How to Decrease Teen Pregnancies, Decrease Crime, and Build Our Economy

Personally as a pediatrician, I found the highest teen birth rates in three groups. 1. Teens in distressed families (drug addict or absent parents [not single moms], poverty where parents are working 2-3 jobs, overextended and therefore technically absent and rich parents with unsupervised kids); 2. Teens in very religious families relying on abstinence, that wouldn’t talk about sex, leaving kids to figure it out on their own (these kids constantly were super rebellious); and 3. idol teens who had no hobbies except hanging out with friends and who had self-esteem problems such that they would do anything to appear popular.

The saddest case that is a commentary on how we talk but don’t help distressed teens and families was an eighth grade girl who told me she purposely got pregnant because she wanted someone to “love her.” She had lived mainly on the streets taking care of herself in South Carolina (the bible belt) where social services were inadequate to help her. Her parents were unavailable. The churches, schools, and social services viewed her as important and worthwhile as a dead dog. What do you expect! Three girls in her class were pregnant that year.

Until we promote individual worth; provide adequate eduation so that kids are motivated to learn and therefore kept busy with self motivation(our high school education is like a junior high education in most civilized countries – teachers are in general miserably undertrained); teach kids the value of being involved with others and with activities such as the arts, volunteering, involvement with government and social services, gardening, sports without a goal of being a major leager; teach that community and family is more important than self and instant gratification or material goods; promote a village atmosphere where people in one small neighborhood or a few blocks in a city know each other, meet regularly with each other (difficult with two jobs and long commutes) and help each other (70 % of Americans don’t know their neighbors); make real job training and jobs available to young men and women; reform laws so that like in Europe women can stay home with a child the first two years of life and still have a job available and career available when they return to work, we will make no progress in regards to teen births or abortions.

We need to shift our priorities and donations to the REAL problems that result in teen pregnancies and abortions. If we simply fight about ideology nothing will be accomplished. United We Stand, Divided We Fall. Perhaps it is time to agree to disagree on ideology and work together on issues that we all agree upon!

The benefits would be enormous. We would not just deal with teen pregnancies and reduce abortions, we would reduce crime and increase our countries productivity saving huge amounts of money and rebuilding our economy.

Help Save Economy by Saving Billions with Judicial/Prison Reform – Stop Torture

In Illinois, a hotbed of government corruption, billions could be saved with judicial, prison, and jail reforms. More could be saved by eliminating the 10% kick-backs to political funds expected of all those who contract with the state and counties.

If we cut the 40,000 daily Illinois prison population in half I estimate Illinois could save 1.2 billion dollars per year. We would still be incarcerating 20 X more people per capita than any other civilized country.

For every decrease in 1000 inmates from its historic high of 10,000 daily inmates, Cook County Jail could save the county 18 million dollars. What purpose does it serve to incarcerate thousands of people for minimal non-violent crimes pre-trial who can’t afford to pay a $100 dollar bail bond? How do lengthy prison terms without rehabilitation help decrease crime and make productive citizens out of those with drug addiction and alcoholism? How does using prisons as mental health treatment facilities make our State safer? Do prisons and jails provide so much better mental health care than hospitals and clinics? Perhaps mental health care is simply NOT AVAILABLE in Illinois to those on Medicaid! See:

http://illinoiscorruption.blogspot.com/2009/02/judge-jorge-alonso-overturns-federal.html

Also the grotesque torture, medical neglect, and brutality in Illinois jails and prisons could be reduced and true rehabilitation, along with better parole supervision, mental health treatment and drug addiction and alcoholism treatment provided with even a quarter of the resulting savings. I would estimate this would also have a MAJOR impact on reducing crime and increasing tax revenues from a larger number of productive citizens.

For more details see:

http://illinoiscorruption.blogspot.com/2009/03/vastly-undertrained-and-abusive-cook.html

Our Presidency – Interactive Government – Online Healthcare Discussion

Please enjoy this link to an interactive online discussion about healthcare policy. Join in if you have something to say!  We need a fourth branch of government to awaken and participate in our government again – THE PEOPLE!!

http://www.ourpresidency.com/profiles/blogs/basic-principles-for-a

Our Answers to Our Problems – You Tell Me!

 What we can do is only limited by our will and our imagination. We must think out-of-the-box. We must work together and resolve our differences. We use a very small portion of our intellectual potential. Anything is possible when there is respect, cooperation, long-term vision, and love for our fellow man – no matter his condition or position in our lives. Nothing is set in concrete. The fundamental beauty of man is our adaptability and creativity. It is a pity that it is usually wasted in petty materialism, bias, totalitarian restrictions, and hatred built by centuries of defamation. Man does not evolve in small steps, but there are significant leaps. I believe strongly, we are about to make one. Join in our national discussion – send me your suggestions for solutions to problems of our times. For a discussion of health care problems see:

http://www.ourpresidency.com/profiles/blogs/basic-principles-for-a

Questions for Obama and America – Solutions for Change

I very much would like the public to engage in a debate on these suggestions – which are a beginning and food for thought – help me develop these ideas! Send a comment – by clicking comments at the end of the post.  I have sent all these questions to the Obama-Biden Transition team.

