I was involved in a car wreck earlier this year. The following is my story and commentary about the goings on. It should serve as an eye opener as far as your opinion of our healthcare system. Due to litigation, no names of doctors/clinics or nurses will be used.
I went to a local urgent care clinic to get my back examined as I had been in extreme pain from a car accident (not my fault). You check in at the counter and are handed a clip board. Also, they request your insurance card, so I produced and surrendered mine to the lady up front.
I started filling out the paperwork and as I was completing the stack of paperwork, the counter lady came out and declared they needed that back. I paused and stated that I was not one filling it out yet and she shot back “your healthcare plan doesn’t cover this.” Adding “unless you have a credit card, we cannot see you here.” She is correct, I knew this going into this visit. I have what is called a garbage policy…sorry…the politically correct term is an Obamacare bronze plan.
If you rewind to pre-Obamacare, I had the same plan: 5k deductible, 20% co-pay, and it ran $75 a month. Keep in mind I buy my own plan as an employer sponsored one is not available to me as an independent contractor. Fast forward to today. The same plan costs me $450 a month. Keep in mind this; I am very healthy and active swimming a mile every morning, lifting weights in afternoon, I do not drink anymore and have never touched any tobacco/drug product. But I digress, back to my story.
Same plan: Before Obamacare $75, after Obamacare $450
The visit costs $100 and I had a valid credit card. William and I have both spoken about the dangers of credit card debt in this space, of which I have none. They swiped the card, and I was good to go. Keep in mind if my card didn’t work or I did not own one, they would have referred me to a very, very expensive doctor also known as the emergency room. Imagine that, going to the ER for a backache, which would have resulted in a chiropractor or physical therapy referral anyways. Keep in mind, that visit could very well have cost several thousand, and well I guess I could pay, or not pay.
I saw the doctor. She prescribed some pain pills and said see you in a couple days. A few days later, lather, rinse, repeat, additional pain killers, and come back in a couple days. On my third and final visit, they finally took x-rays, I was then referred to a physical therapist. Take note, it was $100 each visit, plus $115 for x-rays. Which they were happy to collect.
In conclusion, I have no hard feelings toward this clinic, they are for profit, and obviously cater to a crowd of people like myself who have healthcare plans that are not ideal but are required to comply with law. They, unlike traditional doctors, are under no obligation to see you. I harbor no ill will regarding their initial actions toward me, since, I firmly believe in no pay, no play. As far as I am concerned, I would endorse these clinics as the first stop for all Obamacare users. We need to keep our ER for what they were made for; emergencies, not as the only option for poor/illegal/horrible healthcare plans. That being said, it is disturbing they were willing to schlep me over there to pay quite a large sum of money, and take valuable time and a room at the ER due to a sore back.
I wish to offer a solution. The urgent care needs to be the first visit for those of us who cannot see a primary care physician. This holds especially true for those on zero cost Obamacare. We need to allow the ER to be used for real emergencies, my sore back is not an emergency. The Urgent Care should serve as a “gate keeper” and be a referral center, this will free up doctors elsewhere and lower the costs for everyone.
It may not be the perfect answer, but we need something, visiting the ER for a sore back is a horrible policy—both medically and financially.
If you live in many parts of California and your finances are a mess, then you probably know that Paul Blanco is your best bet to get a deal on a car. Paul Blanco targets his marketing at folks that generally don’t qualify for vehicle loans thru traditional dealership financing.
Paul Blanco locations in CA & NV
We will continue to provide much-needed services to Californians without a great credit score but who must have transportation to live, work and raise a family… — Paul Blanco
Yesterday, news broke that California’s Attorney General, Xavier Becerra, filed a lawsuit against Blanco for being unethical.
A 32-page complaint filed Monday in Alameda County accuses the company of running a sophisticated scheme to lure customers into a dealership only to later lie about their incomes and the value of the cars they were purchasing to convince lenders to approve the loans.
The company paid for ads promising customers could get their credit checked over the phone, a tactic designed to avoid the embarrassing experience of having a loan denied in person. Call center operators had detailed scripts, which would include telling customers to “please hold while I process your application,” only to return five seconds later to congratulate them on meeting the credit criteria for “several of our lenders.” But Becerra says an unnamed manager at the call center said operators would not process loan applications at all. Instead, the act was a ruse to collect information and generate sales leads.
Once customers arrived at the dealership, Becerra says the company would lie about how much money a potential borrower earned each year to deceive lenders. An audit by one finance company found that out of 320 incomes reported from the company’s location in Fresno, more than 78% of them were inflated by at least $500 per month.
Becerra also said the company made lots of money by selling optional add-ons, such as insurance or service contracts, by falsely telling customers they were required by law. In some cases, Becerra said customers did not know they were purchasing add-ons because employees would hide the paperwork by placing their hands over the disclosures – a technique employees at the dealership referred to as a “hands-down close.”
