Free Ring Tones For All

I have a Microsoft Money program that tracks my expenses. Pretty nifty. Pretty easy to see where all the money is going. So lets break it down. A sampling of my 2007 expenses.

Gasoline: $3,333

Auto Maintenance: $4,117

Clothing: $3,924

Dining Out $2,591

Health Care (not premiums) $2,595

Car Insurance $1,667

Student Loans$ 9,000

Groceries $3,107

Household maintenance $3,527

Pet Care $689

Cable/Internet/Phone: $1,800

Cell Phone: $1,122

Electric: $697

Gas: $1,105

Water/Garbage: $634

Mortgage +escrow: $$$$$$

Grand Total? $39,908 (without mortgage)

Which of these expenses can be cut out?

Which of these expenses should be considered a right?

Which of these expenses should I expect the government to pay for?

Should I give up my cell phone?

Should I give up my cable TV?

Should I take the bus?

Should I shop at Good will?

Should I set my thermostat at 65 degrees in the winter, and 80 degrees in the summer?

Should I eat out less?

What makes free health care any more a right than free heating bills?

Than free gasoline for your car?

Than free groceries for your house?

Than free rent?

At what point do you cut the cord?

Lets assume for a moment that I woke up tomorrow with "free" universal health care. Like everything free, FREE=MORE. Look at the Mass. health reform program.

Straight from my AMA American Medical News newspaper. The state subsidized sliding scale program for the poor saw a bigger than expected enrollment of 169,000, 33,000 more than expected. Those earning less than 300% of poverty (on paper). The unsubsidized plan for those earning more than 300% of poverty attracted 15,900 people, which is 19,100 fewer than expected.

See the trend? FREE=MORE. But when it costs you money, you you self restraint. Those folks who have to pay out of their own pocket made conscious decisions not to sign up. It is a universal concept.

So lets assume I woke up tomorrow and "free" universal health care was offered to all Americans. To make the program work would require

1) Increased taxes and

2) Decreased delivery (rationing)

So lets assume that all Americans went along with this plan. That everyone agreed to pay higher taxes to fund universal care. That Americans allowed the government to dictate which therapies and medical care options were available in the plan and which weren't. And all Americans, via the single payer, one option system had to abide by this plan. That no Americans would be allowed to exit the plan (to opt out) , and no Americans would be allowed to pay more for their own higher tier health care, because that would be construed as unfair and only available to the "rich".

A plan that did not offer everything to rich and poor alike would be construed as inadequate care and unacceptable to the lefties who would say the best (code word for most expensive) care should be available to all Americans, regardless of ability to pay. In other words, the current system of health care premiums. That system doesn't work. That's the system we just abandoned for universal, single payer care.

Now lets assume all Americans are now snug in their lives with the full knowledge that they have 100% free universal health care coverage for the rest of their lives. That they put up with the predefined restrictions. That they put up with the waits. That they put up with the slowing down of health care delivery.

In my experience? Welcome to VA medicine. Where you wait 4-6 months to see your primary care doc. Where you wait even longer for a spot with a specialist. Where as an employee your motivation for excellence is limited by your desire for mediocrity and the 10 paid holidays a year (in addition to vacation days and sick leave) you enjoy as a government employee. Where your fear of being fired is laughed away as an impossible feat due to a weaving stream of federal protection laws.

In my experience, health care delivery was painfully slow on a normal working day; it turned to a grinding hault during paid federal holidays such as the ever popular Columbus Day and MLK Day. Need an xray or an echo on a holiday? A biopsy? Forget it. That only happens in the real world.

But this is now our world in single payer, universal health care which we get for "free".

But what happens to that $10,000 or more a year that GM was paying for your families health care? Does GM bank that profit? Do they give it their employee as income (yeah right)? Do they give it to the government via higher taxes?

Lets assume nothing happens to it. That the company banks the profit. That a massive cost to the bottom line just disappeared via the magic wand of fantasy land economics. Lets play a little game.

Its called fantasy land economics 101.

2.1 trillion dollars. That's how much it costs to delivery health care this this country last year.

300 million people.

$7,000 a person.

That's 2/3 of the 2008 entire US budget.

