political game has become What was once a tool for offering hope and new ideas to the country has become nothing but a marketing gimmick full of cheap rhetoric and empty promises However despite our being conditioned to accept this political process one of the very few talking points that actually carried some follow through from the 2008 Presidential election was that of healthcare reform President Obama spoke extensively of his intentions to radically overhaul the system and for better or worse he definitely did follow through As the 2008 presidential race raged on the Democratic Party consistently and clearly expressed their intentions to pass some form of universal healthcare upon a presidential victory Then Senator Obama was very much in line with his party s position and at virtually every rally interview and debate he articulated his intent to push for significant healthcare reform should he be elected For that matter other Democratic hopefuls particularly Senators Hillary Clinton and John Edwards echoed similar sentiments throughout respective campaign trails While partisan crowds of Democrats cheered for the hard stance their party was promising to take on healthcare reform equally partisan Republican crowds were quick to label the Democrat s ideas as impractical irresponsible and even socialist Unfortunately aside from suggesting tax credits Republicans never felt the need to offer any real type of plan for how the country could deal with the bureaucratic and corporate driven debacle of the American healthcare system It would therefore stand to reason that either Republican constituents associated healthcare reform as a typical hot button talking point with no anticipation of follow through from Democrats or that Republicans simply had not found the American healthcare system to be broken And so upon being elected by a clear majority and eventually inaugurated on January 20th 2009 President Obama quickly began pushing Congress for new healthcare legislation just as he said he would To the credit of the Democrats this was actually very much in line with their boldest campaign promise It therefore followed that since we the people elected the leaders in a series of majority votes and those leaders introduced legislation on par with what they claimed they would the democratic process was by all textbook measures quite a success Of course if one factors the actual legislation that was passed and the manner in which it was passed keeping campaign promises should have seemed like little value The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 also known as Obamacare was anything but a bill with the best interest of the American citizenry in mind Members of Congress created a massive 2 200 page text rife with bloated spending provisions special interest projects hidden taxes and undisclosed IRS provisions All of these hidden agendas would be revealed in the ensuing weeks and months after the bill had already been executed into law Rather than to try to provide some type of constructive approach towards minimum healthcare expectations Congress instead federally mandated the purchase of private insurance Thus for the first time in American history all American citizens became legally indebted to private corporations literally from the day they are born The legislative process contained an almost a complete lack of transparency on all fronts Members of Congress predominantly Democrats were anything but shy talking about backroom deals being made Even the final addendum to the bill was passed controversially using the method of reconciliation a Congressional process otherwise reserved for budgetary bills that specifically restricts debate time This process was used to make at least thirteen significant changes to the healthcare bill after it had already been passed On March 9th 2010 twelve days before the House of Representatives voted on the bill Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi had the audacity to publicly inform an audience at the National Association of Counties that the bill would have to be passed before it could be read Specifically she said to her audience em You ve heard about the controversies within the bill the process about the bill one or the other But I don t know if you have heard that it is legislation for the future not just about health care for America but about a healthier America where preventive care is not something that you have to pay a deductible for or out of pocket Prevention prevention prevention It s about diet not diabetes It s going to be very very exciting But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it away from the fog of the controversy em What a relief it was to know that politicians of the twenty first century have become so trustworthy that Americans no longer even need to read the governing legislation they have been elected to create Needless to say transcripts and videos of her statement quickly circulated the Internet prompting outrage from those who already opposed to the bill and indifference from those who supported it I had even heard it argued by Democratic supporters of the legislation that Republicans should embrace the bill due to its similarity to Massachusetts s law The claim was that after all it was essentially the same type of healthcare package that Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney had signed into law on April 12th 2006 while Governor of the state Unfortunately the irony of such a statement seemed to be lost on many of those same people That is to say if the Obama healthcare package was anything like Mitt Romney s which in many ways it was then why would liberals be so inclined to support something that had been previously adopted by a conservative right wing exceptionally wealthy former Republican governor Surely those same left leaning individuals would not have cheerfully supported such a federal proposal from Mitt Romney had he won the general election But none of this not the lack of transparency not the special interest clauses not the mandate tying individuals to private industry not even Speaker Pelosi s insinuation that Congress should simply pass legislation before Americans even read it seemed to sway public opinion one way or another The problem it seems is that those who were already behind the Democrats were willing to take anything that was thrown in their general direction regardless of how senseless or poorly crafted it may have been But this is the culture we have created legislative particulars and practicalities are of little importance to people