Fortune Favors the Bold (Pt 2)

In his State of the State (SOTS) address, our Sonofa Governor Andrew Cuomo touched on many subjects; see my summary here. One of the things that he specifically mentioned was the uncommon collaboration between Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner and Onondaga County Executive Joanie Mahoney.

Cuomo is familiar with both women. Miner is the co-chair of New York's Democratic Committee, and in her role as our 53rd mayor she's frequently butted heads with the governor on financial issues, among other things.  Mahoney, a Republican, participated on Cuomo's transition team and is also a member of his Moreland Commission to clean up Albany. Here's what he had to say about our leaders:

And there is a ray of hope because there are local leaders who are stepping up to the plate and I would like to take a moment to recognize the great Onondaga County Executive Joanie Mahoney and the Mayor of Syracuse Stephanie Miner who are working together. They are working together to see if they can achieve consolidation and shared services between Onondaga County and the city of Syracuse. We wish them well and we hope other leaders follow their example because that is exactly the right course. 

Well, today we learned that things aren't always perfect with our Dream Team.  The topic that has them on opposite sides, at least for now? Building a new sports facility in Syracuse, primarily for SU.  This article provides a lot of the details on the proposed project, which Mahoney has been working on for a while. Here are some highlights of the deal, now not expected to go through:

• perhaps as much as $200 million in state funding, through an agreement with Cuomo, to go towards a half-a-billion dollar project slated for the old Kennedy Square neighborhood sandwiched between the University Hill medical complex and Water Street.  That area is already being developed as part of Upstate's seemingly endless appetite for expansion and SU's Connective Corridor initiative
• a commitment from the developer of the site to look to get an additional one million square feet of mixed development (residential and retail) near the area for the stadium
• contributions from SU, the 'major tenant', and from the County Legislature towards the project
• a private company to manage the facility.

Given their prior collaborative efforts it seems uncharacteristic that Miner was only brought in towards the end, after much had already been put into motion but Mahoney admitted that was the case. She also indicated that Miner balked, stating

I see this as a tremendous opportunity for the whole region, but I don't want to do it over the mayor's objections.  At the end of the day, she is the mayor and she gets to set her priorities.  My priorities, or the state's priorities, or Syracuse University's priorities for the city don't take precedence over the mayor's priorities. 

Those priorities for the city are mundane things, like replacing 100-year-old water mains before any more of them burst; new police cars, which are being replaced more slowly than they likely should be; mandatory water treatment initiatives; repairs to existing recreational facilities actually used by city residents, as opposed to a stadium that would only be visited by city residents.

I'm sure those priorities also include trying to do something about our neighborhoods and nearly 2000 abandoned properties; our schools; fighting crime; providing services in a city that's close to 50% untaxable, and all those other things that mayors are supposed to worry about.

Miner will undoubtedly have further conversations with Mahoney; she did send questions to SU chancellor Kent Syverud, which you can read here.  Syverud, on his second official day as chancellor, issued a statement, including these wise words:

I would hope that no community leader, including me, would be criticized for asking relevant questions before reaching a decision. 

I couldn't agree more.

Frankly, I'm astonished that Mahoney, the Legislature and all of the other interested parties cooked up this plan without engaging the city - I mean, I can only imagine what Joanie would think if I got together with her neighbors and came up with a plan to put a gazebo in her back yard, then presented her with about 70% of the details and said "Come on Joanie, let's go!" I expect I'd be met with a 'lack of enthusiasm' don't you?

To Cuomo's point in the SOTS, let's hope that other leaders who are looking to follow Miner and Mahoney down the path of collaboration don't take this little misstep as a sign that partnering with other jurisdictions - we have over 10,000 of them in New York, after all -- is the wrong way to go.  It's absolutely the right way to go, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of it here in Central New York.

And to his point that 'fortune favors the bold', one of things that sticks out the most on this is the 'bold' hand of the Governor, the hand that guides things behind the scenes and then presents them for everyone to take in when he's done, whether they like it or not. Reminds me of the old adage, if you can't play nice, pick up your toys and leave.

If  Onondaga County ends up losing hundreds of millions of dollars because Cuomo and Mahoney failed to engage a critical stakeholder, and chose instead to plop a gazebo in the middle of that stakeholder's back yard, shame on them.

Tuesday's Number: $52,443

Tuesday is the day my local paper, the Syracuse Post-Standard, publishes the weekly business section. In addition to special features, tips from stock experts, budgeting advice and the like, we get the judgment and bankruptcy listings.

Each week, I track health care related filings. I include anything that is clearly a debt owed to a hospital, nursing home, physician or physician group, medical supplier, and so on; I do not include filings by insurance companies, many of which are so diversified it would not be a fair assumption that the filing is related to medical care or health insurance.

·         This week, there were five judgments to hospitals, doctors, or other medical providers totaling $45,189.

·         There was one satisfied judgment listed, for $7,254.

·         And, there were no health care related bankruptcies.

New this year, I’m tracking filings for each of the four Syracuse hospitals. Here’s the breakdown for this week:

·         Crouse had 3, totaling $21,420

·         St Joe’s had 1, for $7,254

·         SUNY Upstate had none

·         Community General, a part of Upstate, had none   

The paper publishes only those accounts of at least $5,000.

Fortune Favors the Bold (Part 1)

(courtesy Gov.Cuomo's website)

The four words in the title of this post were nestled very early in State of the State (SOTS) address, which Governor Cuomo delivered last week.

Cuomo, like most who have the opportunity to give these speeches, started out with what was wrong in NY before he took office three years ago, including 23 late budgets in 30 years, sixty years of state spending exceeding revenues, and a $10 billion deficit. And consistent with how these 'State of the...' speeches go, he touted his successes and laid out his plan for this year.

I'll talk about the successes first.  There have been a lot of them during Cuomo's term; you almost have to give him credit for making a difference, even if you disagree with some of the differences that he made.  Here's the list of things that were mentioned in the SOTS, starting with those related to finances - the state's, or its impact on our own:

• the $10B deficit has turned into a $2B surplus
• spending was held at 2%, below the rate of inflation and below the rate of growth in personal income
• all New Yorkers pay less income tax now than when he took office, and the 'middle class tax rate' is the lowest it's been in over sixty years
• a property tax cap was passed
• a graduated, three-year series of increases in the minimum wage has started
• some 380,000 new private sector jobs were created, ranking us #2 in the nation for post-recession job creation
• a 15% increase in exports was realized
• improved scores were received from all of the major ratings agencies 
• unemployment is down across all regions of the state
• the 'opportunity' for municipalities to work with the state to help solve local financial problems
• state pension reform was enacted
• approval of casino gambling was obtained this past November
• a plan is finally in the works to replace the Tappan Zee Bridge

And in the bucket of public health, education and safety (a loose category of my own design, for the 'all other things we've done'):

• the (highly controversial) passage of the NY SAFE Act
• a reduction in the number of prison beds, and the closing of juvenile facilities
• a decrease in crime (no specifics given)
• enrolling some 265,000 people through the NY State of Health exchange
• marriage equality became a reality 
• teacher standards and evaluations
• the crackdown on DWT, or driving while texting
• creation of the Moreland Commission on Ethics to clean up Albany

Some of these may have been considered bold ideas when first proposed. I think perhaps the better term is 'ideas from a bold person', a man who does not worry so much about how things get done as much as he cares about the getting things done part. 

