08:34 – Only two more days until Barbara returns. Colin is getting impatient. Since Sunday, Barbara’s been in the Michigan UP area, first at Mackinac Island and yesterday at Sault Ste. Marie. She hasn’t had a cell signal since they arrived at Mackinac, so I called her last night at her hotel just to make sure everything was okay. She said everything is fine and that she and Marcy are having a great time.
The morning paper reports that Duke Energy has joined a large and growing list of big companies that are eliminating retiree health insurance. Duke will now pay a fixed amount toward Medicare supplement policies for its retirees. I expect this phenomenon to snowball over the next few years. Eventually, all private retirees and many local and state government retirees will find that their only option is Medicare, with their former employers perhaps paying something towards a supplemental policy. Eventually, I expect federal government and military retirees will also be lumped into the Medicare system. This is just an early sign of the creeping defaults government will make on unsustainable promises.
Kit work continues. I need to inventory our bottle supply and put together a PO for more bottles and caps once I figure out what we’re short of.
12:07 – As it turns out, we’re in a lot better shape on bottles than I thought we were. I found a couple of cases that I didn’t realize we had. That gives us enough empty bottles for another 100+ kits–in addition to the labeled bottles we already have in stock, another 100+ kits worth–so I can put off ordering bottles and caps for another couple months.
I did start transferring cases of bottles from the manufacturer’s packaging–large plastic bags inside cardboard boxes–to 66-quart translucent plastic bins. Those stack a lot better than the boxes and make it easy to see how many bottles of each type we have in stock with just a glance. I need to pick up another six or eight of the 66-quart bins the next time we’re at Home Depot.
This is just an early sign of the creeping defaults government will make on unsustainable promises.
Such defaults started years ago with retired military. Spend 20 years or more and get healthcare for life. Well, not quite. You get TRI-CARE which is really bad when you need anything done. Live near a military medical facility and you get treatment on a space available. My MIL’s husband went into the Lackland facility in the morning and by the end of the day had not been seen. They told him to come back tomorrow. Only time you will get treatment is if you are bleeding on the floor and only then because they don’t want you to get their floor messy.
It is not only the government. A lot of companies are backing out of promises made to retirees. It will get worse with Obamacare as more companies realize they can now dump those retirees on the government.
I have given serious thought to blowing all my money and just going on welfare when I am broke. I will get food, housing and medical for nothing out of my pocket and will just leach off of others. Why save for retirement when the government’s goal is to impoverish all but the richest?
I may invoke my retirement plan of getting a gun, going into a bank, demanding money, fire one shot into a wall, then go sit outside and wait for the police. While incarcerated I will get food, shelter, medical (better than Obamacare), TV, Air Conditioning. The only thing that would be dubious would the be love advances from Bubba. I just hope he doesn’t like hairy old asses.
Don’t worry. You can keep your current health insurance.
http://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2013/09/18/obamacare-walgreens-dropping-current-coverage-for-160000-workers-n1703815
Got a video job tomorrow that will lock me up in jail. Literally. They will not take the prisoner out of jail, so they bring everybody into the jail, lock us all up with the prisoner, and we get to experience a few hours of incarceration. It does not help that everybody else will leave before me, as it takes 30 minutes for me to pack up all the equipment. I get all the good assignments.
Ripping the Climax Blues Band – Mole on the Dole. Don’t ever remember hearing this song before.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hY_OO2W08Kc
Had my position affirmed today. Bernanke yesterday unexpectedly announced he would continue QE inflating of the economy. Gold jumped $60 and gas prices shot up 50¢ her last night. If the Fed left the economy alone, instead of this hyper-inflating, our savings would be appreciating in value, not depreciating. The amount of money it takes to actually cause this inflation is staggering. The economy wants to correct itself and give us a stable currency, but Bernanke won’t let it.
Companies could have dropped their retirees onto the Medicare plan at any point in my lifetime. Companies aren’t doing it now because they suddenly can. They’re doing it because they now have a choice between dropping their retirees onto Medicare and going bankrupt.
Dave is right. This has been an option all along, and has nothing to do with ObamaCare, at least directly. Indirectly, however, the massive increases in health insurance costs that ObamaCare has and will continue to cause are leading companies to abandon promises made to their employees and retirees. I don’t blame the companies. As Dave says, it’s a matter of survival.
As I’ve said, I think the only way out of this mess is to implement a basic income.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_income
I’m afraid the alternative is revolution and chaos. And I think Hayek and Friedman would agree with me. I’m a hard-core capitalist, as were they, but the simple truth is that there are winners and losers under capitalism. A few big winners and a lot of losers.
