The Big Think

Amazing! And a great physics lesson, too.

If health insurance premiums and national wages continue to grow at current rates, the average cost of a family health insurance premium will surpass the average annual household income by 2025, approximately the time when the Medicare trust fund is projected to be insolvent.

link to article

I don’t know what the answer is- nationalization, privatization, boutique medical treatment, some sort of hybrid, or something completely new, but this is a serious issue, and the numbers don’t just get scary in 17 years. It’s looking like sometime during the next presidential term most Americans are going to have to take a hard look at their medical insurance and just quit paying premiums, either that or start doing without absolute necessities (and I’m not talking iPhones and cable tv here).

Much of the waste and out of control costs go not to the doctors, but to the lawyers and insurance companies themselves. Whenever we go to the doctor, we just pay out of pocket and usually get a 20-30% instant rebate on the bill- which is the market’s way of saying that there is a huge amount of waste in the system.

I’m happy that we live in a prosperous country. I’m happy that life spans are so dramatically better than they were even three generations ago, and I’m not unwilling to see a company turn a profit (a company is just made up of people, after all). But the system is badly broken and right now it seems like they only thing that will catalyze a fix is a complete breakdown. Which looks like it will happen, at the latest, by the end of the next decade.

The list of reasons why everyone should start a business, and why the home is a great first frontier for many of those businesses, is long. Here are some examples:

1. Because of online and communications technology, you can start many businesses at little or no cost.

2. You can start a side business without foregoing your “secure” day job.

3. You can spend more of your time doing something you’re passionate about.

4. You can make a little extra money, and maybe eventually ramp up to replacing that day job.

5. The biggest companies now have many free or inexpensive solutions available for small business making it easier than ever to start and grow.

6. If you have a family, just imagine what a positive impact it could have on your children as they watch you toil, create, breakthrough, tough it out, and demonstrate how to take control of your life and live passionately rather than being a cog in the wheel.

7. Outsourcing enables you to streamline your activities (and the physical footprint) of your business so that you focus on doing the work you love and farm out the other stuff.

8. Home-based business is generally accepted - even preferred - as a mode of business in the marketplace these days (whereas before there were credibility issues).

9. Tax write-offs are often available.

10. You take control of your destiny rather than relying on someone else to make the right decisions for your future.

link

Good news: anyone can become great in just about any field. It only takes 7300 hours.