Archive for the ‘social commentary’ Category

Tell Jerry McNerney why we need health care reform

Friday, August 21st, 2009

Help make the case for health care reform! Tell Jerry McNerney D-CA11 your story.

This is mine:

I am an entrepreneur starting my own company in Silicon Valley. I am reliant on expensive COBRA coverage for my own health care needs. COBRA runs out in a few months.

Without health insurance I will be forced to shutdown my company and my dream, and find another job building someone else’s dream.

I can’t afford to pay any health care for employees. So ironically I have to hire contractors from countries that do have universal health care. (or at least cheaper health care). Hiring anyone in the U.S. is too costly. Even if someone can work for minimum wage and equity, most software engineers will not do without health care insurance.

The best economic stimulus that Washington could enact is to take the economic burden of health care costs off the backs of small business and their employees. Enable people to realize their dreams without taking a chance on their health!

Not having to pay $13,000 – $15,000 / employee / year is a huge, huge, huge economic aid! For my own company this would have saved $40,000. This $40,000 could have been spent hiring people.

Jerry’s original email message:

Dear Patrick,

We’re in the midst of an historic debate on health care and closer than ever to enacting major reform.

Many of you participated in the health care survey I began circulating in April or in the telephone town hall on health care I held recently with almost 5,000 participants. Your thoughts and comments are appreciated and offer great insight.

Unfortunately, as you’ve probably heard, there are those in our country who want to block an open debate on health care. We shouldn’t lose the opportunity to have a productive and respectful conversation about the future of health care in this country.

I am not deterred by the current challenges or by those who seek to scare people into believing myths about the great changes we can make to the health care system.

I need your help to continue. We must stand together to create great change – our voices must rise above the din of misinformation.

Will you please sign my petition to show your support for health care reform?

I will continue to reach out to hear from you. Over the past month, I’ve traveled throughout the district to meet with small business owners, seniors, doctors and nurses. I’ve toured healthClick to watch video care facilities, including hospitals, clinics and local practices so that I can see our health care resources firsthand.

During my health care listening tour, I’ve heard again and again from people who are ready for change to our health care system. During these tough times no one should have the additional burden of worrying if they’ll have health care when their family needs it most.

I’m working hard to find a uniquely American solution to the problems of our current health care system. Every family should have access to high quality and affordable health care. We should crack down on insurance abuses such as preventing people with pre-existing conditions from accessing coverage. Every citizen should be able to choose the doctor they want to see and be free to make their own decisions on care for themselves and their families.

The fight isn’t an easy one. I am being attacked for my support of health care reform. I need your support during this crucial time.

Please take a moment to sign my petition, and if you’re able, consider a donation to the campaign so I have the resources to continue the fight.

The other side will use any means possible to continue their fear campaign against reform, including distortions, lies, and intimidation to stop us. We cannot allow this to happen.

We’re in this together.

Thank you for all that you do,
Congressman Jerry McNerney

Posted in political, social commentary, starting a company | No Comments »

a national health care system: good for business

Wednesday, May 20th, 2009

What I told Obama about health care reform. Add your voice to mine please!

I have been working for 2 years on my own business. During this time frame my wife and I have had to pay for our own health care through COBRA. This expense is the second most expensive item in our budget ( our mortgage is our first ). These costs have significantly increased the chance that my business will fail and I will have to return join the ranks of the unemployed.

In my profession (internet software development) and the location (San Francisco Bay Area) being able to offer health care is mandatory. Because we do not have the budget to pay for health care, it is close to impossible to find anyone to help in the Bay Area. As a result, we have turned to overseas developers.

A quality national health care system will free up more people to explore starting their own business and building the U.S. economy. A national health care system is simply good business.

Posted in social commentary | 1 Comment »

Mother’s Day Gift giving: invert the money/time ratio

Thursday, May 7th, 2009

Rather than spend money this mothers day; try this:

Spend the least money and the most time.

