Bacon's Rebellion

TIME’S LIST OF 25 TO BLAME

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by

James A. Bacon
in

Before it goes away, you might take in Time’s list of 25 people to blame for the Global Financial Meltdown. (Time just calls it a “financial crisis.”)

The list is fun, the voting by citizens on the rankings is very interesting.

Note that Phil Gramm comes in number one in the “Average Rank” voting but in total votes “The American Consumer” gets the most nods (well deserved) followed by G. W. Bush and Alan Greenspan.

All in all it is a great summary – except of course it is all about people and nothing about location, settlement pattern or Wrong Size House in the Wrong Location.

Look forward to thoughts about who else should be on the list. Time just listed one from each “category” (circle of Hell) so the list could easily be the top 75 with more bankers and more hedge fund types on the list.

EMR

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17 responses to “TIME’S LIST OF 25 TO BLAME”

  1. Jim Bacon Avatar
    Jim Bacon

    The debate over the causes of the economic melt-down is so empoverished that I cannot bear to watch the television news any more. Rs blame Ds, Ds blame Rs. Journalists line up on one side or the other, unable to conceive that the causes may transcend partisan differences.

    The failure belongs to a governance philosophy shared by the donkey clan, the elephant clan and a vast majority of the American people. If the current people in power convince the American people that “it’s all George Bush’s fault,” then we have learned nothing and we’re doomed to repeat the mistakes that have gotten us where we are. There is nothing in the funding and make-up of the “porculus” bill that makes me think that anything has changed.

  2. E M Risse Avatar
    E M Risse

    Jim:

    Your are right about the Blame and that is just what the Time items says.

    It names names you have never heard of and point out their roll.

    It is worth a look.

    EMR

  3. E M Risse Avatar
    E M Risse

    That “governance philosophy” you refer to is EXACTLY what we talk about in PART FIVE which is based on the columns that became the Backgrounder “A New Metric for Citizen Well Being.”

    EMR

  4. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    “The debate over the causes of the economic melt-down is so empoverished that I cannot bear to watch the television news any more.”

    I concur.

    RH

  5. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    I had a conversation with a staunch conservative recently concerning health care. I pointed out to her that we spend more per capita than any other nation and we are ranked 38th in terms of results.

    She launched immediately into a knee jerk tirade about all that was wrong with socialist medicine. She accused me of spouting Democrat inspired health care propaganda (The stats are from WHO).

    At that point I stopped her.
    I said that I had made no comment whatsoever about what I thought the solution was: only that what we have now is seriously broken. I told her I didn’t care if we had a Republican style fix or a Democratic style fix, as long as someone does something: what we have now is a travesty, and an international joke.

    The Republicans had their chance for eight years and now we have Democrats in power, therefore the current probablity is tha we will have a Democratic style fix.

    I pointed out to her that, bad as the Canadian System is, Canadians had simila results to ours before their single payer system was started. Their results have improved compared to ours ever since.

    She continued to rail about the value of the capitalist system of health care, and I pointed out to her the huge rise in Medical tourism: Americans are going overseas in droves to get affordable, capitalistic health care.

    I asked her why, since Republicans were such supporters of tax cuts and the resulting stimulus to small business, they couldn’t see that the biggest single drag on small business is health care.

    She still didn’t get it. It was as if she thinks she will never need health care.

    It was like a microcosm of the debate ofer the economic meltdown. Nothing I could have said to her would make any difference: she has been thouroughly brainwashed. She refused even to believe me whan I told her that Taiwan has comprehensive health care for 23 million citizens, and they saved money when they switched to a full coverage system.

    No system is perfect I told her, but the fact remains that 38 countries have systems that produce better results. We have a lot of room to improve.

    RH

  6. Jim Bacon Avatar
    Jim Bacon

    Ray, Before you compare the U.S. health care system (of which I am no defender) to that of European countries with universal/national health care, you also have to compare the inputs. By inputs, I mean the number of Americans with lifestyle-created chronic conditions, in particular obesity and diabetes. Of course the U.S. is going to have higher mortality rates, no matter how much we spend on health care, when Americans are so slothful in their nutrition and exercise regimens. And please don’t tell me that a shift to universal and/or national health care will suddenly transform Americans’ health profiles.