provided that they come from the far left or the far right Still the fact that most Republicans and conservatives were so outspoken and appalled by the passing of the legislation does in one light appear to be a bit hypocritical That is to say given that the right wing of the country enjoyed virtually no oversight and exercised such disregard for the Constitution over the better part of eight years why would anyone have expected that the Democrats would suddenly be inclined to play fairly after their Congressional and Presidential victories So while I would fully agree that conservatives should express their disdain for this type of radically polar legislation and legislative process as should liberals the numerous one sided liberties taken by President Bush s Administration just prior should also not be forgotten A short list of these accomplishments includes invading Iraq and Afghanistan without Congressional declarations of war justifying the need for deficit spending providing financial military aid to Pakistan curiously shifting focus from Osama Bin Laden to Saddam Hussein enacting the Patriot Act into law holding prisoners on foreign soil without charges endorsing an amendment to federally ban same sex marriage and providing bailout capital to some of the country s largest corporations while ignoring a struggling middle class of people And therein lies the back and forth game of radical policymaking that has successfully permeated American culture The painfully obvious reality that neither Democratic nor Republican constituents want to acknowledge is that engaging in such radical policymaking does not work Moreover it is dangerous and divisive As we have witnessed for years implementing such policies will only result in equally radical ones of opposing ideals being implemented with the next changing of the guard Of course this type of policymaking can only exist for so long Eventually policies become so on the fringe that civil unrest becomes the only remaining option If only we could find a way to convince people to consider both social and fiscal responsibilities with some form of moderation and without the need to draw from the far ends of the spectrum If only we could convince people that instead of providing unbridled loyalty to a party that they instead speak out and challenge their party to do what is best for everyone instead of merely appeasing themselves In that alternate reality we might be sitting with a model for healthcare that was fiscally responsible socially conscious and soundly economical for consumers Instead the country is left to deal with a political and social nightmare that is likely to waste tremendous time and resources on lawsuits repeals and Congressional challenges for years to come Instead the country is left with a bill that will almost undoubtedly raise the cost of healthcare while simultaneously reducing the quality of it And instead the country is divided in half outraged at one another s lack of moral obligation and fiscal sense respectively from the left and right There is a much more damaging and fundamental problem with the United States remaining so divided on the topic of healthcare Unlike so many of the hot button topics that have little significance in the grander scheme of the country the fundamental ability of human beings to heal one another represents a cornerstone of all humanity It is something that each and every one of us has always and will always be dependent upon in one way or another So the question still remains how can an entire population that is equally dependent upon a system maintain such vastly opposing ideas for its application in society It is imperative that we force one another to bridge this divide and that we force our politicians to do the same In the interim of moderate solutions medical companies will continue reaping enormous profits families will continue seeing higher costs and the overall health of the country will only continue to worsen em continued in a href blog 2133 American_Healthcare__Part_III_Healthcare_vs_Health_Insurance Part III Healthcare vs Health Insurance a em

A woman with blond hair is happily playing with a tan dog, who is wearing a black slip lead. A room with red, linoleum tiling, plastic, kitchen chairs with studding, and a white appliance make a backdrop for a woman with a large nose and straight, blonde hair, who is smiling, seated on the floor, her legs in a lotus position, wearing a blue tank and an exposed bra strap, embracing a large, yellow dog with large ears and an open mouth, who is lying with her, with his tongue out and his long, black leash, dangling on the floor. There is a skinny white woman in a dark blue tank top with a black bra strap showing on her shoulder, playing with a tan dog with its tongue sticking out. A blonde women is laughing and playing with a dog inside a house where dog is sticking his tongue out A young blond white woman in a blue tank top is sitting on a tiled kitchen floor in front of a refrigerator and is petting a large tan colored dog sitting in her lap. The dog's tongue is sticking out and it is wearing a leash and colla

A man with a beard taking a selfie as the woman gets ready to jump out of a low to the ground window. A young man with long brown hair and a thick beard taking a picture while a woman in a hat and light colored tank top jumps in quickly to be captured in the shot. There is an angry looking woman with pigtails and a baseball cap photo bombing a sweaty brunette man in this black and white picture. A man with beard is smiling while there is a woman wearing cap is peeping out of a window in the background, and is excited. In a long room filled with windows a woman in a hat makes an angry face while taking a selfie with a bearded man in a t-shirt with wet hair. Young man and woman looking. She wears a hat. The man is bearded. In the background a building with large windows. a women yelling from the window to a male with beard posing in camera with smile on his face Black-and-white seem to be all around this photo. These people seem to be happy with each other as well too. A white gentleman with soft eyes and beaut

