Interesting this study shows that int the USA latinos, who of the groups studied have the least access to health care outlive whites. Even more interestingly latinos in the USA out live most Europeans.
Add to that the fact that the eight Americas study shows that rural northern whites (with less access to health care) out live the general population and you begin to wonder if access to more health care shortens life!
Of course remember that homicide and accidental deaths move the life expectancy averages more than health care, beyond vaccinations, over the counter meds like aspirin/Tylenol and antibiotics.
Still a little shocking!
Hat tip to Bryan Caplan
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Monday, April 19, 2010
Is Too Regulated to Fail a Good Policy Goal
Is too regulated to fail a good policy goal or is it impossible? Isn't the failure of the weakest players in any industry a good thing?
Knowing how Goldman Sachs, Lehman etc. operated I think that we would all be better off without their backward and corrupt ways of dealing but a bail out was passed with more Democrats than Republicans votes to bail them out!
Economic freedom, though the greatest economic system by far does not shield us from economic ups and downs. It certainly does not shield us from painful creative destruction, but the alternative is slow decline and under performance a la Cuba and North Korea.
(BTW for those who insist that Sweden is the real relevant alternative rather than Cuba and North Korea, even the most active Governments in free economies have not been able to prevent all finical meltdowns, see Sweden's banking colapse in the early 1990s. it is only a complete governmnet take over like in Cuba and North Korea that can avoid booms and busts.)
IMHO free banking with money backed by bank assets (which was evolving in some places) would have given a fail safe to the financial system where one failing bank strengthens others. The monopoly federal reserve system that we have now is plagued by feedback where the failure of one bank weakens the others.
It seems the financial system is complex enough that no one knows enough to regulate it or to run the currency system on a monopoly basis. The finical and banking systems should have been allowed to evolve longer before governments stepped in and created central banks. Diversity gives strength and resilience. A central bank is a monopoly entity. It eliminates all diversity in currency issue. This causes problems. It is more difficult for monoplolies to set market clearing prices. In a one currency system what do you value the currency against? The CPI attempts to measure currency against a basket of goods but the CPI did not properly measure the rising cost of real-estate. In a multi-currency system beanks must keep their currncy on par with other currencies and sop must make continual small adjustments.
Diversity gives strength and resilience if one currency of many collapses the slack can be filled by others
Keep in mind that with all the regulations that have been added thus far the financial crises have gotten progressively worse. That fact alone should give us pause.
Worse than regulation are government guaranties. Take the example of FDIC insurance, before the creation of the FDIC banks typically kept 30% capital (in banking capital = assets - liabilities) now banks keep 10% capital and they only keep that becuase it is mandated by law (regulation) but because it was law it is not a cushion because if capital drops below 10% the bank is declared regulatorily bankrupt!
Knowing how Goldman Sachs, Lehman etc. operated I think that we would all be better off without their backward and corrupt ways of dealing but a bail out was passed with more Democrats than Republicans votes to bail them out!
Economic freedom, though the greatest economic system by far does not shield us from economic ups and downs. It certainly does not shield us from painful creative destruction, but the alternative is slow decline and under performance a la Cuba and North Korea.
(BTW for those who insist that Sweden is the real relevant alternative rather than Cuba and North Korea, even the most active Governments in free economies have not been able to prevent all finical meltdowns, see Sweden's banking colapse in the early 1990s. it is only a complete governmnet take over like in Cuba and North Korea that can avoid booms and busts.)
IMHO free banking with money backed by bank assets (which was evolving in some places) would have given a fail safe to the financial system where one failing bank strengthens others. The monopoly federal reserve system that we have now is plagued by feedback where the failure of one bank weakens the others.