“We’re talking about hardworking families who make every dollar count, seeing their hard earned money swindled away by dishonest tactics that put them in unaffordable debt,” Becerra said.
My first thought upon hearing of this suit yesterday is “Who did Blanco forget to pay off in California’s Democrat Party?”
Neither Xavier Becerra nor his predecessor Kamala Harris seems to have cared too much that Wells Fargo Bank, headquartered in San Francisco, “…signed up thousands of auto loan customers for costly car insurance without their consent, resulting in many having their vehicles repossessed.”
The scandals continue at America’s third-largest bank by assets, Wells Fargo. Already reeling from a fake checking and credit card accounts crisis that cost former CEO John Stumpf his job, the firm admitted on Thursday evening it placed hundreds of thousands of unnecessary insurance contracts with its auto loan customers.
In total, Wells Fargo said between 2012 and 2017 it placed approximately 570,000 customers into a form of insurance called collateral protection insurance, which duplicated their existing coverage. The CPI product, which protects lenders against vehicle damage, is often not a feature of many automotive loans because car buyers’ are covered under their existing auto insurance. Wells Fargo used a third party to place CPI policies when it believed customers were not covered under their insurance. However, the bank now says it accidentally duplicated coverage and added unnecessary costs to customers’ monthly loan payments.
Becerra’s suit accuses Blanco of similar behavior as Wells Fargo but on a much smaller scale. In a quick Internet search, I couldn’t find any mention of Harris or Becerra being in the forefront of going after Wells Fargo for much more egregious behavior.
Please note that Presidential wannabee Kamala Harris was San Francisco District Attorney and then California Attorney General during most of the period when Wells Fargo was ripping-off customers literally right in her front yard. Makes me wonder where Wells Fargo was spending their PAC money while this fraud was going on?
Don’t forget, California does require auto insurance and so do lenders. Did Blanco offer insurance as a way to have some level of vertical market integration just like the Democrat’s favorite, Warren “Uncle Pennybags” Buffett? It is well documented elsewhere on this blog that Buffett has made much of his fortune off the backs of the poorest Americans, some of it doing the exact same thing for which Blanco is accused.
Blanco website offers auto insurance if you need it
I know some dealers offer insurance coverage in case you don’t have any. Given Blanco’s clientele, perhaps after 17 years in business, he found that this was the best way for his customers to get insurance by building it into the payment.
Maybe this is all just a misunderstanding because Blanco simply forget to send his annual contribution to our pay-to-play Insurance Commissioner, Ricardo Lara?
Blanco did pay his protection money to the Liberals in 2018 but apparently not enough recently.
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — More than six months after a deadly shooting in her backyard, the grandmother of Stephon Clark is finding some healing from a helping hand.
This renovation of love started with digging up some physical and emotional dirt. It was six months ago when Sequita Thompson’s South Sacramento backyard became a crime scene after the shooting death of her grandson.
Amid the turmoil of the last six months and pleas for progress on the deadly officer-involved shooting has been a call for healing.
Word got around that the home was in need of a facelift. That’s when local car dealership owner Paul Blanco stepped in. He Donated $25,000 to give Thompson and her family a fresh start.
Folks, I’m not necessarily defending Blanco, just trying to point-out that other businesses in California exploit the poor much more than Blanco is accused of doing and they get a pass. Have you seen the interest rates at the payroll advance company in your neighborhood? Most folks are paying about 30 percent interest on revolving charge accounts including appliance purchases, credit cards, and the like. As long as they have the word “bank” in their name, such confiscatory rates seem to be legal.
Talk about disproportionately hurting the poor, have you see gasoline prices in California versus the rest of the country. Gasoline prices here are about a dollar a gallon more than most other states thanks to our State government. On top of that, the Legislature then steals the money collected on fuel taxes and puts it in the General Fund instead of maintaining our roads. Becerra’s Party is doing this without fear of reprisal or repercussions.
It looks to me that Becerra has decided to “shakedown” Blanco for being good at what he does. As many lawsuits as Becerra has filed against Donald Trump, I’m surprised he has time for Blanco. It really makes me wonder what Blanco’s voter registration is. This suit is the type of political grandstanding I would expect from Becerra in a hotly contested election year.
The likely outcome of this is that Blanco will agree to a fine and a change in business practices.
Neither Becerra, nor Kamala Harris before him, had a reputation for upholding the law; only the parts that they personally agreed with. (Can you say Proposition 8?) It’s sad when the chief law enforcement officer of the State has one set of rules for his friends and another for everyone else. Such behavior nullifies the concept of equal protection under the law and makes the law arbitrary and a political weapon. In the old days this was called tyranny now it’s just standard operating procedure in this once Golden State.
There is nothing more iconic and universal in the United States than car ownership. Besides the Second Amendment, nothing symbolizes our freedom more. Which I guess is why the Left needs to attack it.