American Healthcare Part III Healthcare vs Health Insurance Before the United States can even begin to make progress towards sensible healthcare policies Americans must first comprehend what is being debated Over the past few decades and certainly throughout the healthcare debates of 2010 the terms health insurance and healthcare have been increasingly used to mean the same thing In fact the phrases are frequently interchanged throughout interviews debates and occasionally even on the Congressional floor It has not surprised me in the least that most politicians have carefully avoided clarifying the topics at times even dismissing the differences as mere semantics But however insistent politicians might remain on the synonymy nothing could be further from the truth Stated very clearly health care and health insurance are two fundamentally different ideas Health insurance is nothing more than a subset of any other insurance In general insurance is a system that hedges a fiscal value against the risk factor of potential financial loss It is nothing more than a legitimate system of gambling albeit there appears to be a great deal of reluctance to associate that term with it Nevertheless in the specific case of health insurance it is responsible for covering the medical costs of the policyholder in the event of an emergency This is specifically why insurance policies for those with pre existing conditions have been significantly higher than those without It is also why insurance policies for those who commonly partake in dangerous activities have been significantly higher as well In both cases the risk of financial loss is elevated and thus a higher wager needed to cover that risk so to speak Healthcare by very stark contrast is simply the treating of an injury or illness both mental and physical by trained medical professionals The most important distinction between these two phrases is that healthcare has absolutely nothing to do with financial risk mitigation it has only to do with the wellness of human beings When we allow politicians to intertwine these terms at their convenience or when we do it ourselves it makes it impossible to discuss obvious and costly flaws within the system Whether some form of universal coverage were to exist or not we all understand that some form of healthcare is required this is fairly simple to comprehend as we all have been witness to injury and illness But by conflating these terms this also assumes that we need health insurance as well and that is not necessarily true One of the first things we have to remember about insurance is that it is a business plain and simple It is not a privilege for the public to freely indulge and it certainly does not operate like a charity Like all businesses the two most important functions are keeping costs low and profits high This in no way precludes a business from being altruistic but if it is unable to be profitable then it eventually ceases to be Likewise if a company is unable to sustain upward growth in the long run then there is typically little incentive to continue improving it In order for the business to succeed it is imperative that a demand exist for the products or services the company sells The insurance market is no exception to this rule ask any insurance salesman But slightly more counter intuitive is considering where consumer demand comes from within the insurance market and understanding how politicians and insurance companies can manipulate this demand When it comes to insurance there are two specific prerequisites that must be met in order for demand to exist The first one is fear and the second is high costs This might sound like the introduction of a conspiracy theory but it is actually quite logically sound and in fact exactly what drives the market For example consider the likeliness of someone from Omaha Nebraska insuring a one million dollar home against earthquakes Or for that matter the likeliness of someone from Los Angeles California insuring a five hundred dollar tool shed against earthquakes In the case of Omaha there is absolutely no history of earthquakes throughout the state so there is no reason to fear such a cataclysm And in the case of Los Angeles where earthquakes are fairly common there is little reason to insure something of such inconsequential relative value Even if the shed crumbled entirely to the ground the total cost to rebuild would not exceed five hundred dollars and could hardly be considered financially devastating This is again why fear and high costs play such a vital role in creating the demand for insurance Consumers must first be convinced that whatever they are buying protection from actually has a statistically realistic chance of occurring If you purchase fire insurance for your home you must first assume your home could catch fire If you purchase comprehensive auto insurance for your car you must first assume you could be in an accident And if you purchase renters insurance for your apartment you must first assume that your possessions could be destroyed or stolen The complementary factor of high cost is what fuels the frenzy Many families spend decades paying off their home mortgage Should their home suddenly catch fire and burn to the ground the valuation would be so high that they could not realistically afford to replace it this would be a highly devastating financial loss for them The same is true of most vehicles and personal estate belongings The high value of these goods combined with the fear of losing them is what creates the demand for insurance Historically speaking the open market has shown that most people are willing to pay small reoccurring fees for a little peace of mind should the unthinkable occur Despite what some people may wish to believe it is important to understand that it is impossible to insure sentimentality or that which is irreplaceable Insurance cannot replace things it can only repay their perceived valuation Therefore in order to insure anything that which is to be insured must first be assigned a monetary value It is probably fair to say that insurance is really nothing more than a service provider of financial security But it is really only a useful service if we first believe or are convinced that we could find ourselves financially insecure In a consumer driven market most businesses have a desire to see the costs of goods and services remain low this generally allows them to sell more products Insurance companies are unique in that they have a vested interest in seeing the costs of goods and services remain high That is to say the more expensive things become the more expensive they become to replace Consequently the service of selling a financial safety net appears all the more necessary This is perfectly fine when we consider most insurance markets because there is no way to significantly influence or alter the marketplace In other words it is virtually impossible to predict any sort of truly calamitous event the very things