Bravery in Politics

When Paul Ryan released his Medicare plan it was called brave. I don't think so. It's not brave to exempt over 55s, your main constituency, from any cuts. Republican Senator Tom Coburn's plan is brave. Paul Ryan's plan is calculated and cynical.

Yes! In Health Care It's the Supply Side

Karl Smith makes a good supply side argument.

We already have the most highly paid doctors in the world, yet it's not enough because we are still projected to have a shortage of doctors; short almost 100,000 by 2020 according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. We also can't continue to raise the pay of doctors while preserving access to health care for most Americans.

A good step in the right direction is to let Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants transition to primary care physicians after a few years working under a doctor.

I See Your Regression and Raise You A Part Time Job

Greg Mankiw wants to see if David Leonhardt's theory holds up.

I wonder if that UWO study has taken into account that lower income students likely have to have a part time job to afford college.

If you read The Millionaire Mind, one of my favorites, you might conclude that the low-income yet brilliant kids would do better if you didn't make it easier for them. The combination of brains, having to work really hard for everything, and knowing how to live frugally is a good formula for ending up wealthy.

Approach Every Financial Product As If They Are Trying To Screw You

I'm probably of slightly above average intelligence, yet I'm still baffled by credit card agreements and insurance contracts. I'm pretty sure that is purposeful and qualifies as "financial innovation". I characterize "financial innovation" as "how can I offer an inferior product, yet still charge you more for it". There are rare exceptions to this definition such as online billpaying and ATMs, but on the whole there is just far too much money in finance and insurance, and far too little of it benefiting anyone but those in finance and insurance.

This is why I'm inclined to believe this:
http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-chait/89068/the-health-care-regulatory-race-the-bottom

For the most part I think "the market" is lazy, especially about things they don't understand. I have no data, but I bet less than 1 in 20 read the fine print of credit card or insurance contracts.

Can You Use Market Forces For Medicare Reform Without Being Cruel?

One the biggest criticisms of Paul Ryan's approach to Medicare is the inadequacy of the vouchers. It is possible to use the "magic of the market" without inadequate vouchers. For instance you could keep Medicare largely the same, but offer higher deductible alternatives. These could be in same form as Medicare with much higher deductibles and co-pays, or a similar regulated plan from the private insurance market. You then give any senior who takes a cheaper alternative a cash payment for the difference.

If a senior qualifies for Medicare but decides to go the higher deductible route, they ration their own care in much the same way they would in Paul Ryan's plan. Then we can use the "magic of the market" without putting health care out of reach of low income seniors.

Fox Entertainment Network

Read the following story at Fox News and tell me what's missing:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/05/10/obama-urges-congress-pass-immigration-reform/

I see a lot of "Obama said!" and "Republicans fired back!".

What I don't see is any easily locatable figures to say who is right. This is entertainment, not journalism. Just because you give equal time to two false or misleading opinions and say "you decide" doesn't mean you can call it news.

Ok, Now I've Read Keller's Piece

I've read it, and I don't think he's consistent in what he's complaining about. On one hand there's the increased use of tools giving us more brain rotting leisure time. But this:

My father, who was trained in engineering at M.I.T. in the slide-rule era, often lamented the way the pocket calculator, for all its convenience, diminished my generation’s math skills

Is ridiculous. Tools like Matlab have advanced mathematical analysis far past what was achievable in the slide rule days. You know whose math skills suffer? People who never use math anyway. In the meantime they are coming up with incredible things in the arts because they don't have to waste time doing their taxes on a slide rule. The point is people who want to use these conveniences for an incredible, previously unachievable result far outweighs the negative effects of people who use the convenience for more leisure time. He uses the invention of the printing press as the first step in eliminating memorization:

Until the 15th century, people were taught to remember vast quantities of information. Feats of memory that would today qualify you as a freak — the ability to recite entire books — were not unheard of. Then along came the Mark Zuckerberg of his day, Johannes Gutenberg.

Then later he makes this point:

But my inner worrywart wonders whether the new technologies overtaking us may be eroding characteristics that are essentially human: our ability to reflect, our pursuit of meaning, genuine empathy, a sense of community connected by something deeper than snark or political affinity.

Shouldn't the whole Renaissance after the invention of the printing press thing disprove his point? The time when everyone was memorizing stuff and there was a lack of leisure time for arts and invention was called the Dark Ages. The time after the printing press was a great time for reflection and pursuit of meaning. I just verified it on Wikipedia!