I'm not sure that anyone thought we would see this much of a financial turnaround in only three years, or that we would see movement on so many things that have just sat our there in the Albany idea cloud without any action - casino gambling, gun control, the Tappan Zee bridge project, and any kind of education reform being just a few examples. 

And the Sonofa Gov plans on more of the same bold ideas - many of which are designed to build on what's already been done - and bold implementation plans going forward.  

In upcoming posts, I'll look at some of these accomplishments and some of the plans for New York's future that Cuomo put on the table last Wednesday.

Tuesday's Number: $660,036

Tuesday is the day my local paper, the Syracuse Post-Standard, publishes the weekly business section. In addition to special features, tips from stock experts, budgeting advice and the like, we get the judgment and bankruptcy listings.

Each week, I will be tracking health care related filings. I include anything that is clearly a debt owed to a hospital, nursing home, physician or physician group, medical supplier, and so on; I do not include filings by insurance companies, many of which are so diversified it would not be a fair assumption that the filing is related to medical care or health insurance.

·         This week, there were 22 judgments to hospitals, doctors, or other medical providers totaling $634,383.

·         There were no satisfied judgments listed.

·         And, there was one health care related bankruptcy, totaling $25,653.

New this year, I’m tracking filings for each of the four Syracuse hospitals. Here’s the breakdown for this week:

·         Crouse had 6 for $69,755

·         St Joe’s had none

·         SUNY Upstate had 17 for $590,281

·         Community General, a part of Upstate, had none  

The paper publishes only those accounts of at least $5,000.

Family Over Hospital, Parents Over Government

Two interesting medical/ethical stories are playing out now, one getting a lot of attention and the other less so.

The one you've probably heard more about is the very sad case of Jahi McMath, the California teenager who was declared brain dead on December 12, 2013 after suffering complications following surgical procedures to help relieve her sleep apnea. The determination of brain death has been confirmed not only by doctors at the hospital but also by some who examined her on behalf of her family, and others who were called in on behalf of the courts, according to multiple reports. 

Jahi’s family, not accepting that she’s deceased, has succeeded in obtaining a court order extending 'life support', if that's the proper term, until January 7^th and have been looking for a facility that can take the the girl, keep her comfortable and/or provide some kind of innovative treatment, in hopes that she might recover. A brain trauma center in New York is supposedly willing to take her, although there have been some questions on how to transport her, what level of care would be needed during the relocation, and (somewhat indelicately, I know) how any care would be paid for. 

Much of this is playing out in court, with the hospital on one side and, I would say not surprisingly, the Terri Schiavo Life and Hope Network and the family on the other side. A decision was announced this past Friday that Jahi can be moved from her current location, Children's Hospital Oakland; the logistics of that, and how or if life support will be maintained at that time, still seems to be up in the air. 

It was reported today that Jahi has been released from Children's Hospital and sent to an undisclosed facility (in part for security reasons), according to the family attorney Chris Dolan. He also noted that

She's where she's going to be for a while. She needs to be medically stabilized, medically treated. 

I'm sure that last statement will be examined by experts from many fields for some time. 

The other case you’ve probably heard much less about is an equally sad situation in Texas.

Marlise Munoz, a mother in her 30's and an EMT, was found unresponsive by her husband Erick, who's also an EMT. He did what he could to try and revive her, as did folks at the hospital, but ultimately they were unsuccessful and Marlise has been on life support since November 26^th, after suffering what doctors believe was a pulmonary embolism. She's being kept alive mechanically, even though her husband has indicated that he and his wife had specifically discussed not wanting to be kept alive on machines; her parents agree. 

And yet, there she lies, brainwaves flat, machine-supported. 

Why? Because Mrs. Munoz was pregnant – 14 weeks at the time of her collapse, now nineteen weeks or so - and under Texas law, life support cannot be withdrawn from a pregnant person. 

There are some who think that the hospital is misinterpreting the statute and could end the family's nightmare, but the facility, John Peter Smith Hospital in Ft. Worth, is holding firm, noting that it was not a difficult decision for them to uphold the law and refuse to end the mechanical means of support. And, the doctors have been able to detect a fetal heartbeat, and they check regularly for it.  

What they don't know, and won't know for several more weeks, is what amount of damage may have occurred during the time Marlise was not breathing, had no pulse, and underwent the all-too-familiar efforts we regularly see on TV when actors playing doctors try and resuscitate someone. Was the fetus also oxygen-deprived during that time? Did the drugs pass through the mom to the baby? What are the effects from the repeated electric shocks?  Is the baby healthy, beyond just having a heartbeat?  Erick Munoz, the devastated husband and now single parent to the couple's first child, expressed hopes that if nothing else, this case will educate others, and perhaps lead to the law being changed.

So. Two cases one where the hospital says no, we won't continue life support even when the family wants us to; the other hospital continuing life support even when the family does not want it. Needless to say, folks from all sides have been chiming in on these cases, including Mike Huckabee, a minister, former Arkansas politician, and political commentator. He has made his opinion on the Jahi McMath case very well known, speaking about it on his Fox TV show this past Saturday and posting similar comments on his Facebook page as well. Here's what he said:

Every life has value and worth. There is no such person who is disposable, one whose live has been deemed by others to be less than others and therefore expendable, I can't share that.

He added 

The road that starts that way in deciding that some lives have less value and are unworthy of protection, that leads to a culture that tolerates the undeserved killing of over 55 million unborn children in this country. It leads to China's birth policy that limits the number of children for a family and enforces forced abortion if they deviate from the state-determined ideal. 

And finally, he noted:

It's also that culture that allowed the Nazis to hideously justify the savage slaughter of millions of Jews, disabled people, old people and those with mental illness. Let's hope and pray that the courts continue to do what every court should do, respect parents over government, family over hospitals, and above all, protect Jahi from them all. 

Let's hope and pray that the courts can continue to do what every court should do, respect parents over government, family over hospitals.... above all, protect Jahi from them all. 

Should the Munoz family be allowed to put the name of their beloved Marlise in that statement above, in place of Jahi McMath's name, and be allowed to make their own decisions, family over hospital, parents over government? 

I think yes. 

Five Years of veritable pastiche

Five years ago today, I published my first post on this blog.

