Love of Money in the Bible

1 Timothy 6:9-10 (King James Version)

⁹ But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.

¹⁰ For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

First a better translation of "root of all evil" would be "root of all kinds of evil".

Further in the bible the words love and hate are often used to mean in a relative way. Thus the passage:

"If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother...he cannot be my disciple." (Luke 14:26)

What it means is that one should not put even father, and mother above God. If your father or mother wants you do immoral things you should not do them but put God first. (note:Luke the writer wrote elsewhere to love your parents and he was not stupid.)

So the passage that talks about the love of money is a warning against putting money above God and or morality. E.g. doing immoral things to get money.

Some Revealing Healthcare stats

Lots of Healthcare Stats Here : I see 2 things in these stats:

1. The political power of providers in the USA. Groups like the AMA (the AMA is in effect the doctors union). They often assert this power through over regulation and excessive licensing which insure that they will be used to do things that less licensed people could do. They also use licensing to keep supply low and in turn prices high.

2. Monopsony enabling the squeezing of providers is a big factor in how other countries achieve lower healthcare spending. Monopsony is a monopoly of buyers. So for example in Japan the government pays for almost all health so they can tell the providers (doctors and hospitals) what they will pay. The only alternative to accepting the low compensation that the providers have is to leave the business of healthcare. This gives the single payer great power to reduce prices but creates the shortages and waiting that we hear about.

A Healthcare Compromise

This is a compromise between advocates of government provided health insurance and those against:

The state would provide insurance to all Americans but the annual deductible would be equal to the family’s trailing year adjusted income minus the poverty line income (say $25,000 for a family of 4) + $300. So a family of 4 with a trailing year adjusted income of $30,000 would have a deductible of $5,300. A family of 4 with a trailing year adjusted income of $80,000 would have a deductible of $55,300. Middle class and rich people could fill the gap with private supplemental insurance but this should be full taxed. This would encourage the middle class and rich, who are generally capable people, to demand prices from medical providers and might force down costs. They could opt to pay for most health-care out of pocket while the poor often less capable would be protected.

It is not a perfect plan but it might help. Some deregulation of health-care would also help the poor gain access. The gauntlet that Doctors have to run these days to get to practice seems like an anachronism in today’s world. Let smart people get to practice medicine after on the job training. Let the medical businesses decide who is qualified to practice medicine. 12 years of training to tell if my child has an ear infection is overkill and reduces access to health-care for the poor.

Another benefit of my plan is that it would encourage capable Americans (the rich and middle class) to be a counter weight politically against the providers.

Here is an article that makes a strong case for a system similar to the one that I propose.  His plan suggests a  insurance for catastrophic events that cost more than, $50,000 combined with a large health savings account.

Italian Spinach Pie Recipe

Italian Spinach Pies

In Providence RI, Italian bakeries sell spinach pies. Similar to a spinach calzone. Delicious try this recipe:

Dough

• 1 3/4 cups warm water
• !/2 to 1 teaspoon yeast (the longer you are willing let it rise the less yeast you can use. Less yeast and longer rise time yeailds better texture, bigger holes)
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 2 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 5 cups bread flour

Filling:

• 1 lb spinach fresh or frozen - NEVER EVER canned!
• 4 cloves garlic crushed
• 1/2 cup sliced fresh mushrooms
• 1/4 cup canned slice black olives
• Crushed red pepper to taste
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• garlic salt

Dough:

In a mixer whisk water a Little flour and yeast together and allow to stand for 3 minutes. Then Whisk in oil, salt and flour. Knead to make dough.

Allow to rest for a few minutes and then form into a ball. Let rise for 4 hours or better over night.

Filling:

If you are using frozen spinach thaw and drain well. If you are using fresh spinach just clean and dry and use it as is, alternatively you can saute is slightly to mak it easier to work with . Put the spinach in a bowl and add the olives, mushrooms, garlic, salt, olive oil and crushed red pepper. Mix lightly with a spoon.

Stretch the dough like for pizza and cut into 4 pieces. Place filling in the center of each piece and roll the dough over like a calzone forming a pocket.

