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Knowing Healthcare Costs Before Incurring Them

Healthcare costs have become insane since the Affordable Care Act became law. I don’t blame the law itself. I blame the fact that the law is based on a market system that allows health insurance companies to set rates and rake Americans over the coals in terms of premiums, deductibles and out-of-pocket costs. The system is broken because it is based on a false premise: That healthcare should be attached to profit and that insurance…

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Being a Creator in a World of Too Much Stuff

While I was at the Twin Cities Book Festival, I picked up a few books at the used book sale. “The Plenitude: Creativity, Innovation, and Making Stuff” by Rich Gold was one of those books. It’s a slim volume, so it only took a couple of days to read. It expressed in written form a number of ideas I’ve had about being a creator in a world of too much stuff. Rich Gold was an…

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9 Ideas for Revamping U.S. Elections

If the current election season teaches us nothing else, it’s gob-smackingly obvious that we need to revamp our election system. With a polarized electorate caused by having only two major political parties and a wholly unqualified presidential candidate running on behalf of one of those parties, Dr. Phil’s perennial question comes to mind: “How’s that workin’ for you?” It ain’t working for us, Dr. Phil. It’s ain’t working. We’re feeling disenfranchised, disconnected from the political…

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