It seems the financial system is complex enough that no one knows enough to regulate it or to run the currency system on a monopoly basis. The finical and banking systems should have been allowed to evolve longer before governments stepped in and created central banks. Diversity gives strength and resilience. A central bank is a monopoly entity. It eliminates all diversity in currency issue. This causes problems. It is more difficult for monoplolies to set market clearing prices. In a one currency system what do you value the currency against? The CPI attempts to measure currency against a basket of goods but the CPI did not properly measure the rising cost of real-estate. In a multi-currency system beanks must keep their currncy on par with other currencies and sop must make continual small adjustments.
Diversity gives strength and resilience if one currency of many collapses the slack can be filled by others
Keep in mind that with all the regulations that have been added thus far the financial crises have gotten progressively worse. That fact alone should give us pause.
Worse than regulation are government guaranties. Take the example of FDIC insurance, before the creation of the FDIC banks typically kept 30% capital (in banking capital = assets - liabilities) now banks keep 10% capital and they only keep that becuase it is mandated by law (regulation) but because it was law it is not a cushion because if capital drops below 10% the bank is declared regulatorily bankrupt!
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Some Questions for Democrats
How much welfare is enough and how should it be structured? Not just AFDC but Social Security, Medicare, food stamps, HUD, Fannie and Freddie, Gov. education etc.
How much of their own wealth should people be required to spend on their own medical care before the state kicks in?
What marginal tax rates are acceptable for the what incomes (low and high)? Right now low income people face huge marginal tax rates. I am getting at incentives here.
Does FDIC create bad incentives that might require an eventual virtual gov take over of banking? If so how do we keep lending from becoming too politicized and corrupt?
Is there a level of regulation and complexity where more regulation is counter productive? What is that level?
Is too regulated to fail an achievable goal?
Single payer and monopsony the seems to be the long range goal of Obamacare, how do you think that will work?
How much of their own wealth should people be required to spend on their own medical care before the state kicks in?
What marginal tax rates are acceptable for the what incomes (low and high)? Right now low income people face huge marginal tax rates. I am getting at incentives here.
Does FDIC create bad incentives that might require an eventual virtual gov take over of banking? If so how do we keep lending from becoming too politicized and corrupt?
Is there a level of regulation and complexity where more regulation is counter productive? What is that level?
Is too regulated to fail an achievable goal?
Single payer and monopsony the seems to be the long range goal of Obamacare, how do you think that will work?
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
A Friend Asks for Opinions on Range of Issues
He asks:
Could any of you tell me about four CONCRETE changes that are desired. If the changes are something like:
NO TAXES
NO SOCIAL SECURITY
NO UNEMPLOYMENT PAYMENTS
NO MEDICARE
NO REGULATION OF SECURITIES TRANSACTIONS
NO FOREIGN WARS
NO EXCESSIVE MILITARY EXPENSES
You will have to include a few words regarding how to compensate for any unwanted consequences of the change.
Respectfully - Gomor
It is difficult once these programs are started and people have become depend on them so:
SOCIAL SECURITY
I would lower the SS tax and payout the minimum payments to all SS recipients and raise the retirement age to 70.
MEDICARE
Seniors would not like this but I would start using evidence based medicine in Medicare. I would also put a high deductible on Medicare. $5,000/year to start.
Means tested programs make some sense (robbing Peter to pay Paul) but programs like SS and Medicare make no sense. They amount to robbing Peter to pay Peter.
TAXES
I would replace the income tax with a national sales tax and excise taxes (maybe even a carbon tax). At some point I would eliminate the SS and Medicare taxes.
UNEMPLOYMENT PAYMENTS
Similar to SS lower the payout to some minimum level. Interestingly you could replace unemployment payments and SS payments with a fixed amount of money given to every citizen but that is too radical and creates some bad incentives.
REGULATION OF SECURITIES TRANSACTIONS
We have gobs of regulations and we still have periodic financial collapses (and BTW they have been worse since the civil war (civil war laws pretty much ended an level of free banking) and worse yet since the creation on the federal reserve and FDIC) and lest you think that this is because conservatives had power for a few years (congress and the white house) Sweden had a finical collapse in the early 1990s. So the regulations seem not to work. We might as well allow free banking but the transition could be brutal so we must go slow.
