Thiel, Fillion, Arnade, & the BBB.
RWL #455
Greetings from the LHH![i] Site visits continued this week for me. I’m not traveling all that far this year – I think my farthest trip is to Chatham on the Cape – but I have been all over the place. The kids are doing great, and it makes me proud. I especially love when they tell me that they are seeing some of the things we have taught them in action, and that they know they are able to understand what is going on because of the education they have had so far with us. The best thing to hear is when the preceptor says they are trying to recruit the student when s/he graduates. How great would it be to know you have a job waiting for you as you go into your senior year? So many great sites, so many great preceptors. This is really one of the highlights of my job.
You probably can’t read my handwriting on the sketch above – it says, “What draws us into the desert is the search for something intimate and remote.” by Edward Abbey. I’ve started adding quotes to my sketches again. Kind of adds another dimension. When TLW and I first moved to El Paso in 1992, I hated the desert. After a few years it grew on me as I came to understand its beauty. Intimate and remote are good words for it.
OK – to the links. Let me know what you think in the comments. As usual, willing good for all of you!
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Read
What: WSJ, How Healthcare Cuts in the ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ Will Affect Americans
Why: As you might imagine, I am paying attention to the healthcare implications of the BBB. I am in favor of reducing entitlement spending – specifically on Social Security and Medicare because the cost of those programs is unsustainable – but I am concerned about the cuts to Medicaid. (If you are not familiar, you get Medicare when you turn 65 regardless of your income – Bill Gates and Warren Buffet get Medicare; Medicaid is for poor people.) Cutting benefits to poor people while ensuring the SALT deductions get raised for wealthy New Yorkers kind of sucks. I am also concerned about the work requirements. While there are certainly some able-bodied individuals living in their parent’s basements eating Cheetos and playing Call of Duty, the cost of implementing the reporting of work requirements is almost certainly going to be greater than the savings from kicking the incels off the couch. It will also create another paperwork friction for people who genuinely need the benefit and, because they don’t fill out the paperwork correctly, will get bounced from Medicaid. The BBB, in my opinion, is bad for our country. It fixes a few things, but it’s net effect is bad. Using the poor as bill payers, and trying to frame them as unworthy, is beneath us.
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What: Chris Arnade, McDonald’s Around the World
Why: Arnade has a Q&A with Gary He, author of McAtlas: A Global Guide to the Golden Arches. I like McDonalds in the same way I like Walmart – convenient, cheap, don’t really want to go there very often, but the stores aren’t really for people like me who have had good fortune in life. The focus of He’s book is the diversity that McDonald’s represents. From the Q&A:
“But the moment that made it all click for me in the context of this project was during Ramadan in Morocco—McDonald's had an iftar meal kit that came in this box designed with Arabic motifs, filled with dates, chebakia (a honey-covered local pastry), harira soup, and a yogurt-milk drink. It was so different from anything I had ever expected from a McDonald's restaurant that it triggered a deep dive into the rabbit hole of the chain's localizations.”
I’m putting He’s book on my contemplating list – I’m so far behind in reading right now, I don’t know when I’d get to it, but it sounds like something I’d like to have on my coffee table. I say, something I’d like to have, but would get vetoed by TLW, who does not like McDonald’s. Ah, well.
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Watch
What: Nathan Fillion commencement speech (~2 min)
Why: He’s the lead in the TV series The Rookie, but was also apparently a soap opera star for many years, which is why he says the moms know who he is. He offers three tips for success:
1) Be lucky
2) Gratitude
3) Pretend to be bold
I like how he weaves these together in a very short speech. If you need a touch of inspiration today, this is a good place to start.
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Listen
What: Interesting Times with Ross Douthat, A Mind-Bending Conversation with Peter Thiel
Why: If you’ve been following RWL for a while, you know I find Peter Thiel fascinating. Love him or hate him, like his PayPal cofounder Elon Musk, he’s had an outsized influence on our world. Much of what they discuss is Thiel’s argument that we have collectively given into safetyism and we need more risk taking at the macro level. I agree. By safetyism, I don’t just mean helicopter parenting. We have too much regulation, and our safety nets are destroying our children’s future (you know my concerns about Social Security and Medicare and how they are consuming our federal spending). Like I said, love him or hate him, he is worth listening to.
[i] The LHH is the Last Homely House. But also, I just want to be super clear that the opinions expressed here are my own, not those of UNH or any related organization, nor are they TLW’s, who frequently tells me I am off my rocker, nor any other person who might be embarrassed by my musings. They are mine, all mine.