July 3, 2024 • 30 mins
How much do Americans say they need to earn to live comfortably? How does CalKids work? Free college funds for Californians. Dr. Jim Keany, Co-Director of the Emergency Room at Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo, joins The Bill Handel Show for 'Medical News'! Dr. Keany talks with Bill about whether we should or should not take multivitamins. anti-depressants causing weight gain, and Moderna making the pandemic flu vacccine.
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Episode Transcript
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You're listening to Bill Handle on demandfrom KFI AM six forty tomorrow of course
being the big one in July fourfireworks hopefully not at your house where your
head gets blown off with illegal fireworks, but barbecues and just a great fun
holiday now, which is interesting becauseit's the independence of the country and now
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many people died for that, soyou think it'd be a little more serious,
but no, no, it's acelebration. Okay. One of my
favorite classes in college was microeconomics.Microeconomics being how we how you, how
I live? Paying for cars andrent, and studying sort of the nitty
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gritty, not macroeconomics, which ishow countries and companies work. It's our
stuff, and so I've always beenfascinated by this in terms of how much
we have, how much we spend, how much we need for retirement.
Survey just came out from Bank,one of the big bank companies. What
does it take in terms of anAmerican feeling financially secure? This is general
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all over the United States. Herein southern California, it's a whole different,
whole different animal. You know whatthat magic number is to feel financially
secure? One hundred and eighty sixthousand dollars a year, of which six
percent of adults make that much money. Median family income in the US between
fifty one thousand and eighty six thousanddollars. And by the way, what
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is financial security? What does thatmean? Well, subscribed as being able
to pay your bills, having enoughleftover to have some discretionary purchases, and
putting money away for retirement. Andguess what, we're having a tough time.
Thirty five percent of Americans are worriedabout making ends meet. This is
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according to the Fed of Philadelphia.That's up in one year from twenty nine
percent. That's a big jump.And so according to bank Rate, the
gap between what a typical American earnsand what they want to earn means Americans
have their eyes set on a highincome and they know even they know it's
unrealistic, it's just a hope,it's a reach, and it's the top
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of many Americans priorities. Price ofsheltered food, medical care are really high.
Two years of rising inflation. That'sgoing to be one of the big
ones coming up in the election inNovember. And this is what Donald Trump
is going to argue and he is. He has an argument. Look at
inflation. Now, the fact thathe blames Widen for a president doesn't have
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much to do with inflation. Butstill, the president gets the credit or
he gets the knock for a badeconomy and consumers. That's the most important
thing. Now here's another one.Bank Rate asked what kind of income do
you need to feel rich? Annualincome? Let me do a quick survey.
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Neil annual income to feel rich inCalifornia? Yeah, yeah, where
you live, yeah, where welive. Two million dollars annual income yeah
wow, Cono annual income. Yeah, I was gonna go around two to
five oh easily. And annual incometo feel rich, I'm going three in
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California. Three. Okay, Well, let me tell you what the survey
says. Survey says across the country, five hundred and twenty thousand dollars and
you feel rich. Yeah, anywhereelse in the country not no, no,
even two to three million dollars isbeyond rich. I mean, that's
that's way up and rarefied. That'sthank you. That's less than one percent.
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Not really five hundred thousand dollars.I don't think you're rich. Rich
in southern California. But boy,are you comfortable and more so so I'll
give it eight hundred thousand million dollarsto feel rich. That is buying everything
you need to buy, paying rent, mortgage, certainly, paying all of
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your bills, putting money aside forthe future retirement. If you have kids,
the kid's college fund, and havingsome disposable income. Let's go on
vacation. Let's go to Disneyland forthree days. Well there, you need
two point three million dollars a yearto do that once a year. I
get that. But to feel richmost Americans is five hundred thousand dollars really
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interesting. There was a research projectdone in twenty twenty three from a Nobel
Prize winning economists with a whole bunchof other economists Daniel Cannerman, who or
Cannerman did this research, and hesaid that happiness. Now we're talking about
what makes you happy. At whatpoint are you happy with your income?
