Re-Gain

Americans have yet to address healthcare efficiency as a priority. Health care reform offers an enormous potential for boasting the economy's prospects. If we can emulate Canada and only spend 11% of GDP on health care we would save $950 billion a year. [1]   In the last five years I have been taking care of all aspects of my Dad’s affairs.     The estimated economic value of unpaid work by some 42 million family caregivers in 2009 was $450 billion according to AARP. ...the total Medicare spending in that same years was $509 billion ...nearly $ 3 trillion was estimated in lost wages, social security benefits, private pension for men over fifty caring for their parents. Met-life estimates roughly $350k for woman and $284K lost for man for a typical fifty -years and over caring for their parents. [2]   Due to being self-employed just a few hours a week has allowed me insight as my father’s advocate.    A large part of my father’s life was...

Recently a friend of mine asked me to talk to another friend about climate change.  Friend X, a highly educated individual does not believe that humans impact our weather.   So my response was three-fold.  First, I would challenge friend X to see what our military has observed in the last few years.  Secondly talk to the other experts where roughly 97% of the scientific community agreed on such a thing in the past.   Finally, let’s see what the insurance and financial industry experts say about this warming.  Several years ago a number of retired generals and security experts presented national-security study. Using the military's risk-assessment practices, 11 retired generals and admirals issued a report saying that climate change creates massive instability around the world. " The impacts of climate change will be huge — deserts move north, coastal areas threatened, the dislocation of people ," said retired Adm. T. Joseph Lopez, who ...

Advancements in weather and economic modeling are documenting the cost of man-made carbon dioxide and other pollutants.   The White House is concerned of the financial concerns of climate change. The White House Budget Chief, Shaun Donovan, comments below; …global economic output could suffer by about 0.90 percent in the United States that would amount to whacking of gross domestic product by $150 billion a year.  And as the Great Recession demonstrated, “even small reductions in real GDP can dramatically reduce federal revenue, drive our deficits and impact the government’s ability to serve the public,”… 1 Conserving certainly can lessen our nearly $18 trillion national debt.  Also we can invest in new economic development program to combat this human environmental crisis. According to the American Geophysical Union, 80 percent of the increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere since 1700’s has occurred in the 20th and 21st centuries. Also the Pew Center on G...

When the well runs dry, we know the worth of water.   Ben Franklin California’s mega-drought serves as a reminder how precious our water resources are.   Many Americans are unaware what ground water is.   The stuff that creates life below the subsurface like the water that is stored in a potted plant.   Today we are depleting out of the ground H20 that has enormous impact on future reserves since to water is limited and requires time to recharge.  Throughout the world, clean water is becoming the most precious resource.   Half of the world’s population -- or three billion people -- live without access to safe drinking water.   With an estimated 2 billion additional people to be born in the next 30 years, good water will be even scarcer.   Here and worldwide, record droughts and water shortages are forcing us to reexamine water use. Four trillion gallons of water fall daily in America, much of which runs off or is evaporated.   ...

Conserving is a virtue.  Saving translates into wise living. "Eco" comes from the Greek meaning house and it is time we best put our house in better order. When we waste less then collectively we prosper more. I have been fortunate to be a participant in several conservation tipping points.  I have observed that we Americans are reexamining our wasteful habits. However our culture of consumption needs to be readdressed with a longer time frame in mind. Our challenge is to invest in future accountability by better resource management.  Just as we create a financial retirement plan so may we secure our future natural capital. There is a green awakening where Americans wish to lessen our debt, waste and ignorance. Recovering these assets will minimize our liabilities.  Also we will discover how important it is for us to cooperate together and create new opportunities. One perfect example of how we must become more accountable is how we can best manage the by-produ...