that insurance is designed to protect against Nobody can predict that their house is going to burn to the ground one morning or that they are going to be in an accident while heading out for a drive or that they will be burglarized while away on vacation Furthermore unless insurance agencies began secretly committing acts of arson reckless endangerment or larceny respectively then they have no way to increase the likeliness of these occurrences Over the years they have used hundreds of fear based marketing campaigns to increase the perceived need for insurance but even these tactics can only have so much of an impact given basic day to day observation This is specifically why most insurance works rather well it relies on true actuarial calculations that factor the likeliness of incidents versus the costs of loss and base both on historical and market factors But in the case of health insurance the problem is that the calculations are no longer exclusively based upon unpredictable calamitous events This allows the risk factors we paying to be insured against to be directly manipulated by the same companies providing the policies Americans have become convinced that health insurance should serve as some sort of financial subsidy for even the most basic of healthcare needs This creates a goldmine of business opportunity for health insurance companies Imagine for a moment if we relied upon our homeowners insurance for all of the minor repairs we made to our house or if mechanics had to collect payment from our auto insurance provider after every oil change It might sound a little ridiculous but these are exactly the same types of expectations that we have deemed acceptable within the specific realm of health insurance It would certainly be possible in both cases for insurance agencies to handle these rather mundane necessities but not without significant base cost increases If we allowed those changes to take place we would no longer be paying for a financial safety net to cover the unpredictable losses of our homes and vehicles respectively that would only be part of it The other and more significant part would consist paying a middleman to manage our personal business dealings with other private companies And this is exactly how modern health insurance companies have managed to alter the face of the American healthcare system They have slowly propped themselves into the position of executing most healthcare decisions in the country But given how susceptible routine healthcare is to the influence of regular markets this creates an unbelievable conflict of interest and Americans are the ones who are suffering as a result We need to again be reminded that insurance companies just like medical service providers are businesses This means that most Americans who hold health insurance policies are just paying one corporation the insurer so that corporation can pay another the medical service provider Only in doing so the insurance company attaches whatever restrictions it wishes to the transaction and still takes money off the top This is not the premise of insurance The fact that we schedule doctor appointments weeks and months in advance with the intention of using insurance as the method of payment is evidence of this It shows exactly how ignorant we have become of this fiscal reality But at the same time it is hardly fair to blame insurance companies for their part As we have already examined their objective as a business is to maximize profits not to indulge in altruism The system described above presents them with a lucrative way in which to accomplish their objective Americans need to be willing to take their share of responsibility for carelessly buying into their practices This mentality has been in place for over two decades and the problem is only worsening There are a host of very serious consumer drawbacks that arise from giving a business this type of control over personal monetary decisions Specifically health insurance abstracts the cost structure of goods and services In the traditional sense of how insurance works this is not the case because the policyholder is only compensated for his or her financial loss If one s house burns down or one s car is destroyed an adjuster determines the valuation and a check is paid in that amount How that check is spent remains the decision of the policyholder We have developed the expectation that health insurance should be used more like a credit card or gift card provided we can show proof of our prepaid policy the bill is paid for or at least most of it is When every single transaction is routed through an insurance claim like this regardless of how minor it is the ability to know what we are spending money on becomes exceptionally difficult The need to care about what we are spending money on is removed from the equation entirely When the financial transaction is abstracted and insurance simply covers it the consumer has little reason to exercise any fiscal responsibility at all The customer could have been charged for dozens of unnecessary services but what is their incentive to dispute these charges given they are not the one paying the bill This is similar to arguments against a number of welfare practices The fact is that reckless consumerism is easily observable in any marketplace deprived of fiscal consideration Although it might make goods and services appear to be free or at least inexpensive in the long run it is something we all wind up paying for while somebody else profits Consider for a moment what it might be like if we really did expect our auto insurer to pay for routine oil changes and other minor maintenance If that were to become the case auto insurance companies would find themselves in the position of having almost complete control over the marketplace They could begin dictating what type of services could be performed what brand of oils could be used and even how frequently cars could be brought in for service They might even begin requiring mechanics to send in logs of the car s computer This could help to ensure that the driver was driving within appropriate limits since they would legitimately have a vested interest in the operating conditions of the car There might be various lawsuits over consumer privacy rights but with such an enormous marketplace lawyers and lobbyists could be hired to sort that out And on the other side of the equation what would prevent mechanics from acting in their own self interest and performing more comprehensive and expensive tests on vehicles Like all other businesses their objective