ENDING CORPORATE CONTROL AND PERSONHOOD – RESTORING POWER TO THE PEOPLE

 

“Would you support a 28th Amendment proposed by famed author, advocate, marine biologist, public speaker, Riki Ott, who wrote the Book about the Exxon Valdez disaster consequences to end “corporate personhood”, and return the government to the people?”

 

“Will you hire/ appoint as advisors civil rights activists, dissidents, ex-cons especially someone who has been wrongfully convicted, whistle blowers, and others in the trenches and not just use professional politicians, lobbyists and political hacks?”

 

TRANSITIONING FROM THE PAPER AGE TO THE DIGITAL AGE – MODERNIZING AMERICA

 

“Communications a new frontier – money wasted; no standardization of bills & records; difficult finding data; privacy & security concerns; elderly/disabled concerns; education concerns. Do you support new Cabinet position for Communications Secretary?”

 

FIXING HEALTH CARE

 

“50% or so of health care dollars is spent on advertising. What will you do to stop this waste. Health care providers should be like the police and fire departments, a necessary public service that does not advertise.”

 

“Would you support a steeply progressive and very high tax on advertising of drugs to discourage this practice? This would quickly reduce the cost of drugs as presently 50 % of drug company budgets are advertising costs. Or would you ban advertising?”

 

“Whether to do Phase 3 clinical trials of new drugs is decided by drug companies – encourages excessive costs by testing unnecessary “me too”  drugs with no benefit. Would you support FDA taking over this decision analagous to IL hosp plan commission?”

 

“Our veterans in chronic pain are thrown narcotics in high doses making them nonfunctional addicts instead of treating pain properly with multiple modalities (TENS units, therapy, muscle relaxants, meditation). Will you help them reclaim their lives?”

 

“Medical care at Cook Co. Jail & IL prison system is so inadequate inmates have had their leg amputated for lack of antibiotics & prisoners who were disabled lay on the floor in diarrhea for days unable to obtain water/care. Will DOJ investigate?”

 

“In Illinois Atty Gen Lisa Madigan, several Governors, and their corrupt accomplices fraudulently deny mental health care to those on Medicaid and wrongfully prosecute health care providers who are trying to provide this service. Will you investigate?”

 

 

ENDING CORRUPTION

 

“Truth commissions worked in S Africa to encourage confession, transparency, healing, accountability, and reconciliation. Couldn’t they work in the U.S to save money, increase openness, and allow us to get beyond corruption and move on constructively?”

 

 

FIXING GOVERNMENT CORRUPTION

 

“AAG Patrick Fitzgerald doesn’t have half the manpower he needs to prosecute all the corruption in Illinois. Will you remedy this and make stamping out corruption a priority along with prosecuting felony civil rights violations?”

 

 

 

CIVIL RIGHTS ISSUES IN JUSTICE SYSTEM

 

“Prosecution of felony civil rights violations – been stopped by Bush. Will you prosecute systemic intentional civil rights violations in prisons and jails that have led to death and loss of limb by intentional withholding of medical care and meds?”

 

“In Illinois 1 prison law librarian handles ALL requests from all 40,000 prisoners for legal research, legal documents, etc. This cannot be considered access to the courts. Will the DOJ investigate and prosecute such systemic civil rights violations?”

 

 

FIXING [IN]JUSTICE SYSTEM – HELPING CIZITENS TO REACH THEIR POTENTIAL AND JOIN THE WORK FORCE – FIXING THE ECONOMY

 

“Torture, medical neglect, abuse, denial of access to courts is routine in American prisons. What will you do to fix this and reduce the prison population which is 40 X greater than in any civilized country and is tearing down our economy?”

 

“Excess incarceration is killing our economy. Will you lead the battle to replace incarceration with restorative justice for non-violent offenses. Skilling should be working and  paying 99.9% of his salary to those he harmed!”

 

 

“Torture, medical neglect, forced drugging, withholding of medical diets, falsification of records by guards, beatings resulting in death is standard practice in US jails and prisons. Will you hold Congressional hearings on this topic to expose it?”

 

“Rural areas have attracted for profit prisons. The prison/industrial complex now employes 1/10 Americans. This is not productive – guards and prisoners don’t contribute to the economy – they suck the wind out of it. What will you do to fix this?”

 

“Brain surgeons go to medical school for 4 years then do internships and residencies to learn this skill for another 7 years. I don’t want a family doc doing brain surgery. Shouldn’t judges be required more education than 3 years of law school?”

 

“All sorts of roadblocks are put up to prevent pro se litigants from defending themselves and litigating in courts. Will you see that pro se manuals are written, judicial education is improved, and citizens can have access and fairness in the courts?”

 

“Judges are arrogant, incompetent, corrupt, and they routinely deny civil rights – right to self-representation, right to access courts, introduce evidence, etc. They abuse orders for fitness exams. Will you hold hearings and change this?”

