A Little Ludwig Goes A Long Way

From today’s NYT article on Apple’s offshore manufacturing:

“We sell iPhones in over a hundred countries”, a current Apple executive said. “We don’t have an obligation to solve America’s problems. Our only obligation is making the best product possible.”

I’m not completely angry about this view, this might be the correct and legitimate attitude for a multinational corporation. But it is clearly not the correct attitude for a US citizen and participant in the political process. Citizens do have an obligation to solve America’s problems.

Having spent way too much time with healthcare providers, insurance companies, etc, in the last 4 years, I certainly support change. Almost any change, change for change’s sake, is worth trying, because the system is not very satisfying right now. We should clearly try to do something. So I am inclined towards supporting the new proposals in Congress. I need to get smarter about the details.

In general, shifting power away from the monied interests — insurance companies, pharma companies, large healthcare organizations — and towards the individuals — patients and doctors — is the right thing to do. Do the proposals achieve this? I don’t know. Certainly some insurance companies are pissed off which is probably a good sign, tho other pharma and insurance companies are funding support ads which is concerning — if they are so excited about the proposals, it probably means money in their pockets, and that money is coming from someone.

I kind of hate the fact that all these large organizations — pharma, insurance cos, the various NGOs — are even participating in the discussion. My view is that only voters/citizens should participate, it should be illegal for all these other entities to fund ads and lobbying efforts.

Equal Rights Washington. Good site summarizing political activities in the state to support equal rights

Home | Recovery.gov. — should check this on at least a weekly basis.

Nice post from Phil pointing out the huge debt incurred by either Obama or McCain plans.

The critical thing to consider is the trillions of dollars being added to the national debt ($4.5 trillion over ten years for McCain, $3.2 trillion for Obama) at a time when we are already running deficits and fighting a war. — Comparing McCain and Obama’s tax cuts: trillions in new debt, small salary impact » Bogle’s Blog.

And don’t forget to add the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac bailouts on top of that, plus any other future bailouts.

Whoever wins this election has an economic mess to work with.

chartjunk » Blog Archive » Tax Plans (that’s one for you, nineteen for me) — nice charting. i’ve done no research to understand the veracity but nice chart.