Stock Market Woes vs. Quality of Life

I’m not a financial expert, nor do I really care for the stock market. More and more we are hearing tales of many brokers and CEO’s who have not been playing by the rules, thus decline of the economy and thus the reason we the tax payer are paying for their corruption and greed. I don’t want the markets to crash, but I think we need to be honest about the problems we face in this country.

With President Obama’s budget on deck that promotes a great deal of change, many of those challenging the bill are stock brokers, investors, CEO’s and well rich people. I really don’t know how they think they can convince the 95% of the population that the additional taxes on the top 5% is going to hurt the country. Yes, they are promoting taxing the rich will hurt the poor. If you believe that, I believe there still swamp land in Florida. I’d just like to add here, President Obama’s current approval ratings, 68% favorable, 19% not favorable, with 47% of the 68% (Highly favorable).

Now several financial “experts” and talking economic pundit heads report news of the budget with such severe bias. They are blaming President Obama’s budget for the stock market slide. But maybe consumers are losing confidence in the stock market by grand scandals of investors and brokers. How many investors today worry their broker is like Bernie Madoff or Allen Stanford? Hey, I know why people may not be investing; corporate CEO’s and brokers have mismanaged their businesses buried deep in corruption. Perhaps why investors lost confidence is bankers and brokers miss used consumer money. Perhaps consumers lost confidence in businesses, and have a greater confidence in the direction Obama wants to take this country. Perhaps it is not the budget in which people are losing confidence, but they are losing confidence in corporations, banks and lenders.

I am not a an economic “expert” but they were all in agreement that curing the health care crisis in this country will not help the economy. Health insurance is grossly expensive-thank you insurance companies and insurance salesman, you make a lot of money of us folks. This health insurance is a burden for people and it is a burden for business which is why American business takes manufacturing overseas to countries with “Nationalized” health care and they hire foreign labor and they don’t have to pay health insurance.

his is how revising the health care system can help the economy. Okay, stay with me here…If companies do not carry the burden of supplying health care for its employees, business can bring back manufacturing and jobs back to America. More manufacturing will create more jobs, giving consumers more money to spend and invest which will help the stock market. Yippee!!!!

But for all these financial experts fearing the changes in our health care system, I will post 2008 Global health care statistics and quality of life. What you will see is America does not rank to well in quality of life. We may be richest nation in the world, but our quality of life is ranks less than most free market, industrialized nation. So I say to all who are concerned, do you care we have one of the highest infant mortality rates in the free, industrialized world? Are we as a nation satisfied with the below? And are CEO’s, financial experts, TV News anchors and politicians content of the below stats?

Life Expectancy (years):

Men Women
Japan 76.2 82.5
France 72.9 81.3
Switzerland 74.1 81.3
Netherlands 73.7 80.5
Sweden 74.2 80.4
Canada 73.4 80.3
Norway 73.1 79.7
Germany 72.6 79.2
Finland 70.7 78.8
United States 71.6 78.6
United Kingdom 72.7 78.2
Denmark 72.2 77.9

Infant Mortality Rate (per 1,000 live births):

United States 10.4
United Kingdom 9.4
Germany 8.5
Denmark 8.1
Canada 7.9
Norway 7.9
Netherlands 7.8
Switzerland 6.8
Finland 5.9
Sweden 5.9
Japan 5.0

Death rate of 1-to-4 year olds (per community of 200,000 per year):

United States 101.5
Japan 92.2
Norway 90.2
Denmark 85.1
France 84.9
United Kingdom 82.2
Canada 82.1
Netherlands 80.3
Germany 77.6
Switzerland 72.5
Sweden 64.7
Finland 53.3

Death rate of 15-to-24 year olds (per community of 200,000 per year):

United States 203
Switzerland 175
Canada 161
France 156
Finland 154
Norway 128
Germany 122
Denmark 120
United Kingdom 114
Sweden 109
Japan 96
Netherlands 90

Premature Death (years of life lost before the age of 64 per 100 people):

United States 5.8 years
Denmark 4.9
Finland 4.8
Canada 4.5
Germany 4.5
United Kingdom 4.4
Norway 4.3
Switzerland 4.1
Netherlands 4.0
Sweden 3.8
Japan 3.3


Percent of people who believe their health care system needs fundamental change:

United States 60%
Sweden 58
United Kingdom 52
Japan 47
Netherlands 46
France 42
Canada 38