tonyz
04-10-2020, 08:22
The China Virus is a giant wake up call on so many levels.
The pathway to national survival requires that we be producers - not merely fat and happy consumers.
And, as this healthcare crisis illustrates there is an imperative that we produce additional healthcare providers.
This pandemic is a deadly reminder that the political elite do not actually solve problems - but they do create illusory solutions.
As I stated here during the Obamacare debate...if .GOV is hell bent on spending billions on exchanges, web sites, hiring IRS agents and creating more bureaucracy...AND NOT CREATING ONE MORE ACTUAL HEALTHCARE PROVIDER...it would be much better for all if we instead spent that massive amount of money on PRODUCING something more valuable than ILLUSORY “healthcare for all” by stimulating the actual creation of actual healthcare providers. THAT is money well spent.
This might be accomplished by expanding the EXISTING state university medical school and nursing school programs. Just adding 15 more seats in each state university medical school and nursing school program will create thousands of valuable healthcare providers. Scholarships in exchange for a service requirement in both urban and rural settings would assist both students and underserved communities.
I use the example of state university programs because the system is already in place and can be easily funded with little increase of bureaucracy. This pandemic is indeed a giant wake up call. I hope that the call for producing more medical providers reaches President Trump. My suggestion was lost during the Obama administration although the only legitimate pushback - for creating more actual supply to meet actual growing demand - was that it would take too long...that was back around 2009-2010. How many doctors and nurses would we have by now? Instead, we have some half-assed, costly exchanges...pushing much more demand...not one iota more supply.
The attached article from 2019 explains in simple language what China has done and what we need to do. Although it deals with manufacturing generally and not healthcare specifically...the notion of producing our own...transcends the spectrum of needs for a self-sustaining, powerful and healthy nation.
“It was the architect of Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, who famously said, “Anyone who has seen the auto factories in Detroit and the oil fields in Texas knows that Japan lacks the national power for a naval race with America. … Its industrial base makes America invincible.”
China’s Unrestricted And Relentless War On American Manufacturing
Shalabh Kumar|Posted: Jun 04, 2019
...as a result of the “unrestricted warfare” waged by China on American manufacturing for the past 30 years. They have executed a strategic, long-term and masterful plan literally to destroy American manufacturing, industry by industry. The U.S. has not only lost millions of jobs in this hostile takeover; we have lost the manufacturing expertise essential to national security.
It was the architect of Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, who famously said, “Anyone who has seen the auto factories in Detroit and the oil fields in Texas knows that Japan lacks the national power for a naval race with America. … Its industrial base makes America invincible.”
To counter that reality in its determined quest to displace this country as the planet’s dominant power, Communist China set out to become the manufacturing capital of the world in just 30 years: Today, 85% of all Christmas gifts and 80% of all electronic devices worldwide are produced in China. It exports $2.8 trillion a year, $550 billion to the U.S. alone. The corresponding numbers were negligible in 1985.
How did they pull it off?
First, they hired slick American marketing firms and convinced giant U.S. companies to relocate manufacturing to China by providing $1 leases for comparable plants and abundant cheap labor. Wall Street fell for it.
Secondly, state-subsidized Chinese companies flooded U.S. markets with products at one-third the prevailing price. The result: In short order, most American manufacturers had to file for bankruptcy. Then, these same Chinese firms shamelessly swept in and bought up our manufacturers’ now-unused equipment for pennies on the dollar.We were asleep. Sure, it cost China some money in the early stages, but per their long-term plan, China became the world’s top manufacturer and resource for such fire-sale buy-outs at the same time. The plan was masterful, the U.S. and American stakeholders fell for it hook, line and sinker.
I personally observed this wholesale takeover up close from 1990 to 2010.
Fortunately, Donald Trump ran for president on the promise of correcting this trend. In 2018, the United States imposed tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese imports at rates of 10-25%. Some of these tariffs have been misplaced, however. For example, one of our products is a Human Machine Interface (HMI) used in most American plants. Currently, $3.5 billion worth of HMIs are imported from China, while we make less than $50 million per year in the United States. At present, tariffs apply only to key components that go into HMIs and left the finished products themselves untouched. If the latter, rather than the former, were subjected to tariffs, 30,000 net new jobs would be created. The same goes for personal computers. If we were to tariff Chinese PCs and not the mother-boards that go in them, imagine what would occur? We could win back 80% of the market for PCs. We’re talking more than a million new jobs.
Let me be very clear: The U.S. manufacturing renaissance we seek and that our national security requires will not take place without a sustained long-term tariff plan that would encourage American businesses, large and small, to invest in new plants and equipment to make these products in the United States once again.What has been stolen from our country cannot be brought back by free trade.Eventually, the tariffs can be phased out, but American companies need a breather in this unrestricted Chinese war on our manufacturing sector.