FOREIGN WARS
I am against foreign wars unless we are attacked. Defense only. We won everything that there is to win in Iraq and Afghanistan time to end the police work in those countries and bring the soldiers home. We got Sadaam and we toppled the Taliban.
EXCESSIVE MILITARY EXPENSES
We spend almost as much on military as the rest of the world combined, and the other strongest countries are our allies (France and UK). I think that we can afford to cut military in half at least.
Could any of you tell me about four CONCRETE changes that are desired. If the changes are something like:
NO TAXES
NO SOCIAL SECURITY
NO UNEMPLOYMENT PAYMENTS
NO MEDICARE
NO REGULATION OF SECURITIES TRANSACTIONS
NO FOREIGN WARS
NO EXCESSIVE MILITARY EXPENSES
You will have to include a few words regarding how to compensate for any unwanted consequences of the change.
Respectfully - Gomor
It is difficult once these programs are started and people have become depend on them so:
SOCIAL SECURITY
I would lower the SS tax and payout the minimum payments to all SS recipients and raise the retirement age to 70.
MEDICARE
Seniors would not like this but I would start using evidence based medicine in Medicare. I would also put a high deductible on Medicare. $5,000/year to start.
Means tested programs make some sense (robbing Peter to pay Paul) but programs like SS and Medicare make no sense. They amount to robbing Peter to pay Peter.
TAXES
I would replace the income tax with a national sales tax and excise taxes (maybe even a carbon tax). At some point I would eliminate the SS and Medicare taxes.
UNEMPLOYMENT PAYMENTS
Similar to SS lower the payout to some minimum level. Interestingly you could replace unemployment payments and SS payments with a fixed amount of money given to every citizen but that is too radical and creates some bad incentives.
REGULATION OF SECURITIES TRANSACTIONS
We have gobs of regulations and we still have periodic financial collapses (and BTW they have been worse since the civil war (civil war laws pretty much ended an level of free banking) and worse yet since the creation on the federal reserve and FDIC) and lest you think that this is because conservatives had power for a few years (congress and the white house) Sweden had a finical collapse in the early 1990s. So the regulations seem not to work. We might as well allow free banking but the transition could be brutal so we must go slow.
FOREIGN WARS
I am against foreign wars unless we are attacked. Defense only. We won everything that there is to win in Iraq and Afghanistan time to end the police work in those countries and bring the soldiers home. We got Sadaam and we toppled the Taliban.
EXCESSIVE MILITARY EXPENSES
We spend almost as much on military as the rest of the world combined, and the other strongest countries are our allies (France and UK). I think that we can afford to cut military in half at least.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Population Density
What my time living in Honduras (low national pop density compared to my native Rhode Island) showed me is that crowding is generally a result a lack of a tranportation rather than population density.
Rhode Island has a population density of 900/sq mi and Honduras has a population density 77/sq mi. Rhode Island does not seem crowed at all. Honduras on the other hand can seemed quite crowed. Poverty and poor transportation cause people to crowd in together.
People talk about crowding in Japan, and Japan does has good transportation, but you will notice that people seldom talk about crowding in the Netherlands. I think that part of crowding in Japan is the result of their Government's attempt to keep Japan growing most of their staple foods. Agriculture does take up land but even if that was a national goal you could achieve it without preserving so much farm land, by using more intensive agriculture.
