Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Some Things On My Mind

1. The idea that "funny" is an objective term. Adam Carolla and his guests have talked about this some. I certainly think that Norm MacDonald is funnier than Larry the Cable Guy. But I have always thought that "funny" was what made me laugh. I guess what I am saying is the economist in me says funny is what puts people in seats and money into comedians' pockets.

2. I really think that in five years 50-60% of my income will go to taxes. I am not saying this to be pessimistic. And I am not overly concerned about my or "this country's" future. It is just what I think.

3. Health insurance doesn't equal health care. Health insurance doesn't equal health care. Just like life insurance doesn't equal life.

4. I am reading Bill Kirchner's A Miles Davis Reader. I am not that far into it, but Miles is the man.

2 comments:

Sam said...

#3 can't be repeated often enough. Part of the problem is that in many areas a hospital will have significant monopoly power. For utilities, we had state regulated monopolies. I don't think the track record there was great, but what else do we do on on the market power front?

jeffreynutsachs said...

Miles Davis is the man. He should have never of quit the junk.

Health care is not going to be reformed (Medicare will be bankrupt however). Just be happy you live in a country where we have advanced medical care (for now). A colleague of mine just found out her brother died of the same illness I had over the summer. I spent two weeks in a coma and lived, he spent two days in a coma and died.

It's a wonderful world.