Results for “new service sector” 331 found
The new Bush health care plan
Jonathan Zasloff writes:
Bush plans to pay for it not by efficiencies, but rather by restricting the benefit packages of the already insured, through the deductibility cap. I’m sure that there are some extraordinarily lavish plans out there, but is there any serious policy justification for this way to go? If anything, this seems to be a recipe for business to delete coverage, and throwing more people into the individual market.
Paul Krugman is very negative. Arnold Kling loves the plan. Greg Mankiw isn’t complaining. Ezra Klein says it is better than nothing.
My feelings are mixed, but my view is closest to Zasloff. In the short run the plan gives more coverage to the people who need it most, while avoiding the mistakes of recent state-level plans. That doesn’t sound so bad. (By the way, has anyone serious done a study of subsidy incidence for health insurance tax credits?)
But I cannot side with Arnold Kling’s view that third-party payment lies at the root of America’s health care problem. Our tolerance for anxiety is sufficiently low that I expect the future to bring more and more insurance of many kinds, whether from the private sector or from government. The cost of this insurance, in terms of induced inefficiencies, will be high but a secure health care situation is one of the things in life that alone can make a difference between happiness and misery.
Furthermore given our "political irrationality" (my apologies to many readers, such as Matt and Ezra, but I am referring to your tendency, yes yours, to want national health insurance), there is a positive external benefit attached to private health insurance, above and beyond the gains to the insured. How far would the Democratic health care agenda get without "45 million uninsured"?
The goal is to get (virtually) everyone insured and keep them insured for as long as possible, and yes I know that eventually means health care at 20 percent of gdp and lots of people getting screwed out of just claims for reimbursement. It is simply the best we can do, and for that reason I don’t want to tax private health plans.
The ambitious long-run program should be to restructure the insurance industry –through a judicious mix of regulation and deregulation — to encourage competition across service quality rather than competition across cost-shifting. Frankly I have no idea how to do that but no one has ever convinced me it is impossible or utopian. We simply need better incentives for evaluating the performance of our insurance companies, and better ways of evaluating the performance of our doctors and hospitals. I’m not going to call that small potatoes, but compared to how health care has evolved since say 1920 it is not asking for the moon. That is one reason why I don’t want to lock into total government control of the health care market for the next five generations or more.
In the shorter run, I expect medical tourism to continue to grow in importance, including possibly cruise ships.
Last week I had my first physical in twenty years, and it seemed no different from visiting a witch doctor who makes you feel better by shaking the rattle.
Is New Zealand backsliding?
Re the railways, the government has actually bought up only the track, while new private sector owners now own and run the operating company. It is probably a little unfair to suggest that the purchase was the (direct) result of widespread voter dissatisfaction – Tranzrail, the previous private sector owner, had almost ended up in liquidation. Without that trigger, this government would have had no great appetite for getting back into ownership of railways. Also, there is at least a case that the lines should always have been separated from the operating business.
As for whether rail should exist in New Zealand, I think that is still an open question (although, like everyone, I was surprised at what the original bidders paid at privatisation in 1993). The issue is not about passenger services, except, maybe commuter lines in Wellington – the population is too sparse for economic inter-city services – but about a limited network for freight needs (mainly bulk dairy and forestry). The very sparseness of the population, and the rugged terrain, also makes good quality roads a challenge to justify/maintain.
As for Air New Zealand, perhaps one can say only two things for the defence. First, late 2001 was the worst time to be relying on new operators to provide longhaul airline services (recession and 9/11) and, sensibly or not, almost any government in the world would have done the same thing at that time. And second, at least so far it looks to have been a good deal financially – Air NZ was sold for more than the government bought it back in 2001, and its market value is now above the latter price. As for the Qantas deal, the curent NZ government has actually been quite supportive of it, but the transaction was blocked by competition authorities on both sides of the Tasman (concerned about extreme market dominance on NZ domestic routes and most (non-auckland) trans-tasman routes.
Thursday assorted links
1. “The Spanish judge investigating Russian interference in the Catalonian independence process has extended the probe for another six months after receiving an anonymous letter containing an article that identifies the Russian who offered Catalonian separatists US$500 billion and a small army if they break away from Madrid.” Link here.
2. “We’ve streamlined our recruiting process for new officers. It now takes a quarter of the time it took two years ago to move from application to final offer and security clearance. These improvements have contributed to a surge of interest in the CIA.” Link here.
3. “Interestingly, we also find that same-sex couples default significantly more (53.9%) than similar different-sex couples, which suggests an unobserved characteristic that causes same-sex couples to default more, and could explain a part of observed disparities in mortgage approval, undermining results in previous research.” Link here.