  7. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    Jim:

    Is it not possible that those higher rates of obesity and diabetes are not now addressed because the health care industry — drug makers, blood monitor makers, etc. — make more mone from sick people than from a healthy population?

    And think of all the sugar, fat and salt that their friends in the food industry sell!

    If you want to get healthy go to a “health club” and pay $180 a month to get the exercise you missed by driving from your too car from your too big house on its too big lot to a free parking space at office.

    I think Dr. Risse calls this the need for “Fundamental Change” or is it now “Fundamental Transformation?”

  8. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    Where is Barney Frank’s name on the list of rogues? Time Magazine has fallen far from where it used to be.

    A couple of weeks ago, Time made a plea for people to pay to read online newspaper content in order to save the MSM. I struggle to find a major newspaper worth reading.

    TMT

  9. Larry G Avatar
    Larry G

    re: “…Before you compare the U.S. health care system (of which I am no defender) to that of European countries with universal/national health care, you also have to compare the inputs. By inputs, I mean the number of Americans with lifestyle-created chronic conditions,”

    isn’t it true that our kids even before they get bad habits are not as well off as the kids in the European systems?

    What does it say about a country that neglects it’s kids health on the excuse/premise that we have the best medical system in the world and it’s not socialized?

    So.. we have tried to deal with the kids situation with supplemental programs – which our Pachyderm friends have opposed – on the grounds that it is creeping socialism – without offering any alternative approach.

    If you wanted to design a system that is so stupid as to claim that it has virtue while underneath it is a lie – you couldn’t do a better job than what we’ve done.

    I love the idealogical baggage that we take pride in – in this country.

    Not a single kid – should be deprived of the medical care in this country – and especially not so because we have this thing about socialism.

    When we let ideology overcome morality – we are in trouble.

  10. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    “Before you compare the U.S. health care system (of which I am no defender) to that of European countries with universal/national health care, you also have to compare the inputs. By inputs”

    I don’t care about the inputs or the proosed solutions, just as I said to that woman. I care tht we at least recognize we are paying more per capita than any other industrial nation and we are 38th in results.

    I really don’t care if you have to nationalize obesity to fix the problem, what we have now is seriously broken, and we should be willing to consider any answer that looks like it might work.

    I (and my employers) paid my health insurance premiums for 35 years. The first time I had a seriousl health problem it was sufficient to disable me and I lost my job: therefore no health insurance.

    You tell me, where is the “insurance” in that system? I was lucky, and came out of three years of disability only a little poorer, but it could just as easily have bankrupted me, and there was nothing lifestyle related about it.

    Just last night I had dinner with a couple that had both lost their jobs recently. They have new jobs, but with no health insurance, and they could not pay the COBRA premiums to keep their old coverage. They expect to have new coverage soon, but it will come with pre-existing condition exclsuion because of the “break” in their coverage.

    Just consider, that the next highest cost country is Switzerland. We pay 44% more than they do for health care, and we don’t even cover everyone. If I had to buy private health insurance, it would not be available to me at any price, but as part of a group plan – no problem.

    I could fly to Switzerland, buy my meds for a year and ski for two weeks cheaper than I can buy my meds in the U.S.

    We need to stop the knee jerk reactions about what won’t work and go find something among the 38 better candidates that we think we can live with.

    RH

  11. Larry G Avatar
    Larry G

    RH has it right.

    We all stand by and watch our fellow Americans get denied health care … preexisting conditions.. changing jobs, getting disabled…

    and we do what?

    we yammer on and on about doing anything and everything to keep our system from “looking” like the European system – God Forbid that it work that way such that all of our folks have at least basic coverage.

    What I’d like to hear anytime someone is talking about keeping our system from being socialist – is how they would insure that everyone including our kids are covered.