Some population densities:
1 Macau 20,824.38
2 Monaco 16,486.67
3 Hong Kong 6,571.14
4 Singapore 5,539.77
5 Gibraltar 4,486.92
6 Gaza Strip 3,090.71
7 Holy See 1,977.27
8 Bermuda 1,249.44
9 Malta 1,192.51
10 Bahrain 1,014.66
11 Maldives 1,000.73
12 Bangladesh 949.28
13 Jersey 773.46
14 Taiwan 685.47
15 Mauritius 639.03
16 Barbados 602.77
17 Nauru 505.00
18 Korea, South 477.49
19 Netherlands 466.45
20 Puerto Rico 433.94
21 San Marino 417.68
22 Tuvalu 407.23
23 Mayotte 398.23
24 Martinique 388.24
25 Marshall Islands 361.32
26 Aruba 355.83
27 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 354.47
28 Lebanon 348.26
29 Virgin Islands 343.34
30 Guernsey 337.04
31 Belgium 336.82
32 Japan 336.72
33 India 336.62
34 Rwanda 326.85
35 American Samoa 320.53
36 Sri Lanka 295.72
37 Reunion 287.09
38 West Bank 285.66
39 Grenada 285.32
40 Israel 282.82
41 El Salvador 281.81
42 Guam 280.28
43 Philippines 266.11
44 Comoros 259.32
45 Saint Lucia 252.49
46 Haiti 249.79
47 Guadeloupe 246.74
48 Jamaica 244.92
49 United Kingdom 244.69
50 Vietnam 237.62
51 Germany 234.86
52 Cyprus - Turkish Sector 224.76
53 Burundi 223.62
54 Netherlands Antilles 216.49
55 Trinidad and Tobago 214.83
56 Liechtenstein 200.36
57 Italy 192.96
58 Micronesia, Federated States of 187.32
59 Switzerland 182.94
60 Nepal 177.65
61 Korea, North 177.61
62 Pakistan 177.37
63 Seychelles 173.99
64 Dominican Republic 168.04
65 Luxembourg 165.92
66 Saint Kitts and Nevis 159.25
67 Sao Tome and Principe 154.88
68 Tonga 151.92
69 Cayman Islands 151.29
70 Tokelau 147.10
71 Andorra 146.53
72 Antigua and Barbuda 146.01
73 Northern Mariana Islands 145.49
74 China 133.69
75 Moldova 133.67
76 Gambia, The 133.63
77 Czech Republic 130.72
78 Man, Isle of 128.72
79 Montserrat 128.53
80 British Virgin Islands 127.71
81 Poland 126.79
82 Anguilla 126.48
83 Denmark 126.36
84 Nigeria 124.98
85 Albania 122.79
86 Armenia 120.04
87 Kiribati 119.25
88 Thailand 118.43
89 Indonesia 118.32
90 Uganda 114.19
91 Guatemala 113.77
92 Kuwait 111.73
93 Slovakia 110.58
94 Hungary 110.31
95 France 108.09
96 Portugal 107.86
97 Malawi 106.30
98 Serbia 103.06
99 Cape Verde 100.68
100 Cuba 100.09
101 Austria 98.37
102 Slovenia 97.28
103 Romania 96.96
104 Syria 93.53
105 Togo 93.43
106 Azerbaijan 91.85
107 Dominica 86.51
108 Turkey 85.11
109 Cook Islands 84.17
110 Croatia 82.91
111 Ukraine 82.51
112 Ghana 82.11
113 Greece 81.86
114 Cyprus 81.61
115 Macedonia, The Former Yugoslav Republic of 81.37
116 Samoa 80.69
117 Spain 78.43
118 Bulgaria 74.13
119 Sierra Leone 73.95
120 Burma 73.10
121 Georgia 72.69
122 Costa Rica 72.53
123 Lesotho 70.15
124 Bosnia and Herzegovina 67.97
125 Egypt 67.58
126 Morocco 66.46
127 French Polynesia 66.14
128 Cambodia 65.87
129 Malaysia 65.06
130 Qatar 63.26
131 Brunei 61.29
132 Tunisia 61.24
133 Swaziland 57.29
134 Benin 57.00
135 Uzbekistan 56.66
136 Wallis and Futuna 55.22
137 Norfolk Island 55.06
138 Lithuania 54.98
139 Honduras 53.60
