High Medical Cost

Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013, 9am to 10:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

There is an excellent 90 minute movie about high medical cost, Escape Fire. This is an opportunity to try something different. The first half of the movie will be shown at our next meeting. This will give us 45 minutes of discussion time. We will show and discuss the second half of the movie in the followup session on Nov. 7.

The movie website has an issues page, HERE.

Income Inequality Followup

The Bain Center will be closed in the morning of Thursday, Oct. 24

Here is the local inequality for near Howard County. This was emailed by Ken and added as a comment to the previous post. Remember, from Norm's presentation, that the Gini Coefficient is between zero and one, where zero is perfect equality and one is perfect inequality.

First, here’s Howard County vs. nearby counties and other jurisdictions:

Rank	County	Median Household Income	Gini Coefficient
1	Loudoun County VA	$117,876	0.3670
2	Howard County MD	$108,844	0.3909
3	Fairfax County VA	$107,096	0.4229
5	Arlington County VA	$100,474	0.4294
11	Montgomery County MD	$94,965	0.4504
12	Prince William County VA	$93,744	0.3710
15	Charles County MD	$90,880	0.3937
18	Anne Arundel County MD	$89,179	0.4119
19	Calvert County MD	$87,449	0.4090
21	St Marys County MD	$86,358	0.3779
38	Alexandria city VA	$81,160	0.4404
39	Frederick County MD	$80,765	0.3827
42	Carroll County MD	$80,028	0.3858
90	Prince Georges County MD	$69,879	0.3951
116	District of Columbia	$66,583	0.5343
148	Baltimore County MD	$62,444	0.4396
713	Baltimore city MD	$39,241	0.5008

and then Maryland vs. other high-income states and the U.S. as a whole:

Rank	County	Median Household Income	Gini Coefficient
1	Maryland	$71,122	0.4473
2	New Jersey	$69,667	0.4718
3	Alaska	$67,712	0.4232
4	Connecticut	$67,276	0.4915
5	District of Columbia	$66,583	0.5343
6	Hawaii	$66,259	0.4257
7	Massachusetts	$65,339	0.4813
8	New Hampshire	$63,280	0.4298
9	Virginia	$61,741	0.4661
10	Minnesota	$58,906	0.4441
	United States	$51,371	0.4757

Income Inequality

Thursday, Oct. 17, 2013, 9am to 10:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Next week, we will start a new topic, Income Inequality. Norm will lead the discussion. Here is his preliminary list of issues we can talk about:

THE  FOLLOWING ARE TYPICAL QUESTIONS THAT WILL LIKELY BE DISCUSSED DURING THE SESSION ON October 17, 2013.

What is income anyway? 

What type of people are in the top and bottom income brackets?

What is a fair wage and how is it determined?  Do market forces matter?

Does income affect life expectancy? obesity? infant mortality?

Does income inequality affect our attitude, philosophy, ideology, health?

What advantages result from income inequality?  Disadvantages?

What is the Gini coeffieient and how is it calculated?

Can we reduce income inequality in a capitalist economy?  Should we? How?  Have other countries done so?  Is the US such an outlier we have no peers?

Why do portions of the lower 90% vigorously resist any effort to increase additional taxes on the top 0.1%’s?  Are the rich really job creators? Is it a fairness issue?  Undemocratic?  Would the additional tax diminish our entrepreneurial incentive to be 0.1%ers some day?

Suggested videos:

• Wealth Inequality in America
• Nick Hanauer: The Banned TED Talk
• Richard Wilkinson: How economic inequality harms societies
• Michael Sandel: Why we shouldn't trust markets with our civic life

Books on Inequality:

• The Price of Inequality, 2012, Joseph Stiglitz (Nobel Laureate)
• The Great Divergence, 2012, Timothy Noah
• Inequality and Instability, 2012 James K Galbraith
• Falling Behind, 2007, Robert H Frank

Zoom-In on Israel Palestine

For the Zoom-In session of the Israel-Palestine conflict, we will focus on two issues, US involvement and the way forward.

1) A good summary of US involvement in Israel can be found HERE in Wikipedia. I was surprised to learn that the US did not really get involved Israel until the 1967 war. Before then the Arabs look favorable on the US primarily because of its role in the Suez Crisis of 1956.

2) The best hope for the way forward seems to be in the growing non-violence movement in Palestine. The referenced article is about non-violent resistance advocated by the Palestinian National Initiative which is independent from Fatah or Hamas.