    If they can’t do that second part, I’m not listening to the first part.

  12. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    What amazes me is that on the recent Pew poll of items of concern to Americans the economy was number one and the environment was number 20.

    Health care was something kike number nine, and yet it is the number one cause of bankruptcy.

    If you want to fix the economy, start with health care. If you want to do something for business, get healthcare off of its back.

    RH

  13. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    I’m srprised that Osama Bin Laden isn’t on the list.

    Part of the housing crisis was brought on by attempts to calm the sagging economy ater 9/11.

    RH

  14. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    Osama on the list!!

    One of the better points you have made.

    So are the observations on health care.

    Why not stick to things you understand instead of beating on settlement pattern issues where you are completely at sea?

    Your attacking Dr. Risse again because he was answering a question for TMT about holding down auto traffic is a classic case of making a fool of yourself.

  15. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    EMR was the one who said he isn’t opposed to autos. All I’m suggesting is a little consistency.

    We should be looking for the right amount of auto travel in the right places and the right ways to support that amount.

    What we should not be doing is to assume that the right amount is something less than we have.

    What we should not be doing is reducing auto travel willy nilly, or making it uniformly more expensive, until we understand how it best supports balanced settlements.

    We will never have that understanding if we approach the problem the way EMR does. Otherwise, I don’t see anything in my remarks that amount to an attack on EMR.

    I don’t think METRO will ever be economically “viable” and I said why. I think Urban Land Institute has an ax to grind, and I said why. I said making autos more expensive does nothing to make transit less expensive and more attractive. So where exactly do you see an attack on EMR?

  16. Jim Bacon Avatar
    Jim Bacon

    Anonymous 3:20, You said, “Is it not possible that those higher rates of obesity and diabetes are not now addressed because the health care industry — drug makers, blood monitor makers, etc. — make more mone from sick people than from a healthy population?”

    Yes, I suppose anything is possible, but I’d like you to show me HOW big pharma and the others persuade or cajole the American people to live lifestyles that allow them to develop obesity, heart disease and diabetes. I don’t see it, and I doubt you can make a connection.

    Then you said, “And think of all the sugar, fat and salt that their friends in the food industry sell!”

    Very true. The food-industrial complex may be part of the problem. Of course, national/universal health care won’t serve that problem. But there’s a bigger issue: Every time McDonalds or Burger King tries to offer healthy food in their menus, people won’t eat it! The food/restaurant industry is hyper-competitive. There are lots of “whole food” and “organic” groceries and restaurants. Why do they have such low market share? Because most people want to eat crappy food — usually because the crappy food tastes good.

    I suppose you could argue that it’s all the fault of food industry advertising on TV. But I don’t buy it. I have a 10-year-old boy who HATES healthy food, despite the fact that his mother and I feed him (mostly) healthy, balanced nutritional meals. We have knock-down, drag-outs every day over his lousy nutrition. But he just REFUSES to eat the good stuff. You’d have to strap him down and pry his jaws open in order to get him to eat a salad.

    Is that the fault of fast-food industry advertising? I don’t think so.

    On the other hand, we just don’t let Jamie eat fast food (except on rare occasions, maybe once a month). I think it’s a matter of culture. Too many parents just don’t care enough about their kids’ nutrition to put up with the inevitable fight over food. They just do the easy thing and feed the kid what he/she wants.

    Then there’s the issue of insufficient exercise. Is that the fault of big pharma or the fast food industry? Or is it more a reflection of our sedentary occupations and our auto-centric lifestyles?

    National/universal health care will not change that either.

  17. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    “National/universal health care will not change that either.”

    All true.

    But at least 50 million people without health insurance will have it, regardless of their life style.

    What you seem to be suggesting is that only healthy people should have health insurance, which is pretty much the sytem we have now.

    Given that 90% of your health costs will occur during the last four years of your life, healthy diet and living habits would seem to postpone the inevitable, rather than avoid it.

    RH

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