Green Jello Hotdish

England starts its smoking ban tomorrow.

I never thought I would see an English smoking ban in my lifetime. It’s bizarre.

Universal health care. Anything less is unacceptable. Almost-universal health care is a great start, but Massachusetts’ plan may just very well be the most complicated, confusing bit of American public policy since Social Security.

Here’s a simple plan, based on my insurance policy. I think it’s pretty damn good insurance, and that it will work great for anyone who is employed and in my income tax bracket — 25% and higher. My employer contributes 16% of my salary for my insurance premium. I have single coverage and my insurance plan is managed by a major national organization (*cough*Blue Cross/Blue Shield*cough*), the same organization which manages many state governmental insurance plans across the country. I have a $300 out of pocket deductible per year, and one is hard pressed to find a health facility in America — even in certain parts of the world — that is not BCBS serviced.

So, group insurance is what lowers premiums and deductibles, right? OK, so let’s add just 10% to state taxes collected by employers per employee when their compensation would place them in the 25% income tax bracket. The new tax could not be passed on to the employee as to lower their net take-home pay. (I’m operating under the assumption that employees making $31,850 and more already have benefits packages including health care.) The employee, then, would be covered under the state health care plan. For full family coverage, the employer would contribute 13%.

As we go upward, employees in the 28% bracket ($64,250-$97,925) would have 14% and 18% contributions, in the 33% bracket ($97,925-$174,850) 20%/25% and in the top, 35% bracket would cap out at 27%/30%.

For employees in the 15% tax bracket ($7,825-$31,850 per year), employers would contribute 5% for single coverage, 7% for family. For those who are in the 10% tax bracket, or those who make up to $7,825 per year, the state would bear the burden of health insurance.

Employers would end up saving money, as they would not need to administer health benefits any longer. Employees would benefit by having large-scale, group insurance on an almost universal scale. States would then be able to reallocate resources to subsidize health insurance for the uninsured and deal less with underinsured. On top of it, insurance just got a whole lot easier.

Went a little over budget in June, but still a net gain over two months.

June expense: $2,146.88
May expense: $1,961.60
(Monthly budget is $2,000)

See the May/June Expense Comparison Report and the June budget vs. actual report.

This is starting to get a little pathetic.

I remember selling lemonade in our front yard growing up. It was a great location — next to the public park and beach, on the corner of two streets, on a busier street. Small glasses were a quarter, larges were fifty. Every once in a while I’d partner up with one of the neighbor kids, and one summer we had a whole franchise operation going on with four different sites, staking out the entire northwest side.

Of course we never made enough money to pay for supplies, but that was our parents’ gift. All we wanted to do was take our earnings and run up to Minit Mart and load up in their long, wide aisles of candy.

Bottled water is the craze now, and Milwaukee youth are just as entrepreneurial of youths past. As the summer heats up, so does the push to make a quick buck. For some of these kids, the push is more than candy at the convenience store. Often the difference is literally life and death. I’m happy to support these kids, often buying two or three bottles at a time.

The arguments surrounding safety, I understand. I’ve been worried many times seeing them up on the median as traffic whizzes by. What the story doesn’t tell, though, is that most of these medians are raised, cement medians — the kind that even have a second crosswalk signal button, because the intersection is so wide it can take two light cycles just to cross. Are we going to outlaw pedestrians waiting “safely” on the median semi-designed for their purpose?

What’s scary, though, but not unexpected is the second part of the story:

Which is why police plan to start issuing more municipal citations for youths who violate city ordinances against selling on medians or being in roadways. They also plan to probe whether the youths are working for themselves or being put up to do it for someone else.

Did this Captain never sell lemonade as a kid? Give them a break. Officials are eager to point out the success of their summer crackdown on violent crime; apparently it’s leaving time leftover to pick on kids looking to make a little money.

I remember this story being huge news right as I was leaving Minnesota. (Note: that Web site has the only permanent link to the Strib story I can find for free. Including the link here does not imply I have become a conservative whore.) Perhaps Milwaukee is going to make the next headline for gross governmental overreach?

In the absence of a real problem or incident, MPD should ensure the kids’ safety rather than chase them out. These are busy intersections — aren’t officers driving through them on patrols on a regular basis? If they aren’t, shouldn’t they? Don’t let this mar an otherwise promising, successful summer in fighting violent crime in Milwaukee. Stop probing water sales and picking on the kids.

My friends and I often talk about whether things are “real” or not. We’re not talking in the physical here, but more abstract: is a person real when they’re working at a summer job, or when they’re living in an apartment. What makes my full-time employment more “real” than somewhere and someone else? It’s a common subject among 20-somethings, especially those of us who are within a year or two since graduation.

Recently I’ve been feeling as if I’m not real, especially in my apartment… almost as if I’m just playing house. Don’t get me wrong — I’m not about to up and leave for the peace corps, nor do I feel any overall dissatisfaction. Quite the contrary; I’m quite happy with my work, my apartment, my friends. There are the usual family problems, but that’s even calming down.

At first, I thought it’s because my life is developing a sense of routine. I get up, I go to work, I come home, I go to bed. When I have free time at home, I cook and clean or I read a book or I walk around the neighborhood.

But then I realized that I haven’t even been in that routine for the past month and a half. It just feels like it. I’ve been doing a lot of things, spending even more time in Chicago than normal, and getting ready for the road trip out to Boston with Bryan and Chris.

Yet it permeates. I’m not unsettled by it, in fact I’m comforted by it. I’m nomadic at heart, and I’ve been in Milwaukee 11 months. I just renewed my lease for another year. It makes sense I’d feel like I’m playing house — my soul is always wondering, always exploring, always curious for what’s around the next bend.

Of course, the entire reason I wrote this is because I’m baking cookies. I mean, c’mon — how much more real does it get?

I’m collecting photos I’ve taken around Milwaukee. In a way, this is another step in my effort to find something I like about Milwaukee. But at the same time, it’s also serving as a record of my time in this place.