is to maximize profit margins as well The insurance company would likely impose some fixed limits but they would still not have many practical ways in which to control spending And even beyond that what incentive would exist for limiting spending in the first place If the cost of regular maintenance began to rise as it undoubtedly would the insurance company would just pass those additional costs onto their customers Given the volume of their customer base and ability to track statistical usage they would be in the unique position to raise their rates slowly while the actual costs of goods and services simultaneously rose rather quickly It would even be in best interest of the vehicle s owner to request every possible test to make every minor repair and to replace anything that was remotely showing signs of wear Since the bill would already be paid for in advance no less what would inhibit the owner from requesting the utmost of care for his or her vehicle If we apply some numbers to this imagine that the mechanic tells the customer they can get a standard oil change for 35 or a comprehensive oil change for 40 In both cases they are informed that insurance will cover the full cost Naturally most will pick the more expensive option since it will be perceived as better and is paid for by insurance regardless That seemingly small increase just by itself already represents a base cost increase of over fourteen percent Since the insurance company is the one paying the end bill they know exactly how much customers are spending on oil changes and how often they are paying for this service The math is a bit more involved but if most consumers began to take the more expensive option and required service an average of 4 25 times per year the insurance company would need to cover an additional 21 25 per customer per year If we also assume that the insurance company took an additional dollar off the top they would have to raise rates by 22 25 per customer per year to cover their costs and also increase their profits This is where basic marketing principles and human psychology play a vital role By itself an additional 22 25 seems like a reasonably large jump in price But when this rate is spread across the entire year insurance policy holders would only see an increase of about 1 85 per month far below the threshold of any real concern This is exactly how the insurance bill would look and exactly how an insurance salesman would explain this to a client But now the mechanic is routinely charging more the insurance company is routinely collecting more and the customer winds up paying more for a supposed higher end service that they have never previously required in the first place As more and more people begin purchasing the expensive options the perceived market value of the service begins to rise in accordance In other words there is an illusion that the market is demanding a better service and that people are willing to pay more for that service when in fact neither is really true As the costs begin to rise those who are uninsured quickly find themselves having to spend more and more for the same routine car maintenance since the perception is that the market will bear more for these services Eventually this allows the insurance company to further justify how they can help the consumer but only because they are responsible for artificially driving up market rates in the first place This is how health insurance providers have a tremendous ability to manipulate the price of the market This is a purely fictitious example but also a parallel of how modern health insurance companies have fundamentally changed the landscape of expectations within the United States Moreover how Americans have willfully bought into the practices They have blinded people from the reality that routine healthcare service would otherwise not be unusually expensive to begin with This is especially true when compared to the high monthly costs that most modern health insurance plans charge Statistically the need for routine healthcare does not occur all too frequently and is relatively predictable in nature In the wintertime for example North Americans experience an elevated risk of colds and flus and will be more likely in need of doctors In the summer months this need drops off rather precipitously So why then is the country paying such high rates to have these uncertainties accounted for when in fact the alleged uncertainties are relatively predictable to begin with Why not just let customers pay doctors directly for their basic services and let insurance protect against truly unpredictable medical needs What originated as a legitimate branch of insurance has devolved into a bureaucratic and corporate driven system of healthcare administration It has become in every way imaginable a bloated and completely unnecessary component of the American healthcare system This is in no way to suggest that health insurance is not beneficial or that it should not be purchased To the contrary and like many other insurances health insurance can be invaluable in its ability to protect against financial loss when unpredictable accidents and medical emergencies occur We should ask ourselves both as individuals and as a nation whether we are purchasing insurance to cover our medical losses or just to manage our routine healthcare costs If it is the latter then we need to understand that this is not insurance at all it is just an abstracted and convoluted corporate hegemony of financial manipulation and administration Whether various industries associated with American healthcare are intentionally engaging in collusive behavior is purely speculative and a matter for debate However if the health insurance industry has the ability to drive costs upward inadvertently or otherwise and we know that the fundamental purpose of business is to maximize profits then how can we ignore the glaringly obvious risk this places upon us Is it actually reasonable to expect that businesses should act in the interest of consumers This is why it becomes imperative that people understand how healthcare and health insurance are fundamentally different terms The blurred relationship between these is two ideas and the resulting ignorance is a significant factor in why American healthcare costs have continued to rise for years And as of March 23rd 2010 President Obama and the 111th Congress of the United States legally intertwined the two as one em continued in a href blog 2131 American_Healthcare__Part_IV_An_Unpredictable_Event Part IV An Unpredictable Event a em