Yesterday, two news stories surfaced about Democrats wanting to outlaw cars and their private ownership. First up was Gavin Newsom responding to Donald Trump. Trump wants to strip California of its right to set its own standards for vehicle pollution. And then Presidential wannabe, Andrew Yang, commenting on cars and climate change.
Folks, when I see a California Democrat accusing a businessman (Donald Trump) of threatening business, I know I’m about to take a journey of imagination through the Twilight Zone.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom slammed the Trump administration and Republicans for their “complete silence on state’s rights, but also free enterprise” in light of President Donald Trump’s decision to curtail state-set emissions standards.
“They’re calling private sector corporations to the mat and threatening them,” Newsom, a Democrat, told CNN’s Don Lemon on Wednesday night on “CNN Tonight.”
Folks, FYI, when you see Newsom talking about state’s rights then you know something is off. Newsom is using the State’s rights argument to flaunt Federal law. This is how California can have sanctuary cities, decriminalization of drugs, refuse to prosecute illegal immigrants that commit crimes, etc.
Then Newsom goes on to claim that he is for free enterprise? Really? OK Gavin, then why is free enterprise almost nonexistent in your state? Why are businesses, the middleclass, and retirees fleeing your state by the thousands every month?
Why is it OK for California to dictate to automakers what emission standards should be but the national government should butt-out?
What Newsom is calling “state’s rights” is newspeak for unchecked tyranny.
For decades, California has effectively forced the rest of the nation to adopt their auto emission standards because manufacturing is easier to one standard than too many.
California’s waiver under the Clean Air Act allowed it to set standards tighter than the federal government’s, which have been adopted by more than a dozen states and became the de-facto nationwide standard because automakers do not design different sets of vehicles to meet standards in different states.
Compared to the 1970’s, California has about triple the population and a fraction of the amount of air pollution. If you look at a cost/benefit graph of costs, we are at the point where any decrease in allowable emissions will cost a significant amount.
Folks, it’s one thing for California to want to have lower emissions from cars but California wants to outlaw car ownership altogether. California also aspires to be the first state in the nation to outlaw internal combustion engines for both cars and trucks. Trump is wanting to free the auto industry from the crazy standards that California and former President Obama agreed to for the next decade.
California has this strange idea that we are “green” and into “sustainability.” This of course is self-delusion and nonsense. Look at the collapse of our recycling program. We can’t send our crap to China anymore so it just goes from the recycle bin to the landfill. Which is worse, our current air quality or the long-term effects of all the stuff we bury that gets into the water table? If California was serious about the environment as they claim then we would recycle all our trash within our own borders. As previously stated on this blog, Elon Musk is better suited for this task than trying to run a car company.
Also, if Gavin cared about the private sector then why is there a bill on his desk (AB 1482) to confiscate all residential rental property and setup a statewide scheme of rent control? Why are Democrats clamoring to bifurcate Proposition 13 and jack-up the tax rate on businesses? Why do entry level jobs have to pay $15 per hour?
The article continues:
“Federalism be damned; state rights, 10th Amendment be damned; Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon be damned,” Newsom said Wednesday when asked why he thought a Republican administration was exerting its power over a state-level decision — traditionally a cornerstone of conservative policy.
Newsom pointed to Reagan’s efforts as the state’s governor in 1967 to address smog in Los Angeles, arguing that it led to the bipartisan Clean Air Act signed by Nixon, a fellow California Republican, in 1970.
Newsom raises a good question in the above quote but clearly he is shading the facts to make an argument he doesn’t really believe. On this side of the Civil War and the New Deal, what is the Tenth Amendment to a Liberal? Just that he acknowledges the validity of the Tenth Amendment might be viewed by some as an accomplishment. When Democrats are saying good things about Nixon and Reagan in the same sentence, it should make you wonder why. Newsom is cherry picking data points to make a prima facie argument.
The only real question that you need to have about the above quote is “What is the nature of the agreement that California can set stricter emission rules?” Is it a regulation or a law? If it’s a regulation then as head of the Executive Branch, Trump can change it, if it’s a law then only Congress can change it.
Contrary to the way Newsom framed his complaint, this is not the first time that California and the Federal government have butted heads over vehicle emissions.
Yang on Banning Car Ownership
Andrew Yang, one of the herd of Democrat Presidential Wannabees, had some really honest and shocking words yesterday on cars as well. In short outlaw them.
Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang said the United States may have to eliminate private car ownership to combat climate change during MSNBC’s climate forum at Georgetown University Thursday morning.
He told MSNBC host Ali Velshi that “we might not own our own cars” by 2050 to wean the United States economy off of fossil fuels, describing private car ownership as “really inefficient and bad for the environment.” Privately owned cars would be replaced by a “constant roving fleet of electric cars.”
