Without question, there are economic realities, both good and bad, associated with driving. Most of us immediately focus on the cost of the car, its maintenance, the gasoline, registration, and the ever-increasing price of insurance. My father, who is a font of wisdom in all things mechanical, used to say the total for each car was approximately $5,000/year. Looking at … Read More
Europe, Oh Europe!
On January 1, 2002, the European Union debuted an ambitious new currency to rival, and even surpass, the mighty U.S. Dollar. This new money, dubbed “the Euro”, replaced schillings, francs, guilders, marks and markkas, punts, lira, escudos, pesetas and drachmas, relegating these national currencies to extinction. Nine years later, it appears that the Euro may be headed in the same … Read More
Class Warfare, Taxes, And The Social Contract
Elizabeth Warren, a candidate for the U.S. Senate from Massachusetts, recently responded to Republican charges that President Obama’s proposal to raise taxes on the wealthy constituted class warfare: “You built a factory out there? Good for you. But I want to be clear: you moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for; you hired … Read More
Picking Apples In Vermont
Apple picking in Vermont is a seasonal ritual, up there with summer vegetable gardens, lazy days fishing, hunting in season, and tapping the maple trees in the late winter. It’s part of what defines us as Vermonters, willing and able to hunt and gather beyond the grocery store. Unlike other parts of the country where collecting food at its source … Read More
The Accumulated Costs of September 11
While previous generations know exactly where they were when Kennedy was assassinated or the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, few of this generation will ever forget what they were doing on the morning of September 11, 2001, when terrorists crashed planes into the twin towers of the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania. Now we have passed … Read More
What Are You Prepared To Do?
Judging from the composition of the Gang of Twelve appointed by the House and Senate leadership in the wake of the default crisis, the coming deficit-reduction talks will consist of a great deal of “my way or the highway” rhetoric, and little or no compromise. As a result, painful across-the-board budget cuts are coming, cuts that will bite hard into … Read More
Defaulting On The National Debt
Greece, the birthplace of democracy, is known more today for widespread tax evasion, inefficient government bureaucracy, and a monumental national debt that now exceeds its annual gross domestic product (GDP). Austerity measures demanded by the European Union, including massive public service job cuts, huge tax increases, reductions in public pensions and wages, and selling off the country’s infrastructure to private … Read More
Cleaning Up After The Floods
While no one will ever mistake The Great Vermont Flood of 2011 for the biblical deluge, its stories will be told, and its effects will be felt, long after the waters recede. In the meantime, the damage reports are still being tallied, and we may never be able to put a precise price tag on all that has been lost. … Read More
Concierge Healthcare
For most of us these days, visiting the doctor is a choreographed exercise frantically reminiscent of The Flight of the Bumblebee. You sign in, pay the required fee, have your vital signs checked, and then wait in a room barely big enough for the examination table and two chairs for the doctor to arrive. He or she then spends the … Read More
Something Is Rotten In The State Of Pharmaceuticals
The life cycle of so-called miracle drugs, like that of the butterfly, is relatively short but altogether fascinating. Pharmaceutical companies spend millions researching, patenting and testing new medications that promise sufferers lives free from prior medical constraints. Upon the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of a new panacea, these corporations spend additional millions marketing the drug to doctors, hospitals … Read More