I still remember the trepidation I felt as I pushed the button on that offering, a mere two paragraphs in which I expressed hopes that I would give people something to think about every once in a while.

Since then, I've published over 400 entries, started probably another 100 that I never did anything with, and jotted down ideas for dozens more, some of which never made it past a link or article that piqued my interest. Just the other day, for example, I found an email that had been in my inbox since April 2013, something I had sent to myself that just said 'research this' and a topic. I'm still working on that research, and hoping to post sometime before April of this year when that idea has a birthday.

I've had ups and downs; things started really slowly, and I've gone through stretches where I thought I couldn't even buy a reader. But slowly, things have gotten better. I've changed the format a few times, and have grown to like where it is today. And I think I'm a better writer now than I was then.  There's still lots of room for improvement, no question about that, but I can look at some posts now and not want to rewrite them, something that, in the beginning, was almost impossible.

Here are the posts that attracted the most interest since the dawn of the blog:

• In this post from 2009, I described trying to renew my ID without having the right ID, a marvelous catch-22.
• A post I did in 2010 talked about public displays of  patriotism (via flying the Gadsden flag) and what happened when one man decided to push the issue with his homeowner's association.
• I did a couple of posts on taxes in 2011 -- one about how people pay them but corporations often don't; the other, related to some folks thinking that Jesus was anti-tax, was fun to put together, given I'm not a religious person. On this I was way outside my comfort zone. 
• And there was the Alexandra Wallace-Jimmy Wong pas-de-deux; she complained about noisy Asians on their phones in the library, and he responded beautifully, in song, to her remarks. This post was also from 2011. 
• Several related posts in 2012 - a homeless man, police doing good deeds, and some introspection - focused on generosity. Others that year, like many I've done, were about politics, or politicians, or money in politics. 
• One of my favorites, lamenting the end of daily newspaper delivery in Syracuse, was really as much about my late father as it was about the paper. 
• One post in 2012, and a related post from 2013, questioned what would happen if we could have a 'parade of homes' in the heart of the city, instead of in the suburbs. I hope to convince someone, somehow, that this would be a worthwhile effort.
• In a popular 2013 post, I wondered what would happen if states color-coded driver's licenses or IDs for things other than immigrant status, which was under consideration for a while (ostensibly for safety reasons) in North Carolina.
• A post on how medical debt impacts credit scores was another popular read; I think I have to follow up on that one. And speaking of medical debt, here in Syracuse and CNY that's a huge issue. 
• Barack Obama promised to have the most transparent administration we'd ever seen. Sadly, that has not occurred; the City of Syracuse is more transparent, as I noted in my post on a neighbor's effort to get a zoning change for an interesting home business. 
• And finally, Syracuse was honored by a visit from President Obama last year, a trip where he was focused on education. I posted on that, and the importance of teachers in a child's life. 

So where do we go from here?  More Syracuse, Albany, Anywhere - Genuine. Honest. Commentary. I hope it will inspire some thought, engagement, or action.

Thanks for your support. Let's have some fun in 2014!

We're Talking Porn This Morning. Fair Warning.

I'm one of the bazillion Americans in the past of Winter Storm Hercules (yes, apparently winter storms get names just like tropical storms and hurricanes), and for the past few days we've been hearing about the cold, the wind, the snow, the cold, the wind, the snow, the cold, the wind, the snow...

We haven't had all that much snow, really - I'd guess two or three inches yesterday morning, another three or four during the day, and another two or three over night.  It's just enough that you want to clean it up before more falls, if that makes sense. I mean, I'd rather shovel less snow more often, then waiting and having to do it all at once. Besides, it was awfully pretty out there.

Dried monarda in my garden

That being said, I shoveled for about 45 minutes yesterday morning, a little over an hour yesterday afternoon, and about 45 minutes this morning, with most of the heavy lifting needed to clear the plow snow out of the driveway and the sidewalk.  The Syracuse DPW does an awesome job on our street, which makes it a little harder for me, but I'd rather have a little extra work to do than the alternative.

Before going out this morning, I checked my wireless weather station thingy (a scientific term, honest) for the temp, to find it was four degrees below zero.  I put on an extra layer top and bottom, and out I went, My Sweet Baboo not far behind me.  I figured I would need the extra layers, since it was a lot colder than yesterday - about an 18 degree swing.

We made pretty quick work of things, including our 'adopted sidewalk' -- our next-door neighbors moved out around Christmas. Not sure what happened there, we weren't close, but with a school three houses down from us, I can't leave a stretch of the sidewalk unshoveled.  And other than a couple of fingers that got exposed yesterday when I was out taking pictures, I wasn't all that cold. The worst thing about being out there, truth be told, was my resemblance to the guy in Jethro Tull's Aqualung (you know what I mean).

And then I got back inside. And turned on the TV. And saw the weather porn.

Pulsing numbers. Menage-a-trois radars. Huge fronts (size does matter), with their leading edges nipping at my county, snow bands and temperature bands rolling across my screen, and lurking on the side, a man in a suit, talking dirty to me: wind chills...snowfalls... temperatures... Bare skin, and exposure, and the need to take frequent breaks from strenuous activity Videos... Live action shots... Pretty people in cute little outfits...It almost took my breath away.

One of my garden wreaths

And instead of feeling all warm and fuzzy inside, I was cold. Colder than I was outside. Because there was no wind when I was out shoveling, it was a still, beautiful morning. Because it wasn't -12 where I was, it was much warmer than that. But the more they talked about how horrible it was out there, in Syracuse where I live, the colder I got, even though I had been outside for 45 minutes. But by the time the weather segment was over, I was freezing, wrapped in a blanket, wearing a hat and scarf... well, OK, not quite that bad.

It's Syracuse, folks. A little colder than usual, but nothing we can't handle. Take normal weather precautions, don't be stupid. Drive carefully, roads will be slippery. Check on your neighbors (the ones that haven't moved out), especially the elderly. Clear your sidewalks. If you live near a fire hydrant, make sure it's not buried in snow. Dress appropriately. Don't let your pets outside. If you must, pick up some bread and milk. You know, the normal stuff we do.

Oh - one more thing. Just once, I'd love to see us devote as much attention, facts and figures to actual news stories as we do to the weather -- that would be porn worth watching.

A Year of Tuesdays: 2013's Final Number

I've checked it several times, just to be sure I had counted things right. This year there were five months with five Tuesdays and seven months with four, giving us a total of 53 Tuesdays. I think this can only happen when the year begins and ends on the third day of the week, but I'm really not all that good with science, astronomy, or time.

So now that we've landed on the final Tuesday of the year, it's time to recap the totals for Tuesday's Number, my weekly post on financial fallout - judgments, satisfied judgments, and bankruptcies - where the person owes the money to a hospital, doctor, or other medical provider.