“Got a video job tomorrow that will lock me up in jail.”
Chuck, is this a local hoosegow or prison. My wife used to teach at a Kansas State Prison. I went along once. When you go through the last gate they tell you “if anything happens in there, don’t call us.” We had to sign a paper basically forfeiting your life to go in.
“Eventually, I expect federal government and military retirees will also be lumped into the Medicare system.”
We are basically there already. I have Tricare Retired since I served 20 and retired. $470/yr for a family (until Medicare age). When ObummerCare takes full effect, that will probably go up by $2,000. When I turn Medicare age I get Medicare and a Tricare Medicare Supplement is offered for after Medicare expenses. Forget space available at military facilities. Since I retired an O5, I’ll never be able to get into a VA hospital or clinic. Just my pension alone is to much and I’m capped out. There is a new VA clinic 5 minutes from me in Vegas I can’t use. To get full use of my Tricare, I have to drive 30 minutes to Nellis AFB. Unless someone is sick as a dog, we just go to one of those Urgent Care places and pay the deductible. Meds are cheap locally, free at the Nellis pharmacy.
What a tool!
http://cnsnews.com/mrctv-blog/craig-bannister/obama-raising-debt-ceilingdoes-not-increase-our-debt-though-it-has-over
“Now, this debt ceiling — I just want to remind people in case you haven’t been keeping up — raising the debt ceiling, which has been done over a hundred times, does not increase our debt; it does not somehow promote profligacy.”
Really? Really? Does he think that we are all fools?
Eventually, all private retirees and many local and state government retirees will find that their only option is Medicare, with their former employers perhaps paying something towards a supplemental policy.
It is not just retirees. All employees will be heading to the exchanges which will eventually become medicare for all:
http://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2013/09/18/obamacare-walgreens-dropping-current-coverage-for-160000-workers-n1703815
“Walgreen Co. (WAG), the biggest U.S. drugstore chain, will move its workers into a private health insurance exchange to buy company-subsidized coverage, the latest sign of how the debate over Obamacare is accelerating a historic shift in corporate health-care coverage. Walgreen’s decision affects about 160,000 current employees and follows similar action this year by Sears Holdings Corp. (SHLD) and Darden Restaurants Inc. (DRI) As an alternative to administering a traditional health plan, all three will send their employees to an exchange run by Aon Plc.”
I am not totally against this. Medicare is a very well run government program. I would like to see more realistic doctor payment rates and copays though. I would like to decouple employers health insurance and employees so that your health insurance follows you, not your employer.
As I’ve said, I think the only way out of this mess is to implement a basic income.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_income
I’m afraid the alternative is revolution and chaos. And I think Hayek and Friedman would agree with me. I’m a hard-core capitalist, as were they, but the simple truth is that there are winners and losers under capitalism. A few big winners and a lot of losers.
I must respectfully disagree. Have you run the numbers?
One of the problems with the capitalist system is that the wealthiest people do not pay taxes on their property gains until they sell the property. Bill Gates and Warren Buffet pay very little income taxes compared to the average person. I do not know how to change this without installing a national property tax.
Just taking some rough numbers, let’s assume that the population of the US is 300,000,000, of which 75% are adults. That’s 225,000,000 adults. Let’s further assume that the basic income is set at $1,500/month. Every US adult citizen gets that $1,500/month, from people who are currently destitute to Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. There’s no means testing. They don’t have to work for it. That’s an unconditional grant, and it’s not subject to income tax of any sort. That’s $337.5 billion a month, or about $4 trillion/year.
That’s a lot of money, but then you start figuring up the costs that the government is no longer required to pay. No entitlements. No food stamps. No welfare. No Social Security payments or other pensions. And no need for the massive number of government employees who currently administer these programs. When you consider what the federal government is currently spending, including deficit spending and borrowing to meet these obligations, $4 trillion a year suddenly starts to look cheap.
Why should kids not get the dole? Illegals?
Why should they?
Don’t forget, part of the rationale is to minimize gaming the system. Illegals aren’t eligible, and there’d be nothing here for them. Children aren’t eligible because we want to discourage the “citizens” from breeding lots of kids to increase their monthly take. Doing it this way incentivizes recipients to avoid having lots of children because then they’d have to spread the money to cover more people.
Whoa! Ahoy, matey! Today is Talk Like a Pirate Day. Missed it somehow, but had lunch with my uncle and they had Pirate trivia at the assisted living place.
Chuck, is this a local hoosegow or prison.
