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POPSDoctors' Piecework: How Many Unnecessary Operations?
I’ve always thought when money is the bottom line, LOOK OUT! Health care is one of those touchy subjects that people would like to feel, money has no power over. How naive! When money is involved, forgetaboutit, you become a $ sign. I once worked for a funeral home and I was amazed how money was the bottom-line. This creative industry didn’t like, waiting for people to die to make their bucks, so they devised something called pre-need funeral contracts. It’s a contract signed by a consumer who agrees to pay installments on goods and services to assure they have the paraphernalia needed to get rid of their earthly remains upon death. The funeral directors (salesmen) get paid a commission on what they sell. So they try to sell the most expensive items (much like car salesmen) to prospective customers often, resulting in aggressive, hard selling. It’s disgusting, but not as bad as doctors convincing patients to undergo unnecessary procedures to increase their OWN wealth. THAT’S SICK!
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POPSThe Predator Insurance Company The breathless tone of statements like the one below seem to suggest it is news that insurance companies want to make money. The reason we would rely on insurance companies whose business model is to "target coverage on the healthy and delay payments to the sick" is that the people buying insurance have the opposite incentives and we think that both parties in a free market will set the price at the most efficient level, the level that reflects the actual scarcity value of the goods and services being traded. It is like saying why let the prices of shares be set by stock brokers since they just want buy low and sell high? Because the people selling them have the opposite incentives and we think the price that results from their exchange will best reflect the underlying values of the goods involved.
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POPSSelect Comfort Sleep Number mattresses and beds by Select Comfort The air-chamber technology of the Company's Sleep Number bed allows adjustable firmness on each side of the mattress.
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POPS'Stimulus' not working - 473,000 jobs cut from payrolls in June It seems like Obama is really set on destroying the American economy with his cap and trade energy tax, his taking over healthcare, and his “stimulus” spending. In 2012, we’re all going to like super-hate Obama and be like, “Let’s get rid of the bum!” But when we get to voting booths, they’ll be like, “I’m sorry, but the country is completely out of money and we can’t afford any ballots.”
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POPSCO2 Taxes Will Conviscate Billions In Revenue Out Of Thin Air 
Cap & Trade: Political Alchemy, Economy Buster & Disaster for Poor These increased costs will include the heating and cooling of individual American households and an even greater expense will be incurred by businesses. Again, those who will suffer most from Cap & Trade legislation will be the American public. There will be higher expenses at the grocery store, at appliance dealers, hair salons, auto repair shops...it goes on and on. Every business in the United States will see its costs go up significantly, resulting in grossly accelerated inflation, a loss of thousands of jobs in the energy industry alone and other untold millions of Americans will suffer a direct financial impact because of Obama's misguided Cap & Trade legislation. THE REALITIES OF CAP & TRADE UNTESTED Perhaps the greatest misnomer regarding Cap & Trade is the idea America will quickly shift from the use of fossil fuels--like coal, natural gas and fuel oil--
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POPSConsumer Advocacy The aim and goals of consumer advocates and as to how they are a big help to consumers on realizing their consumer rights. So as to protect consumer from fraud and unfair rights.
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POPS2009 Food Trends: Organic-Natural-Sustainability To date market data has led IRI to conclude these trends in consumer packaged goods (CPG). * Information Resources, Inc. (IRI) is the world’s leading provider of enterprise market information solutions and services, empowering its clients to grow their business profitably in a complex marketplace.
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POPS‘New’ US shopper to emerge from crisis What should we call this new type of buyer, who is no longer defined by his desire and ability to consume? Does everybody become a trader /dealer in their own right buying and selling goods and services on the basis of need, rather than greed? Survivors? Those who don't survive will not be there anyway. Note the sources of the 'new consumer' idea. It is very main-stream, now . We were predicting this trend in 2002 in our report entitled, Consumers: Going for Broke, which also as it happens predicted the credit crunch and the current sharp reversal in economic fortunes.
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POPSMovement Conservatism: The G.O.P. - Selling Social Policy as a Commodity indifference to learning from experience and adjusting accordingly is a central characteristic of movement conservatism. Examples: Resistance to forming a 9/11 commission (Bush administration) Resistance to learning what went wrong during Hurricane Katrina ( John McCain); The term Flip-Flopping, (one can never form a new opinion or idea based upon new experience or information;
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POPSThe Return of the Robber Barons Another deceit is the measure called “core inflation.” This measure of inflation excludes food and energy, two large components of the average family’s budget. Wall Street and corporations and, therefore, the media emphasize core inflation, because it holds down cost of living increases and interest rates. In the second quarter of this year, the Consumer Price Index (CPI), a more complete measure of inflation, increased at an annual rate of 5.2 per cent compared to 2.3 per cent for core inflation. An examination of how inflation is measured quickly reveals the games played to deceive the American people. Housing prices are not in the index. Instead, the rental rate of housing is used as a proxy for housing prices. More games are played with the goods and services whose prices comprise the weighted market basket used to estimate inflation. If beef prices rise, for example, the index shifts toward lower priced chicken.
