Stop Coddling the Super-Rich - NYTimes.com

Warren Buffet wrote this editorial:

Stop Coddling the Super-Rich - NYTimes.com

I agree that the tax laws should be rewritten to make sure that the super-rich don't pay less taxes than everyone else. It probably would be fair if they paid a higher percentage, in fact.

New drug could cure nearly any viral infection - MIT News Office

If this works, this is what the world needs now! New drug could cure nearly any viral infection - MIT News Office

If DRACO can be shown to "cure" any viral disease, our only problem will be control of human population!

International Assisted Living for baby-boom generation

As we baby-boomers get older, and need more care and assisted living, it might make sense to provide incentives for us to move to countries where there is lots of relatively inexpensive labor, instead of importing help into the US. There are a lot of countries with plenty of people with experience in care-giving. It is very labor-intensive to care for sick and disabled.  I don't think the US will have enough labor available to properly care for "my generation" as we get into our 80s -- we will have to import labor. Does it make sense to import care-givers into the US?  Or more sense to move the patients to other countries?  

We're already recruiting (stealing) nurses and doctors from countries all over the world (particularly English-speaking countries).  I think it is disgusting that the US doesn't have enough nursing schools or medical schools, and that we end up taking them from poorer countries that have put up their resources and tax money to train medical practitioners to help their own country.  

Mexico, South Africa, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Panama, Philippines would be good locations.  It could be a win-win situation:  The US reduces the overall medical cost, and the other country picks up labor-intensive jobs.   I can envision beautiful assisted living buildings along the Mexico coast, with views, pools, therapy/exercise facilities, and dining facilities.  If the places had excellent internet (Skype), relatives could easily make daily virtual visits, view medical charts, talk to caregivers etc.  A big screen TV in every room equipped with camera/microphone (many now have those features) would allow that to work very easily. 

Tourism to those areas might also increase, since families may travel to "visit grandma" and make it a vacation. 

Before anyone would do that, I believe US citizens would want the facilities to be certified to close to US standards.  The doctors, nurses and caregivers would need to meet standards, and the finances would have to be properly accounted to be able to accept US gov't Medicare payments.  Probably the facility employees would all need to meet a minimum English language proficiency.  I would expect the facilities and employees to be inspected and audited by local government, and also have an annual inspection and audit by US experts as well.  Rankings and scores from inspections would need to be made available to US public for use when choosing facilities and comparing costs. 

However, I think it will take a serious Government-to-Government agreement to lay the necessary groundwork and plan for implementation in the next 10 years.  Once the baby-boom dies off, the population demographic will be more "smooth" --so some of those facilities may be converted to hospitality/recreation/vacation homes. Other countries and businesses will not want to make the huge investment in training, construction etc, without a committment from the US that business will come their way if they meet the necessary certifications.  


Here's an article: The Price of Aging: Will It Break National Budgets? - DailyFinance

On-Line Appointment & Reservation Service

So many businesses and services need a reservation service to help manage queues. It seems that a company such as Yahoo, AOL or Google would be able to develop a site that would allow everyone--including small businesses, to book reservations for appointments or services. People trying to make appointments should be able to search and find open time slots, and make confirmed appointments using their PC or Smart Phone. Service providers would have to upload their availability, and should be able to choose options on how appointments should be made: For example: they could require people to use their credit card to make the appointment subject to a "no-show" fee, if the service provider desires. They may want to provide a logo for customer to see, they may require "new customers" to do something different than "repeat customers" The appointment length might be different depending upon the service selected etc.

I could see the service be used by doctors, therapists, lawyers, hair salons, barbershops, tax preparers, CPAs, escrow & title companies, financial advisors, engineering consultants, city services (building permits, for example), auto inspection & repair, etc.

Obviously, the scheduling button should be located on the businesses web site, but it could also come up with searches. For example, If I want to have my car smog-tested on Thursday at 1PM--could the search engine find the nearest business that has an opening at that time slot? Right now, there is no way of doing that search, that I know of.

Eventually, it could be operated similar to "pay per click" in that businesses would pay per appointment made & confirmed. Businesses would eventually save money because they could eliminate a administrative task.

Website for Homeowner Association Balloting

It amazes me how easy it is to vote my common stock proxies via proxyvote.com. The system seems very secure, so that corporations don't fear that ballots could be forged or altered. Millions of shares are voted daily with confidence.

However, for homeowner associations--particularly in California, we are saddled with a complex "double envelope" system that requires signatures on the outside of the first envelope etc. Depending upon the CC&Rs and Bylaws, many associations are required to hire outside experts to act as "Inspector of Election" and oversee the counting of ballots. It seems to me that we badly need a good, secure web site, operated similarly to proxyvote, where an association could operate an election.

I envision the web site to allow an association to upload a list of owner's names, addresses, and e-mail addresses -- current as of the "cut off" date for the election. The association would pay a fee --per owner, and then upload the ballot issues. The web service would mail & e-mail ballots to all owners, and accept both e-mail and snail mail ballots. Hopefully most owners would vote via e-mail.