ot other hand, under (ugly) US contemporary practices, it’s undocumented who most contribute to reduced cost of ag products, construction, personal care… so taking @sjwrenlewis.bsky.social’s suggestion of explanation, voters’ concern for “bread and butter” issues, which way might it ultimately cut?
this @mattbruenig.bsky.social piece on health care economics is a work of art. www.peoplespolicyproject.org/2024/12/10/h... 1/
Health Care Administration Wastes Half a Trillion Dollars Every Year
Link Preview: Health Care Administration Wastes Half a Trillion Dollars Every Year: Health insurers are actually very bad.
administrative costs associated with health insurance are HUGE, not a rounding error next to inflated provider costs. 2/
Bar graph showing the scale of likely avoidable health-care administrative costs relative to comparable expenses, like running public colleges and K-12 education.
the only justification for those costs would be to rein in provider rents, but not only do private insurers fail to, they have structural incentives to let them grow. 3/
read this one. /fin www.peoplespolicyproject.org/2024/12/10/h...
Health Care Administration Wastes Half a Trillion Dollars Every Year
Link Preview: Health Care Administration Wastes Half a Trillion Dollars Every Year: Health insurers are actually very bad.
Text: The politics of stupid is believing that the way to deal with Farage or Trump type populism is to do what Farage or Trump happens to be shouting about at the time. Concern about immigration is real enough, but it is important to ask why there is concern about immigration. To put it very simply, there are probably two types of reasons why voters find populists going on about immigration attractive. The first is that these voters don’t like foreigners. Immigration numbers don’t matter to these people when there are already plenty of foreign looking people already here. The second type are voters who mistakenly think that problems like finding it difficult to see a doctor or buy a house are because of immigration. Cutting immigration is only likely to make those problems worse, by stopping doctors or construction workers coming to the UK
“Where are all the bureaucrats?” a useful chart by @kdrum.bsky.social (i’m hoping that’s a real rather than impersonating account?) jabberwocking.com/where-are-al...
Where are all the bureaucrats? - Kevin Drum
Link Preview: Where are all the bureaucrats? - Kevin Drum: Here are the federal agencies that America's civilian workers call home: Two-thirds of all civil service workers are in Defense, Veterans Affairs, and Homeland Security. Unless you're planning to slas...
or aggressive use of executive power without deference to law. seek and ye shall find authorities by which to waive, ignore, restraints. undermine legal challenges, intimidate judges and courts until the stream of opinions turns congenial. usually he’s all bluster, but authoritarianism is an option.
national greatness consists of burning it all down and watching it rise like a phoenix from the ashes. ideally from a condo in phoenix. or tempe is very nice.
you know you’ve encountered a higher class of revolutionary when at least a pinky toe, if not several of the more vigorous toes, is latent.
📌
the last time around we had robber barons. this time we have toddler tyrants.
is syria an isolated event or some kind of domino?
“The average cost of a three-day hospital stay is $30,000.” @helenouyang.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2024/12/08/o...
Opinion | What Doctors Like Me Know About Americans’ Health Care Anger
Link Preview: Opinion | What Doctors Like Me Know About Americans’ Health Care Anger: As a doctor, I’ve been on both sides of frustrating health care debacles.
pretends not to notice but it has some egg on its face.
(thanks!)
i might have a less tolerant (perhaps unreasonably) standard of not dark. i consider intentional manufacture of inconveniences to get a user to do what’s in a site owner’s interest or discourage them from what’s not, even if it’s not deceptive, to be pretty dark. and i still see a lot of that.
my wife right now is yelling at a robot on the telephone “I want to talk to a representative!” she’s yelled 3 times. she has no idea how to get through all the high-tech chaff, she’s thrashing in frustration. discouraged customers don’t cost. is that a dark pattern? i say yes, hell yes. but YMMV!
just a random moment. i can’t look in any direction, via any digital modality, without seeing a hell of a lot of darkness.
a lot still seems pretty prevalent… link suppression on x / threads, difficult cancelations, pop-ups demanding email addresses, etc. the FTC was working on banning junk fees, but they’re still all over my hotel bookings and rent. i saw incipient hope in the Khan FTC, but very far from vanquishment.
and an abiding faith—based on a tendentious misreading either of the Christian religion or Adam Smith, pick your poison—that ruthlessly seeking “what’s in it for me?” can only yield a brilliant, sustainable future so there’s nothing to have misgivings about, regardless of what eggs must be broken.
there was the moment they decided dark patterns are really bright patterns because they are profitable patterns, and what is profitable is efficient and good, progressive in the only way that is ultimately meaningful. that was the moment they left us, became something apart. they continue to diverge
perhaps a pony would be more practical.
a value i’ve always strived to uphold is intellectual charity. people i disagree with are good people like me. try to understand the circumstances and beliefs under which a good person might come to believe what they do. 1/
with age my eyesight has changed, my focal range has grown narrower and more brittle. something similar has happened to my capacity for intellectual charity. 2/
i do my best, of course, in arguments and conversations to behave charitably. but beyond the confines of a live conversation — in which the presence of a real human does encourage stretching toward mutual comprehension — i find myself more and more just quietly writing off political adversaries. 3/
these are just bad fucking people, i find myself thinking. 4/
i don’t take this as a positive development. i wonder how much of it is my increasing age, my decaying soul, and how much reflects the changing times. /fin
a cosmopolitan Constitution, if you can keep it.