People in the United States should be offered a chance to buy their own medical debt back from a creditor before it goes to a collection agency.

This must be the week for questions that pop into my head to which I have no answer. So, being a Friday post, I'm going to ask all of you to educate/explain to me a "Why is this a thing?" question. This week, I was thinking about medical debt. Specifically, medical debt in the United States. Most people have health insurance that doesn't cover all of their medical costs, due to high deductibles and co-pays for certain services. Hospitals aren't allowed to turn away patients who need emergency care, even if they don't have health insurance. This means that uninsured patients who need their services will receive a bill afterward, and they may be unable to pay for it. If a person doesn't pay their outstanding medical bill, their creditor will try to set up a payment arrangement (simple enough to understand). When this doesn't get paid, and more time passes, and there is no attempt to repay the debt, then the creditor (hospital) may charge off the obligation and sell it to a collection agency.

Okay...now you have all that background. But there's something more to all of this. Collection agencies are allowed to buy this outstanding medical debt at a fraction of their original value, especially if the chance of collecting the entire amount is remote. Debt buyers may pay as little as $.04 to $.014 for every dollar of a consumer's outstanding debt. All of this is legal in the United States. This is how capitalism works.

And now...here is my question: why can't the person/consumer who owes this medical debt, but it (for themselves) at the same cost. So...here's an example. Let's say I had $30,000 in unpaid medical debt. I can't pay it back for whatever reason, and it has lingered for years. So, the hospital approaches me (instead of a collection agency) and says, "We are selling this debt to a collection agency, but we'll give you first shot. At .04 cents on the dollar, we'll take $1200 and call this good. Whatever. How about it?" I think a lot of people would jump at that chance. But for some reason, I can't find any example of this happening. Instead, we have this predatory step where the debt is handed over to someone else at a super discounted price, and then this new company can go after the full debt with all of their resources. And it's obviously profitable enough to be a good business model for a bunch of companies that honestly are amoral and shouldn't exist. 

So please, explain to me why medical debt gets sold to collection agencies instead of to the person who owns that debt. Why do we have this system in place in this country? I'd seriously like to know the answer.

Access to money is used like a scourge to force people to do things that are against their will.

It's almost cliche to say this, but Americans are all equal. However, some are more equal than others. Growing into an adult, and also growing wise, I have seen with stark clarity the strings of manipulation that are used to get adults and young adults to conform to certain prescribed behaviors. The illusion of freedom of choice in America is exactly that. You are free to choose, just so long as your choice happens to echo the one who holds the purse strings. It's mind boggling really how this is true from the billionaire to the head of a small family. It is true from the Hollywood producer to a dating profile on OK Cupid. People desperately try to manipulate other people through the access of money.

Here in Utah, I am privy to one of the most obscene uses of money and control wielded by religious families. Let's say a teen (read this as a young adult) identifies as LGBTQ and they "come out" to a religious parent. I've seen them wield access to money like a knife. On the line are threats of homelessness, abandonment, isolation, because the young person very rarely has access to the kinds of money one can live on when on their own (especially with prices soaring in the rental market).

The solution to all of this (of course) is democratic social and monetary safety nets. Being a democrat, I think all people should have access to free medical care and universal basic income. All people should be allowed to vote regardless of whether they are in prison (or not), and housing should just be a right. If you are kicked out of a home, the government should step in and provide you with one free of charge. Call me a leftist radical if you wish. But this so called "socialism" terrifies the ruling class, because it takes away their weapon. It defangs them with the ability to scourge a person with access to money.

Utah is also one of the states in the union that is deliberately tossing extra unemployment benefits because they want to try to starve people who are on unemployment into taking crappy jobs that no one wants to do. My brain just cannot comprehend why they think this is a good thing. It is so transparently evil, that I don't know why the ones who are making this decision don't think of themselves as the devil incarnate. If you want people to work, pay them $30.00 per hour with childcare, paid leave, a full benefits package, and a generous pension. If that bankrupts you, then you are not (in fact) a job creator and don't deserve the company that you are trying to create. Stop exploiting people. Exploitation is bad, mmmkay? If your excuse is: well I want to be a job creator so I can be rich. Well tough titty. You don't have a right to be rich, and you never did. Too many people want to be rich, and it's this greed that is destroying the nation and the world.

