Update

A Doctor Describes Government Management of Medical Care
07/03/10 - Big Government by Bret Jacobson  (YouTube video 3:37)

This doctor treated Medicare Patients, and was routinely denied payment. Medicare said: "We can't pay you right now, the computer is down". The computer was down for 18 months when she gave up.

This is an update to Government Management of Doctors.

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Fred:  We'll build wind turbines everywhere and store the excess energy in hydro facilities.
Mike:  That will work for places that are flat and windy, next to mountains that will support a hydro dam. What about the other places?

The Myth of Alternative Power and Hydro- Electric Storage
06/17/10 - ChicagoBoyz by Shannon Love

[edited]  "Alternative energy" can’t be used for baseline power because it is not reliable, and we can’t make it reliable by storing the electricity that it episodically generates.

What about energy storage in a hydro-electric dam? Pumps would use alternative power to lift water behind the dam. When wind or solar power is not available, we could drain the water through turbines to create electricity.

Suppose alternative power should produce 30% of our current baseline power needs. If alternative power (optimistically) operates 75% of the time, we would need a 25% stored reserve. 25% x 30% is 7.5% of our total electric power needs.

Coincidentally, hydro-electric power today produces 8% of U.S electricity. If we want to use hydro-electric storage to make alternative power reliable, we will have to recreate 93% of the generating capacity of every current hydro-electric facility. That includes Hoover Dam, the entire TVA, and all of the dams in the Rocky Mountains.

All the places with the geography and water to produce hydro-electric power are already in use. Worse, the places that produce significant amounts of solar and wind power, the desert and the plains, are very far from that geography, requiring expensive power-line connections.

The full post has more information and many interesting comments.

This is an update to Problems With Green Energy

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Increases in the Minimum Wage Kill Job Creation
06/15/10 - HotAir by Ed Morrissey

[edited]  The Center for Freedom and Prosperity offers this 4:25 video about the destructive results of the minimum wage.

Democrats increased the minimum wage in steps from $5.15 to $7.25 per hour. They claimed to be helping the young and poor.

The minimum wage did no direct harm when it was less than the usual wage for entry-level jobs. When the minimum wage rose above that wage, employers stopped offering those entry-level jobs.

This is an update to Minimum Wage Prosperity

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ObamaCare Will Increase Premiums, Change Coverage, and Reduce Wages
06/14/10 - Cato @ Liberty by Michael F. Cannon

Fred:  I took this job because of the great healthcare plan, even though it paid less.
Mike:  So, be happy. Now you will get Obamacare, and you will be paid even less.

ObamaCare increases health insurance premiums and requires the employer to pay that increase. But, the employer pays this cost out of the production of the employee. So, the employer must offer a lower wage or fire the employee. The employee will likely blame the employer, not ObamaCare.

[edited]  ObamaCare will raise health insurance premiums even higher than they would have risen. If employers or consumers try to reduce their coverage and costs, they will lose their “grandfather” protections, and be forced to purchase even more coverage under ObamaCare mandates.

Employers are required to sustain "their" contribution to the cost of health benefits. This hides ObamaCare’s effect on health insurance premiums.

Health economists almost all agree that the “employer contribution” is a fiction. Employers merely deduct what they pay for health benefits from the overall compensation offered to employees. In other words, the employee pays for his own health benefits. [The employer only writes the check for him.]

ObamaCare’s increasing costs will appear as lower wages offered. Workers would likely blame ObamaCare for rising insurance premiums, but are less likely to blame ObamaCare for stagnant take-home pay.

This is an update to Company Paid Health Insurance is Part of Your Salary