Too Many Lawyers?

It’s amazing why so many young men and women decide to become lawyers when the ever-increasing number makes it more and more difficult for them to get decent jobs in the field.

To add to this puzzle is the fact that the cost of the education is high, compared to other fields available to those who choose law. Not because of passion, but for the option of it’s being easier than science or mathematics. The bar exam is arduous but compared to other professions, law is the far simpler choice.

Remember, prior to World War II, lawyers for the most part were able to take a bar exam without college study. You learned the profession by working for a law firm. Abe Lincoln never went to law school. (See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® Comments.)

Government Health Insurance Costs

ObamaCare’s argument is that government health insurance will be cheaper than private health insurance. That’s not true, and defies past experience wherever practiced, overseas or in Massachusetts.

And take a look at Medicare and Medicaid if you want to see costs rising far beyond health expense estimates. The many reasons are conveniently overlooked when it’s politically necessary to do so.

Private insurance does a far, better job of preventing fraud than do government programs.

Private administration is more efficient. When government attempts to cut its overhead costs, it does so by paying questionable bills. Efficiency is a lesser option.

Private insurers also create effective doctor and medical networks that government has heretofore not done to avoid errors, and probably will never accomplish.

Government reduces operating costs by delaying or simply not paying for certain coverage. Rationing may be done by age or what a consulting board says should be treatment standards. We know it causes a loss of lives by comparing American statistics with those of countries with socialized medicine, such as the UK and Canada.(See the Earl J. Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Getting a Small Loan

Small, payday loan providers are always under attack from government. Usually the fee is about $15 for a $100 two-week loan. That’s o.k. as a temporary loan, if it is not repeated twenty six times a year, when the rate would become outlandish. There is therefore room in the economy for such emergency service.

Left-leaning government observers never like this, because they think folks with poor financial ratings should get the same terms as those with top credit. Default rates are never considered as government liberals don’t foot the bills.

But folks with bad credit have always needed emergency funds in good and bad times. We know why so many in the past patronized mobsters for funds, paying, enormous interest charges plus limbs and lives, as a penalty for non-payment.

So when legitimate services charge what do-gooders say is too much, an attempt is made to stop the business, and go back to the old racket-days. (See the Earl J. Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Cheaper Private Health Care Potential

Credible estimates say obesity costs about 216,000 lives annually. It’s been also estimated that universal health coverage, with its enormous costs and drastic overhaul of the health system may save just 18,000 lives. And that can cost trillions.

What is needed is education in schools, public forums, and media about general health habits.

And how attempting instead to fine tune our present health care system with trillions of unavailable health dollars, can bankrupt our entire economy for generations to come.(See the Earl J. Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Media News and Public Relations

Always keep this important question in mind, especially when you read financial media headlines and accompanying content. This is in addition to information that you receive in the form of paid advertisements.

Is what you’re reading news, pure investigative reporting, or just public relations placement? Or a mixture of all in varying degrees?

It’s essential that you understand the type of information you’re getting. There will be a slant and informational input that impacts the factual nature of what you will be reading. (See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

The Role of Bad Habits

You do not have to learn how to start a business or be a successful entrepreneur by going to school.

This does not mean you overlook business tutorials or learning about accounting and other management skills. It helps to get formal guidelines that provide yardsticks.

But you learn about a business by experiencing it and using the knowledge of an industry you already know. And by following managerial outlines you have received from basic, non-formal, preliminary study. (See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole(r) Comments.)

No Formal Education Needed to Run a Business

You do not have to learn how to start a business or be a successful entrepreneur by going to school.

This does not mean you overlook business tutorials or learning about accounting and other management skills. It helps to get formal guidelines that provide yardsticks.

But you learn about a business by experiencing it and using the knowledge of an industry you already know. And by following managerial outlines you have received from basic, non-formal, preliminary study. (See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole(r) Comments.)

Who is Rich These Days?

The administration’s definition of who is rich hovers about an annual figure of $250,000. Sounds like a lot. However, if you live in New York City you can cut about half of it for federal, state and local income taxes. Then there’s an enormous cost-of-living hurdle to overcome, if any of you have visited that city.

But the argument for taxation is primarily based on outmoded figures, at a time when families depended on only one of its members working. They may have been the norm twenty years ago. Women have careers, especially after their children are grown. When both husband and wife, and sometimes single youngsters add to household income, it’s easy for s middle class family with costs that add up, to gross $250,000 annually.

Family total income may reach what this administration calls “rich” and get taxed accordingly, only when you add up a total of very modest earnings. These individuals are not after-tax “rich.” (See the Earl J. Weinreb NewsHole(r) Comments.)

