Obamacare

There is currently a lot of talk about Obamacare and the constitutionality of the mandate. The future of healthcare and President Obama's career are riding on this Supreme Court decision. Before me make or decisions based on the opinions of friends, collegues, and our favorite news station, we must first investigate where the idea for Obamacare came from and think logically about the situation we are in.

The fact of the matter is that many Americans are medically uninsured, which is detrimental to our healthcare ecosystem. Jonathan Gruber, an economics professor from M.I.T., is a leading expert in health care systems. His track record is quite impressive, helping Mitt Romney in Massachusetts, also helping with California, Delaware, Kansas, Minnesota, Oregon, Wisconsin, and Wymoing. To no surprise in 2008 Obama's team came to Dr. Gruber for help on our ailing health care system. He predicts that a nationally mandated health care is beneficial to Americans. He believes "Losing the mandate means continuing with our unfair individual insurance markets in a world where employer-based insurance is rapidly disappearing.” If health insurance isn't mandated the competitive market will continue to drive up premium prices since only the sickest would by insurance and the less sick would drop their insurance.

Opposition to his arguments are simple, they are relying on the rationality of people to buy health insurance if it is affordable and accessible. They also believe that if the mandate is passed Gruber is not taking into account "how hard it will be to enforce the mandate.". They believe he is overstating the approximated effectiveness.

Since Obama made health care the center of his campaign he is relying on the most researched and educated person on government mandated economics.

My opinion on the subject is biased and under-researched. I don't nearly know enough information on the state of our health care to give a justified answer. Think logically however, I know we must make a change to our current situation and I believe that if there were a person to help us out, it would be the one man who has researched it his whole life.

Change is a scary thing, especially when it is change to this degree. We have only known one type of health care system; the one we are currently living in. I believe if this mandate is passed it will only lead to good things for our Country. If the mandate is passes and seems to be failing we are always able to make corrective legislature and amendments to be more fitting to our economic situation. It will be interesting to follow this story over the next couple weeks.

-BW

FedEx Settles in Discrimination Lawsuit

Statistical analysis by an auditing company found FedEx to be discriminating in their hiring process which affected nearly 22,000 applicants. They're analysis found that Hispanics, African Americans, Native Americans, and women were rejected for positions based on their sex, race, or country of origin. Studies showed that "of the 21,635 rejected applicants covered by the settlement, 61 percent were female, 52 percent African-American, 14 percent Hispanic, 2 percent Asian and 1 percent Native American. " The women were often automatically ruled out because of the need for heavy lifting.

FedEx settled for 3 Million dollars although they admit no wrongdoing. They understand a more lengthy trial would be more costly. The result of this settlement will also open up 1,700 new jobs, upon the opening of the position, to these once rejected applicants.

I have a difficult time believing FedEx did anything wrong in their hiring process. There are certain standards which must be met like physical capabilities and time requirements. The article does not divulge the extent of their research, just the facts that more white men were hired than black, Hispanics, and women. If all grounds were held equivalent, number of applicants, physical and social demeanor, I believe the percentage of hired applicants would be much more even across the spectrum.

More Information can be found at: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/22/business/fedex-agrees-to-pay-3-million-to-settle-a-discrimination-case.html?ref=business

Greg Smith Resigns from Goldman Sachs

Greg Smith publicly resigned from Goldman Sachs investment firm earlier in this week. Since his resignation he wrote an Op-Ed piece about his reasonings behind his departure. The story follows Greg Smith, a genuinely ethical and more person caught up in an increasingly immoral wall street environment. He wrote in his paper about the companies continuing neglect for customers and clients while their main...rather only focus, was to make the most amount of money. This excessive greed is not new to investment banking firms, but they are focusing more on short term greed "from" their clients, not the traditional long term money making they earn with their clients. He states that this change has come primarily from the investment banks moving from private business to publically traded where clients look for the cheapest deals and investment firms look for the most clients. There seems to me that there is a great disconnect now between business and consumer in the investment banking world. Greg Smith saw this and was upset. The company he joined 12 years ago no longer held the same moral and ethical standards that he did.


More information can be found at: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/15/business/a-public-exit-from-goldman-sachs-hits-a-wounded-wall-street.html?ref=opinion


-BW