 

“Corrupt politicians and police illegally use fraudulent charges of disorderly conduct, trespass, resisting arrest, etc., as retaliatory tools against whistle blowers and dissidents. Will you hold Congressional hearings on this and stop this practice?”

 

 

FIXING TORTURE, ABUSE, MEDICAL NEGLECT IN JAILS AND PRISONS

 

“US Atty Fitzgerald found systemic medical neglect and violence by guards against inmates at Cook Co. Jail. YET NO INDICTMENTS for this intentional battery resulting in many deaths have occurred. Will you prosecute these criminal officers/officials?”

 

PRESERVING OUR CULTURE AND THE ARTS

 

“Japan preserves its crafts by funding “living national treasures” – top craftsmen and artists. They are given a govnt salary to maintain and teach their skill like swordmaking, flower arranging, Samari skills. Should we do this?”

 

Re-Integrating >600,000 Ex-Cons per Year and Growing – Give your Suggestions!

Please consider a jobs program for organizations to design and implement programs to re-integrate, provide mental health care, provide drug abuse treatment, provide family therapy, and supervise ex-cons and to train and employ ex-cons. > 600,000 convicts are released every year and this is growing due to the failed policy of the last 30 years to be “tough on crime.” What good does it do to squash prisoners like a bug, destroy their families, destroy their health, destroy their future career potential, and fail to provide even an iota of rehabilitation?

Part of our economic problem is that we are destroying and wasting so much human potential. If we employed these people and the prisons guards and employees, as well as reduce the number of prisoners in half with alternative sentencing for non-violent criminals, drug abuse treatment, and mental health care – our workforce that pays taxes and contributes to society will grow at an astonishing rate (including ex-cons, ex – prison employees, and the ex-cons’ families who were living on the dole) and our productivity will increase.

 Please give your creative suggestions about how to achieve this.  Think outside the box! Be innovative!

Our Economic Crisis – Causes and Fixes

I believe the best analysis of the situation is by George Soros on Bill Moyers Journal on October 9, 2008.

 

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/10102008/transcript1.html

 

Three of the things he says are very important:

 

The first has to do with the fact that for 25 years we have been consuming more than we were producing and living more and more on credit that evolved into virtual credit and then into noxious instruments that no longer reflected the true value of the items for which credit was given (houses etc).

 

1) “You see, for the last 25 years the world economy, the motor of the world economy that has been driving it was consumption by the American consumer who has been spending more than he has been saving, all right? Than he’s been producing. So that motor is now switched off. It’s finished. It’s run out of — can’t continue. You need a new motor. And we have a big problem. Global warming. It requires big investment. And that could be the motor of the world economy in the years to come. “

 

The second thing he points out is that the free market does not work without the invisible hand described by Adam Smith. You can’t let the fox (banks and wall street) watch the hen house (noxious instruments). Credit has had a disconnect with the true economy (actual goods and services) growing twice to three times as fast. All of a sudden (actually over time but quickly) the world has realized that their virtual money (credit and noxious instruments) have no clear relationship with actual goods (houses etc) and services in terms of value, and that the agencies evaluating the risk (whether the instruments are good or not) has made totally bogus judgments based on faulty assumptions (credit ratings like AAA).

 

2) “There was a failure of regulations because they couldn’t understand these new instruments. But they said, “Oh, well, the banks have very good risk management techniques. So we leave it to them to calculate their own risks.

And, you see, it wasn’t only in the housing market. There were all kinds of other financial instruments. So there was not just one bubble. I describe in my book there is the housing bubble. But this housing bubble, when that burst, it was only the detonator that exploded the bigger bubble, the super bubble.

 

Which is this 25 years of constant credit expansion using greater and greater leverage. The amount of credit in the economy has been growing at, I don’t know, I don’t know the exact figure, but maybe at least twice as fast as the economy itself. I think it’s more like three.

 

And now, suddenly, you have a contraction of credit. And it’s a sudden thing. And it’s a period of great wealth destruction. And that’s how these poor people in Texas suddenly find that their 401(k) is worthless. “

Finally he essentially says that unbridled greed which is fueled when there is a disconnect between actual value and virtual value (credit) ignores the interests of society and replaces self-interest must be controlled by the invisible hand.

 

3) “Actually, these market fundamentalists are making the same mistake as Marx did. You see, socialism would have worked very well if the rulers had the interests of the people really at heart. But they were pursuing their self-interests. Now, in the housing market, the people who originated the houses earned the fee.

 

And the people who then owned the mortgages their interests were not actually looked after by the agents that were selling them the mortgages. So you have a, what is called an agent principle problem in socialism. And you have the same agent principle problem in this free market fundamentalism. “

 

He also states something very disturbing – that Paulson doesn’t know what he is doing and it was obvious that the 700 billion bailout was useless at that time. He suggests that the first step is buying equity shares in banks – injecting capital at that point. Read the whole transcript and it makes a lot of sense. He should be Secretary of the Treasury.