Each week this year, I've presented the numbers without bias. I have no idea what the circumstances are for the folks who end up in these pages of The Post-Standard, whether they're insured, under-insured, or uninsured; or whether they 'self-inflicted' to end up here, by keeping money that should have been paid to their medical provider, for example, or by refusing health insurance when they could have had coverage.

Call me nostalgic or sentimental or silly, but generally I believe in the better nature of most folks and that they'd rather pay their bills than not, that they'd rather take responsibility for themselves than not and that they'd rather avoid making this list if they could. And regardless of the individual dollar amount of the judgment or bankruptcy, I can only imagine the impact on the families. $5000 is a ridiculous amount of money when you don't have much, just as $25,000 is a ridiculous amount of money even if you have some -- it's all relative.  For those handful or so of people who had six-figure filings, regardless of how much money you have, that's a huge ax to have hanging over your head.

That being said, here are the horrible - and I do mean horrible - numbers for the Syracuse area for 2013:

• 1,279: the combined number of people listed. Some could be duplicates - meaning they could have started out in the judgments section and moved to the satisfied judgment and/or bankruptcy columns. That's an average of about 24 each week.
• $25,679,738: the total of all judgments filed. These are the ones that are over $5000, which are the only ones that make the paper (except for one week early in the year when it was an all-encompassing list). 
• $2,447,163: the total of all satisfied judgments. That's less than 10% of all judgments filed.  
• $1,375,358: the total of all bankruptcies filed where the primary creditor is a medical provider of one kind or another. 

That's a total of $29,466,259, an average of $555,967 each week this year.  Per listing, it's an average of just over $23,000. One more week, and we would have crossed the $30 million mark -- a benchmark I hope we never see.

How does 2013 compare to 2012, when I captured only 24 weeks of data?

• Average number of listings per week is up by 1 this year
• Average weekly total is up $70,161 higher this year
• Average per listing is up $1,763 this year.

Folks, we're going in the wrong direction, aren't we? Until we start seeing the percentage of judgments satisfied go up, we're hurting. Until we see the judgments filed go down, we're hurting. And until we see the health care related bankruptcies disappear, we're hurting.

I see this number in my own backyard and I wonder what it must be for the rest of New York, for the rest of the country. For those families who didn't self-inflict, I have a hard time imagining what it must feel like having that hanging over their heads. And knowing that all of the local hospitals offer some sort of financial assistance programs, and knowing how many government safety net programs there are, I wonder how much worse this really could be.

And I continue to wonder what it will take for us to get out of the kind of mess that causes or allows this to happen. What's broken here, the actual cost of health care? How people make health care choices? Our overall economy? Will the Affordable Care Act, with millions more having some kind of insurance (through private carriers or government programs), make a difference? One can only hope.

We'll see what next year brings -- I've got my spreadsheets ready.

Tuesday's Number: $520,007

Tuesday is the day my local paper, the Syracuse Post-Standard, publishes the weekly business section. In addition to special features, tips from stock experts, budgeting advice and the like, we get the judgment and bankruptcy listings.

As I did for much of last year, I will be tracking health care related filings. I include anything that is clearly a debt owed to a hospital, nursing home, physician or physician group, medical supplier, and so on; I do not include filings by insurance companies, many of which are so diversified it would not be a fair assumption that the filing is related to medical care or health insurance.

This week, there were 30 people listed with new judgments to hospitals, doctors, or other medical providers totaling $475,761.

This week, there were two satisfied judgments to a hospital, doctor, or other medical provider listed, totaling $20,016.

And, this week, there was one health care related bankruptcy, totaling $24,230.  

The paper publishes only those accounts of at least $5,000.

A Great Business Model?

I've been thinking about whether we should upgrade our current basic cable (yes, I said basic cable - that's all we have) to something more substantial, such as Dish, DirecTV, or something less basic from our local cable monopoly. I've asked friends for help on Facebook, and am getting some pretty good feedback, mostly from people who are happy with what they have, even if where there are now is not where they started out. 

The more I think I'm going to do some research on it, the more I think I really don't want to. Because I hate the whole concept of how the whole getting-TV-into-my-house business works. Regardless of delivery method, it seems I'm gong to be stuck with a boatload of channels that I will NEVER watch, and don't want to pay for. 

For example, it seems like the retail therapy I do now from my laptop is simply not good enough. Apparently, I need five or ten home shopping networks, 24-hour infomercial channels, 'all jewelry all the time' broadcasts, and a corresponding number of auction networks so that I can do even more than my fair share to help our struggling economy.

And I guess we don't need our Bose sound system anymore - or my bookshelf stereo, or my HD radio either. Might as well just throw those out the window, because no matter how hard I try, it seems I'm going to be stuck with scads of radio channels on my television. Why? Because, clearly, I must want to have my TV on so I can listen to tinny twangers from the 40's, or virgin Viennese violin virtuosos, or terror-inducing tenors, or a bunch of rapacious rappers. Well, hold on a second -- I don't want to have my TV on so I can listen to the radio. I can already do that any of the above-mentioned radio-type devices. 

And, strangely enough, I've never felt the urge to start watching a show on my PC in the basement rec room, pause it and then start it up again when I'm in the second floor bathroom, only to pause it and start it again downstairs in the kitchen where I watch for a moment trying to determine whether I want a glass of chocolate milk, a cold beer, or something else. Then, I stop it one more time, grab my wine and ice cream and head for the home theater room where I can finally sit down, relax, and watch the weather forecast. 

Have you?

What I would really like is to call up some television service deliverer and say to them "I want my local channels, and I want these other 15 channels. And I don't want anything else. How much will that cost?" And if I were to ask that question, after they stopped laughing at me, I'd be told it's not possible.  You need to get these other channels, you need to have at least one hockey channel for every team, and at least four soccer channels, and six watching-waves-crash-against-the-shore channels, and 27 religious and inspirational channels, and movie channels, my poor girl, you simply must have 50 movie channels, you poor pitiful behind the times girl - and the choir of sobbing, hand-wringing customer service reps in the background can only be appeased if I spend my $39.99 or $49.99 or $79.99 or $89.99 or $199.99 per month for the two-year introductory period and get my dishes and boxes and cards and hoppers and DVRs and HGTV....oh wait that's a channel I want, not a delivery method, sorry. 

Oh - and bundle up, sister, because it's cold outside. Heaven forbid you have more than one supplier of TV, phone, and Internet service. Because that's plain un-American. Just ask them. 

Yep -- for some reason, these companies have come up with a business model that says we have to take what they want us to take, and we have to take all of it, even if we have no intention of using most of it - and we have bought into it hook, line, and sinker. 

Can you imagine, just for a moment, if any other company or business did the same thing? 