What I don't get is why anyone would want to control another person so terribly. What does economic control give you? What does social control give you? Even if they were your own child, why wouldn't you want them to just choose to love you. If they didn't choose that, maybe it's you, and you should be a nicer person. Why would anyone want anyone else around them that wasn't choosing of their own free will to be around them? At some basic level, wouldn't you want a loved one to be taken care of no matter what? I wonder if these people (who are so into controlling another) get mad that plants grow on their own (and flourish) whether or not they are around. I think it would be a healthy lesson for people to understand that you do not have the right to treat another person like garbage. No one belongs to you. Everyone deserves a healthy and prosperous life, and they deserve to flourish regardless whether or not they even like you as a person.

I shake my head at the frustration of understanding why some people just crave power over another. Wouldn't it be healthier if you instead craved painting a nice model or if you craved playing some Dungeons & Dragons with friends on a weekend or if you craved a good book? Wouldn't it be funner if you solved a problem and then told other people how you did it and helped them to overcome a challenge too? Imagine what the world would be like. I like to think that in a world where roadblocks were removed and people could just choose what they would like to do or what they would like to believe or who they would like to love without coercion or manipulation, that everyone would be so much happier. The only way we will ever find out is to disarm those with money so that they can't scourge the backs of the ones without and make them do things that they don't want to do.

The guy who hoarded hand sanitizer and wipes is just practicing your beloved capitalism even if it pisses you off.

This guy who has a bunch of hand sanitizers and disinfectant wipes (among other things) that he intended to basically cash-in and make himself rich is being pretty much vilified online since the New York Times wrote about his money-making scheme. Now, he's stuck with all of his product because Amazon, Ebay, and other outlets banned him from price-gouging online. Interesting turn of events, right?

The thing is, I'm seeing another issue at play here. The American dream has shifted, folks, and what it has morphed into is not the same as it was for generations past. Now, Americans of all shapes and colors basically want lives of leisure and play. And play is basically five things: vacation with new experiences, eating good food, having sex, maybe raising kids, and learning/participating in art. That's it. That's what the American dream is...to do that ALL of the time, every day, forever. I gotta say...it actually sounds really nice. Especially if you can accomplish that early and just sail into old age doing that on and on and on forever until you drop dead.

But here's the rub: it takes a ton of money in our modern world to live that life of leisure, especially if you want all the "trimmings." The "trimmings" here are people who buy your groceries for you and stock your fridge, clean your home, and basically do all the crappy work like toilet work and laundry so that you can continue to be on vacation, experiencing music, having sex, doing art, learning, etc. And there are fewer and fewer paths that actually deliver the above to you.

The old mantra of "Pull yourself up by your bootstraps" and "achieve the American dream" by yourself, doesn't work for anyone anymore. All of the good ideas for businesses have been taken. The people who have examples like, "My grandpa was self-made because he saw a need for furnace filters back in the day when they invented furnaces, and he met that need." Well...duh...thanks, Captain Obvious. But those opportunities have long since dried up. If a man were to make furnace filters today, he'd die poor because you can't compete. It takes something like Covid 19 to crush everything to death to create a "need" so that someone like the above guy can actually achieve the American dream. And then everyone accused him of price-gouging, which (to be truthful) is fair but that's just capitalism, and now he's screwed with a bunch of product he's going to have difficulty unloading.

The Covid-19 outbreak is remarkable in so many ways. Yes, it shows the weaknesses and shortcomings of preparedness as well as the fragility of our economic and supply chain. But it is also a fantastic way to see how truly impossible it is for people to get that "American dream" and live a life of leisure where you eat grapes while someone is fanning you in an exotic location while still in possession of your youth. To make the kinds of millions that would facilitate that lifestyle is incredibly difficult and nigh impossible for many folks until an emergency comes along that creates opportunity. In fact, I'd say that true "hand over fist" money-making opportunities might only exist in an emergency these days. During regular (read as normal) times, the most creative people will only improve their financial situation marginally, buy a modest home, and still have to work until 80 to retire. In other words, they work, pay taxes, and die like everyone else. And a lot of the young folk today are saying "I ain't playing that game," even though life is totally going to kick them in the privates and force them to play the game (which is why the new generation is very anxious and depressed). Hell, I don't blame them. If I'd been told their version of the above American dream, I'd be depressed right now too. That's what terrible lies do. They create false expectations that don't meet reality and the only way to make ends meet is to become a crook.

