DadTalk

Health Care Expenses Exceed Housing, Food, Times Reports

“ ‘The kid isn’t that sick; her temperature is only 102.’ ”
– Dr. Richard Lander, a pediatrician in Livingston, N.J. explaining how parents are responding to rising health insurance costs.

Rising gas prices are an inconvenience. There are ways around higher food prices, however unpalatable. But how do families cope with rising health care costs when it is too costly for Americans and their children?

It’s hard for me to fathom, but consumers are now spending more money on health care than food or housing, reports The New York Times:

Since the recession of 2001, the employee’s average cost of an annual health care premium for family coverage has nearly doubled – to $3,300, up from $1,800 – while incomes have come nowhere close to keeping up. Factor in other out-of-pocket medical costs, and the portion of the average American household’s income that goes toward health care has risen about 12 percent, according to the consulting and accounting firm Deloitte, and is now approaching one-fifth of the average household’s spending.

Scenes From Immigration Rally

I brought my camera with me for a work-related project before realizing it was May Day, which means Immigration Rally.

Since 2007, I’ve watched the rallies directly from my place of work. In 2006, I was in Los Angeles. This and last year, the protesters passed in front of my office window.

Since working in the financial sector, I’ve heard a handful of derogatory and distasteful remarks about immigrants, especially Hispanics. But the rally was peaceful, at least, when it passed my vantage point on Jackson Boulevard.

I’ve included more photos on the jump.

More Moms Try Nursing

More American mothers tried breast feeding, though they’re not sticking with it, reports The New York Times on a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study. The 77 percent rate of moms who attempt nursing is a high point.

By six months, though, most women have given up on nursing despite health organizations urging moms to continue for up to 2 years. (For the record, Seth and Lael were nursed for about 2 years.) Studies have shown that breast feeding can pass numerous health benefits on to children.

Perhaps the most interesting tidbit comes at the end of the article:

Dr. (Barbara) Philipp said that while doctors and nurses were doing a better job of emphasizing the benefits of breast-feeding to patients, most continue to offer new mothers free diaper bags containing infant formula when mothers go home with their newborns.

“That’s a problem because at least five studies have shown that when a doctor or nurse hands the family that bag, even if they take the formula out, that mother will have less success with breast-feeding,” Dr. Philipp said.

Are You an Economic Optimist or Realist?

Why are some humans optimists and others pessimists? I was discussing this question with an acquaintance on my bus to work last week.

My theory: optimists often don’t see or simply ignore the downside to trying out a new restaurant, athletic fete or business.  A pessimist – though I substitute the word realist – viscerally sees the downside to new and old ideas.

Without optimists, we’d still be riding horse and buggies (or walking), the moon might never have been explored and supercolliders never built. Without realists, planes would fall from the sky and even worse politicians would be elected to office.

No place is the tug of war between optimists and realists more evident than the economy and the housing market. Here’s the historical smack down:

Ramblings on Sustainability, Economy and Pricey Shoes

While hunched over sick with the flu on the train ride home last week, I overheard this nugget from a fashionably-dressed, middle-aged woman talking to another:

“I don’t care what they’re made of, a pair of $16,000 shoes cannot be called ‘sustainable.’”

Both ladies were dressed in a style I would call, Green Green – that is, costly, yet fashionable “natural” clothing.

I’ve long wrestled with the idea of maintaining a “sustainable” lifestyle. During my 11 years in Arizona, I tried biking to my job. Considering that my work day started at 2 p.m. and ended at midnight – I had a four-day workweek back then – it didn’t work well.

Biking in when it was 110 degrees left me sticky with salt and I didn’t like how my shirt would stick for the rest of the day. Biking home at midnight left me unable to fall asleep for hours. Sustainability is a great concept, but it is a lot tougher to execute than is sometimes practical.

Worse, there are often those pesky unintended consequences. None is more obvious than skyrocketing food prices, caused in part by the need to use corn and other plant material to make biofuels, reports Paul Krugman of The New York Times.

Here’s a sample:

Recalls Magnets Pose Danger in 870,000 Dart Boards

I’ve been quiet on this front for a while, but it’s hard to ignore when 870,000 dart boards are recalled because the small magnets can fall out and be eaten by children. Although there have been no reports of injuries with this toy, magnets can rip through intestines after being swallowed.