Lets assume that this happens. That the US government taxes its way to a 2.1 trillion dollar health care budget, in addition to all other entitlement programs and welfare support. Of course, this money comes from those paying taxes, not the poor. The top 5% of the population that pays 57% of all taxes. Not the bottom 50% of the population that pays 3% of all taxes.

Who do you think will end up paying for health care for the majority of the population? Your answer lies above.

Lets assume that that the public says fine. That the majority of the public is fine and dandy with taking more money from the 5% who already pay 57% of all taxes.

At what point does taxing "the rich" become detrimental?

At what point does taxing business become detrimental?

If I woke up tomorrow and had my tax rate jump from 30% to 50% to fund universal health care , would I work harder?

Would I work more in order to earn less?

Would I cut back my hours?

Would I take more time off?

Use more sick days?

Would I retire?

The answers are already apparent all throughout Europe. Tax wars have hit Europe. In an effort to increase business investment in their countries, the business tax rates are a plummeting. Higher corporate taxes decrease reinvestment in research and capital infrastructure. Business seeks out favorable tax structures.

I see it all the time in states trying to lure business. Tax breaks for business that brings in x number of jobs of x salary.

The Medicare reimbursement game is like a tax.

A doctor tax.

Every year the failure to provide an adequate reimbursement model is equivalent to a doctor tax. The result of that covert doctor tax has been a mass exodus of medical students from primary care medicine. These students see the writing on the wall that Peter "Pan" Stark does not.

The primary care doctors that remain have tried, in vain to increase production through volume. A volume game that has driven physician and patient satisfaction into the ground and has increased the cost of health care delivery universally.

Those primary care docs that remain are retiring early.

Those that remain have limited their exposure to this covert tax by refusing to accept new Medicare patients or dropping out all together.

What happens when you raise taxes? The covert doctor tax has answered that question.

People leave in droves. They hide their money. They increase shelters. They maximize depreciation and business expenses at the expense of generating taxable revenue. They buy corporate jets and fancy cars to decrease taxable profits from the government scam artists.

So the question remains.

Where do you cut the cord?

Lets assume that our nation now has universal care for all citizens, paid for by the 5% of the population who already pay 57% of all taxes. Lets assume that these higher taxes have no effect on long term sustainable revenue generation that the rich provide. I assure you it would. But lets assume it didn't.

What now.

You now have a generation of FREE=MORE health care consumers who will gladly consume what they can, when they can. They no longer have to worry about providing health care for their families.

But where do you cut the cord?

Housing is a required basic necessity.

Heat is a basic required necessity.

Travel expenses to and from work are a basic required necessity.

Where do you cut the cord?

5 years from now when millions and millions of Americans can't afford to pay their rent in their 3 bedroom 3 bath house, , or pay their gas bills, or pay for gasoline for their 4 door sedan and their SUV , or pay for steak for their homes, or milk and eggs for that matter.

Will the rich be asked once again through higher taxes to provide for steak for all Americans.

To provide for gasoline for all Americans.

To pay for heating bills for all Americans.

Where do you cut the cord?

At what point do Americans

Cancel their cable TV.

Sell their iPods

Sell their LCD

Sell their game players

Sell their boats

Sell their vacation homes

Sell their 20 inch rims and thumping radio's

Sell their cell phones and cancel their contracts

Sell their lap top and desk top computers

Skip a vacation for a year

Cook a meal instead of eating out 5 times a week

At what point do they cut the cord from the entitlement mentality engrained in this culture and start taking some personal financial responsibility for themselves.

To stop relying on the self made, self educated, self employed, financially well to do success stories in this world to pay for their iPods, their LCDs and their cable TV.

I know there are people out there who really need government assistance. For those, it is the governments duty to teach them how to fish, while feeding them carp.

But when I take care of 25 year olds who have $150/ month cell phone plans and, 22 inch rims on their Denali, and wear bling bling like their are going out of style,

And have no health insurance, there isn't an ounce of pitty in my bones for the massive unpaid bill they will be getting from collections.

These free loaders have never learned to cut the cord.

These are the same people that will be calling on the tax payers of America to fund the next round of government sanctioned entitlement:

Free ring tones for all. I mean, what 25 year old can't live without the latest ring tone. To consider it anything but an entitlement would be unAmerican