On November 1, I posted a question about how the House Democrats could be considered humanitarians while leaving 18 million people living in the U.S. without health insurance. Not to be outdone, it seems that the Senate Democrats propose to spend $1 trillion in order to leave 24 million people without health insurance (nytimes).
The Senate bill should provide a boost to the economy. Hollywood and the cable networks will have 24 million subjects from whom to choose when they want to make a tearjerking documentary about an American dying for lack of funds to pay for an operation. We’ll have as many as 24 million people working productively instead of spending 20 hours per week filling out forms and writing letters trying to persuade insurance companies to pay their medical bills. Finally those 24 million people will boost revenue for airlines when they fly to other countries for low-cost treatments.
Phil,
In one of your earlier posts (on “The Forgotten Man” by Amity Schlaes) you make this statement: “things began to turn around as soon as Hitler was elected by the German people. The prospect of war in Europe unsettled investors and they began to ship gold to the U.S.”
Was this causal connection argued for in Schlaes’ book? Is this your own theorizing? At any rate, it’s an intriguing hypothesis which deserves further exploration.
Seth: I’m not sure how this relates to the original posting, but I’ll answer your question. I was paraphrasing the book, not offering my own opinion. The movement of gold reserves was a lot more important in those days because they were on the gold standard, so a gold bar arriving in New York City did increase the money supply.