Preheat oven to 425 F. Bake pizza for 15 minutes at 425 F. Reduce heat to 375 F. and continue baking (for a total of 30 to 35 minutes) or until golden brown.

Cool and eat at room temperature.

Italian Bakery Pizza recipe

Italian Bakery Pizza

In Providence RI, italian bakeries sell a crusty pizza with simple toppings (crushed tomatoes, herbs, olive oil) with no cheese or pepperoni. It has a great olive oil and garlic taste. Try it. Here is a recipe for that pizza.

• 510 grams cold water
• 1/2 package instant yeast (the longer you are willing let it rise the less yeast you can use. Less yeast and longer rise time yields better texture, bigger holes)
• 28 grams olive oil
• 14 grams salt
• 710 grams bread flour

Topping:

• 1 28-ounce can Italian plum tomatoes - drained
• 2/3 cup tomato puree
• crushed red pepper to taste
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 clove garlic - crushed
• 1 to 2 tablespoons fresh herbs (or dry)

• garlic salt

Dough:

In a mixer whisk water a little flour and yeast together and allow to stand for 3 minutes. Then Whisk in oil, salt and flour. Knead to make dough.

Allow to rest for a few minutes and then form into a ball. Let rise for 4 hours or better over night.  Fold and stretch the dough.  Let it rise for another hour.  

Topping:

Drain tomatoes and place in a large bowl. Crush well with your hands add puree. Add pepper and salt (to taste), oil, herbs and garlic.

Deflate dough. Line a 20-by-15 inch baking sheet with parchment paper. Coat pan generously with olive oil - about 1/4 cup (this seems like a lot but trust me) and sprinkle with garlic salt. Press out dough to fit pan. If dough resists, let it rest for a few minutes, then gentle coax it to fit the pan. Drizzle olive oil lightly on top of dough then sprinkle with garlic salt. Let the dough rise in the pan for about 15 minutes.  

Preheat oven to 425 F.
 
Bake for 15 minutes or until the top starts to brown a little. Then take it out of the oven and paint the top with some olive oil.  Then spread on the tomato topping and drizzle the top with a little olive oil.

Bake pizza for 10 more minutes at 425 F. Reduce heat to 375 F. and continue baking (for a total of 40 minutes).

Cool and eat at room temperature.

Freedom and Changes in the Level Regulation

The problem that I see here is that when people have freedom sometimes bad stuff happens but with highly restricted freedom different bad stuff happens. Unfortunately people are inclined to believe that if you try to prevent bad stuff from happening through restrictions of freedom (generally called by the nicer name regulation) then less bad stuff is likely to happen. But human behavior is so complex and our understanding of it so limited that the restrictions of freedom beyond some old tried and true basics are not likely to have a bet benefit but. This seems to the story for not only economic issues but for things like recreational drug use.

Another big problem is that changes (either more or less regulation) can cause bad stuff to happen in the short term but be good long term. In the case of deregulation people get angry but in the case of more regulation people assume that regulation was meant to do good and so they support it.

The adjustments can be harsh. E.G. if you suddenly legalized all recreational drugs the news people would have a feast reporting on lives destroyed by drugs.

Freedom advocates get blasted for the great depression but FDR is lauded because he tried stuff, but the great depression lasted 10 years after the election of FDR. I think that if FDR was a do nothing advocate (freedom advocate) and depression persisted he would have been gone in 4 years. The country would have recovered either way. There is little evidence that FDR's policies helped end the depression sooner than otherwise. There was a rather sharp serious depression in 1920 - 1921 but Warren G. Harding did little to address it in fact, he cut government spending but the economy quickly recovered.

Katrina a Short Retrospect

Scientific models predicted 61,000 deaths if New Orleans was hit by a category 4 hurricane (if you do not belive me look it up). Katrina relief over all was an incredible success!

That is not to say that people were not hurt they were, but overall the response was amazing this is an amazing country.

The reporting was sensational and made things sound far more chaotic and violent than reality. One heartening thing to a libertarian was that unlike predictions and what reporters said even the poor people in New Orleans did not resort to violence despite no police presence. The people even in very bad conditions kept a level of civility.

Perhaps people are disappointed that non-government people had to do so much.