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Okay, not rich, just happyand satisfied. Of course you want to
make more. But where you say, okay, I'm a happy camper financially
okay, not rich? Happy neilreal quickly to be written, no,
it just becomes to feel good abouthow much money you make and make it
really comfortable, not rich, justcomfortable. Pay all your bills, put
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aside money for college, rent,two hundred, two hundred and fifty thousand,
and you're comfortable. Kno, youwouldn't see two hundred and fifty thousand
dollars in two lifetimes. But whatwhat is it comfortable for you? So
you don't have to worry about,uh, you know, living day to
day where you have money to fixthe cars, buy a nice car.
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I have a house? Is thehouse you didn't have a house, assuming
the down payment has already covered,because that is really difficult these days.
But yeah, if you have ahouse, yeah, I'm gonna go one
hundred thousand, one hundred thousand.And by the way, that's very very
low, wow, because living ona undred thousand is not that easy.
Say, yeah, I would kneelon this about yeah, and five are
what was it? Two hundred thousand, two thousand and heather, can you
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hear me? Uh? Yeah,okay, Uh? Comfortable you know I
want I want at least half amillion, Okay. And by the way,
comfortable equals happiness. Financial happiness isbeing able to pay all your bills
that's the way it's defined. Well, here you go up to five hundred
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thousand dollars, uh, you're notfeeling real happy. The closer happiness is
five hundred thousand dollars nationally. Afterthat, there is no more happiness when
you go up from that. That'swhat the survey says. So at seven
hundred thousand dollars, you're no morehappy than at five hundred thousand dollars.
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You just have money for sex,drugs, and rock and roll. And
by the way, that's what thesurvey said. And remember the bank rate
survey, this is the undone bythe economists. The bank race survey says
the same thing. Five hundred grandis what Americans suggest that happiness is at
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that level and beyond that. Uhuh. And I you know, I
don't know. You know, I'vemade a lot of good money in my
time. I've made not such goodmoney in my time. I've gone up
and down depending on my career andwhat point in my life. And I
think it's fair to say that nomatter how much money I have, I
am unhappy that Neil, you wouldshare that, right, Well, that's
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the only reason why it makes ushappy. Your unhappiness makes us happy.
But I will tell you I've madelittle and I've made a lot, and
it's never made me more happy.Well, it reached it. Well,
let me put it this way.Going a little makes you unhappy. A
lot may not make you happy,But having not I find ways to give
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you. Yeah, because that's you. I mean, Neil, setting aside
all the crap. You are anoutlider, outliar. You've been able to
do that all right? Now,I have a bitch and moaned about how
governments and municipalities and counties spend waymore money usually than are brought in,
especially here on the West Coast,here in California, here in La County,
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here in the city of Los Angeles. So what's going on? I've
often said that when money comes in, new programs are instituted and they don't
go away. And right now moneyhas gone away in California. We're looking
at a budget deficit of forty fivebillion dollars. We don't have the money.
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So what kind of programs are outthere? What's going on? You
ever heard of cal Kids? No, you haven't. Cal Kids is a
taxpayer funded scholarship program aimed at helpingkids start saving for college from the day
they are born. Not bad.I think it's a great idea. The
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problem is is we, the taxpayers, are paying for it. It grants
up to one hundred dollars automatically toevery child born in California on or after
July one, and up to fifteenhundred dollars automatically to every eligible low income
student tax free money. I investedin a mutual fund funded by ScholarShare,
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the state's college Savings Plan, ofwhich I funded. When my kids were
born, I started putting away fortheir college, so they have money put
away for their college. Now alot of people don't have the money.
But you know what happens is yougo out and you if you want a
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college education, simply you go outand you borrow the money. I certainly
did. Now, granted it's alittle bit different today. College education is
insane expensive relative to when I wentto college, and so it was doable.