140 Ethiopia 53.30
141 Ireland 52.74
142 Senegal 52.35
143 Mexico 52.15
144 Iraq 51.90
145 Jordan 51.32
146 Kenya 50.61
147 Belarus 50.10
148 Cote d'Ivoire 49.74
149 Cocos 45.43
150 Ecuador 45.38
151 Fiji 44.49
152 Guinea-Bissau 44.09
153 Tajikistan 42.77
154 Burkina Faso 42.28
155 Bhutan 41.53
156 Palau 40.32
157 Afghanistan 39.88
158 Iran 39.84
159 Nicaragua 39.23
160 Turks and Caicos Islands 39.22
161 Colombia 37.84
162 Panama 36.56
163 Latvia 36.44
164 South Africa 35.60
165 Tanzania 35.29
166 Cameroon 32.92
167 Eritrea 32.84
168 Estonia 32.60
169 Yemen 32.09
170 Guinea 30.66
171 Liberia 30.35
172 United States 29.77
173 Faroe Islands 29.35
174 Zimbabwe 28.87
175 Saint Pierre and Miquelon 28.79
176 United Arab Emirates 28.29
177 Bahamas, The 28.17
178 Venezuela 26.31
179 Madagascar 25.58
180 Mozambique 24.39
181 Kyrgyzstan 23.76
182 Laos 23.43
183 Congo, Democratic Republic of the 22.26
184 Sweden 21.69
185 Peru 20.80
186 Djibouti 20.36
187 Brazil 20.32
188 Chile 20.00
189 Uruguay 19.06
190 Christmas Island 17.58
191 Saint Helena 17.43
192 Finland 16.89
193 Equatorial Guinea 16.60
194 Solomon Islands 16.54
195 Sudan 14.51
196 World 14.42
197 Norway 14.42
198 Paraguay 13.68
199 New Zealand 13.63
200 Argentina 13.42
201 Algeria 13.07
202 Zambia 13.05
203 Vanuatu 12.81
204 Oman 11.52
205 Somalia 11.38
206 Saudi Arabia 10.97
207 New Caledonia 10.63
208 Papua New Guinea 10.39
209 Belize 10.34
210 Angola 8.97
211 Turkmenistan 8.95
212 Russia 8.61
213 Mali 8.55
214 Niue 8.09
215 Congo, Republic of the 7.96
216 Niger 7.86
217 Bolivia 7.36
218 Montenegro 6.66
219 Kazakhstan 6.30
220 Chad 6.00
221 Central African Republic 5.53
222 Gabon 4.76
223 Guyana 3.58
224 Canada 3.36
225 Libya 2.84
226 Iceland 2.72
227 Suriname 2.67
228 Mauritania 2.51
229 Botswana 2.50
230 Australia 2.47
231 Namibia 2.00
232 French Guiana 1.88
233 Mongolia 1.67
234 Pitcairn Islands 1.04
235 Western Sahara .90
236 Falkland Islands .23
237 Svalbard .04
238 Greenland .03
239 Antarctica .00
239 Ashmore and Cartier Islands .00
239 Baker Island .00
239 Bassas da India .00
239 Bouvet Island .00
239 British Indian Ocean Territory .00
239 Clipperton Island .00
239 Coral Sea Islands .00
239 Europa Island .00
239 French Southern and Antarctic Lands .00
239 Glorioso Islands .00
239 Heard Island and McDonald Islands .00
239 Howland Island .00
239 Jan Mayen .00
239 Jarvis Island .00
239 Johnston Atoll .00
239 Juan de Nova Island .00
239 Kingman Reef .00
239 Midway Islands .00
239 Navassa Island .00
239 Palmyra Atoll .00
239 South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands .00
239 Spratly Islands .00
239 Tromelin Island .00
239 Wake Atoll .00
Rhode Island has a population density of 900/sq mi and Honduras has a population density 77/sq mi. Rhode Island does not seem crowed at all. Honduras on the other hand can seemed quite crowed. Poverty and poor transportation cause people to crowd in together.