Law Suits Increase Health Costs

What could save enormous costs but is hardly ever mentioned by ObamaCare is tort reform. Even though the government will tell the doctor how to practice, he or she could still be sued for malpractice. All that’s needed is a cap on lawsuits, something the lawyers are successfully lobbying against.

At least 25% of medical costs are for defensive medicine. Yet, impartial arbitration panels could determine whether patients have been harmed, and how, and for how much they ought to be compensated. Without lawyer imagination, subterfuge and costs.(See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Bureaucrats Can Ruin Jobs

We’re in a serious recession, so this is obviously a good time for bureaucrats in Washington, who enjoy cush jobs, to come up with questions about financial markets concerning opractices that have been legally and ethically practiced for many decades.

Such as: Are some traders arbitrarily setting interest rates or bond prices?

The sound of it connotes mischief and illegality to a bureaucrat or politician in power, one who has no idea of financial markets. But the fact is, many prices of such commodities, including day-opening gold prices, are established by someone or a group throwing out an opening price. A liquid market very quickly picks up on it.

In many ways, it’s comparable to a racetrack odds-setter or handicapper, who creates the morning line; betters take over from there.(See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments

Law Suits Influence Health Costs

What could save enormous health care costs is hardly ever mentioned; it is tort reform. Even though the government will tell the doctor how to practice, he or she could still be sued for malpractice. All that’s needed is a cap on lawsuits, something the lawyers are successfully lobbying against.

At least 25% of medical costs are for defensive medicine. Yet, impartial arbitration panels could determine whether patients have been harmed, and how, and for how much they ought to be compensated. Without lawyer imagination, subterfuge and costs.(See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

ObamaCare and Small Business

By forcing every employer to insure its employees under ObamaCare, those who don’t offer coverage, will pay a penalty.

Labor is a major cost for most small, non-manufacturing businesses, The net, bottom line often does not exceed 5% or 10%. With an added health tax, many entrepreneurs who would love to insure employees when they want to attract them in a booming economy, will not be able to afford them.

Is this legislation for a recessionary economy in need of a genuine boost? (See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

When the U. S Dispenses Medical Care

Too large a segment of the public still does not understand what happens when the government is in charge of spending or granting funds for health.

It can never be even-handed when there are budgets and limited funds to consider.

Example: We already have this to a degree in the United States today, when more research is done on breast cancer than on prostate cancer. That happens because of political pressures. In turn, AIDS research has always received more funds than does breast cancer.

In Europe, rationing of drugs and treatment results from chronically limited funds.

Medical research in the U.S. will eventually be curtailed as well, when funds are constrained. (See the Earl J. Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Should Government Also Sell Groceries?

ObamaCare in its present form, despite what the administration has said. will not force the 1500 or so private health insurance companies become more competitive.

All it had to do would be to make it possible for companies to compete across state lines. Yet ObamaCare did not call for it.

But if the government presence could make health insurance more competitive, why not a government supermarket chain to cut prices? Or a government clothing chain?

That is what Russian consumers “enjoyed” under the Soviet Union.( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole(r) Commentaries.)

College Training Correction Needs

I have noted before the lack of balance in colleges with regard to the world political and cultural view of campus teachers..

One-sided views negate the purpose of going to college for a broad education. The minutiae that are relegated to memory are soon forgotten. But the ability to reason and think ought to be the prime college education goal.

The remedy is simple: Publish the resumes, including commentaries of all professors and full time instructors, along with the rest of the routine material that colleges use to entice prospective students.

Have teachers and professors comment on their ideas about recent Supreme Court decisions on business, finance and other pertinent U. S. Constitutional matters. Moreover, schools ought to be responsible for the relative accuracy of such statements made to recruit students.

Truth in advertising laws should apply to college recruiting.(See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

The Minimum Wage Habit and its Bad Jobs Effect

If there were ever a simple law of economics everyone should learn it's this: The so-called minimum wage kills jobs for young people with no skills.

Yet, like clockwork, the left continually brings up the question of raising the minimum wage periodically, to help the poor.

Enough independent research confirms the truth: Employers tend not to hire those who have insufficient skills to warrant increased salary demands. This is the case with minimum wage jobs.

Not only are there less jobs; there is less of an opportunity for youth to get ground-floor training in work-skills.

Unions love the legislation because such wage adjustments also increase organized labor's cost-of-living contract agreements. (See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Choosing Your Career

Don’t select your career on the basis of what is easiest to train for as too many others will do the same. In fact, that has been the reason so many college graduates today find that their degrees are meaningless when it comes to the job market.

