Calling John Galt

A number of studies have come out saying that by 2025 we will have a deficit of 30-45k generalist physicians.  They are the backbone of our medical system, and without them, we are in deep trouble.  Though, that time may be closer than anyone anticipated:

The Physicians’ Foundation, a nonprofit organization that supports physicians’ work with patients, last month published the results of a survey on current medical practice conditions in the United States. Some 12,000 doctors responded, the vast majority of whom were primary care physicians.

This is only a small sample of primary physicians.  However, it doesn’t bode well for the short term.  Our system is too complex, too regulated, and too controlled.  We need to give doctors back their authority and minimize the amount of time spent working with insurance companies.

If people don’t do what they find rewarding, they simply won’t do it anymore.

While these doctors rated patient relationships as the most satisfying aspect of practice, over three-quarters felt they were at “full capacity” or “overextended and overworked.”

Only one-third felt they had the time to fully communicate with and to treat all patients, and 60 percent felt that paperwork demands resulted in less time spent with patients.

People don’t do things because it is in the public good.  They do them because they get a personal value out of it.  Things that are financially rewarding and personally gratifying.  If things aren’t both, then we can say bye-bye to those individuals.

We can try and regulate, control, and control all aspects of society, but unless we give control back to the individual, then we will continue to see decreasing activity and returns from the people doing key jobs that keep our society functioning.

Listen Washington, get out of our business.  You will be amazed and surprised by how little (if at all) we actually need you.

Lead sentence from this story in the New York Times:

The epicenter of what may be the largest Ponzi scheme in history was the 17th floor of the Lipstick Building, an oval red-granite building rising 34 floors above Third Avenue in Midtown Manhattan.

I thought the largest Ponzi scheme in history was Social Security.

I have a problem with people who want to develop political platforms. They end up messy manifestos, and by their own very nature encourage the growth of a bureaucracy that was likely never needed to being with.

A platform ought to fit on the back of a business card.  Not even full sentences, just keywords that harken to principles.

• Transparency
• Minimal intrusion
• Minimal expansion
• Minimal expense
• Liberty
• Strong laws

If your platform calls for things that don’t boil back down to those basics, you’re probably doing it for the wrong reason (or the wrong people.)

Let’s look at a few corresponding examples:

• If the freezer you use to stash away your bribe money has no glass window, you’re not being transparent.
• If the law you just passed gives blanket authority to individuals, you’re enabling the trampling of a human being’s rights.
• If a proposed agency has no provision for sunset, then you have planned for it to fail in its core mission.
• If you start your business budget process assuming you will need to spend more than last year, you’ll probably be out of business soon.  (Unless your business has an endless supply of taxpayers to shake down.)
• If a law places a greater priority on security instead of liberty, the threat  had better be clearly enunciated and have a sunset provision.
• Laws that hold us to our freely-negotiated contracts should be enforced for the good of us all, lest courts become a pay-for-play arena where the special interests win.

Recent data show that SUV sales have rebounded sharply since July as falling oil prices have pushed retail gas prices from over $4 to below $2 a gallon.

Consumers may be myopic. But if anything, the turnaround is evidence that Americans aren’t going to change their habits and ways simply because of memories of past high energy prices and because well intentioned greens wish it to be so.  We’ve always maintained that higher oil prices did far more to discourage fossil fuel consumption than did CAFE standards, the Sierra Club, or Henry Waxman. Consumers respond everywhere and always to market prices, whereas green fads and green-induced guilt are always fleeting.

Ironically, falling gas prices could be what ultimately save Detroit, although don’t expect Democrats in congress to share the credit assuming their bailout ultimately goes through in some form. The big 3 make substantial profits on big cars while they lose money on every small car they manufacture due to unions and federal rules related to CAFE.

And we’re unlikely to see these market-distorting CAFE standards to go away anytime soon. Congress gets to hide behind the smoke and mirrors attempt to mollify the greens, pretending to make a difference while not upsetting voters or unions to any major degree.

As a society, if we are sincere in wishing to reduce our support of totalitarian regimes for our energy needs (Republicans) or to reduce our “Carbon Footprint” (The Left), we’ll be honest with citizens and impose a straightforward, $1.50/gallon gas tax.  Such a tax should be scaled in gradually over a ten year period, would be rebated equally to all citizens and the phase-in could start in 2010. The people would appreciate the simplicity, industry would be given time to plan, and everyone would be on a level playing field.

The AP this morning has a story on Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his suggested criminal activity.  However, it completely neglects to name which party he is with…

If this had happened to a Republican or Libertarian or even and Independent, it would be the first thing mentioned.

Can or should a one world government ever happen?  Do the issues that face us require this type of approach?  How would individual liberties be affected?  Would it simply mean a larger more ineffective government to the one we have now?

Who would have guessed that the companies that donated the most to political campaigns received the most money from the financial bailout.

Big surprise, but members of Congress are lobbied by business interests and end up forcing the military to purchase inferior products for our men and women in the uniform.

Among the lawmakers who championed the earmarks are Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y.; Arlen Specter, R-Pa.; and Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.

Clinton, who is poised to become secretary of state, received nearly $7,000 in campaign donations from the beneficiaries of these earmarks in recent years. Specter got more than $47,000.

Too bad that these individuals won’t be up for relection soon.  Remember Jefferson and Stevenson just lost!

A terrorist is a terrorist is a terrorist.

It has over 60 years since the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and catapulted the US in WWII.  My GrandPa was a tail gunner in a bomber over Germany and when shot down served over six months in a POW camp.  Many good men and women served and died in that war.  Millions of innocents lost their lives.

I consider myself a Libertarian, but I do diverge from standard Libertarian policy by believing in a strong Foreign Policy with the ability to defend ourselves and protect our national interest on the global stage.

We must learn the lessons from this and previous conflicts.  We simply can’t let something similar to WWII happen again.