Yeah, a city-county jail in a college town (not Muncie, but I cannot say where until it is over). Based on who is testifying, I have to believe it is a meth factory case. Chemical expert will be testifying. I have done shooting in this jail before. It is as well-built as the state-run big houses. I do not have to sign anything though, and there will be at least one armed guard in the room with us. When I set up and tear down, they lock me into the room all by myself. All I can say is—based on previous experience—every single prisoner I had contact with, wants out of there—bad!
Don’t forget, part of the rationale is to minimize gaming the system. Illegals aren’t eligible, and there’d be nothing here for them. Children aren’t eligible because we want to discourage the “citizens” from breeding lots of kids to increase their monthly take. Doing it this way incentivizes recipients to avoid having lots of children because then they’d have to spread the money to cover more people.
Won’t work. Don’t forget, the politicians love to game the system also. After all, dividing and conquering of the electorate is a game played to its perfection here in the USA. The politicians will be creating fiefdoms all over the place, just as they do now.
And the kids would be divorcing their parents all over the place to get certified as adults so they can get on the dole. Plus the teenage mothers, etc, etc, etc.
And the illegals would be flooding across the borders to take all the low paying jobs not being filled because people are on the dole.
Hi Bob,
If you are running out of stuff to watch, James Burke’s “Connections” is now on YouTube…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgOp-nz3lHg&list=PL734BAB2B716CC777
Also “The Making of a Continent”, another excellent documentary series…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gc-JeGagcZk&list=PLC7E6F79698667334
Cheers,
Rod Schaffter
I have had Burke’s “Connections” on a hard drive for a while now but have so far only looked at the first few episodes; also have the books. I really should watch two or three episodes of this kind of thing for every “Sons of Anarchy” or “Breaking Bad” show I watch.
OK, an informal survey of current and previous “solutions” to our situation:
1.) Blow all my money (won’t take long) and just go totally on welfare. That’s where the State wants me anyway and hell, I’ve paid into the system for forty years and supported other people.
2.) Pretend to rob a bank or whatever other violent crime against a sacrosanct financial or State entity and get myself arrested and imprisoned and live off that for the rest of my days; I doubt any bubbas will be the least bit interested in me and if they are I will disabuse them immediately.
3.) Renounce my citizenship, move to Mexico for a couple of years, and then sneak back across and begin sucking down the benefits they just hand over to immigrants, legal or not.
Well, as for Number One, I don’t think I can live on $1,500 a month and pay the mortgage, etc., etc. Have to move into the low-income housing project and maybe help to set up a meth lab or something. This does not appeal.
Number Two: Knowing how the cops are nowadays, they’d probably just instantly blow my ass away immediately on arrival at the scene, so clearly that also does not appeal to me.
Number Three: Minimal Spanish, and don’t feel like, at my advanced age of decrepitude, scuttling across 120-degree deserts and dodging sidewinders and scorpions.
So I vote for Bob’s other scenario: revolution, chaos, and civil war. This regime cannot stand forever and when it goes down there will be hell to pay. Our grandchildren and great-grandchildren will be rebuilding.
In other nooz, the AF may dump the Warthog:
“… the A-10 finds itself on the chopping block because “it’s a single-mission airplane, essentially,” and would struggle in more contested airspaces.”
http://www.dodbuzz.com/2013/09/18/air-force-mourns-likely-passing-of-a-10-warthog/
My son loved the A-10s in Iraq when he was shotgun on convoy duty. Nobody would dare mess with them with an A-10 loitering around and he could grab some sleep. Try that with an F-22 or an F-35.
Well, as for Number One, I don’t think I can live on $1,500 a month and pay the mortgage, etc., etc. Have to move into the low-income housing project and maybe help to set up a meth lab or something. This does not appeal.
You and the missus would get $3,000 per month together. Is that enough to live on? Of course, you would have get divorced or else she would only get $750 per month.
“Of course, you would have get divorced or else she would only get $750 per month.”
What? There’s a marriage penalty! Thanks a lot libertarians.
You know that there will be a marriage penalty! After all, the government must do everything that it can to discourage fully functional families. Fully functional families are much less dependent on government help and subsistence.
And why are you blaming the Libertarians for the marriage penalty?
You get TRI-CARE which is really bad when you need anything done.
One of my bosses was retired Navy and had Tri-Care. It did a great job treating his wife’s breast cancer, for out of pocket costs of less than $1000. The local hospitals that take Tri-Care are some of the better ones.
We might be able to live on the $1,500+750 but it would be really tight. Probably have to set up that meth lab after all; study up on all the “Breaking Bad” episodes and buy Bob’s home chemlab kits. I’d say we could add her jewelry biz and my tutoring to the mix but the State will probably get around to requiring licenses for that stuff and making it impossible.
” Nobody would dare mess with them with an A-10 loitering around and he could grab some sleep.”
