Hacker News Reader

Comment by nostrademons | Hacker News Reader

"When a good manager meets a bad business, it's the business's reputation that stays intact." -- Warren Buffett

I think a lot of Obama's difficulties stem from having to steer a massive federal bureaucracy. There're lots of power centers in government besides the president - the American system is designed that way, so that any given bad president can't do too much damage. (Though that didn't seem to stop Dubya...maybe it's easier to blow things up than it is to build them.) I'm disappointed at Obama's inaction on net neutrality, but he's been distracted by other major initiatives. And the health care bill is huge for potential entrepreneurs; one of the major disincentives to quitting your job is the lack of health insurance.

View on HN

I think a lot of Obama's difficulties stem from having to steer a massive federal bureaucracy.

To my eye, he's only making the weight of bureaucracy worse.

I think every president makes the weight of bureaucracy worse. It seems to be a law of nature that bureaucracy only grows, never shrinks, until it consumes the society that supports it. Then we get another Dark Ages.

I also think that in general, a president's power tends to be overstated. People give Clinton a lot of credit for the 90s boom, but I think he was largely riding a technological wave that he had nothing to do with. Dubya did screw things up, but many of the things he screwed up were already set in motion before he took office. Obama fixed a few things, but he's also made things worse in ways that we probably won't see the ramifications of until several years down the line. I shudder to think of the next financial bubble, now that we've set the precedent that wanton recklessness will get you bailed out by the federal government.

"And the health care bill is huge for potential entrepreneurs; one of the major disincentives to quitting your job is the lack of health insurance."

After all the debate last year, I still find claims like this so strange. As far as I have ever been able to tell, the Health Care reform merely assesses a tax on being uninsured. So, if you quit your job to start a company, you no longer have the option to forgo insurance without now paying a penalty on your taxes. How an additional penalty would either a) provide more/better health care or b) spur entrepreneurship I have never been able to understand.

The biggest advantage - unfortunately not taking effect until 2014 - is that people can no longer be denied coverage for pre-existing conditions. I know several people who would make excellent startup founders, but because they have chronic health conditions like diabetes or Marfan's, they're unable to work anywhere other than big companies or academia.

Small businesses also get a tax credit for 35-50% of their health insurance costs. I think there was also a provision for low-income health insurance subsidies that may affect many startup founders, since oftentimes your technical "income" when you're getting the company off the ground is near zero.

One big change that's in effect now for young entrepreneurs is that they can stay on their parent's health plan until 26. I'm not sure if this will actually encourage any more young people to try their hand at entrepreneurship because most consider themselves invincible and don't give a lot of thought to health care, but it'll certainly help prevent the experience from becoming a horror story.

> One big change that's in effect now for young entrepreneurs is that they can stay on their parent's health plan until 26.

Since young people's coverage is very inexpensive, that's not a huge benefit. However, it is being paid for by other people.

Of course, there's no guarantee that such cost shifting will continue.

I'm disappointed at Obama's inaction on net neutrality

"I'm disappointed at Obama's inaction on foo" is a constant refrain, but it's the natural result when someone is built up to be a savior.

And the health care bill is huge for potential entrepreneurs; one of the major disincentives to quitting your job is the lack of health insurance.

I don't see how the health care bill even fixes that.

> And the health care bill is huge for potential entrepreneurs; one of the major disincentives to quitting your job is the lack of health insurance.

Oh really? It's not a problem for many married folk with employed spouses. It isn't a problem for 20 year olds who can put <$100 month towards it (aka much less than rent). It isn't even a problem for 50 year olds.

Yes, there are a small number of people who have pre-existing conditions, but that's a problem only if they let their coverage lapse. (No, you can't be turned down for pre-existing conditions if you've kept up your coverage.)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com