Andrew Yang
“Well I mentioned before that we might not own our own cars.Our current car ownership and usage model is really inefficient and bad for the environment,” Yang said.
The plan also includes a zero emissions standard for all new cars by 2030 and hundreds of billions of dollars in investments in emission-free ground and air transportation.
Folks as documented elsewhere on our blog, at current rates, there is not enough production of raw materials during the next 50 years to convert Great Britain to an all-electric fleet of vehicles let alone the whole world. The rare metals produced mostly via mining in Africa, South America, and elsewhere just can’t support such a demand. The utopian dream of an all-electric fleet is nonsense. And as we have previously documented, mining capacity is just one of many reasons that this can’t be accomplished.
My other thought is this, isn’t large scale strip mining, slave labor, and filling the treasuries of depots and dictators somehow tainting the idea of zero emissions? I thought Liberals frowned on rich people living on the backs of the poor, but enough about how you iPhone was made.
Folks all this emission and electric vehicle talk is just a way to deny us the freedom of mobility that we have known all our lives.
Oh, if you haven’t hear, Yang’s stock is rising in the Democrat field.
Yang enjoyed a recent polling bump and is now in fourth place in the California primary ahead of formerly “top-tier” candidate Sen. Kamala Harris (D., Calif.).
2020’s election is about our way of life and direction of our country. Do you want California values or American values?
About a month ago William sent me an article about the high turnover in minimum wage jobs, specifically the service sector. The numbers in it were staggering. Per this report, over 100% employee turnover is the norm at most restaurant chains! You read that correct. On average, the entire crew and then some turned over throughout the course of a year. Panera Bread, viewed by the left as a great establishment to work, saw just over 100%.
The case of Panera Bread shows just how deep the employee turnover issue is for restaurant companies. Panera loses close to 100% of workers every year, and by fast-food industry standards that’s considered good.
The official Bureau of Labor Statistics turnover rate for the restaurant sector was 81.9% for the 2015–2017 period, but industry estimates are much higher, reaching 150%, and the problem has gotten worse in recent years. “It’s definitely been going up,” said Rosemary Batt, chair of HR Studies and International & Comparative Labor at the Cornell School of Industrial Labor Relations.
McDonalds and Burger King’s turnover is north of 130%!!!!! The Bureau of Labor Statistics puts this number around 150% annually. That is absolutely mind boggling.
Keep in mind we have raised the minimum wage to a now “living wage” so that these people could be happy and live long prosperous lives working at these entry level starter jobs. Why are they leaving? Well the answer is complicated so I asked a friend of mine who runs a theatre for their thoughts. Basically there is lots of competition at the lowest levels. There is a need to hire 4 people to actually fill one position. Of the 4, 1 will not show up, the 2nd one will be tired of it after a couple hours, the 3rd will finish the day and never come back, and you just hope the 4th will stick around a little while. People in these jobs are fickle. If the GAP is paying $0.05 an hour more…they are taking that job. They may be treated like dirt, but that comes with the territory for a minimum wage gig. This causes a nightmare for my friend since the theatre operates on a tight budget and even a $.50 an hour increase could put them up against a wall.
Against the backdrop of struggling to hire and retain people for entry level jobs comes AOC plus 3, known here as “The Broad Squad.” These babes, voicing socialist and economic enlightenment, are now promising up to 100k a year to everyone. Surely this promise of universal income will fix the issue!
In addition to providing “economic security for those unable or unwilling to work,” the plan also promises to create “millions of good, high-wage jobs” for willing Americans.
Never mind the accompanying price increases and inflation that go along with it! Have no fear, we will legislate our way out of this one; our country has always found a way. Under their tutelage, America may one day be as economically enlightened as Venezuela.
In reality, it must stink working at jobs like these; you are treated like trash, you work among some of the least desirable people, and worse yet, you have a manager that keeps telling you work harder. You literally see your job being automated with each passing day, be it mobile ordering, a touch kiosk, or an employee free kitchen.
However, in reality you have no one to blame but yourselves. Politicians goaded you into believing a $15 an hour wage would magically lift you from poverty, but instead it promises to doom you to a life of drudgery and servitude. Your job is being automated, and eventually eliminated. A high minimum wage means a higher required skill set, you won’t get 90 days to learn on the job, the franchisee or manager won’t stand for it. The 90 day calendar types are innovating constantly, looking to cut any expense…. news flash labor is the highest non-fixed cost. Now you are being told aim for higher wages and employer required health care, don’t fall for the bait, it will hasten your demise.
In closing, our country no longer views the college degree as a positive, it’s now required. In reality, a college degree nowadays means less than a high school diplomat did in the 1950’s. If you don’t have one, find a trade to work in, if you have a degree and are having a hard time finding work, get an MBA, but be forewarned this is a fake economy we are currently in….the crash will be rough. Oh, and you can’t file BK to get out of paying back your student loans.