People talk about crowding in Japan, and Japan does has good transportation, but you will notice that people seldom talk about crowding in the Netherlands. I think that part of crowding in Japan is the result of their Government's attempt to keep Japan growing most of their staple foods. Agriculture does take up land but even if that was a national goal you could achieve it without preserving so much farm land, by using more intensive agriculture.
Some population densities:
1 Macau 20,824.38
2 Monaco 16,486.67
3 Hong Kong 6,571.14
4 Singapore 5,539.77
5 Gibraltar 4,486.92
6 Gaza Strip 3,090.71
7 Holy See 1,977.27
8 Bermuda 1,249.44
9 Malta 1,192.51
10 Bahrain 1,014.66
11 Maldives 1,000.73
12 Bangladesh 949.28
13 Jersey 773.46
14 Taiwan 685.47
15 Mauritius 639.03
16 Barbados 602.77
17 Nauru 505.00
18 Korea, South 477.49
19 Netherlands 466.45
20 Puerto Rico 433.94
21 San Marino 417.68
22 Tuvalu 407.23
23 Mayotte 398.23
24 Martinique 388.24
25 Marshall Islands 361.32
26 Aruba 355.83
27 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 354.47
28 Lebanon 348.26
29 Virgin Islands 343.34
30 Guernsey 337.04
31 Belgium 336.82
32 Japan 336.72
33 India 336.62
34 Rwanda 326.85
35 American Samoa 320.53
36 Sri Lanka 295.72
37 Reunion 287.09
38 West Bank 285.66
39 Grenada 285.32
40 Israel 282.82
41 El Salvador 281.81
42 Guam 280.28
43 Philippines 266.11
44 Comoros 259.32
45 Saint Lucia 252.49
46 Haiti 249.79
47 Guadeloupe 246.74
48 Jamaica 244.92
49 United Kingdom 244.69
50 Vietnam 237.62
51 Germany 234.86
52 Cyprus - Turkish Sector 224.76
53 Burundi 223.62
54 Netherlands Antilles 216.49
55 Trinidad and Tobago 214.83
56 Liechtenstein 200.36
57 Italy 192.96
58 Micronesia, Federated States of 187.32
59 Switzerland 182.94
60 Nepal 177.65
61 Korea, North 177.61
62 Pakistan 177.37
63 Seychelles 173.99
64 Dominican Republic 168.04
65 Luxembourg 165.92
66 Saint Kitts and Nevis 159.25
67 Sao Tome and Principe 154.88
68 Tonga 151.92
69 Cayman Islands 151.29
70 Tokelau 147.10
71 Andorra 146.53
72 Antigua and Barbuda 146.01
73 Northern Mariana Islands 145.49
74 China 133.69
75 Moldova 133.67
76 Gambia, The 133.63
77 Czech Republic 130.72
78 Man, Isle of 128.72
79 Montserrat 128.53
80 British Virgin Islands 127.71
81 Poland 126.79
82 Anguilla 126.48
83 Denmark 126.36
84 Nigeria 124.98
85 Albania 122.79
86 Armenia 120.04
87 Kiribati 119.25
88 Thailand 118.43
89 Indonesia 118.32
90 Uganda 114.19
91 Guatemala 113.77
92 Kuwait 111.73
93 Slovakia 110.58
94 Hungary 110.31
95 France 108.09
96 Portugal 107.86
97 Malawi 106.30
98 Serbia 103.06
99 Cape Verde 100.68
100 Cuba 100.09
101 Austria 98.37
102 Slovenia 97.28
103 Romania 96.96
104 Syria 93.53
105 Togo 93.43
106 Azerbaijan 91.85
107 Dominica 86.51
108 Turkey 85.11
109 Cook Islands 84.17
110 Croatia 82.91
111 Ukraine 82.51
112 Ghana 82.11
113 Greece 81.86
114 Cyprus 81.61
115 Macedonia, The Former Yugoslav Republic of 81.37
116 Samoa 80.69
117 Spain 78.43
118 Bulgaria 74.13
119 Sierra Leone 73.95
120 Burma 73.10
121 Georgia 72.69
122 Costa Rica 72.53
123 Lesotho 70.15
124 Bosnia and Herzegovina 67.97
125 Egypt 67.58
126 Morocco 66.46
127 French Polynesia 66.14
128 Cambodia 65.87
129 Malaysia 65.06
130 Qatar 63.26
131 Brunei 61.29
132 Tunisia 61.24
133 Swaziland 57.29
134 Benin 57.00
135 Uzbekistan 56.66
136 Wallis and Futuna 55.22