------------ 10/5 Update ----------

Michael, here are some of the things I would like to emphasize on Thursday (probably more than you had in mind:

    1.  Re article “Obstacles to Peace – Israel’s Duplicity” (which everyone should have received either by blog or in print):  A CHALLENGE:  If you can find one important agreement which Israel has made which it has not reneged on, I will take you to lunch (at McDonald’s or somewhat better); au contraire, if you can find nothing, you take me to lunch.  (Please re-read this article.)

    2.  Zionism vs Judaism (see “Hidden History of Zionism” and quotes from several prominent Jews.  The power of the Christian Zionists

    3.  Arab League Peace Plan of 2002.  Why did Israel not respond to this?

    4.  Is there something more insidious than US-Zionist organization (i.e., AIPAC, etc.) which makes the US so subservient to Israel?  (Ref. “Eisenhower’s Secret Wars,” in which he threatened Britain “ .. with a run on the pound which would drive it into the ground” PBS 3-  -13.  Can one country have that much control over another’s currency?

    5.  The US failure to stand up for its citizens who have been killed by Israel, including the USS Liberty victims

    6.  Hedges quote re “enticing children like mice into a trap.”  I will never forget this.

    7.  Non-Zionist Jews

    8.  US a “dishonest” broker – even though the US should have a lot of clout with Israel, it appears always that Israel is calling the shots.  (George Ball gives many instances of this.)

    9.  Zionist questionable practices in recruiting Jews to Israel (see Zionist Connection).  “False flag” operations

    10.  Palestinian demand, not so much for a “literal” right of return,  but rather a recognition that a wrong has been done them, and that they should have the right to travel freely within Palestine/Israel.

    11.  Israel’s power worldwide

    12.  designation of  “terrorist”(Palestinian) vs “freedom fighter”  (Zionist) e.g., assassination of Count Folke Bernadotte

    13.   US media bias

Dory

2013 Schedule for Zoom-In Discussion Group

Held on Thursday, 9am to 10:30 in the Bain Senior Center Meeting Room behind the fireplace.

Zoom-In is a Howard County SPRING group open to all who come to the Bain Senior Center. Seniors get together to discuss a preselected topic of interest. Two consecutive sessions are devoted to each topic. In the Overview Session, group members raise questions and give options on various issues related to the topic. Issues of special interest are selected for the follow-up Zoom-In Session for more detailed discussion.

The following topics were suggested by the members and selected based on a survey.

Topic	Overview Session	Zoom-In Session
Obama-Care	Sept. 19	Sept. 26
Israel and Palestine	Oct. 3	Oct. 10
Income Inequality	Oct. 17	Oct. 24
High Medical Cost	Oct. 31	Nov. 7
Tax Reform	Nov. 14	Nov. 21
Drones and Robots	Dec. 5	Dec. 12

For more information send an email to mhirasuna@gmail.com.

Background for Israel-Palestine Discussion

Thursday, Oct. 3, 2013, 9am to 10:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Dory will be leading the discussion on Israel-Palestine. You can share your thoughts and background material on this blog post. I found two interesting YouTube videos which take opposite sides of the issue. I'll let you guess which side is which.

Video 1,   Video 2

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From Dory:

    This article, which I wrote, was printed in the Frederick News-Post on February 26, 2011

Dory

 

 

Obstacles to peace:  Israel's Duplicity

    Apologists for Israel are frequently heard to complain that Israel is held to a different standard than other countries.  Well, this is certainly true, but not in the way they mean.

    Israel's violation of international laws is almost always totally overlooked, while focusing instead on comparing Israel favorably with "rogue" states.  Were Israel to be held to the same standards as we expect of most other countries, you would find that it falls far short of holding the high moral ground which it claims.  For example:

    1)  Zionists accepted with alacrity the portion of the Balfour Declaration of 1917 which "... viewed with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people," but ignored the stipulation that "...nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities."

    2)  Israel, in its 1948 Declaration of Israel's Independence, agreed to "... uphold the full social and political equality of all its citizens, without distinction of race, creed, or sex."  Instead, Israel's currently announced goal of being a "Jewish" state, with its insistence on being recognized as such, would preclude recognition of the equality of all its citizens, which would in effect establish the fact that Israel is in fact an ethnocracy, not a democracy.  (This is a primary reason for Israel's failure to draft an internationally-accepted Constitution, as it promised to do by October 1948.) *

    Even though Israel appeared to support the borders as prescribed by the United Nations in 1948, in reality it has never accepted them, even though the partition gave proportionally a much greater area of the Palestine Mandate to Israel than to Palestinians.  In fact, to date, Israel has not defined its borders, but has persistently aggrandized the territory it controls.  Ironically, most of the expansion of Israeli-controlled territory has occurred during the various peace "processes" which have been convened over these many years.