William wrote a great article about the debt the other day and it got me thinking, which is quite dangerous by the way. The debt is absolutely insurmountable and as a millennial, it’s my future, so I asked quite a few friends of mine, for their thoughts. The answers will likely not surprise any reader of this site.
Buy now, pay forever
To put it bluntly, they do not care. Most of them work for the state/city/county and view their jobs and pensions are guaranteed. That should scare everyone, regardless of your thoughts on pension guarantees. The general approach by my generation to debt is one of apathy and compassion.
I’ll start with the latter first; it’s borne out of feelings and wanting to throw money at a problem in hope good will come from it. For example, healthcare for literally everyone and continued support of government run programs such as: food stamps, and other social justice programs into infinity. We want to give the homeless guy/girl/it a place to live, and 3 square meals a day along with spending money in hopes he will get a job…it doesn’t happen. However, we will keep trying because, we’ll just throw more money at it, and it eventually works itself out right?
Now to the apathy part; debt is already a large part of our lives, mostly via student loans. We just view all debt as, well it’s there and as long as I make the payment, I’m good till next month. We see ourselves in massive debt and just assume we will eventually take care of it…. or we petition the government to get rid of it. Much like the 65,000 people who have applied for their loans to be forgiven only to be rightfully denied by the government. We know it’s there and it’s a part of our lives, but we don’t take it seriously.
However, the ones most at fault are the older generations (55-75). They are responsible not just for running up the tab on generations not yet born, but for installing in us a belief that debt is not a big deal. They removed any personal finance/budgeting classes from our school system, and never really gave us an allowance or anything while we grew up. They also, claiming it was for our own good, outlawed minors from virtually every type of work they did when they were growing-up.
For my generation, our budgeting consisted of, hey dad I need $100 for jeans, and you gave it to us. We never had a checkbook just plastic, which again allows you to run up debt at an alarming pace under the guise of buy now, pay later. You told us college was an investment in our future, so we went to college and ran up six figure student loan debt. We needed a car and instead of getting an economical used vehicle, we got a sporty type car fresh off the lot, and a loan to boot. Credit card, auto loans, and student loans created a toxic cocktail that is just starting to show its affects.
Just to be clear here, I’m not placing the blame of the debt on anyone, just the attitude of the millennials. We do not view a paycheck as wages for services rendered, we view it as money to spend. We don’t view credit cards as for emergencies only, we view it as a means of satisfying ourselves with short term happiness. We do not see this as money being spent, it’s just the swipe of a card, then the bill comes. But that’s ok, because we only have to pay a very small portion of the bill, then we keep spending. Our debts? Well almost every liberal politician, and probably some so called Republican ones, talk about wiping out our debts…therefore we vote for them. Debt to us is just a way of life, and we see a paycheck and annual mandated cost of living raises as a way by which to pay for it.
In closing, I will add this, I am a 33-year-old millennial who has no student loan debt, never had any, and I have no credit card debt. I own a house so there is debt there; however, I see it as at least having equity as opposed to paying a landlord in exchange for nothing. I am very lucky but none of my friends choose to live their lives like me; instead, they have mountains of student loan debt, credit card debts, and expensive car payments to boot. They make minimum payments, and all have nicer stuff than me. Their attitude is the government will bail them out at some point, or just wipe away the debt.
Poof, your debt is gone Lather, rinse, repeat
Owe money to the IRS just call a number…poof gone. Too much credit card debt…. personal bankruptcy…poof gone. Mortgage on a house you don’t like anymore…. walk away. Best of all regarding the last 2, (credit cards and mortgages), in several years you can do it all over again. However, my generation, like many others, is in for a real wakeup call soon because those rules do not apply to our nation’s debt. Your pension is not likely to be guaranteed–at least not at the levels they predict. Your government job may be cut, and Social Security for those of us in the private sector, is likely a figment of our imagination or soon will be.
Assembly Bill 1482 a.k.a. Tenant Protection Act of 2019 has gained traction as is worked its way thru the “Bill Mill.” It would impose a statewide rent control scheme for all of California. It has passed both the Assembly and Senate and is back in the Assembly to reconcile Senate amendments. Final passage could be as early as tomorrow.Its next stop is the Governor’s desk.
It has received the blessing of many outside groups including the California Business Roundtable.
The CBRT is touting its support with statements like:
AB 1482 will provide certainty to tenants. AB 1482 will keep families in their homes by tying caps on annual rent increases to the regional consumer price index (CPI) plus 5%, implementing California’s first-ever statewide rent control.
AB 1482 will encourage new homebuilding. AB 1482 will also provide certainty to developers by exempting new construction for the first 15 years. This rolling exemption will address the acute supply shortage by encouraging developers to build more critically needed housing, while also ensuring we are adding new units under rent control protections.
