Where is the US economy headed?

@BillRM,

It amazes me how many conservatives have that ridiculous view. Look at Romney's speech about the 47 percent of Americans who, he indicated, are parasites.

It was shown that most in the 47 percent were elderly, whose income had drastically decreased, the working poor, usually making the minimum wage, or something slightly above that, the disabled, et al. Those people have no bed of roses.

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@Miller,

Yeah, it's the kids. I've been hearing that for 50 years. Honestly, I don't see much difference. Except some of the young people I see today are a lot smarter than the ones when I was younger.

There have been workers and non-workers since the beginning of time.

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@Miller,

Quote:

As far as the medical system is concerned, the physicians are to blame for ever allowing "managed care" to gain a strong hold, as it did in the early 1980s.

Right, the free for all that existed before that was much better.

Un-managed care is better ?

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@IRFRANK,

There's the unconsidered middle Frank. Properly managed care where some attention is paid to keeping millions of has-beens gawping at the ceiling with their mouths hanging open for an extra ten years being the royal road to disaster no matter how useful it is to the medical profession.

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The country will never return to its previous prosperity. We are doomed to do each other's laundry. National wealth comes from engineering and manufacturing, of which we no long do much.

Another huge drag is our extreme plutocracy. The top 10 percent in income own 93 percent of the wealth. That leaves seven percent, and diminishing, of wealth for the 90 percent of the population. This hurts the middle class, which is asked to pay more of the tax burden, and gives most of the power to the super-rich.

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@IRFRANK,

IRFRANK wrote:

Yeah, it's the kids. I've been hearing that for 50 years. Honestly, I don't see much difference. Except some of the young people I see today are a lot smarter than the ones when I was younger.

There have been workers and non-workers since the beginning of time.

International testing shows that the American kid is near the bottom of the academic barrel. Moreover, I don't see this changing.

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@Advocate,

You what's interesting about our economy are the many contradictions within it. I'm now on an AMA cruise on the Duoro River in Portugal, and this company's cruises are booked 100% for this year. Since we were not able to cruise for the 7 days, the company is giving us a 100% credit on a future cruise - beginging in 2014. s

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@cicerone imposter,

Great! You picked the right cruise company.

Have a good time.

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@Advocate,

We're really lucky that we're on this tour, not only because of the generosity of the AMA cruise line, but the 100 passengers are great. Most in our group know my brother who was mayor of his town and served two terms in the state legislature. A great experience over all.

We also have George Sandeman on this cruise, the great-great grandson of the founder of the Sandeman port winery. One of the greatest treat of of all my travels.

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@spendius,

I guess that's a vote for death panels. My wife was in the hospital for 11 days. At one point she was gawking at the ceiling. Out on morphine for a couple days. That was five years ago. Now she's a healthy 60 yr old. The hospital bill was over two hundred grand. It cost us 20k. Was that too expensive?

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@Advocate,

Quote:

International testing shows that the American kid is near the bottom of the academic barrel. Moreover, I don't see this changing.

Strange is it not that our workers productivity is at the top or near the top in the world and our science and technology is not match by any other nation on this earth.

Let see let name some of the companies that had been or now are the movers and the shakers of technology and see how many of them are not American firms.

IBM, GE, AT&T/BELL LABS, MICROSOFT, APPLE come to mind at once and others firms such as Hewlett-Packard have one thing in common they are all US firms.

Strange how when you think of the internet or computer OS systems or in a millions other fields of technology it is Americans that are the overwhelming creators and drivers and had been for over a century.

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@cicerone imposter,

cicerone imposter wrote:

Don't forget, many US companies are cash rich, and ready to loosen their purse strings when they learn the governments are on their side.

More like waiting to learn what rules they are required to work under.

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@IRFRANK,

IRFRANK wrote:

I guess that's a vote for death panels. My wife was in the hospital for 11 days. At one point she was gawking at the ceiling. Out on morphine for a couple days. That was five years ago. Now she's a healthy 60 yr old. The hospital bill was over two hundred grand. It cost us 20k. Was that too expensive?

Obamacare was born because the old system was 19 percent of GDP, and was going to destroy the economy. When it was 10 % of GDP, economists said this was not sustainable.

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@BillRM,

BillRM wrote:

Quote:
International testing shows that the American kid is near the bottom of the academic barrel. Moreover, I don't see this changing.

Strange is it not that our workers productivity is at the top or near the top in the world and our science and technology is not match by any other nation on this earth.

Let see let name some of the companies that had been or now are the movers and the shakers of technology and see how many of them are not American firms.

IBM, GE, AT&T/BELL LABS, MICROSOFT, APPLE come to mind at once and others firms such as Hewlett-Packard have one thing in common they are all US firms.

Strange how when you think of the internet or computer OS systems or in a millions other fields of technology it is Americans that are the overwhelming creators and drivers and had been for over a century.

The firms are now international, with no special allegiance to the USA.

Moreover, the real money is in the engineering and manufacturing. This is happening abroad.

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@roger,

roger wrote:

cicerone imposter wrote:

Don't forget, many US companies are cash rich, and ready to loosen their purse strings when they learn the governments are on their side.

More like waiting to learn what rules they are required to work under.

more like waiting to decide if investing in the business is a smart move. governments and the media give us a constant din of "happy talk" but smart people watch what the money is doing. for years this political and economic system have been getting universal votes of no confidence.

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@IRFRANK,

IRFRANK wrote:

I guess that's a vote for death panels. My wife was in the hospital for 11 days. At one point she was gawking at the ceiling. Out on morphine for a couple days. That was five years ago. Now she's a healthy 60 yr old. The hospital bill was over two hundred grand. It cost us 20k. Was that too expensive?

$760 a hour is outrageous charging. we should be able to be more efficient.

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@hawkeye10,

In a way, it's a con. The hospital reports a total bill, but is actually paid a negotiated amount by the insurance company. I once had a total hospital bill of over 15,000. Copay was 1,000 and the insurance company actually paid something over 7,000. The balance was discounted by the hospital.

If you are uninsured, you get stuck for the whole deal. You pay, or hounded into bankruptcy - at which point the hospital gets nothing. I suppose the operating theory is that they have to over charge to make up for the people they force into bankruptcy and their medicare patients.

The total ambulance charge was 3,500, which amounted to a grand a mile. Copay was under 200, and the insurance company paid not much more. It looked like they seriously overcharge so they can make a real swell discount - but not to everyone.

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@roger,

Quote:

I suppose the operating theory is that they have to over charge to make up for the people they force into bankruptcy and their medicare patients.

nope....it is "price gouge" whenever possible. there is a serious ethical deficiency in this system.

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@cicerone imposter,

Quote:

what's interesting about our economy are the many contradictions within it

says the doctor: "this is a very interesting cancer you have sir!"

the dying patient might not be amused.

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@hawkeye10,

You live in a world of negativity. In the real world, there are all ranges of realities and perceptions whether rich or poor. Your perceptions are myopic and shallow.

1 Reply

Where is the US economy headed?

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