    Israel agreed with the provision for Jerusalem to be a UN-controlled open city, with access for all.  Israel (Netanyahu) now claims that Israel will never give up Jerusalem as an undivided Jewish city.

    3)  Israel is a signatory to the Fourth Geneva Convention adopted in 1949 which specifies:

      a) "The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies."  Ironically, this was done " ... to ensure that abuses practiced by the Axis powers could not be legally repeated." ** p.182.  This position has been supported  in principle by every U.S. president since then, but has been ignored by Israel.

         b) Israel is in violation of the prohibition against collective punishment, according to Amnesty International, Save the Children, B'tselem, and others.

        c) Israel is in violation of the prohibition against destroying real or personal property belonging individually or collectively to private persons.

    4)  Israel, in exchange for a seat at the United Nations, agreed to U.N. 194 as to the Right of Return of a people displaced by war, but has never abided by this agreement.

    5) Israel is in violation of U.N. 242, reinforced by U.N. 338, as to the prohibition against acquiring territory by war.

    6)  Israel is in violation of most of the 30 Articles of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  (www.hrusa.org)

 

    Israel has been cited for possible war crimes in its recent attack on Gaza.  The building of the "separation" wall which encroaches severely into Palestinian territory has been condemned by the International Court of Justice.  The apartheid system practiced by Israel has been condemned by Nelson Mandela and Bishop Desmond Tutu as being even more brutal than that of South Africa.***

 

        I think it is obvious that, were Israel to be held to the same international laws as is expected of other countries, that there would be no problem in arriving at a just solution to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

 

Notes:

*Declaration of Israel's Independence 1948

**"The Passionate Attachment, America's Involvement With Israel, 1947 to Present," by George S. Ball and Douglas B. Ball, W.S. Norton, 1992.

        UN 181 reference. p.38-39, and others - Ball

        UN 194, p.39, p. 231 - Ball

        Geneva Convention, p.182, - Ball

        Other U.N. resolutions - Ball, p.308

Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948

 "The Other Side of Israel," by Susan Nathan, Doubleday 2005.

"The Problem with Israel." by Jeff Halper, Israeli activist against demolition of Palestinian homes

"The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine," by Ilan Pappe, Oneworld Publications, 2006

"The Catastrophe (Al Nakba): How Palestine Became Israel," IfAmericansKnew.org

"Palestine Peace Not Apartheid," Jimmy Carter, 2007  "[T]he plight of the Palestinian people represents one of the most abhorrent cases of human rights oppression on Earth.  Forced from their homes and land and surrounded by walls, they live under a system of mandatory segregation, with passes required to reach their jobs, schools, pastures and fields.  A unique system of military justice deprives them of any legal ability to alleviate their suffering."

***"I am a black South African. If I were to changes the names, a description of what is happening in the Gaza Strip and West Bank could describe events in [apartheid] South Africa."  Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Many other books and articles

 

 

Zoom-In Topic Survey

Please indicate your interest by placing an H, M or L in front of each topic

  H - for high interest
  M - for medium interest
  L or leave blank - for low interest


Also indicate if you would like to lead any of these topics or a new topic not listed.
The topic leader is not expected to be an expert, just to raise interesting questions.
If you volunteer, remember that each topic is given two weeks.
Topics with volunteer leaders will be given preference in scheduling.



1) Health Topics

    __ Increasing longevity, good or bad?
    __ High medical cost
    __ Amazing new medical technology


2) Foreign Policy Topics

    __ End of Arab Spring, Egypt and Syria
    __ Yemen and al-Qaida
    __ Rise of China


3) Security Topics

    __ NSA surveillance and Internet privacy
    __ Cyber Security
    __ Use of drones


4) Political Topics

    __ Tax reform
    __ Guns in America
    __ Voting rights


5) Education Topics

    __ More respect for the teaching profession
    __ Public education, funding and student discipline
    __ High education cost, Internet alternatives


6) Economy Topics

    __ Causes and effects of income inequality
    __ Short term business incentives
    __ Taxes, subsidies and laws which favor the rich


7) Social Conscience Topics

    __ Criminal justice, prison population, mandatory sentencing
    __ Social conscience in hard times
    __ How society can shape an individual's conscience