• Picture walking into a shoe store and being told that, in order to get the pair of boots you really want, you also need to get three handbags, eight pairs of those nylon shoe-trying-on things, ten pairs of flip-flops and a dozen pairs of stilettos, in sizes that don't fit and colors that are beyond horrid -- a bunch of junk plus twenty-two pairs of shoes you will never wear -- just to get the one pair you want. You gonna buy those boots? 
• Or going into a grocery store to get milk and bread, because we've got a Nor'easter or an Alberta clipper or lake effect snow heading our way, and being told that you also have to pay for and take home both adult and baby diapers, some weird-looking sushi, gluten-free cookies, blue dye for your hair, anchovies, week-old bagels, unsalted nuts, and off-brand tuna fish packed in oil, because that's what the store wants to sell you. How badly do you want that bread and milk? 
• Or taking your car to the speedy oil change place, and have to get new tires, a pollution control valve, seat covers, a windshield, a side-view mirror, and cargo-area carpeting, because after all, if you want that speedy oil change, well, you know the drill. 

It's crazy that we fall for this, isn't it?

Tuesday's Number: $242,561

Tuesday is the day my local paper, the Syracuse Post-Standard, publishes the weekly business section. In addition to special features, tips from stock experts, budgeting advice and the like, we get the judgment and bankruptcy listings.

As I did for much of last year, I will be tracking health care related filings. I include anything that is clearly a debt owed to a hospital, nursing home, physician or physician group, medical supplier, and so on; I do not include filings by insurance companies, many of which are so diversified it would not be a fair assumption that the filing is related to medical care or health insurance.

This week, there were 14 people listed with new judgments to hospitals, doctors, or other medical providers totaling $242,561.

This week, there were no satisfied judgments to a hospital, doctor, or other medical provider listed.

And, this week, there were no health care related bankruptcies.  

The paper publishes only those accounts of at least $5,000.

Case Studies: A&F, JCP, and A&E

Abercrombie & Fitch, the allegedly hip store for young people who want to wear lots of layers of clothes in a stylish way and carry around arty-farty shopping bags with pictures of topless or almost topless chiseled pretty people on them, once offered to pay a customer to stop wearing their brand. Yep - don't wear our clothes, said their 'brand senses department': 

We are deeply concerned that Mr Sorrentino's association with our brand could cause significant damage to our image. We understand that the show is for entertainment purposes, but believe this association is contrary to the aspirational nature of our brand, and may be distressing to many of our fans. We have therefore offered a substantial payment to Michael 'The Situation' Sorrentino and the producers of MTV's The Jersey Shore to have the character wear an alternative brand. We have also extended this offer to other members of the cast, and are urgently awaiting a response.

Famously, A&F also ran into trouble with their 'exclusionary practices' which were detailed in a 2006 interview with CEO Mike Jeffries (the comments resurfaced more recently).  When asked about the emotional experience he offers his customers, and how sex plays into that, here's what he said:

It's almost everything. That's why we hire good-looking people in our stores. Because good-looking people attract other good-looking people, and we want to market to cool, good-looking people. We don't market to anyone other than that. 

Jeffries went on to say this about some potential customers:

In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the no-so-cool kids. Candidly, we go after the cool kids.  We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends.  A lot of people don't belong (in our clothes) and they can't belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely. Those companies that are in trouble are trying to target everybody: young, old, fat, skinny. But then you become totally vanilla. You don't alienate anybody, but you don't excite anybody, either. 

A&F, which offers women's clothes in sizes XS (00-0), S (2-4), M (6-8), and L (10),  and men's pants  ranging in size from 28x30 to 36x34, didn't want to market to fat people, or falling-down-drunk Jersey Shore folks, because they weren't cool.  They couldn't 'vanilla' the brand and become indistinguishable from everyone else.

JCPenney, on the other hand, got into trouble when Ron Johnson, their former CEO, noted in an interview that they had no 'growth platform' and so made a huge marketing change, which included making JCP look very different.  Here are his comments:

We had a business model that didn't have any growth in the future. Every business needs to build off a growth platform...We had a promotional model which had merit but it played its course. We need a new growth platform....The key was we had to have the courage to transform the business. 

He went on to get in trouble with this comment, in a response to getting customers back after the significant drop in sales that resulted from the business transformation:

Come to our stores right now. Our stores are busy. We're gaining that customer back. We know who she is, we talk to her in a variety of ways and it's important to get her back in store. It's even more important to attract new customers. That's the key to this long term, new customers. We had one of the oldest and poorest customers in the industry. We have to over time get a little younger and affluent. What will bring them in is everyday value on products they can't find elsewhere and not losing the older customer as well. We'd love to keep her. 

JCP's CEO knew who his customers were, and the numbers did not compare favorably with competitors like Target, Macy's and Kohl's.  Nearly half were over 55, and only 20% were younger than 35. Looking at income, only 13% earned more than $100,000, and 29% earned less than $35,000.  As a 'growth platform', that doesn't look sustainable, does it?

So what happened for these two retailers, when their CEOs did and said things that ticked off the customer base?  For A&F, people bought their clothes and gave them to homeless people.  Ellen DeGeneres (coincidentally, a JCP spokesperson) mocked them for selling 'doll clothes'.  Sales crumbled, with losses over multiple quarters.  The store is going to start offering clothes in larger sizes and more colors, among other things.

JCP suffered significant losses, as those older, poorer customers boycotted the store; they ditched Johnson as CEO and rehired a former CEO to right the ship.

So, what do these have to do with A&E and the Duck Dynasty drama? On the one hand, the two retail cases may look different; after all, in the case of A&F the representative was defending the brand, and in the JCP case the representative was turning the brand on its head. And, of course the brand representatives were the CEOs.

But what got then in trouble, more than anything, was their words, and the impact those words had on actual or potential customers. Those customers, real or wished-for, got up in arms, and in all sorts of ways complained about the exercise of free speech by the CEOs; they organized, they stormed social media, and yes they denied the brand their hard-earned cash. Heck, I have friends who stopped shopping at JCP for the duration of Johnson's tenure, and I know folks who were very upset with A&F and their short-sighted, narrow-wasted view of 'Authentic American' kids.

In the case of A&E, the 'brand representative' was not the CEO, he was just the star of  A&E's biggest sub-brand. A&E heard from actual or potential customers (the LGBT advocates and yes, the NAACP regarding those happy, non-blues-singing, cotton-picking, pre-welfare black folks) who will organize, who did flood social media with strongly worded messages, who would boycott the brand -- all of the same things that happened to A&F and JCP, as well as yoga-clothing retailer Lululemon; their founder/CEO is now out.

Listen, I'm not a fan of reality shows, that's not a secret. I watch a few of the competition shows, less now that many of them are growing old and tired. But there were American Idol contestants being booted for bad behavior -- not for being bad singers, but because their bad behavior off the show could damage the brand. And frankly, we don't have to look a whole lot further than folks like Mel Gibson or Charlie Sheen to see that, yes, even actors and TV stars suffer consequences from their behaviors, including their exercise of free speech.