4. Those new service sector jobs: helping people plan their Disney trips.
5. A resource guide to understand the ARPA model, from Institute for Progress.
6. Smoke Sauna Sisterhood is a good Estonian movie, original too.
Wednesday assorted links
1. The Frick Museum will reopen with 14 (!) evening bars.
2. Sebastian Barry in conversation with Roy Foster.
3. On ideological gender disparities in Korea.
4. Those new service sector jobs, What is Intervenor Compensation?, and “robot wranglers” (WSJ).
5. Is Petro stifled in Colombia?
6. Further fresh Vitalik. Includes coverage of his childhood, more personal than about mechanism design.
7. Is there really a “National Hug an Economist Day”?
8. Other than this tweet, I know nothing about the new Catholic Institute of Technology.
Monday assorted links
1. Mexican investment is doing just great.
2. In praise of double majors.
3. How to do things if you don’t have talent (does this mean you do have talent?).
4. The coming of numeracy to 17th century England. And a new project Death by Numbers.
5. Those new service sector jobs: “After years shepherding children from one minute to the next, moms and dads hire $250-an-hour counselors to help them learn to live on their own.” (WSJ)
6. Okie-dokie: The Democrats’ new permitting-reform bill will spend $3 billion to help non-profits increase their participation in the environmental review process (Atlantic). Excerpt here.
Saturday assorted links
1. America’s wealthiest metropolitan areas in 1949.
2. Twins stolen at birth reunited by TikTok video.
3. Which immigrants to America end up most right-wing/left-wing?
4. “The [New Zealand] airport has since penguin-proofed its perimeters.” A small blue penguin, of course.
5. Markets in everything those new service sector jobs the culture that is Japan all the servers at this restaurant have dementia, and NPR says it is true.
6. Benjamin Yeoh podcast with Hannah Ritchie on sustainability.
Friday assorted links
1. Those new service sector jobs, former chess player edition.
2. John O. McGinnis reviews GOAT.
3. Huge ancient city found in the Amazon.
4. Michael Magoon on progress-related Substacks.
5. Elaine Schwartz has been blogging every day for ten years at Econlife.
6. Things you learn dating Cate Hall. And Cate’s essay on how to be more agentic.
Wednesday assorted links
2. “Using unique class-level data containing chronological variables and institutional, instructor, and student characteristics, spanning Fall 2010 to Spring 2021 of 7,852 undergraduate classes, it is shown class average grade point averages (GPAs) in the College of Agriculture at Texas A&M University increased for the three semesters most impacted by COVID-19.” Link here, my hypothesis is that instructors graded by easier standards during that time.
3. Ukrainian used markets in totaled EVs. And claims about Ukraine.
4. Those new service sector jobs.
8. Douthat on Milei (NYT).
Monday assorted links
1. Those new service sector jobs: therapists for climate change anxiety (NYT).
2. Defunct airports of Southeast Asia.
3. Eli Dourado on personal aviation and the coming revolution.
4. The coolest neighborhoods in the world? (can’t say I agree with the list…cool for wimps maybe!)
6. “About 20 per cent of 650 Protestant ministers in Korea recently surveyed by the Ministry Data Institute said they have used ChatGPT to create sermons and about 60 per cent of them found ChatGPT useful in coming up with ideas for sermons.” (FT)
Monday assorted links
1. Those new service sector jobs. East vs. west coast money.
2. Scottish NIMBY vs. Stella McCartney. Environmental review is out of control.
3. 104-year-old woman jumps from plane, dies in her sleep a week later.
4. Why not look at fake views in your digital windows?
5. Should Britain “outsource” by sending prisoners abroad to other nations? If so, to which ones?
6. “One thing that the rise of social media (particularly Twitter) did is to suddenly put Americans in direct contact with people from all over the world, without Americans realizing this. A lot of the radicalization of Americans over the last decade came from overseas.” From Noah Smith.
Friday assorted links
Thursday assorted links
1. The pandemic as time machine (NYT).
2. Who really disapproves of single-parent families?
3. Nicholas Kristof on the new Melissa Kearney book (NYT).
4. Meloni is not stopping Lampedusa arrivals — what is the equilibrium here?
5. Has there been a savings glut?
6. Those new service sector jobs, Taylor Swift journalism edition.
Saturday assorted links
Saturday assorted links
1. Note to self: do not play Bongcloud against Vladimir Kramnik.
2. You shall know a word by the company it keeps.
3. Pithy one-liners that will be popular with neoliberals?
4. “A funny state of affairs that isn’t getting enough attention is that the US government is suing Facebook for allegedly monopolizing social media, and simultaneously seeking to ban its biggest rival.” Link here. Oh, and I forgot to ask: are your views on the Twitter files consistent with your views on USG possibly banning TikTok?
5. Kara Swisher interviews Sam Altman (New York).
6. Those new service sector jobs. Ph.D. in ancient philosophy edition.
Tuesday assorted links
1. Does male physical labor boost sperm count and thus fertility?
2. Nathan Labenz on many things GPT. And new Windows update will bring AI-powered Bing to the taskbar.
3. Those new service sector jobs: Prompt engineer.
4. Further Austin Vernon defense of aircraft carriers.
5. Chotiner interviews Jeffrey Sachs, do read it (New Yorker). And on the China-Russia relationship.