Similar dart boards were recalled in February and in March, MEGA Brands recalled 2.4 magnet toys, according to Consumer Reports.

The Chinese-made toys in this week’s recall were sold from September 2002 through March 2008 at Family Dollar stores nationwide, reports the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

A Tale of Two Americas: Dropouts vs. College Bound

The article you are about to read is nothing new. And that’s the problem.

A new report shows that less than 50 percent of students graduate from high school in 17 of America’s largest cities, reports The Associated Press via Education Week. As I said, no surprise, but troubling nonetheless.

Even nationally, only about 70 percent of high school students graduate on time with a regular diploma, reports AP. About 1.2 million teens nationwide drop out annually.

In some cities, the numbers are so bad, it’s difficult to comprehend:

High School Graduation Rates (percent)
24.9 || Detroit
30.5 || Indianapolis
34.1 || Cleveland

Although we live in a place called the United States of America, it is anything but. Consider that elite colleges are turning away over-qualified kids in droves, reports The New York Times.

Eating Foreign Produce Kills Birds?

Sometimes the forces of sustainability, organics and eating healthy do not get along harmoniously. Take for example my recent article about eating cantaloupes in the winter where I reveal that I’m a fresh produce freak. I eat frozen only because I have to and I can only eat so many root vegetables before I start to lose my mind. Just like this guy at The Chicago Tribune.

One of my big comprises since coming to Chicago: I’ve become a little more flexible about non-organic produce. Sometimes, foods that I crave simply are not available in the organic form. Which is worse: re-hydrated starch or foreign-grown, non-organic fruit and vegetables?

More and more – and to my great dismay – it looks like the latter is worse. Biology Prof. Bridget Stutchbury warns that pesticide use in Latin American countries is skyrocketing to meet American demand for fresh produce year round. Worse, these countries use chemicals not approved in the United States, Stutchbury writes in The New York Times.

The chemicals are not only dangerous to humans, but to northern songbirds that travel south for the winter, reports Bridget. “Testing by the United States Food and Drug Administration shows that fruits and vegetables imported from Latin America are three times as likely to violate Environmental Protection Agency standards for pesticide residues as the same foods grown in the United States,” she writes.

This goes to my belief that resolving seemingly simple environmental, health and sustainability issues will not be easy by any measure:

• How do you get cars and trucks off the road if cities are vast?
• How do you build a computer without using toxic compounds?
• How do we feed the world if we’re going to use corn and sugar to make electricity?

Every action has complicated, unpredictable chain reactions. It seems there is no white knight to slay the evil lord. After all, the white knight’s armor is made of hardened, non-recyclable, plastic.

Effort to Stop Housing, Credit Bailout Plans Is an Uphill Battle

A battle for the hearts and minds of Americans has begun. No, I’m not taking about American Idol.

This battle is filled with arcane terminology, numerous moving parts and seemingly no clear “right” answer.

I’m speaking of course, about bailouts being proposed for homeowners and financial institutions. But before we talk about bailouts, we should ask ourselves these questions:

• Should we keep homeowners, who are stretched beyond their means, in houses they can’t afford?
• Should we let borrowers lose their homes and see what happens in the marketplace?
• Should we treat subprime borrowers differently than prime?
• Should we allow large financial firms to fail?
• Are we damaging capitalism, and thereby the economy by bailing out either group?
• Will our children shoulder a bigger tax and inflationary burden if we bail everyone out?
• Or will the situation be worse if we don’t?

It Takes a Village to Raise Bullies

I’m beginning to believe that bullying is not a problem of two parents and a child; it seems to be a problem of entire communities.

When a bully named Scott targeted me in junior high (middle school), it wasn’t just him. It was Scott, his six friends and the school’s principal.

One day, Scott informed me during the bus ride to school that he wanted to beat me up. His anger toward me was intense, but I never knew why.

Word got out by late morning that there was going to be a big fight off campus. Being shy at that age, I had told no one.

Toward the afternoon, the principal caught me in the hallway and told me that if I fought, I’d be suspended or thrown out of school. I told him that I didn’t want to fight, but that Scott and company planned to gang up on me at my bus stop.

“That’s your problem,” the principal said. “Just get out of the fight.”