So I ask again, why are we not taking immediate action to place tariffs on imported finished goods? Sure, our economy for now is doing great, and some manufacturing jobs are coming back. But, if we want to reconstitute the industrial strength that will make us once again invincible, we must take a page from the Chinese playbook that has done us such harm by engaging in the long-term planning and sustained execution required for us, rather than them, to be the world’s dominant economic and military power.
https://townhall.com/columnists/shalabhkumar/2019/06/04/chinas-unrestricted-and-relentless-war-on-american-manufacturing-n2547467
And, on healthcare...it hasn’t gotten any better...
The US can't keep up with demand for health aides, nurses and doctors
by Parija Kavilanz @CNNMoney
May 4, 2018: 10:51 AM ET
The US will need to hire 2.3 million new health care workers by 2025 in order to adequately take care of its aging population, a new report finds.
But a persistent shortage of skilled workers -- from nurses to physicians to lab technicians -- will mean hundreds of thousands of positions will remain unfilled, according to research by global health care staffing consultancy Mercer.
"Few other industries are racing the clock to find a future-ready workforce like today's health care administrators," said Jason Narlock, senior consultant with Mercer.
The largest number of new job openings -- about 423,200 -- will be for home health aides, the report found.
Becoming a home health aide requires less education and training than other health care jobs. Typically, an entry-level position requires a high school diploma, for example. However, aides don't earn much, with median pay of about $11 an hour, or $23,130 a year, according to the Labor Department.
That low pay makes it hard to attract new talent to the field. And with more workers retiring, Mercer projects there will be a shortage of 446,300 home health aides by 2025.
Nurses will also be in hot demand.
Mercer estimated that there will be 400,000 new nursing assistant positions and nearly 51,500 new nurse practitioner openings, but there will not be nearly enough skilled workers to fill those roles.
Not only are experienced nurses retiring at a rapid clip, but there aren't enough new graduates to replenish the workforce. Hospitals and other medical facilities are getting so desperate to recruit and retain nurses they're offering pricey perks and incentives, including five figure signing bonuses.
"When there are fewer nurses available to handle a bigger volume of patients, it adversely affects patient outcomes because of nursing burnout," said Narlock. "Patients are more likely to be readmitted after 30 days of first being seen. They can also be at a higher risk of a hospital acquired infection."
https://money.cnn.com/2018/05/04/news/economy/health-care-workers-shortage/index.html
The pathway to national survival requires that we be producers - not merely fat and happy consumers.
And, as this healthcare crisis illustrates there is an imperative that we produce additional healthcare providers.
This pandemic is a deadly reminder that the political elite do not actually solve problems - but they do create illusory solutions.
As I stated here during the Obamacare debate...if .GOV is hell bent on spending billions on exchanges, web sites, hiring IRS agents and creating more bureaucracy...AND NOT CREATING ONE MORE ACTUAL HEALTHCARE PROVIDER...it would be much better for all if we instead spent that massive amount of money on PRODUCING something more valuable than ILLUSORY “healthcare for all” by stimulating the actual creation of actual healthcare providers. THAT is money well spent.
This might be accomplished by expanding the EXISTING state university medical school and nursing school programs. Just adding 15 more seats in each state university medical school and nursing school program will create thousands of valuable healthcare providers. Scholarships in exchange for a service requirement in both urban and rural settings would assist both students and underserved communities.
I use the example of state university programs because the system is already in place and can be easily funded with little increase of bureaucracy. This pandemic is indeed a giant wake up call. I hope that the call for producing more medical providers reaches President Trump. My suggestion was lost during the Obama administration although the only legitimate pushback - for creating more actual supply to meet actual growing demand - was that it would take too long...that was back around 2009-2010. How many doctors and nurses would we have by now? Instead, we have some half-assed, costly exchanges...pushing much more demand...not one iota more supply.
The attached article from 2019 explains in simple language what China has done and what we need to do. Although it deals with manufacturing generally and not healthcare specifically...the notion of producing our own...transcends the spectrum of needs for a self-sustaining, powerful and healthy nation.
“It was the architect of Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, who famously said, “Anyone who has seen the auto factories in Detroit and the oil fields in Texas knows that Japan lacks the national power for a naval race with America. … Its industrial base makes America invincible.”
China’s Unrestricted And Relentless War On American Manufacturing
Shalabh Kumar|Posted: Jun 04, 2019
...as a result of the “unrestricted warfare” waged by China on American manufacturing for the past 30 years. They have executed a strategic, long-term and masterful plan literally to destroy American manufacturing, industry by industry. The U.S. has not only lost millions of jobs in this hostile takeover; we have lost the manufacturing expertise essential to national security.
