Happy 48th Medicare

On July 30, 1965 at Independence MO President Johnson signed Medicare into law.  Present at the ceremony was President Truman who had first proposed national health care legislation in 1945. Truman received the first Medicare card.

Today around 50 million Americans rely on Medicare for some part of their health care.  It is estimated that Medicare has reduced the poverty rate for the elderly by 2/3rds. It is hard to imagine where a lot of our people over 65 would be without Medicare.  Not many people have the resources at that age to afford to pay for all of their health care. I suppose that one could say that if they can't pay than they can just suffer.  Myself I am glad that there is a program like Medicare, that while not being perfect does do a great deal to help reduce suffering.

I was only nine when Medicare was passed, however I can remember some people saying how it would ruin the country.  I suppose I remember because of how vehement the opposition was.  The emotional tone that I remember from that time reminds me of some of the current feeling about the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act - also called Obamacare. Myself I didn't care for the law too much since I tend to favor a single-payer system, since that seems to work in most every other developed nation.  Still I am willing to give it a chance in that it might be at least a start toward something better - and it wouldn't take much to be better than what we have now.  Hopefully things will work out as well as they did with Medicare.

I don't remember Medicare ever getting tagged with a name like JohnsonCare.  And maybe memories of LBJ would be kinder if he was more associated with things like Medicare and Civil Rights instead of the Vietnam War.  If the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act does become successful and popular than those in opposition may regret that the gave it the label ObamaCare.

Glory Daze Danville IL

Visited Glory Daze antique store for the first time on Saturday. Didn't find anything that I wanted, however that wouldn't keep me from going back.  The store is first rate with a nice variety of items.  On the stores web site it says it opens at 10:00 am, however the sign on the door says 9:00.  Which was a good thing since I was there at nine. The store is at 142 North Vermilion in downtown Danville Illinois.  Downtown Danville seems to be looking up.  It appears that there has been some streetscaping since the last time I visited. 

Glory Daze has a first floor and a basement.  Here are a few views of the first floor.

There also is a basement.

Garage Sales July 2013

 The woman above was out by the street promoting her garage sale.  First time I can remember seeing anything like that as part of a garage sale. 

So far it has been a fairly lackluster garage sale season for me.  I have not seen many cameras of any kind. Not even the cheap plastic give-away cameras that were once a frequent sight. 

Hopefully, things will pick up once August comes around.  The main town around here is a University town and things tend to be slow in June and July. So right now I am taking a few pictures at the sales, but not finding much of interest to buy.

I did find this radio at a sale, however I haven't found much info on it.  It was made by Marvel, a Japanese company not connected to the the maker of comic books.  It was probably made in the 1960's. This type of radio was popular when I was a kid in the 1960's. Stick one in your pocket and use an earphone, and you might get away with listening to the radio in class. It does still work on a 9 volt battery.  I would guess it is not valued at much more than the couple of dollars that I paid for it. Some of these small transistor radios are in fairly high demand especially when they have a pleasing appearance and are in good shape. Not many small items evoke the spirit of an era more effectively.

What the Drug Trade May Teach About Economics

Every since the days when Ronald Reagan decided to give up selling Borax I have heard a lot about encouraging the supply side of the economy. Part of the theory it seems is that we should make it as easy as possible for those who make goods and services. Taxes for these people should be low and hoops should be wide. If we do all this the economy will prosper and even the lowest of the low will benefit.  To some extent this plan has been followed at least at the federal level.  Today taxes on the higher tax brackets are much lower than they were in the 1950's and 1960's.  How much this has contributed to general prosperity isn't all that obvious to me at least.  It does seem to have succeeded in making the rich much richer than they used to be.  Which may have been the real plan all-along.

During this time one group of suppliers has been left out of the party.  Still it appears that they have done well anyway.  The suppliers of illegal drugs have received no encouragement from the government. Aside from the help that some suppliers got from the government with selling drugs to help raise money for Reagan's war against the Contras, the government has usually been very unhelpful to illegal drug suppliers.   And not only has the government not been helpful to this group of suppliers they have actively been fighting a war against them for decades.  Prisons in the US are bulging with former employees of the illegal drug enterprise. 

Still despite the best efforts of our government to ruin their business, the sellers of illegal drugs appear to be thriving.  They are pulling in enough cash to have destabilized and even gained control of substantial parts of many nations to the south of the US.  And probably in the US they may have more influence than most of us would care to know about. At least the illegal drug industry doesn't seem to need the government to get out of it way to thrive.  They have thrived in spite of the government spending billions and billions and then more billions to get in their way. 

And the key to the sellers of illegal drugs seems to be demand.  There are a lot of people out there with cash in hand wanting to buy what they have.  Because there is money to be made there is always someone who will step up to give people what they want.  One drug seller goes down and another steps in.  Such is the power of demand. 

So maybe we ought to rethink this idea of having to cuddle the "productive class".  It looks like if there is a demand for a product or service then someone will make it.  It may not be the ones who are currently doing so however if the demand remains someone will work to satisfy it.  So maybe the next time you hear someone whine about the government killing their business you should point to the example of the enterprising sellers of illegal drugs.  They get along okay while having the government interfere with their business more than the typical businessperson would envision in his worst nightmare.

So this is my first opinion post here. My hope is to put out some ideas as they pop into my head that seem to me to be outside the area where our minds often go.

Timeless Treasures in Savoy IL

I decided to start a new blog that I can post anything to.  My other blog is mostly film photography.  I might even occasionally give some opinions about issues of the day in this place.  Still to start off I have some views of a fairly new shop, Timeless Treasures in Savoy IL. From the outside the place doesn't look like it could have much, however there is more space inside than I would have thought.  When I visited it was a clean, well-organized shop with pretty good variety.

I imagine that these jugs and crocks were like the tuperware of its day.  I remember my father using a crock to make sauerkraut and beet wine.

I am just guessing that this stove burned coal. Although some people still used coal furnaces when I was a kid I don't remember anyone cooking with anything other than a gas or electric stove.

Most shops have some space for Christmas all year round.  Timeless Treasures had a good assortment of vintage Christmas stuff when I was there.

Fans like this were still pretty common 40 years ago. A good strong fan like this was quite a relief back before air conditioning became common.

There aren't many things that can make me feel more like an old-timer than seeing phones like these being sold in an antique shop. Such phones are still an image that will pop into my mind when I think of a telephone.  Of course to most young people today they probably look like a crank phone looks to someone of my vintage.

 













































Lastly, another of the once probably special images that has ended anonymous and on sale.