AB 1482 will protect tenants in California. AB 1482 will enhance safeguards for tenants statewide by ensuring they receive a 60-day eviction notice and a 1-month relocation fee if they are evicted after the first 12 months of a lease.
AB 1482 will prevent rent gouging. AB 1482’s statewide rent cap applies to all multi-family housing over 15 years old covering more than 95% of all multi-family housing units, and all single-family homes that are corporately owned, ensuring landlords cannot take advantage of tenants through rent gouging.
I find myself in agreement with former CRA member and political curmudgeon Steve Frank who wrote recently:
This is another example of the business community deciding to “compromise” with a totalitarian State. The California Business roundtable formed by the California Chamber of Commerce has AGREED to the first step of government take over of housing. In AB 1482 it allows the State to set the rules and caps on rent increases. While this bill sets the limit at 7% a year, nothing stops government from making it 2% next year. It is the slippery slope to the State OWNERSHIP of housing—and those who claim to love freedom have given up the fight.
Exemptions today, can be ended tomorrow—by legislation or an activist court—and these folks claiming to represent capitalism have instead supported socialism. Of course, most of the Chamber folks donated to the Democrats. There is an old saying that fits this situation: “An appeaser is someone that feeds his friends to the alligators, hoping they eat him last.” The alligators just killed off the Roundtable—the Chamber is next.
This is a huge power grab by the State and way outside the legitimate boundaries of a lawful government. Sadly, this act of tyranny will be met with hardly a whisper of opposition. We don’t normally talk this way but the truth is that in the final analysis, it’s all the king’s land, we are but the humble vassals. If you really owned your property then the government couldn’t take it away. Both rent control and property taxes are based on the premise that you don’t really own anything tangible.
In my mind, I keep harkening back to the story of H.L. Richardson recounting a conversation with Democrats in a back room of the State Capitol many decades ago. When asked about why the Democrat felt he had the right to tax something, he responded with the quip, “But look what we let them keep.” Translation, the Democrats think they are entitled to all that you have, but only take what they need at any particular time. Please note that this redistribution of your stuff only works in one direction.
The only lingering question is will supporters of the ballot initiative to impose statewide rent control pull their initiative when Governor Newsom signs this legislation?
I keep telling people that the debt obligations of our country including all the big ones like Social Security, Medicare, Federal Deficit, State, County & Local pensions, etc. are more than all the wealth on the planet but even I was surprised when I saw the latest calculation. You see, some enterprising folks on Wall Street ran the numbers and the story was published yesterday. Instead of being the lead story for the whole week, it was on Drudge for a few hours and then was bumped to the recycle bin.
If you thought politicians spend like drunken sailors, I can assure you that the boys in Crackerjack Uniforms only spend their own money, not that of your great grandchildren, yet to be born.
Total potential debt for the U.S. by one all-encompassing measure is running close to 2,000% of GDP, according to an analysis that suggests danger but also cautions against reading too much into the level.
AB Bernstein came up with the calculation — 1,832%, to be exact — by including not only traditional levels of public debt like bonds but also financial debt and all its complexities as well as future obligations for so-called entitlement programs like Social Security, Medicare and public pensions.
Putting all that together paints a daunting picture but one that requires nuance to understand. Paramount is realizing that not all of the debt obligations are set in stone, and it’s important to know where the leeway is, particularly in the government programs that can be changed either by legislation or accounting.
Graphic from CNBC
The article then goes on to say that we shouldn’t worry because we can afford the payment on the credit card.
The key is not always gross dollar amount but rather ability to pay.
I hope Dave Ramsey blows a gasket when he reads this. I can picture him saying, “The borrower is the slave of the lender.”
Dave Ramsey–Card Cutter
“Globally, we have become over-reliant on borrowing as a solution for everything. Political excuses abound for why it doesn’t matter, which just clearly isn’t the case,” said Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a bipartisan committee of legislators, business leaders and economists that counts former Federal Reserve Chairs Paul Volcker and Janet Yellen among its members.
“We are quickly approaching a situation where we have dug ourselves a debt hole which is doing going to have profoundly negative effects on the economy for probably decades going forward,” MacGuineas added.
I corrected typo in the above quote–editor
The article concludes with this wishful thinking:
“First, you start having politicians level with voters instead of promising freebies. Second, you recognize that the time to do that is when your economy is strong,” she said. “When people were arguing for more borrowing they should have been doing the reverse. We’re still not in recession. It’s time to put in long-term strategies.”
who will pay the Reaper
Folks, we have hundreds of trillions of dollars in debt obligations and yet we go merrily along thinking as long as the sun rises that everything will be OK. Remember my opening, we owe more money than all the wealth created on the planet. Someday this merry-go-round of debt will stop and then who will pay the Reaper? The emperor has no clothes and as long as we all agree then everything is OK, right?
