1. Although I do not buy the negativity, I do feel like better measure of a person's wealth net-worth would include the flow of income that it produces along with the market value. It is not a good thing if the same house now costs more. It is not a good a thing that the stocks that yield 2% now cost what stocks that yielded 4% used to cost (unless their yields are rising faster).
2. One thing few people mention is that cleaner air and waterways cost and are worth something. If you like the PPACA it to is worth something.
3. From the article: Hispanic white men and women 45–54 years of age—but they rose sharply for those with high-school degrees or less, and for this less-educated grouping most of the rise in death rates was accounted for by suicides, chronic liver cirrhosis, and poisonings (including drug overdoses).
A lower percent of the population today are without a high-school degrees (especially among white women) and that messes up that data. One reason to not graduate high school these days on bad health (another is drug use and wildness) as the group becomes small that becomes more significant.
3. b. Wouldn't it be ironic if this turned out to be true and due the passage of the PPACA, maybe by it leading to more opiate addiction. More likely though it is an epidemic due changes and MD's prescribing and social factors.
4. Proverbs 12:24 Diligent hands will rule, but laziness ends in forced labor..
This may be truer than we knew and set of the population may need to be forced to work, therefore maybe making it harder to get SSDI would help the very people denied the benefit.
5. Our system of law enforcement and punishment seems so very far from optimal to me that it should be easy to reform. More detection and prevention and much less severe punishment for many crimes.Prison should be a last resort.
