Monthly Archives: March 2011

The Great Retirement Swap

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retirement-for-dummies-largeThe concept of retirement is undergoing fundamental change. Does anyone really believe anymore that it’s possible for most folks to live comfortably over the final third of their lives while essentially generating no income?

That changing dynamic is behind such ventures as the Great Retirement Swap:

The way that we think about retirement in America is fundamentally flawed. The current retirement system assumes that people must diligently invest in the stock market over an extended period of 30 years or more in order to buy things in the future – like food, shelter, and clothing.

But what if people are free to share, barter and swap for these goods? To travel to wherever they want, provided someone has a spare room for them to use? To have access to any item they need, as long as they have an item of similar value to swap?  [.  .  .]

Well, what if we fundamentally change the way we think about retirement to take into account the new trend toward collaborative consumption? Call it The Great Retirement Swap. At a macro-level, Americans would be swapping a bleak version of retirement for a positive, hopeful one.

At a more tactical level, older Americans would be swapping for goods and services, rather than owning them. Wealth in retirement would become a relative issue – are you wealthier if you own a second home in Florida, or if you have unfettered access to apartments across Europe, at any time of the year? [.  .  .]

While all this sounds a bit "un-capitalistic," it’s actually the free market at work, on a grand scale. When you barter for goods, there is a market price established for those goods. And best of all, it doesn’t require 7% annual compounded returns in the stock market to succeed.

With millions of Baby Boomers set to start retiring within the next few years, retirement nest eggs shattered by the financial crisis, and even eternal optimists convinced that Social Security is no longer sustainable in the long-run, it’s time to start thinking of a ground-breaking, innovative – dare I say it – radical solution for helping Americans attain the type of retirement they always dreamed of in their golden years.

Regardless of the feasibility of the Great Retirement Swap, what are the chances that government will do a better job than markets in providing choices for retirees?

Why We Need to Protect Bradley Manning and R. Allen Stanford

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Glenn Greenwald has done an outstanding job of directing the blogosphere’s attention toward the U.S. Army’s inhumane pre-trial imprisonment of Private Bradley Manning, who is accused of providing classified information to WikiLeaks, which in turn published the info for the world to read.

The Manning affair has been bubbling just below the surface of public controversy for the past nine months. However, it started to become a full-blown public scandal last week when President Obama – who campaigned on the disingenuous slogan of “change we can believe in” – endorsed the military’s brutal treatment of this innocent young man while giving a feckless answer to a question about Manning’s treatment during a press conference.

Now, the Manning affair is turning into a firestorm. In addition to this scathing NY Times editorial, Greenwald’s latest post links to the international attention that our government’s abusive treatment of Manning is getting. Constitutional Law scholar Jack Balkin and his colleagues over at Balkinization have prepared and are circulating this excellent statement to the Obama Administration condemning the “degrading and inhumane” conditions of Manning’s “illegal and immoral” detention.

I applaud Greenwald for focusing attention on the gross injustice of the Manning case and for the others who are now objecting publicly to this outrageous misuse of governmental power. As with the government’s vapid security theater and overcriminalization of American life, Manning’s treatment is another powerful reminder of just how remote and unresponsive the government has become to civilized society.

Meanwhile, though, I’m wondering about something.

Why is Manning’s treatment – as barbaric as it is – generating much more outcry than the arguably worse treatment that R. Allen Stanford has received during his pre-trial incarceration?

If we are going to forego protecting the innocent because the accusations against them are serious and seemingly compelling, then – as Thomas More reminds us — “when the last law was down, and the Devil turned ’round on you, where would you hide, .  .  . the laws all being flat?”

“This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man’s laws, not God’s! And if you cut them down, .  .  . do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then?”

“Yes, I’d give the Devil the benefit of the law.”

“For my own safety’s sake.”

The Primary Care Doc Revolt

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Exhausted, Frustrated DoctorThe demise of primary care as a profitable area of specialization under our third-party payor-dominated health care finance system is a frequent topic on this blog. Dr. Robert Center picks up on that them in this recent KevinMD.com post in which he passes along what he sees happening in the marketplace for primary care services:

I believe primary care docs are rebelling against the system.  The system has made primary care physicians suffer emotionally and financially.  The system has taken the greatest form of medical care – that consisting of continuity, comprehensiveness, complexity and completeness – and denigrated it.

Now I talk about “the system” in an anthropomorphic sense, but “the system” is virtual.  “The system” has no conscious, it is not deliberate, rather it represents the constellation of ignorance that the insurance companies, CMS and policy works have wrought. [.  .  .]

So what do primary care physicians do?  They do what any sensible economic citizen would do, they alter the rules to their benefit. [.  .  .]

So decreasing numbers of primary care physicians are taking Medicare or Medicaid.  So primary care physicians are leaving their jobs to do hospital medicine.  So many primary care physicians are leaving the CMS/insurance company grid and retreating to retainer practices or cash only practices.

The rebellion is a quiet one.  No one has declared this rebellion.  This rebellion has no Glenn Beck or Sarah Palin; no Abbie Hoffman or Che Guevera.  This rebellion occurs one physician at a time, as that physician finds continuing their practice undesirable. [.  .  .]

I believe the rebellion will continue.  Every anecdotal sign that I see tells me that the rebellion is gaining speed and power.  .  .  .

One day the wonks on Capitol Hill will realize the problem.  AAFP and ACP (amongst others) have tried explaining the problem to the politicians.  Until they understand that their constituents are angry because they cannot find a physician, they will not focus on the problem.  .  .  .

As doctors flee from primary care (see earlier posts here, here and here), the vacuum will be filled by nurse practitioners and medical assistants, who are far less trained than primary care docs in key diagnostic procedures.

Make sure those payments on the concierge practice account are current!

More on that entertaining form of corruption

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nfl_ncaaJames Surowieki does a good job of summing up the landscape of the litigation between the NFL players and owners:

But the N.F.L. isn’t capitalist in any traditional sense. The league is much more like the trusts that dominated American business in the late nineteenth century, before they were outlawed. Its goal is not to embrace competition but to tame it, making the owners’ businesses less risky and more profitable. Unions are often attacked for trying to interfere with the natural workings of the market, but in the case of football it’s the owners, not the union, who are the real opponents of the free market. They have created a socialist paradise for themselves that happens to bring with it capitalist-size profits. Bully for them. But in a contest between millionaire athletes and billionaire socialists it’s the guys on the field who deserve to win.

My sense is that the combination of the lockout of players and the players’ litigation against the owners is going to end up being a public relations disaster for the owners. Already, I’ve heard that every NFL team except the Giants is requiring full or partial season ticket payments from fans during the labor impasse. I mean, really — who is giving these guys their PR advice?

Meanwhile, though, what I’m really wondering is whether college football players should attempt to intervene in the NFL players’ litigation against the owners and bring some additional defendants into the lawsuit – that is, the NCAA and its member institutions?

After all, the NCAA and its members have created a similar form of socialist paradise with capitalist-sized profits, too.

Now that would be worth the price of admission.

“Don’t let your partner interrupt your dreams”

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Another in our continuing series of innovative commercials, this time for Swiss furniture maker Pfister.

The best current American golfer

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Matt Kuchar has been the most consistent American player on the PGA Tour for over a year now. And, as explained earlier here, Houstonian Jim Hardy had a lot to do with Kuchar’s success. The videos below provide an interesting — although quite technical — analysis of Kuchar’s swing by Chris O’Connell, his swing coach. Some things to think about before you hit the links this weekend. Enjoy.