It was the architect of Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, who famously said, “Anyone who has seen the auto factories in Detroit and the oil fields in Texas knows that Japan lacks the national power for a naval race with America. … Its industrial base makes America invincible.”
To counter that reality in its determined quest to displace this country as the planet’s dominant power, Communist China set out to become the manufacturing capital of the world in just 30 years: Today, 85% of all Christmas gifts and 80% of all electronic devices worldwide are produced in China. It exports $2.8 trillion a year, $550 billion to the U.S. alone. The corresponding numbers were negligible in 1985.
How did they pull it off?
First, they hired slick American marketing firms and convinced giant U.S. companies to relocate manufacturing to China by providing $1 leases for comparable plants and abundant cheap labor. Wall Street fell for it.
Secondly, state-subsidized Chinese companies flooded U.S. markets with products at one-third the prevailing price. The result: In short order, most American manufacturers had to file for bankruptcy. Then, these same Chinese firms shamelessly swept in and bought up our manufacturers’ now-unused equipment for pennies on the dollar.We were asleep. Sure, it cost China some money in the early stages, but per their long-term plan, China became the world’s top manufacturer and resource for such fire-sale buy-outs at the same time. The plan was masterful, the U.S. and American stakeholders fell for it hook, line and sinker.
I personally observed this wholesale takeover up close from 1990 to 2010.
Fortunately, Donald Trump ran for president on the promise of correcting this trend. In 2018, the United States imposed tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese imports at rates of 10-25%. Some of these tariffs have been misplaced, however. For example, one of our products is a Human Machine Interface (HMI) used in most American plants. Currently, $3.5 billion worth of HMIs are imported from China, while we make less than $50 million per year in the United States. At present, tariffs apply only to key components that go into HMIs and left the finished products themselves untouched. If the latter, rather than the former, were subjected to tariffs, 30,000 net new jobs would be created. The same goes for personal computers. If we were to tariff Chinese PCs and not the mother-boards that go in them, imagine what would occur? We could win back 80% of the market for PCs. We’re talking more than a million new jobs.
Let me be very clear: The U.S. manufacturing renaissance we seek and that our national security requires will not take place without a sustained long-term tariff plan that would encourage American businesses, large and small, to invest in new plants and equipment to make these products in the United States once again.What has been stolen from our country cannot be brought back by free trade.Eventually, the tariffs can be phased out, but American companies need a breather in this unrestricted Chinese war on our manufacturing sector.
So I ask again, why are we not taking immediate action to place tariffs on imported finished goods? Sure, our economy for now is doing great, and some manufacturing jobs are coming back. But, if we want to reconstitute the industrial strength that will make us once again invincible, we must take a page from the Chinese playbook that has done us such harm by engaging in the long-term planning and sustained execution required for us, rather than them, to be the world’s dominant economic and military power.
https://townhall.com/columnists/shalabhkumar/2019/06/04/chinas-unrestricted-and-relentless-war-on-american-manufacturing-n2547467
And, on healthcare...it hasn’t gotten any better...
The US can't keep up with demand for health aides, nurses and doctors
by Parija Kavilanz @CNNMoney
May 4, 2018: 10:51 AM ET
The US will need to hire 2.3 million new health care workers by 2025 in order to adequately take care of its aging population, a new report finds.
But a persistent shortage of skilled workers -- from nurses to physicians to lab technicians -- will mean hundreds of thousands of positions will remain unfilled, according to research by global health care staffing consultancy Mercer.
"Few other industries are racing the clock to find a future-ready workforce like today's health care administrators," said Jason Narlock, senior consultant with Mercer.
The largest number of new job openings -- about 423,200 -- will be for home health aides, the report found.
Becoming a home health aide requires less education and training than other health care jobs. Typically, an entry-level position requires a high school diploma, for example. However, aides don't earn much, with median pay of about $11 an hour, or $23,130 a year, according to the Labor Department.
That low pay makes it hard to attract new talent to the field. And with more workers retiring, Mercer projects there will be a shortage of 446,300 home health aides by 2025.
Nurses will also be in hot demand.
Mercer estimated that there will be 400,000 new nursing assistant positions and nearly 51,500 new nurse practitioner openings, but there will not be nearly enough skilled workers to fill those roles.
Not only are experienced nurses retiring at a rapid clip, but there aren't enough new graduates to replenish the workforce. Hospitals and other medical facilities are getting so desperate to recruit and retain nurses they're offering pricey perks and incentives, including five figure signing bonuses.
"When there are fewer nurses available to handle a bigger volume of patients, it adversely affects patient outcomes because of nursing burnout," said Narlock. "Patients are more likely to be readmitted after 30 days of first being seen. They can also be at a higher risk of a hospital acquired infection."
https://money.cnn.com/2018/05/04/news/economy/health-care-workers-shortage/index.html