A&E, which surprisingly does air shows other than Duck Dynasty, suspended a guy from a show that's currently on hiatus, to think about how or whether to protect its brand, not necessarily the sub-brand of the Robertson family. (Not for nothing, that's kind of like Major League Baseball suspending a pitcher for a certain number of games, and the suspension includes days the pitcher doesn't even play, isn't it?)

The biggest thing that will come of this? An even stronger DD brand, according to at least one crisis manager, which is apparently just fine with the Robertson family; after all, they're already a hundreds-of-million-dollar company what with their marketing of anything and everything Duck. They'll profit either way, frankly. We  may never know whether that conflicts with the Duck Dude's comments about 'the greedy' and their chances on judgment day.

Here's a nice summation of the whole thing, from the LA Times:

In the end, it comes down to freedom.  A&E has the freedom to reckon lost revenue against lost good will and make whatever decision works best for it. (It will be a practical decision more than a moral one.) The Robertsons have every right to do likewise, within the bounds of whatever the lawyers work out. If the show continues, sponsors will make similar calculations.  And, should the show return, you will be free to watch or never to watch, and to protest its ongoing existence or not.

Yep -- it's all about freedom. The Robertsons and other actors (and even politicians like Sarah Palin and Bobby Jindal) and corporate CEOs can say what they want; advocacy groups (regardless of their specific positions) can respond. Customers can stick with or walk away from a company, and companies can stick with or walk away from people who actually or potentially damage the brand and/or the bottom line.

I'm fascinated that we don't express the same outrage over all of the situations where similar actions and reactions occur, and I wonder, maybe that's our real, 'authentic American' brand.

If I Said What the Duck Dude Said

...I would at the very least be suspended, and probably terminated, from my job.

Why? Because in my 'reality show', I work at the pleasure of my employer, and if I'm casting them in a negative light, they have every right to not keep me around. We have an employee handbook, we have a Code of Ethics, we have a social media policy, the whole nine. And all employees are expected to not only abide by what's in the guidelines, but report situations that we see as potential violations of the Code by other employees.

I have friends and coworkers who think that's unreasonable, that an employer shouldn't have the option of terminating someone 'without cause'. One particular case locally that got us on this discussion was Syracuse University's termination of Bernie Fine, in the midst of as yet unproven allegations of child sex abuse. As the pressure heated up -- with multiple accusers (two of them presumed to be liars, the other two a little more convincing at least in the eyes of our DA for Life Bill Fitzpatrick) the topic of conversation moved away from SU basketball and started to focus on Fine, his case, what head coach Jim Boeheim may have known about the situation, and so on.

The fact that the university had previously investigated the situation and had already decided to stick with Bernie as Boeheim's chief assistant likely contributed to their decision initially to suspend him, and ultimately terminate him. You know the old adage, 'once bitten, twice shy' and I think that was SU's situation.

It's been the same situation for other employers, over the years; after all, political correctness has been around for a long time. Sometimes the issues change, but the outcomes are similar.  Here's a refresher:

• Juan Williams, who spoke about being scared of Muslims in their garb while on Fox, and was let go by NPR as a result of that and previous line-crossing in violation of his contract. 
• Helen Thomas, who lost her job as a White House reporter because of anti-Semitic comments 
• Gilbert Gottfried, for joking a little too soon about the tsunami which cost him the spokes-duck job for Aflac; Shirley Sherrod, former government worker who was dropped for allegedly being biased against white people; and CNN's Rick Sanchez, who went overboard talking about Jews in the television business (you can link to their stories here and here)
• Howard Cosell, who killed his career with his 'look at that little monkey run' comment years ago
• Paula "I is what I is" Deen, for using the N-word on one or more occasions
• Martin Bashir, who resigned from MSNBC after slamming Sarah Palin for ridiculous remarks she had made when exercising her right to free speech. Palin immediately took up the Duck call, no surprise there, appearing on Fox wearing her Duck Dynasty cutie camo.
• Just yesterday, there was a report that an Air Force general was fired for, among other things, 'rude and brash behavior' and showing up late for a meeting. 

Importantly, these folks were let go for a variety of comments bashing a whole host of populations, and except for the general, they didn't get in trouble while they were working for the company that fired them, suspended them, or 'let them resign'.  And that's the point here.

The Duck Dude is entitled to his opinions, and those opinions apparently should not be surprising to anyone who watches the show, or to A&E, the network that airs it. After all, you can take the boy out of the Louisiana backwoods, but you can't take the Louisiana backwoods out of the boy. The network accepted the risk, obviously, and as with most employers, there are limits, even when cash is pouring into the coffers. When you jeopardize the brand, the business, and the bottom line, employers will act, and they should.

One other thing that's important to note here, on the sponsor thing: WalMart, particularly in their rural stores, is a huge seller of all of the Duck Dynasty spin-off merchandise. I haven't heard yet that they were dropping those items, but I think they have to.

After all, that's what they did to Paula Deen; and isn't what's good for the goose good for the, er, Duck?

Oops, I Said it Again

"Happy Holidays".

Twice, today, I think I said it.

Want to know why?  I can assure you, it's not because I'm fighting some 'war on Christmas' or because I'm cooking up some nefarious plot. It's not because I have an agenda.  It's not even because I'm a Democrat.

It's because there are multiple holidays in a very short period of time; not for nothing, Christmas music starts now on the radio in October or early November, so pretty easily we can string together Thanksgiving and Hanukkah and Christmas and Festivus and Kwanzaa and New Years and 'Little Christmas' into one season (called the Shopping Season), and do a 'cover-all' greeting, can't we, without starting World War III?

Honestly, I don't even give it much thought, whether to say "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Holidays". Sometimes I even dare to say "have a nice holiday" without specifying which one, leaving it up to the recipient of the greeting to figure it out. But I don't understand why people think I must wish someone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year separately, each a week apart, or crammed together:

GoodtoseeyouhaveaMerryChristmasandaHappyNewYear.  

Seems kind of silly, doesn't it? 

Now, let's be clear, I may say "Happy Holidays" but

• I put up Christmas decorations, and Christmas trees, not holiday decorations and trees 
• I go Christmas shopping for gifts, and 'holiday shopping' if I'm getting a bunch of extra groceries
• I mail Christmas cards not holiday cards
• I give and receive Christmas presents, not holiday presents 
• And on Christmas Eve, not holiday Eve, I leave a plate of cookies for Santa and something for the reindeer.

All of those things are fun and seasonal and pretty and traditional and it's wonderful to share them with friends and family, to celebrate memories from days past, and to create new ones going forward.  But to me, none of them are religions activities, even though they are thoroughly 'Christmas' activities. Because I'm not religious, and because there's something particularly unreligious about extreme retail therapy outcomes all wrapped up and shoved under a tree.

