Health Insurance in the US

This (http://bit.ly/eR9hmH) is a short blog on health insurance in the
US.

The situation regarding health insurance in the US is complicated, but
the main fact is that health insurance through companies is subsidized
by tax breaks. The costs of health insurance have sky-rocketed. Even
with tax breaks, companies are opting for less expensive insurance for
them, with higher deductibles and so on. So, your company decides what
insurance you get.

My son had a trip to an ER in Ecuador for an asthma attack. It ended
up costing less than $200. The cost in the US for equivalent service
would be 10-20X more.

Brad

States hold universities accountable for graduation rates

I feel like Alaistair Cooke, reporting on US news to people outside
the US.

There are a lot of colleges controlled by state governments. They're
called "public universities."

Sometimes this is good. For instance, in regards to First Amendment
rights. The First Amendment protections applied to Federal Government
actions. A subsequent Amendment extended these rights or protections
to State and Local government actions. Court decisions have broadened
the protections to include public universities. So, a student
attending a public university in the US has First Amendment
protections.

The bad side of this is that public universities are subject to the
whims of government actions, which are often put into place without
considering the unintended consequences. It's not tough to imagine
what the unintended consequences of this action (http://n.pr/fRHgdn)
will be.

Aren't students responsible for their own graduation?

Brad

Riskiness

I like this story (http://n.pr/hWrSbf ) about the Environmental
Protection Agency and Dioxin because it concerns risk.

There's risk you can identify beforehand and risk that sneaks up on
you.

When you try to identify risk, you use tests. These tests will have
false positives and false negatives. In other words, you're going to
identify some things as risky that aren't, and vice versa.

Once you identify a risk, you have to gauge how severe is the risk. In
other words, what is the risk that something bad will happen to you,
how severe are the bad things that could happen to you, and what is
the overall risk you calculate from those numbers?

It's in the nature of government bureaucracies to use tests that have
a high false positive rate, and to act first, think later. So, you end
up with plenty of examples like dioxin, like saccharin, ...

Brad

The Dutch Sandwich

The Dutch sandwich shows up in the Dilbert cartoon:
http://ping.fm/Dpt4e

Bloomberg Businessweek explains the tax strategy: http://bit.ly/eVxk7w.

Abraham Briloff, an emeritus Professor of Accounting I hugely admire,
agrees with Dilbert and says these strategies are evil.

Judge Learned Hand says: "Anyone may so arrange his affairs that his
taxes shall be as low as possible; he is not bound to choose that
pattern which will best pay the Treasury; there is not even a
patriotic duty to increase one's taxes." In other words, if it's
legal, it's OK.

I am with Learned Hand on this one, but the debate will be
interesting.

Brad

Happiness and Suicide

I have been interested in the happiness literature ever since I found
out that citizens of Denmark consistently score among the happiest in
the world. Totally baffling.

This is a short blog post (http://bit.ly/e0Crw3) reports an article
that finds that suicide rates and happiness scores correlate in
geographic areas.

Brad

Bureaucratese?

http://bit.ly/hW3Qp2.

Brad

Marginal Utility

The Austrian economists emphasize the individual's marginal utility:
in other words a person will evaluate the value of something to them.
So two people will make a deal based on differences in marginal
utilities. The end result is both gain from the deal.

Anyway, here is the concept of marginal utility in action: http://bit.ly/hvYa5h.

Brad