For most gifts the ratio: money-spent /time-spent > 20. That is for every dollar spent only 1 hour was spent. Try reversing that ratio.

If you are thinking about spending $100 on a gift on your mom; try spending only $20 and spend 20 hours making the gift personally you.

Guaranteed you will learn something and your mom will appreciated it vastly more than that $100 gift.

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Posted in social commentary | No Comments »

Empathy and professional victims (reply to Jason Calacanis)

Wednesday, January 28th, 2009

Jason Calacanis’ recent email (“We Live in Public (and the end of empathy)” ) talked about the lack of empathy and caring on the internet.

Empathy has been taking a hit for a long time. Remember that seeing executions used to be considered a family sport.

I point the finger at Republicans and the moneymen of Wall Street who made empathy and compassion a sign of weakness. Republicans have also perfected the “art” of professional victimhood. My definition of professional victimhood:

Someone who claims to be a “victim” in order to reduce punishment or to justify monetary gain. A professional victim usually points to minor issues as proof of victimhood in an effort to deflect attention from larger crimes or issues. A professional victim points to being denied monetary gain as proof of victimhood.

Unrealized future benefit is not a sign of a victim.

My definition of a real victim is:

A real victim has goods / health / freedom taken from them, that they had prior to being a victim. Their real victimhood is revealed because they are not trying to use the cloak of “victimhood” to justify financial gain. Real victims are not eager to proclaim their victimhood for profit but only to restore what was previously theirs. Real victims talk about being victims in the context of trying to benefit the community. (A rape victim revealing the rape so that the community is warned)

The real tragedy is that with so many “victims” — society has become jaded to the idea that anyone is a victim. As a result the real victims are victimized a second time by society’s indifference to their suffering.

Some recent professional victims:

  • Thain (ex CEO of Merrill Lynch) is a “victim” because he didn’t get his bonus,
  • Scooter Libby is a victim because he was convicted a crime (outing a CIA agent) that others got away with

[Update: a bit of necessary clarification. I am not regarding Mike Arrington as a "professional victim". It looks like he faced a real threat and was compelled to take real steps to avoid becoming a real victim. The break back to talking about Jason's email on empathy was not clear enough.]

Returning to the discussion of empathy (or lack thereof) on the internet,
Jason ends his email about empathy talking about Mike Arrington being spit on.

On more than a few posts, Mike has carried out personal attacks that really are unwarranted. Random example PayPerPost Users Freaking Out Over Google PageRank Nuke:

Among the more pathetic messages:

Oh. My. God. Oh my god! I can’t believe this is happening. I NEED to earn money with my blogs, I’m going to have to take every single opp I qualify for every day in order to keep up with expenses.

So Mike terms “pathetic”, someone who is struggling to make ends meet and is now faced with an even greater economic hill.

Mike has had many opportunities to show compassion when having to deliver harsh reviews about a company’s behavior or its products. But many times, Mike has turned a harsh review into a personal attack.

Apparently, now Mike was on the receiving end of a spitting incident and an angry blogger. So what does Mike promise?

Mike promises to be less empathic:

Seeing my parents fear for their lives and not understand how or why their son was in this position changed me, made me a much less forgiving person in general.

As a countervailing example, I would like to recognize this post on TechCrunch (although not by Mike Arrington):

How bad is the economy? In an effort to raise money for his rent, one man named Victor is trying to sell his Digg account on Craigslist for $650.

I’ve set up a TipJoy account for him below. Give him a dollar to help him with his rent, if you’ve got the spare change. All proceeds will go to Victor.

Is this justification for any attacks on Michael or anyone else? No.

However, if the victim has a history of his own personal attacks — maybe he should look at showing more compassion when having to deliver the harsh review.

Having said this, I read TechCrunch every day and I hope Michael does resume blogging but refrains from personal attacks.

I suspect that I have just condemned any hope of a positive review from TechCrunch, but such is life.

Posted in privacy, social commentary | No Comments »