Greetings folks, I’m taking a break from food reviews as my sodium content has put me almost into “Johnnie Does the ER” levels. So we wanted to report on a conversation with the naïve we had over the past couple weeks with our old friend 90-Day Calendar Guy.
Here are the conversations and my commentary.
The Togo’s experience: So 90-Day Calendar Guy comes into the office and is raging like a great ball of fire, claiming “have you been to a Togo’s lately?” I responded, “negative.” Apparently, he was craving a hot pastrami so he went to Togo’s and was in stunned disbelief that the sandwich was $12. I’m assuming he ordered the large. He complained about how they had to “microwave” the meat and it was a long wait for the sandwich. He remarked, “Only 2 people were working and it was lunch time!” and again he lamented the price. So he said he only ate the meat and threw the sandwich away and walked off in disgust, writing a bad Yelp review to boot. All afternoon he remarked 8 years ago it was $6!
Johnnie Does: Here is the problem with this; he, like usual, overlooks reality as he lives in fantasy land. Where to start? Ok, first you cannot really have hot pastrami sitting in a bin as health department laws make it so you have to throw it out if it’s left out too long. Frankly I prefer them making it fresh as opposed to scooping it out of a vat. I’ve never heard anyone complain of them making it to order (i.e. fresh) but I guess it’s a 90-day thing where profit is above all else? In addition, I’m more grossed out by the extreme amount of grease in the bin they “cook” the pastrami in, but to each his own.
Now on to the comments about pricing and hired help, this sums up his true naïveté. In regard to price, maybe pay attention to the minimum wage…its $11 an hour here. In regard to hired help, well it makes no sense to have extra people standing around twiddling their thumbs at $11 an hour. Service may be a buzz word, but profit is the bottom line and you may need to sacrifice service to make a couple bucks more. The bad Yelp review? No one cares dude. You have already proven your Yelp reviews are pointless as you lit up Red Robin yet visited them again a week later. Get a clue dude!
Amazon is ripping off USPS: 90-Day Calendar Guy ordered something from Amazon.com and when it showed up, it was a pair of shorts inside a USPS bag, inside another USPS bag, inside another USPS bag, inside a USPS box. He said you cannot trust the government to do anything! Saying someone paid for these bags and the USPS lost money. He proudly proclaimed USPS is being ripped off by Amazon, and he told everyone within earshot. Imagine if this guy was a professor, what original thoughts he has.
Johnnie Does: USPS gets ripped off by everyone, it undercharges and over promises. Why do they deliver on Sundays for Amazon only? At a subsidized rate to boot? This has been going on for years, it’s not new. In addition, 90-Day Calendar Guy watches more TV in a week…oh, and cable TV to boot, than I consume in a month. My point being, of all the people that should know aboutPresident Trump calling this out 2 years ago, it should be you.
Yet you claim it’s an original idea? You claim to be a bigger Trump supporter than anyone, yet you miss something like this? Maybe it’s because Sean Hannity hasn’t reported on it yet. Trump has been calling out people/corporations ripping off the taxpayers for the longest time, just now you are catching on?
Sean Hannity & Donald Trump
In short, he has turned into a hot take machine, the world has passed him by but he is too scared to admit it. A hamburger used to cost $.25, but how much were the workers making? What was the cost of ingredients? I happen to enjoy Togo’s hot pastrami, but I haven’t had one in a while, too pricey, low quality. My advice…too bad it will never be heeded, cancel cable, go to reputable websites for news. Cable/TV is poison, it inhibits your ability to think clearly.
Johnnie Does
BTW we have exciting series about who has the best chicken sandwich coming soon, and we are officially reviewing the salsa bar Monday! That little minx better be ready.
We had an editorial board meeting here at Really Right last week when the news was dropping about Tesla rolling out their in-house auto insurance department. We agreed to let Aaron Park take the first crack at this one, since you know, he’s an insurance agent and all. Aaron didn’t act, so we feel we must report so the people can decide.
It was announce that Tesla has formed its own insurance company, drum roll please……….. Tesla Insurance. Oh, the millions I’m sure that were burned on that one. The consulting firm that came up with that name is one of pure genius. This new division offers insurance, but only to Tesla drivers in California, which is strange, this being, well… California. You see, California has the most diverse rating factors of all the states in the union outside of Michigan. This is very puzzling.
Tesla’s insurance license with the state of California lists the automaker as a property-broker agent and a casualty-broker agent. The documents show the license has been active since August 2017.
Like the auto industry, insurance is a low-margin business, as increased competition has made the costs of acquiring customers more expensive, Krzysztof Kujawa, the chief product officer at the insurance-shopping website Gabi, said. That means Tesla Insurance may not drive profits for a company that has posted losses in all but four quarters since going public in 2010.
Correct, Tesla is now: a dealer, a financer, and an insurance company all in one. Sounds like Elon is trying to mimic the Oracle of Omaha with this take on vertical marketing.