And yet, even though I do all of those Christmas-y things, if I see you walking down the street, or at the office, or out at a party, I might offer an all-inclusive "Happy Holidays", instead of "Merry Christmas", and I hope you take it as it's intended.

Because it is not offensive, unless you want to perpetuate an artificial war on Christmas. It's not offensive, unless you have an agenda. It's not offensive, unless you want it to be. It's not offensive, unless you're one of the people who believes that only your beliefs matter, that regardless of what anyone else actually believes, they need to believe and act as you believe and act. 

That's the kind of thinking that gets a Salvation bell-ringer punched by a righteously indignant WalMart bargain hunter, folks. 

Everyone take a deep breath on this, OK?  And oh -- Happy Holidays!

Tuesday's Number: $462,977

Tuesday is the day my local paper, the Syracuse Post-Standard, publishes the weekly business section. In addition to special features, tips from stock experts, budgeting advice and the like, we get the judgment and bankruptcy listings.

As I did for much of last year, I will be tracking health care related filings. I include anything that is clearly a debt owed to a hospital, nursing home, physician or physician group, medical supplier, and so on; I do not include filings by insurance companies, many of which are so diversified it would not be a fair assumption that the filing is related to medical care or health insurance.

This week, there were 15 people listed with new judgments to hospitals, doctors, or other medical providers totaling $462,977.

This week, there were no satisfied judgments to a hospital, doctor, or other medical provider listed.

And, this week, there were no health care related bankruptcies.  

The paper publishes only those accounts of at least $5,000.

The Sandy Hook Anniversary

Take time today to remember the names of those who were
so senselessly and tragically lost in the
Sandy Hook tragedy:

Charlotte Bacon, 6

Daniel Barden, 7

Rachel Davino, 29

Olivia Engel, 6

Josephine Gay, 7

Ana M Marquez-Green, 6

Dylan Hockey, 6

Dawn Hochsprung, 47

Madeline F Hsu, 6

Catherine V Hubbard, 6

Chase Kowalski, 7

Jesse Lewis, 6

James Mattioli, 6

Grace McDonnell, 7

Anne Marie Murphy, 52

Emilie Parker, 6

Jack Pinto, 6

Noah Pozner, 6

Caroline Previdi, 6

Jessica Rekos, 6

Avielle Richman, 6

Lauren Rousseau, 30

Mary Sherlach, 56

Victoria Soto, 27

Benjamin Wheeler, 6

Allison N Wyatt, 6

If you're interested in learning more about many of the folks whose names you see above, you can visit a new memorial website, mysandyhookfamily.org.

To learn more about initiatives aimed at preventing the causes of gun violence, please visit www2.sandyhookpromise.org. 

If you're so inclined, some of the families have asked for random acts of kindness today, as a way to honor the memories of their loved ones. 

And don't forget Nancy Lanza, 52, who also lost her life that day.

Thanks.

Blame the parents? Punish the parents

When you're 16, steal some beer, get absurdly drunk with your friends, then get behind the wheel and kill four people and seriously injure the aforementioned friends, do you blame your parents?  And if you manage to convince someone that it WAS your parents and your wealthy, no-consequences-apply upbringing that caused you to behave with reckless abandon, do you thank your parents, or do you just ignore them with abandon, as you do everything else?

News feeds are blowing up with this tale out of Texas, where everything is bigger, apparently including the balls of kids and parents and lawyers and judges.  Here's Ethan Couch, the innocent looking

Photo captured from Raw Story

beer-stealing, heavy drinking, Valium popping, drunken driving   killer who, according to his attorney, grew up with mean, manipulative, buy-your-way-out-of-trouble parents and so never learned how to say "I'm sorry" or how to behave in polite society.

Poor Ethan. Three hours after the accident, his blood alcohol level was still three times the legal limit. According to reports,

Couch was going 70 miles per hour in his father's Ford F-350 pickup in a 40-mph zone when he lost control and started a deadly chain of collisions that claimed the lives of 24 year old Breanna Mitchell, whose car had broken down on the side of the road; Hollie Boyles and her 21 year old daughter Shelby, who lived nearby and come outside to help Mitchell; and Brian Jennings, a youth pastor who was also playing the role of good Samaritan.

According to the psychologist who's known Poor Ethan since this past June (having begun treating him shortly after the accident), he didn't have any friends, he didn't know what high school he went to, or where he went to church.  He had essentially raised himself, his mother showering him with presents, his father a man who didn't "have relationships, he takes hostages" and there was a nasty divorce.  Intellectually, the psychologist said, Poor Ethan was 18; emotionally though, he was only twelve.

Poor Ethan. The kinder, gentler judge he had, the woman who decided not to send him to jail for 20 years as requested by the prosecution but instead to probation for ten years, believed what she was told by the defense and the psychologist, and thinks that intensive inpatient therapy is the answer. And 'Take Hostages' Daddy is willing to fork over $450K a year for the privilege of sending Poor Ethan across the country to California for treatment.

I guess it's only fair, since for a long time folks have been blaming bad behavior of poor people on their upbringing and lack of economic 'benefits' like the kind Poor Ethan had to deal with, and we've blamed the bad behavior of young men on them being raised by single moms, with no strong father figure in the picture, that we come full circle and now blame rich parents for the horrendous behavior of their kids.

But if we're going to blame Mommy and Daddy for Poor Ethan's behavior, why don't we punish them?  If they're responsible, make them pay for their ruined child's actions. Not the $450K to send Poor Ethan to camp in Cali. Let's make them pay in a way that is less pleasant for them. Clearly, throwing the kid away doesn't seem to be a big deal -- that's what they've already done if we believe the psychologist, defense attorney, and the judge.

First, let's find a place for Poor Ethan and his pathetic parents somewhere in Texas, preferably affiliated with the criminal justice system, where the survivors, the families of the victims, can keep an eye on them, and can visit them any time they want, day or night, and ask them what the hell they were thinking. Shout at them, or scream at them, or just sit and stare at them.  What the families do is up to them; that the parents and Poor Ethan are available for the activity is what's important.

Have all three of them attend this intensive, inpatient therapy that is supposedly going to be the answer to making the 'spoiled brat' a productive member of society.

Let's take away a boatload or ten of Daddy's money, and set up long term, ridiculously well funded accounts for the families of the four who were murdered; for the victim now left blinking incredulously at his sad fate; for all the other passengers in the truck; for the church left without its pastor; and for the school system that apparently so miserably failed Poor Ethan that he doesn't even know its name, so that they can figure out how never to let a child like this fall through the cracks again..

Let's make Mommy and Daddy perform 2000 hours of community service, together, during each of the ten years of Poor Ethan's probation. Yes, they must do the service together, so they can learn what they should have been doing as parents all those years when they were messing with Poor Ethan.