Find out what will be needed ten and twenty years ahead. Not necessarily knowledge gleaned from college courses. There are plenty of research studies along these job and career opportunity lines.

And don’t fall for the excuse that when all else fails, the country can always use another lawyer, or a historian, or political science grad. (See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

“Guaranteed” Health Coverage May Cost Lives

Almost 15% of patients in Great Britain must wait more than one year to receive treatment, after they have been referred to a specialist by a doctor. As much as 50% of patients getting government care must wait between 18 to 52 weeks for treatment. Over three-quarters of Canadians must wait about three months for an MRI under government-operated health care.

You can imagine how their governments put dental teeth at the bottom of their preference list when they must cut costs.

More than 75% of National Healthcare Service British patients waited four or more weeks for admittance into a hospital, as reported in May, 2009.

The average survival rate for all types of cancer for patients in the United States is 60%. Canada’s survival rate is at 55%; Europe’s is at 48%. About 80% survive the prostate cancer diagnosis in the USA , as compared to about 43% in the U.K., under their nationalized service.

Americans are not all familiar with this. The media tends to overlook such facts and continue to spout ObamaCare without much analysis. (See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

The Dream of Starting a Business

Everyone dreams of starting a business. Only a few bother to do so. Perhaps it's wise the number of doers is less, because there is more to the effort than just a dream.

Lots of work goes into the effort of starting the smallest of business. Please refer to my previous reports on business and work on the subject.

There is planning needed for the smallest of business and, especially, start-up efforts. Moreover, I disapprove of most franchises as the solution. (See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole(r) Commentaries.)

Jobless Figure Chicanery

Look for two methods used to massage unemployment numbers, being used by the U.S. Labor Department’s Bureau Of Labor Statistics.

One is “seasonably adjusted” numbers. It can be easily fudged, at best arbitrary, and meaningless. The other is factually reported but the media is complicit by not openly disclosing the total labor force when unemployed are reported.

When less people are in the labor force, the unemployment numbers look better, and those diminished numbers are being overlooked by the media.

In short, there are less jobs around, so the unemployment numbers appear better. (See the Earl J. Weinreb Newshole(r) Commentaries.)

Drug Cost Manipulation by Uncle Sam

Overseas government sponsors of public health insurance always set standards for doctors to treat patients. This is what is being done to reduce costs under government-sponsored programs in England, Canada, and Europe.

But what you are not told by U.S. public health enthusiasts, for example, is that cheaper drugs dispensed are often the older versions. They are older generics, whereas newer, more costly branded versions are not dispensed.

That saves money for the government health system.

However, in many instances, older drugs are not better. In fact, they may not do as good a job as the newer, branded drugs.

The government saves money at the expense of the patient’s health or life. (See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Government Health Standards Are An Alternative

The Harvard School of Public Health says that about twelve health style abuses account for over one million American deaths each year. Cut down those statistics and you have remedied the health care problem.

It’s been estimated that smoking costs about 467,000 American lives a year. High blood pressure from unhealthy lifestyles causes about 395,000 lives per year. There is some overlapping as bad health habits are the cause of multiple afflictions.

An emphasis on such changes can save the American economy an enormous amount of money, while keeping its capital infrastructure intact.

But that may be too simple for many of our health care grandstanding politicos. They would rather change the entire structure of a sixth of the economy. By having government controls. (See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Media Inaccuracy

The media is often inaccurate in their business and financial information and idea comments. Always question the accuracy and slants you get.

There are three basic reasons for my doubt about the accuracy and slant of the media.

One is the fact that most of the actual reports are not in-depth. Reporters and columnists may not have the time to devote to the topic or they are simply too lazy to get into details.

Secondly; many do not know their subject. It is difficult to adequately discuss business or finance without real hands-on business or financial experience. Few in the media meet these requirements.

And thirdly; the slant of most reporters and columnists who have learned from their college professors, have had a left-leaning bias thrust on them for a number of years. It shows in their career work. They have no idea how the real, day-to-day business and financial world works. (See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

U.S. Government Show Trials Have Occurred

Government show trials, comparable to those in the Soviet Union, have happened before our eyes, They serve the purpose of populist politicians.

Under the administration, the previously-elected Congress organized a union chase after Toyota, which is non-union, in a huge show trial with the cameras and the finger pointing. No suggestions were made that it was confused victims who sometimes stepped on gas pedals instead of brakes, which jammed sensitive equipment. And occasionally high-tech equipment went bad.