I imagine not; ditto the AC-130 Spectre gunships, which I understand the AF intends to keep maintaining and modifying for another quarter-century, as with the B-52s.
“And why are you blaming the Libertarians for the marriage penalty?”
The wiki says basic income is sort of supported by libertarians. And you mentioned the marriage penalty. And I believe everything you say.
Actually, just try to jerk some chains. Screw basic income.
Libertarians are the new Communists anyway:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-05/libertarians-are-the-new-communists.html
lol
The local hospitals that take Tri-Care are some of the better ones.
If you can find a hospital. Around here Tr-Care is not taken by any hospital except the hospital that is typical used for the homeless and the welfare queens. Treatment is pretty much on the same level.
To get full use of my Tricare, I have to drive 30 minutes to Nellis AFB
You are lucky. Around here the closest military hospital is several hours away. Retirees are left to the local system. Even the closest VA facility (that is not a clinic) is 2+ hours away.
You and the missus would get $3,000 per month together.
I can do that now. House is paid, cars are paid. Without driving to work, going down to just two vehicles, I could live on $3K a month quite easily. Plus I would have no medical expenses.
Fixed it for ya.
I can do that now. House is paid, cars are paid. Without driving to work, going down to just two vehicles, I could live on $3K a month quite easily. Plus I would have no medical expenses.
Uh oh. If the $1,500 per person does not include medical care costs then the basic income needs to allocate another $500 per month per person. So the real cost would be $2,000 per month per person for basic income with medical care. Plus all the kids need $500 per month medical care also. Kids are expensive!
So get a job and figure out how to pay for them yourself. Don’t expect others to pay for your desire to breed.
That’s the “generic you”, by the way. No need for you, Lynn, to take offense by thinking I’d meant you personally, above. Because as we all know, I’d rather eat razor blades than offend any human being, dead or alive.
“…I can do that now. House is paid, cars are paid.”
If the house was paid, we could do it, too. But I’ll be dead before the house is paid off. And one kid is gone and has his own kids and house to pay for; but we still have one kid in college and her marriage at some point. So far as I can see, Mrs. OFD and me will have to work until we drop dead or simply can’t work anymore. At whatever.
Vermont is now in the throes of establishing some sort of health care/insurance Rube Goldberg edifice in compliance with ObummerCare, so it will be interesting to see how badly we get screwed up here; I anticipate that our insurance will cost more than our mortgage each month and that actual care will suck more and more.
Plus all the kids need $500 per month medical care also.
Kids are long gone.
I basically live on $3500 a month now as I am putting a lot into savings each month. Get rid of the gas expense from driving to work ($80.00 a week), insurance on a third vehicle ($35.00 a month), cut down on meals out, etc. and I could easily do the $3K a month and survive. If needed I could eliminate a good chunk of my cable bill, drop my current cellphone and go with ST (not great service, but workable, saving $90.00 a month), get rid of the boat and the insurance.
Being debt free does have it’s pluses. No one can take my house as long as I pay the taxes. But if I went on welfare the state would take the house, the vehicles and most of the stuff in the house. Then give me public housing with all the stuff the state took only they have to do the maintenance.
Libertarians are the new Communists anyway:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-05/libertarians-are-the-new-communists.html
Boy, those guys have no clue what libertarianism or libertarians are about—or communists for that matter. They are just shallow sensationalists.
First of all, it is economic collectivism and the inability to hold title to private anything that causes communism to fail. In the long-term, it cannot build wealth for anybody, including the state. They do not even seem to understand communism or its parts. The fact that it is not built to wrap itself around, and enthrone religion, is an advantage, IMO.
There are a range of positions on any subject. Unfortunately, the sane ones in the libertarian camp—like Bill Weld used to be—are rare, and you get squeaky voices like Paul, who think they are disclosing what will be accepted as incontrovertible, intuitively obvious revelations that will be praised and immediately worshipped by everyone on the planet. The fact is that some people’s views are formed by irrational things like an overabundance of respect for a departed parent ‘who never would agree or accept that’ although they very often cannot articulate their own—or their parents’—reasons why.
All I know is that while the economy making a turtle’s progress, everything else is sliding into a sink hole. And it stinks in there.
Just got the news that I need a picture ID to get into jail tomorrow. You mean to tell me you cannot get into jail these days without a picture ID? Maybe I ought to throw out the driver’s license and start living more dangerously.
Lynn, I don’t suppose The Beatles’ “Two of Us” was the song? “We’re on our way home.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSQeTSrI6bg
No synthesizer, and it’s a duet.
” Maybe I ought to throw out the driver’s license and start living more dangerously.”