Berkshire Hathaway’s (NYSE: BRK-B) (NYSE: BRK-A) Warren Buffett argued in the company’s annual shareholder meeting earlier this year that Tesla’s decision to get into the insurance business could be a mistake. “It’s not an easy business,” he said. Buffett knows a thing or two about insurance. Not only is GEICO a Berkshire subsidiary, but Berkshire owns insurance companies that insure other insurance companies. “Our [insurance business] has been the engine propelling Berkshire’s growth since 1967,” Buffett wrote…
However, this arrangement raises a set of questions that Elon will never be able to answer, and even better I spoke to the California Department of Insurance and they couldn’t answer either. First off, Tesla has a unique reputation of blaming the driver, not the car for anything that goes wrong. They use their vehicle’s telemetry logs and recordings to back this up; as far as insuring the vehicle goes, do the claim reps have access to this or does an independent third party? Well, it won’t be a third party…so scratch that. That is disturbing. Is this a backdoor way to limit product liability? But like the Ronco Knife sales guy on QVC says…but wait there is more!
Tesla is making a bold claim that customers will save 20% over their current carrier but savings can be up to 30%!
“Starting today, we’re launching Tesla Insurance, a competitively priced insurance offering designed to provide Tesla owners with up to 20% lower rates, and in some cases as much as 30%,” the company said in a blog post.
“Tesla Insurance offers comprehensive coverage and claims management to support our customers in California, and it will expand to additional U.S. states in the future.”
I am not sure this is a great promise to put out there, as with most commercials you see on TV from other insurance carriers, such statements are heavily disclaimed at the bottom of the ad. It is a very bold claim to say you can reap that kind of savings from a company who only insures Tesla’s over larger carriers with far more exposures to mitigate their risk. This creates bad will with your vehicle owners not to mention distrust. In addition, how can you be so sure your price is that much better…. most companies offer a bundled discount with home and additional vehicles. I hope they did their research on this one, yet something tells me they didn’t.
Tesla’s capitalization structure should be called into question as well. For example, at my company: Auto/home/life/health/bank/mutual fund businesses are all separate and must have separate capital to prove solvency. This capital must be held in separate reserve accounts, and in the case of Tesla, the California Department of Insurance (CDI) will look at their books every year to prove compliance. Just to point out that pretty much every pundit in the field has major questions about Tesla’s finances. Given that the company is burning through cash, issuing additional stock, taking out high risk loans, and their only real source of income is selling climate credits, I think you have to ask the obvious question….
How will Tesla pay out claims? Remember, Tesla may have extensive info on their own cars, but what about the car their driver hits? What about injury accidents? Will Tesla only allow the vehicles to be repaired in-house, even though this violates CA insurance laws? Will they even fix claimant cars, or will they be like AAA and just say fix it yourself and send us the bill? Too many questions here for me.
Tesla owners have dealt with high insurance costs due in part to the relative difficulty of finding replacement parts and qualified body shops. AAA raised insurance rates for Tesla vehicles in 2017, though Tesla argued that AAA’s decision was “severely flawed” because it compared Tesla’s Model S sedan and Model X SUV against dissimilar competitors.
Tesla’s have long been a question mark for insurance companies, Business Insider Intelligence analysts say, due to their built-in sensors and Autopilot software. In 2017, AAA said that Tesla owners should pay more than traditional vehicles due to “abnormally high claim frequencies,” Automotive News reported in 2017.
I called the CDI about Tesla Insurance and they too were short on answers, like how they are capitalized, and their company structure (claims/underwriting/service/sales/special investigations etc.). Actually, more disappointing, a contact I have in this regulatory agency suggested Elon may have been able to put one by Ricardo Lara (the elected commissioner) because they are a “green friendly” company. Or maybe Lara owed Elon a favor after getting elected? Lara, like Aaron Park, has a policy of contributing to him first if you want an endorsement.
Final thought here, and likely the most disturbing, by the way. Look at the exposure Tesla has (there are not many) but look where their customers are all located (mostly coastal areas). What if a wildfire strikes that is similar to the magnitude of the one in Napa a few years ago? (Or the Oakland Hills fire many years ago) Such losses to a small company could be enough to wipe them out, and let’s not kid ourselves, Tesla’s are not cheap cars as referenced by their price.
What do you get when you cross an Ikea display, a tiny house, and the private sector?
That’s the proposal from new startup Rent the Backyard. The company is tackling rising home prices in the San Francisco-Bay Area by building backyard studio apartments, and splitting the rental profits with homeowners.
“This is a long-term partnership that we have with the homeowner,” Rent the Backyard Co-Founder Brain Bakerman told Yahoo Finance during a recent interview.
Homeowners can make $10,000 to $20,000 in additional income each year, according to the company.
If, you own a home in the Bay Area, have a 30 x 30 area, and you live in your home most of the time, then you could take part in this experiment in affordable housing.