137 Norfolk Island 55.06
138 Lithuania 54.98
139 Honduras 53.60
140 Ethiopia 53.30
141 Ireland 52.74
142 Senegal 52.35
143 Mexico 52.15
144 Iraq 51.90
145 Jordan 51.32
146 Kenya 50.61
147 Belarus 50.10
148 Cote d'Ivoire 49.74
149 Cocos 45.43
150 Ecuador 45.38
151 Fiji 44.49
152 Guinea-Bissau 44.09
153 Tajikistan 42.77
154 Burkina Faso 42.28
155 Bhutan 41.53
156 Palau 40.32
157 Afghanistan 39.88
158 Iran 39.84
159 Nicaragua 39.23
160 Turks and Caicos Islands 39.22
161 Colombia 37.84
162 Panama 36.56
163 Latvia 36.44
164 South Africa 35.60
165 Tanzania 35.29
166 Cameroon 32.92
167 Eritrea 32.84
168 Estonia 32.60
169 Yemen 32.09
170 Guinea 30.66
171 Liberia 30.35
172 United States 29.77
173 Faroe Islands 29.35
174 Zimbabwe 28.87
175 Saint Pierre and Miquelon 28.79
176 United Arab Emirates 28.29
177 Bahamas, The 28.17
178 Venezuela 26.31
179 Madagascar 25.58
180 Mozambique 24.39
181 Kyrgyzstan 23.76
182 Laos 23.43
183 Congo, Democratic Republic of the 22.26
184 Sweden 21.69
185 Peru 20.80
186 Djibouti 20.36
187 Brazil 20.32
188 Chile 20.00
189 Uruguay 19.06
190 Christmas Island 17.58
191 Saint Helena 17.43
192 Finland 16.89
193 Equatorial Guinea 16.60
194 Solomon Islands 16.54
195 Sudan 14.51
196 World 14.42
197 Norway 14.42
198 Paraguay 13.68
199 New Zealand 13.63
200 Argentina 13.42
201 Algeria 13.07
202 Zambia 13.05
203 Vanuatu 12.81
204 Oman 11.52
205 Somalia 11.38
206 Saudi Arabia 10.97
207 New Caledonia 10.63
208 Papua New Guinea 10.39
209 Belize 10.34
210 Angola 8.97
211 Turkmenistan 8.95
212 Russia 8.61
213 Mali 8.55
214 Niue 8.09
215 Congo, Republic of the 7.96
216 Niger 7.86
217 Bolivia 7.36
218 Montenegro 6.66
219 Kazakhstan 6.30
220 Chad 6.00
221 Central African Republic 5.53
222 Gabon 4.76
223 Guyana 3.58
224 Canada 3.36
225 Libya 2.84
226 Iceland 2.72
227 Suriname 2.67
228 Mauritania 2.51
229 Botswana 2.50
230 Australia 2.47
231 Namibia 2.00
232 French Guiana 1.88
233 Mongolia 1.67
234 Pitcairn Islands 1.04
235 Western Sahara .90
236 Falkland Islands .23
237 Svalbard .04
238 Greenland .03
239 Antarctica .00
239 Ashmore and Cartier Islands .00
239 Baker Island .00
239 Bassas da India .00
239 Bouvet Island .00
239 British Indian Ocean Territory .00
239 Clipperton Island .00
239 Coral Sea Islands .00
239 Europa Island .00
239 French Southern and Antarctic Lands .00
239 Glorioso Islands .00
239 Heard Island and McDonald Islands .00
239 Howland Island .00
239 Jan Mayen .00
239 Jarvis Island .00
239 Johnston Atoll .00
239 Juan de Nova Island .00
239 Kingman Reef .00
239 Midway Islands .00
239 Navassa Island .00
239 Palmyra Atoll .00
239 South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands .00
239 Spratly Islands .00
239 Tromelin Island .00
239 Wake Atoll .00
Monday, March 22, 2010
The healthcare bill of 2010 passed
The healthcare bill of 2010(my name for it) passed. I guess that it will, in net, be bad for us (especially for those with some knowledge of how to get good heath care at a good price), but that the politicians will hide the costs very well and make the benefits obvious so that most people will like it. IMHO we were headed into a painful but positive period in health care were more and more employers would drop coverage and raise deductibles. That would be painful for many, but that pain would have resulted in the people forcing some much needed sanity in health care provision.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Afghanistan