Yet another voice here for an alternative lifestyle, in the face of The Ongoing Situation.
Nope, not a Beatles song. I would recognize McCartney and Lennon voices anywhere.
My former USMC son is 30 and graduating from college in December with his Chemistry and Physics degree. He is so glad not to be in the USMC anymore as all his buddies are scared that they are going to Syria soon with rubber bullets and people throwing shoes at them. It is not a joke, his USMC buddies are actually having people throw their shoes at them in Iraq. It is shameful.
My daughter is 26 and still living with us as it is becoming apparent that she may be permanently disabled due to Chronic Lyme disease. We may have to procure a wheelchair for her soon as her body continues to deteriorate. I am actually thinking about signing her up for SSI as that is the gateway for many state services. I am willing to take care of her as long as I can (huh!, the wife would throw me out first) but I need to think about the future when I may not be here.
I just found out last week that I will be getting finger printed and have a full background check in 2014 in order to retain my Professional Engineer’s License in the Great State of Texas. I have had my license since 1989. Apparently the legislature has decided that all licensed persons (Doctors, Nurses, Dentists, Engineers, Lawyers, CPAs, etc) in Texas must be of provable good character. They are assuring us that our finger prints will not be entered into the national databases but you and I know what is really going to happen. I have decided to go ahead and get my CHL since the finger prints was the only thing holding me back and I would like to carry in other states.
BTW, my son has been going to college on the GI bill and has basically been stiffed by the VA for last two years. They have fouled up his paperwork nine different ways and make him resubmit, resubmit, resubmit. He has been paying his way and hoping that someday they will reimburse him. I’ve told him not to ever count on seeing that money.
This is our future, standing in line with government paperwork. He stood in line filing his GI bill paperwork for 10 days in August trying to get them to pay for his classes. Yes, 10 days. This is crazy. This is a benefit that he earned with his service to the country.
Just got the news that I need a picture ID to get into jail tomorrow. You mean to tell me you cannot get into jail these days without a picture ID?
In our next election here in the Great State of Texas, you will need a picture ID to vote. Finally!
Shocking. A government policy that actually makes sense. You don’t really need a photo ID to get into jail. You need one to get back out. The government is being polite and verifying they have your ID before they let you back in.
In our next election here in the Great State of Texas,
Where they vote early and vote often. At least they did when LBJ was being elected. Even dead people were voting.
I drove down to Melbourne on Thursday to see my team in the AFL, Hawthorn, play in a preliminary final against their nemesis, Geelong. They’ve beaten us every time we’ve played since we beat them in the 2008 Grand Final. Now we’re into the grand final next weekend. I’m back at my motel and pretty happy. Meeting an old friend for lunch on Saturday, then have a 600 km drive back to Canberra.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-20/hawthorn-books-grand-final-place-to-break-kennett-curse/4972700
“…stiffed by the VA for last two years. They have fouled up his paperwork nine different ways and make him resubmit, resubmit, resubmit. He has been paying his way and hoping that someday they will reimburse him.”
Tell your son this isn’t anything new; I got off active duty in ’75 and started college in the fall of that year in Boston. I had filed my paperwork in plenty of time for the G.I. Bill bennies each month but didn’t see a cent until the following January. Meanwhile I’d been forced to drop out due to living expenses and not enough dough to pay for them, so back into the job market in recessionary Massachusetts where unemployment at the time was officially around 15%. To rub salt in the wound I overhead the old biddies at the bursar’s office one day commiserating on how scandalous it was that so many veterans just never finished their studies there when they had all these wonderful benefits.
So it eventually took me fourteen years of going full-time here, part-time there, and always working full-time at various jobs in factories, police departments and high-tech, before I finally got my BA in 1989 at age 35, a few months after my first marriage.
The Army (not the Army collectively, of course, but a small group of worthless civilian hags on my last active duty post) screwed me out of tuition reimbursement after having told me everything was all set. They decided — after the semester had started and I’d paid for it, and without telling me they’d changed their minds — that I spent so much time on travel that there was no way I could pass the one course I was taking. I got an A, by the way, but that apparently didn’t matter because they’d made up their mind.
Worked out OK. I got RIFfed shortly after that (Congress had decided that the Army had too many junior officers, which was probably correct. My boss was surprised and annoyed, though, because I was doing one hell of a job on that posting.), went to work for a defense contractor, and got my full MS paid for. And when the Army called me back three or four months after I got out, telling me that with the new fiscal year they had more positions for junior officers and they’d love to have me back, I told the colonel on the phone to get stuffed. (Somewhat politely, as he probably had nothing to do with me getting RIFfed, but it was more firm than Hell, No!)