nick peelman

Link Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us

Taken as a whole, these powerful institutions and the bills they churn out dominate the nation’s economy and put demands on taxpayers to a degree unequaled anywhere else on earth. In the U.S., people spend almost 20% of the gross domestic product on health care, compared with about half that in most developed countries. Yet in every measurable way, the results our health care system produces are no better and often worse than the outcomes in those countries.

Link Paul Krugman: The Full McConnell

This is pathetic – and these people are definitely not serious.

Link Squashed: On Being Special

squashed:

If you’ve spent a decade living up to your end of the societal bargain and society’s dropped the ball because a bunch of older people got a bit greedy and aren’t willing to make the sacrifices necessary to fix their mess, you have a reason to be upset. It’s not that you’ve been told you’re a special flower and you have an unreasonable sense of your own important. It’s that you realize you’ve been hoodwinked.

As a millennial feeling screwed by a few greedy baby boomers, I agree.

Link Paul Krugman: 1937

Doing it all over again.

Link The GOP's Plan(s) to sink the economy

Its just like tech journalists who will short a stock (or advise others to do so) before they write an article about something surely to remove value from the stock of a company.

The more the GOP talks about a bad economy, the longer it will STAY a bad economy, because keeping people scared stops them from spending. You’re not going to go and buy a new car or washing machine today if you’re afraid you won’t be able to afford milk next month.

I spent a total of 20 minutes watching Fox talk about this bullshit today while in the dentist’s office. Mixed with my usual anxiety about that particular trip, it was enough to almost make me throw up.

Link "Creating jobs through innovation"

The only addition commentary I want to add is that while a lot of this is fuzzy numbers, a couple of things stand out:

And part-time Apple Store employees are eligible for the same benefits as our full-time staff, including health insurance and the employee stock purchase plan.

and

While many companies locate their technical support call centers overseas to save money, we’ve decided to keep our call centers in the U.S. The vast majority of our customer support calls are handled by U.S. employees.

Emphasis mine. That “Apple tax” people bitch about paying over a similarly equipped Dell or HP machine? This kind of stuff is what its paying for.

Apple didn’t participate in the “race to the bottom” PC market, which is why they never made a $399 PC (with a free printer!). But they always delivered a better, more complete experience than the others. That’s why I switched coming up on 7 years ago, and have encouraged everybody who asks since to switch as well.

So the next time you hear somebody spouting off about Apple’s contracted overseas workforce, remind them that Apple keeps a lot more jobs over here than many of their electronic-making brethren do.