Iraq's GDP is $12.5 Billion, Afghanistan's is $10 billion. Estimated cost of our "war on terror" so far is nearly $1 TRILLION! Take a second to take that in.
A retired ag. economist spent time in Afghanistan about four years ago. He was one of the few who ventured out of the cities, meeting with villagers on setting up ag. co-ops.
His report: "This is just a bunch of villages, run by the village elders and the local immam. Some guy who they never met comes in once and awhile from the central government and makes promises and leaves.
Life goes on in the village.
There is no central government. These are dirt poor farmers in dusty isolated villages who have run their lives following the village elders and the local immam."
A friend of was an officer over there he told me that the day the USA army pulls out of Afghanistan it will revert back to what it was before we went in.
I see the action in Afghanistan as a huge waste of resources. The strategy is misguided. Centralizing control doesn't work in the US. why would it work in Afghanistan? All its doing is creating opportunities for corruption.
On top of that we are also trying to fight our irrational drug war there. The drug war creates financial opportunities for terrorists, just as it does in places like Columbia and Oakland California.
It takes a $1 million/year to maintain one US soldier in Afghanistan for one year? You could hire about a thousand Afghans for that.
We won all that can be won in Afghanistan we need to pull out. We won the war it is long over. Our soldiers can move about Afghanistan with impunity. It is over we won lets bring the troops home!
A retired ag. economist spent time in Afghanistan about four years ago. He was one of the few who ventured out of the cities, meeting with villagers on setting up ag. co-ops.
His report: "This is just a bunch of villages, run by the village elders and the local immam. Some guy who they never met comes in once and awhile from the central government and makes promises and leaves.
Life goes on in the village.
There is no central government. These are dirt poor farmers in dusty isolated villages who have run their lives following the village elders and the local immam."
A friend of was an officer over there he told me that the day the USA army pulls out of Afghanistan it will revert back to what it was before we went in.
I see the action in Afghanistan as a huge waste of resources. The strategy is misguided. Centralizing control doesn't work in the US. why would it work in Afghanistan? All its doing is creating opportunities for corruption.
On top of that we are also trying to fight our irrational drug war there. The drug war creates financial opportunities for terrorists, just as it does in places like Columbia and Oakland California.
It takes a $1 million/year to maintain one US soldier in Afghanistan for one year? You could hire about a thousand Afghans for that.
We won all that can be won in Afghanistan we need to pull out. We won the war it is long over. Our soldiers can move about Afghanistan with impunity. It is over we won lets bring the troops home!
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