The government and union conflict-of-interest with its ownership of competing General Motors and Chrysler, of course may have had much to do with this extravaganza showcase. (See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

As Many as 45 million Americans Without Health Insurance?

Many in the U.S. claim 45 million Americans have no health insurance. There is lots of doubt about this figure. Many claim, with reasonable authority, that this includes illegals, those in between jobs that offer insurance, and folks who are not interested and wish to self-insure.

But as with many of their claims, facts are not important; the left prefers to substitute good intentions with fact, as the norm.

Yet, if that number is considered, that is only about 15% of the population. And, in truth, we are looking at true need in only about 5% of the population. They can be handled without a massive restructuring of our national economy. (See the Earl J Weinreb

College Shortcomings

I have spoken about this often before.

Of the 630,000 full time college instructors and professors, there is a major dysfunction in the way they instruct their students. It has been going on for some time, but it has been recognized only by a few.

It has to do with the world political and cultural view of those who teach our youth. and negates the whole purpose of going to college.

Tidbits relegated to memory are soon forgotten. The ability to reason and think clearly, ought to be what college education should instill in youthful minds.

But when not more than 5% of college professors and teachers, vote Republican, even much less in the social sciences, as in the 2004 election, red flags should go up all over.

How broad are perspectives being taught? These academics are turning out media “giants” and our business and political leaders who are attuned to ideas slanted to one political party.

The media are desperately in need of a broader perspective than what they get in school. They require a more independent, and less politically slanted view of what they now get toward business, finance and western values. (See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

The Entitlement Era Is Here

Sometimes the sense of entitlement gets out of hand. Examples: Ads on credit card reduction services where banks are abused for wanting to collect “YOUR money they lent you.”

Or where you have the sole right to change the terms of your mortgage from lenders, obligations that you never could afford and never should have taken.

Read or listen to the media and you get the impression that only bankers and not the politicians are responsible for the mortgage mess. (See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Taxpayer-Subsidized General Motors

The GM bailout was government meddling in its purest sense, a form of state capitalism as in Italy during Mussolini’s day.

Instead of legal bankruptcy, the government executive department forced bondholders to step away from their contractual rights and cede them to labor unions. This could only be viewed as a political favor in the light of past and present union contributions to the political party in control of the directives involved.

At the same time, tax terms were arbitrarily re-arranged whereby GM was able to keep valuable income tax credits that would have been lost under conventional and legal bankruptcy.

No matter what GM does from here on in, the original share and bond holders were robbed in broad daylight for blatant political reasons.(See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Wasting College Time and Funds

I would suggest two books about wasteful college education, a subject on which I cannot comment often enough. It’s a message to which the media gives little attention.

One study is “Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses” by Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa (the University of Chicago Press), and “Higher Education?: How Colleges Are Wasting Our Money and Failing Our Kids—and What We Can Do About It,” by Andre Hacker and Claudia Dreifus (Macmillan).

The sociologist Andrew Hacker and New York Times reporter Claudia Dreifus say, among other points, that faculty attention on tenure and sabbaticals have an influence on the education a university offers. Too little effort involves the learning environment.

Sociologists Arum and Roska provide another serious view of the educational mess we consider the most prestigious college educators. Arum and Roska find about half of students do poorly in analytical reasoning and critical thinking as well as written communications during their first two years of college. (See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Climate Lessons Learned?

Global warming research has been corrupted by a number of scandals. A major disclosure of what occurred at the University of East Anglia in the U.K. and the U. N. research debacle are cases in point.

Those who always disputed global warming contentions are finally, though only slowly, being given voice not available to them in the past.

Yet, there is still continued talk of climate-warming change. It has been a religious-type habit that many have invested too much of their careers in, for them to suddenly recant as having been subject to a hoax.

The world still needs clean air and water, but the old global warming mantra has truly become a secular religion to many.

In fact, the SEC wants corporations to report how they are handling the problems of global warming, as if the hoax were never perpetrated. (See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Suggestions For Practical Health Insurance Changes

Do away with wasteful first dollar insurance. Too much costly paperwork is involved for small claims everyone can afford to pay. Have deductibles for small amounts but be sure to cover catastrophic losses.

Also: Make insurance portable from job to job and state to state. That’s a worthwhile change most folks need right away.

And make coverage available to all, not just when someone gets sick. That’s like buying fire insurance only when your house burns down.

Moreover, have interstate insurance competition. You can be sure that will reduce cost.

Most importantly: Eliminate questionable law suits with tort reform, preferably with arbitration panels that eliminate the huge lawyer’s take. (See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)