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POPSThe Value of Money George Washington was paid a salary of $25,000 a year from 1789 to 1797 as the first president of the United States. The current salary of the president has recently been doubled to $400,000, to go with a $50,000 expense account, a generous pension and several other benefits. Has the remuneration improved? Making a comparison using the CPI for 1790 shows that $25,000 corresponds to over $585,000 today, so the recent raise means current presidents have an equal command over consumer goods as the Father of the Country. When comparing Washington's salary to an unskilled worker, or the measure of average income, GDP per capita, then the comparable numbers are $11 and $24 million. Granted that would not put him in the ranks of the top 25 executives today that make over $200 million. It would, however, be many times more than any elected official in this country is paid today.
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POPSCan Tax Rebates Really Prevent An Economic Downturn? If all works according to plan, more jobs will lead to more spending and thereby keep the economy from slipping into a recession. The theory behind reinvigorating capitalist economies with tax rebates is a lot like the idea of overcoming static friction, which you might remember from high school physics. When economic growth is stopped, it needs a large force to get it started, which the tax rebates theoretically provide. From then on, the hope is that all it will need are free-market forces to keep it going. Inside this Article 1. Can tax rebates really prevent an economic downturn? 2. How is a tax rebate plan implemented? 3. Criticism of Tax Rebate Plans 4. Lots More Information 5. See all Money & Economic Basics articles
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POPSLow Spending Is Taking Toll on Economy "Growth" is now clearly a meaningless concept. On the necessities side -- food, fuel etc. -- inflation is counted as "growth". (No more food or fuel is being produced or used.) This is balanced against deflation and recession in the discretionary economy, and is interpreted as positive growth. These are two different phenomena and cannot be added together in a meaningful way. Yet achieving this growth is what economics is supposed to be all about. Just another reason why the so-called science of economics is literally nonsense and innumerate to boot.
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POPSSupport The Cell-Phone Tax Fairness Act Say NO to New Discriminatory State and Local Wireless Taxes and Fees - FOR 5 YEARS!! YOU CAN HELP TODAY by encouraging your U.S. Representative and your Senators in Washington to support and co-sponsor the "Cell Tax Fairness Act of 2008," recently introduced legislation that will freeze all new discriminatory state and local wireless taxes for five years. Tell your friends, and contact your lawmakers today. http://www.mywireless.org/celltaxletter/
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POPSLeftist economic rationale Just couldn't believe this was "fit to print". The rich and middle class buy 2nd and 3rd homes, recreational vehicles, 2nd,3rd and 4th automobiles, vast amounts of consumer electronics, entertainment, untold numbers of goods and services, travel, they donate vasts amounts into their communities and they continue to buy and consume without incurring debt. They also invest in others on a daily basis. Not only that, the rich are not a finite few. You have to shake your head at the abject level of acuity involved in thinking economic issues in America are zero-sum. There are so many problems with this quote and article that it is unfathomable the depth of illogic. Not to mention the petty resentment and hatred that must infect the mind of such a person with this kind of bigoted outlook on fellow Americans who have worked hard and achieved.
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POPSSelling Solar Symbolism Interesting note on the use of historic concepts of spirituality (light and the Sun / Son) transformed into corporate logos to sell goods and services.
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POPSSupport a Cell Phone Tax Moratorium Say NO to all Unfair, New State and Local Wireless Taxes and Fees - FOR 3 YEARS!! Please E-Mail Your Representatives And Senators To Freeze Wireless Taxes Please support legislation to enact a Cell Phone Tax Moratorium. The bill places a 3-year freeze on all new, discriminatory state and local taxes on wireless service. Allowing me to keep a little more of my hard-earned money in these uncertain economic times would be greatly appreciated.
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POPSCan You Really Make Money Doing What You Love? In this video, Alex Mandossian talks about how he took his annual income into his monthly income using a phone, mouth and a message. His other site is http://www.taketeleseminarsecrets.com He talks about how to teleseminar, teleseminar basics, teleseminar secrets, teleseminar com and internet marketing.
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POPSTeleseminar Secrets Finally Revealed! Teleseminar Secrets teach you how make money, even when you are using free teleseminars. Learn Tested teleseminar basics that Create Winning Info Products From Scratch Grow Massive Prospect Lists … And Accelerate Your Personal Wealth By Unlocking The Power Of Your Telephone!! http://www.squidoo.com/taketeleseminarsecrets/
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POPSDefining the Luxury Consumer | Who Are They? As Trend Agitator tracks the future of global luxury, we note this definitive identity of high-worth consumers as provided by the Luxury Institute: The top 10% wealthiest U.S. Households based on Net Worth 11 million households who can choose to live a 360-degree luxury lifestyle Own 70% of all the wealth in the U.S. Average net worth of $3.1 million Average annual income of $256,000 Earn 45% of the aggregate annual income in the U.S. For most luxury goods and services firms, these are the 20% or less of the clients who deliver 80% of the profits.
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