And, since if Poor Ethan fails to abide by the letter of the probation, he will end up in jail; to be fair, and just, so should Mommy and Daddy.

Oh, and Poor Ethan, who never learned how to say I'm Sorry, maybe this'll help:

I'm sorry, so sorry, that I was such a fool I didn't know love could be so cruel oh, oh, oh, oh, uh-oh, oh yes. You tell me mistakes are part of being young, but that don't right the wrong that's been done. 

 Poor Ethan.

Wage Wars

By a show of hands, how many of you are conflicted about the latest wage wars?  I'm not talking about CEO pay compared to employee pay, I'm talking about the minimum wage protests that are occurring at Walmarts and fast food restaurants across the country. Bueller? Anyone?

I readily raise my hand on this one.

In case you missed it, protests were organized last week by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and other labor groups. Much of the effort has been pushed towards this magical $15 hourly federal minimum wage, the thinking being that at that level, a person is making a living wage - over $31,000 annually for a full time job, compared to about half that at today's minimum.

Am I the only one that doesn't agree with the assumption (presumption?) that minimum wage earners are predominantly full time workers who need to make a 'living wage' in order to support themselves and their families?

Well, no. According to Bureau of Labor Statistics for 2012, here are your minimum wage employees:

• workers under age 25 make up about half of all minimum-wage workers
• about 21% of teenagers and about 5% of whites, blacks, and Hispanics who are paid hourly earn the federal minimum wage or less (which is legal in certain situations). 
• part-time workers are much more likely to earn minimum wages than are full-timers, and 
• so are never married people, and those without high school diplomas.

But, again according to the BLS data, the percentage of all hourly-paid workers who earn minimum wage in 2012 was 4.7%, down from 5.2% in 2011; these are nowhere near the high percentages that were seen back in the 1970's. (And, not for nothing, at least at one of the events in my neck of the woods, the protesters were not current minimum wage workers, but looked rather more like aging liberals who conceivably could have worked for minimum wage back in the day when that percentage was way up there.)

Another reason I'm conflicted is I don't understand how we can double the minimum wage without making corresponding changes in the wages paid to everyone else.  Here's an example from the local job listings; many of them don't include salary info, but I did find this ad which did:

Location: Syracuse NY Hourly $11 - $15 

Always seeking candidates with experience in Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Bookkeeping, Reconciliation and Payroll. Qualified candidates must have 2+ years of experience. Strong attention to detail, great organizational skills, computer proficiency including strong data entry skills and MS Word and Excel. Knowledge of specific accounting software a plus (QuickBooks, etc.). Pay DOE and level of skills. 

So, pretend you're working at the high end of the range in that ad, making $15 per hour with a corresponding set of skills/education/training, and suddenly you're on equal footing with a minimum wage worker.  If the work you were doing yesterday was worth about twice minimum wage, wouldn't it be worth about twice minimum wage today and tomorrow and the next day, even if some unions protested and politicians listened and randomly decided to double the minimum wage? Wouldn't you expect your employer to double your wage?

And wouldn't the same be true for the wages of the person earning $18 per hour? $20 per hour? $45 per hour? I don't think it really matters what the non-minimum wage salary is, it's hard not to think it should be doubled if the minimum wage is doubled. It's also hard not to think what it would do to our economy if suddenly wages doubled and prices went up accordingly to support them.

Another concern  -- call me crazy -- is that I don't trust politicians to make a change and do it logically. Why?  Well, let's look at New York, my home state. The minimum wage here will increase to $8 for 2014, and then move to $8.75 for 2015, and finally to $9 for 2016.  Sounds good, right?

Not so fast, my friends, not so fast. This is New York, after all.

To make the wage requirement more palatable to businesses, there's a 'minimum wage reimbursement credit' that we taxpayers will have to pay, in order to allow businesses to offer the higher base wages. From the Bloomberg Businessweek article:

Employers would be compensated at a rate of 75 cents an hour per employee when the minimum wage rises to $8 beginning next year, an election year.  Employers would get $1.31 an hour for workers paid minimum wage when it rises to $8.75 in 2015. When the minimum wage raises to $9 in 2016, employers would be subsidized $1.35 an hour for three years. 

So, to recap:  the NY State legislature, with the support of our Sonofa Governor Andrew Cuomo, increased the minimum wage but are making regular Janes and Joes pay for it, not just in the reimbursement credit, as they so delicately call it, but almost certainly in the higher prices that goods and services will cost once the minimum wage goes up. Do you wonder why I'm cynical? And conflicted?

Do I believe the minimum wage should be increased? Sure. The benefits, including the potential for folks to get out of safety net programs and instead be more economically productive members of society, are probably worth it.  And after all, if we are wiling increase other programs on a fairly regular basis (Social Security, for example, has an inflation multiplier), we should be willing to have regular, reasonable increases in the minimum wage.

Oh -- one more thing: there is no requirement for businesses to pay only the minimum wage. They are free to pay hourly employees what they like as long as it's at least the applicable federal minimum or state minimum, whichever is higher. Some businesses do, some don't, but ultimately they have the choice - and they'll likely base that choice on a combination of their business needs, their social compass, and our buying habits.

Maybe we should think about that the next time we the pull into a drive-through to grab something off the dollar menu.

Tuesday's Number: $426,319

Tuesday is the day my local paper, the Syracuse Post-Standard, publishes the weekly business section. In addition to special features, tips from stock experts, budgeting advice and the like, we get the judgment and bankruptcy listings.

As I did for much of last year, I will be tracking health care related filings. I include anything that is clearly a debt owed to a hospital, nursing home, physician or physician group, medical supplier, and so on; I do not include filings by insurance companies, many of which are so diversified it would not be a fair assumption that the filing is related to medical care or health insurance.

This week, there were 25 people listed with new judgments to hospitals, doctors, or other medical providers totaling $395,641.

This week, there were no satisfied judgments to a hospital, doctor, or other medical provider listed.

And, this week, there were two health care related bankruptcies, totaling $30,678.  

The paper publishes only those accounts of at least $5,000.

Tuesday's Number: $431,726

Tuesday is the day my local paper, the Syracuse Post-Standard, publishes the weekly business section. In addition to special features, tips from stock experts, budgeting advice and the like, we get the judgment and bankruptcy listings.

As I did for much of last year, I will be tracking health care related filings. I include anything that is clearly a debt owed to a hospital, nursing home, physician or physician group, medical supplier, and so on; I do not include filings by insurance companies, many of which are so diversified it would not be a fair assumption that the filing is related to medical care or health insurance.

This week, there were 24 people listed with new judgments to hospitals, doctors, or other medical providers totaling $431,726.

This week, there were no satisfied judgments to a hospital, doctor, or other medical provider listed.

And, this week, there were no health care related bankruptcies.  

The paper publishes only those accounts of at least $5,000.