Don't any of us think that the above guy in the picture might have gone a different route with a business if it were easy for him to do so? I'm sure he wouldn't have chosen to hoard a bunch of stuff in a crisis and then sell it for a huge margin if it weren't so obvious that this is exactly how he could make a fortune. If he could make a fortune doing something legit, he WOULD HAVE DONE just that. But there is no easy way to make a fortune that doesn't require a ton of work and a ton of luck (and yes you've got to have both). And people want easy money...that's part of the American dream too. I used to shovel driveways for $5.00 with a foot of snow. Kids these days won't even lift a finger for less than $40, and then they just roll their eyes and groan while setting their phone on the counter. "DDDDOOO I NNNNEEED TO? REALLY? Won't you just give me the money?"

Anyway, you might ask, what do I think of the above guy? I think he's scum and should be caned like they do in Singapore to people that litter. HOWEVER, in this country where every old white man has told me since I was a youngin' that, "Boy, if you know what's good for you, you'll pull yourself up by your bootstraps, stop complaining, and put that nose to the grindstone and makes somethin' of yourself!" I would like to say, "Price-gouging and predatory capitalism is your creation. Let's celebrate this asshole that you created and price gouge you. Let's see how you like it. You made this bed, now sleep in it." In other words, I actually think the guy is in his right and should be allowed to take people for all they are worth. That's how the rules were set, and not by me.

Capitalism just sucks, and yes I will continue to play the game. But it especially sucks when it's hypocritical. No one likes a hypocrite. I honestly don't understand how more people don't see how hypocritical our entire system is. Sigh.

Have a nice Monday!

The Juicero juicer is just the latest money grab from unscrupulous people in a long list of money grabs.

This blog post is a rant. By now, you've probably heard that Juicero, the $400.00 juice machine that used to be $700.00, was based on a lie. In case you haven't heard of it, the juicer was the vision of yet another capitalist crook who wanted to reinvent something that didn't need to be reinvented, only this time, it's actually caving in on him and his start-up (which the world didn't need in the first place).

There are actually a lot of things that the world doesn't need, but because of capitalism and greed we have them anyway. We didn't need Uber or Lyft. Society had taxi drivers who were doing just fine, as hobbled as the industry was with local laws and regulations. But that's just the thing...those laws and regulations are there for a reason and when a start-up brands itself as "genius" because it smells a way to make tons of money by ignoring those aforementioned regulations to conduct business, it is not "disruption" or "brilliant." No, it's being an asshole.

More examples of things the world doesn't need? How about planned obsolescence. Planned obsolescence is why you have to buy a new phone every two to three years, or why you have to upgrade your computer, or why you need to change your light bulbs. Things are made to expire. Wouldn't it be great to live in a world where things didn't expire because humans programmed them to? It would certainly help people get ahead on things that matter.

And what about monthly payment plans? The monthly bill that never ends is starting to spook me. It seems like no one wants to sell you just one thing and be done with it anymore. In today's day and age, for a company to be successful, they need to deliver a bill to you on a monthly basis. I dread the day when movie theaters reinvent themselves and refuse to sell tickets. Instead, you'll need a subscription that you just pay monthly, in order to see new release movies. Or the day when your Windows operating system on the computer becomes subscription-based, and if you don't pay up, you don't get access to any of your files.

Being able to buy one thing that lasts for a long time is a cornerstone to being able to build wealth. For example, I bought a really nice saute pan with a lid this weekend, and it is guaranteed for life. I may use this thing for the next thirty years. That's a great deal. More things in life should come with that kind of longevity. It would be better for the health and well being of the nation.

I think I'm more bothered today by what I'm seeing "out there" than ever before. In my parent's day and age, it was a given that a person could expect to be treated fairly whenever business was conducted. People had a switch in their heads that made them realize it was morally wrong to cheat someone. But in today's America, you have to be extra vigilant to be able to get even a fair deal. On most business transactions, you've probably been taken advantage of and just don't know it. And more and more, business transactions are going horribly wrong. The mortgage and home building industry (as just one example) seems to be teeming with sharks ready to tear anyone to pieces that dares to dream of owning a house. I was sickened when I saw how a local home builder here in Utah out in this place called "Daybreak" had cheated a bunch of people that had bought townhouses by using the cheapest, shoddiest materials for construction and then hiding it. Only, it didn't stay hidden for very long because things started crumbling, which is now costing hundreds of thousands of dollars to fix, big lawsuit incoming.

Some days I feel like everyone is lying, I feel like everyone is dishonest, and I feel like facts no longer matter. I feel like there's a reason for all of this, and it's because we (as a society) overemphasize and worship the rich. I wish there was someway to make it stop. It's not that I'm against capitalism, but I am against cheating someone just to make a buck. If you have an honest invention that people need, then you should be paid a "fair" price for it. But never, in any reality, should a juicer cost $400.00 (and that's just one example).