I borrowed money, but I borrowedI think it was thirty thousand dollars,
and I borrowed it for law schooland I paid it off. I
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had a ten year low interest loanwhich I paid off in ten years,
and that was eminently doable. Todaypeople have to borrow enough money to pay
for four years, and it's waynorth of one hundred It can be one
hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Didyou know that until nineteen seventy, the
UC system University of California system hadno tuition. It was absolutely free,
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and it was considered the best universestate university system in the world. There
was a chancellor by the name ofClark Kerr who ran the UC system,
and he took it to heights thatare unbelievable. Today. It's very,
very different now, according to researchand it works. Research demonstrates that kids
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with a college savings account three timesmore likely to enroll, in roll in
college, and four times more likelyto graduate than kids with no savings.
Okay, that makes sense, butyou know again, people who put away
money for their kids at the timethey are born and fund a home plan,
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write a down payment plan, thosekids when they hit twenty twenty one,
twenty five are more apt to buya house than people who don't have
money. I mean, that's sortof a given. But the point is
the money for that is going up. While California is an insane deficit and
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by the way, it's legitimate.The science here is legitimate. The stats
I gave you this follows the modelfor child development accounts at the the Center
for Social Development at Washington University inSaint Louis. There's no question about it.
So what do you do? Youregister online with cal Kids, You
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get access to your account, andyou get money starting September. By the
way, low income kids entering thefirst grade in public schools will automatically receive
a cow kids account with five hundreddollars. You don't even have to apply.
It's automatic. Kids living with fosterparents get an additional five hundred dollars,
and if someone is if the kidis deemed homeless, there's an additional
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five hundred dollars there. By thewait, it's a good thing. I'm
not arguing. I vote in favorof Prop ten to give preschool education to
kids, because up to that pointit was it was started at kindergarten.
I went to kindergarten. I didn'thave preschool. I didn't know from preschool.
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Well, the studies are really clear. Kids that go to preschool simply
do utter. Okay, now,what what is preschool? Okay? A
year before Okay, let's look atthe stats. How about kids started three
in preschool? Well, they doeven better. And my kids started at
three, which is kind of interestingbecause you think they would do better.
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Look what look what they did tome? Huh? I mean come on,
guys. Uh preschool, public andprivate school tutors? What the hell
happened? Please? You can't competeagainst genetics, man, you can't.
When did Max first start going toa preschool kind of thing? What?
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Agree? So we had a reallycool experience one that it was like this
this really community outdoor school, butthey very interactive and yeah, now was
that? Was it public or itwas private? It had to be private
because there are no pub private.Yeah, it had to be But that
that sounds fancy. It isn't fancy. See it's a co op. Okay.
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So it was relatively cheap. Yeah, I thought it was incredibly realiable.
My kids went to a Jewish daycareschool or Jewish cheah. You have
no idea how much it costs peryear? It was science fiction. But
then again, what can I tellyou? You know, is that a
religious issue? You know, theydon't pass the plate in synagogue. You
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know that, don't you? Theyjust don't do that to get in well
for highgazz services. They do.It's a sort of a donation. I'll
tell you why they don't pass theplate at services because they want checks.
Forget about this change business. Okay, we want checks with lots of zeros.
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Okay, does that me making funof the religion? Yeah? Pretty
much? Pretty much? All righttomorrow and of course the fourth of July
and Jim, who is I'm assumingcelebrate eating the fourth of July. Yesterday
we had a good long lunch talkingabout how miserable life is. Jim.
One of the things, well,you know, Jim is usually an optimist
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except when you're having lunch with me, and then I just take you down
to my depths, which is justa wonderful thing. Jim Maderna just got
a contract with the FEDS for avaccine. Now this is a new vaccine,
and this is just a backup.This is like the petroleum reserves just
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in case. Let's go through that. Yeah, I mean, so they
have because of this mRNA technology.You know, we talked about this back
during COVID. That technology is almostlike a like a box car on a
train. You can fill it withwhatever you want. And deliver it,
and so they have the ability tomodify this vaccine and make and make it
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for really whatever protein they want togo after. So it's still it's got
a long way to go before whereit's actually going to be a vaccine,
but they're starting the process so thatif anything bad happened, they could they
could, you know, just rampup production and push it forward. Now,
when you look at COVID from thetime and I don't know if you
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know the timeline, because I don't, I'm just asking you assuming you know,
that is from the time COVID firstwas discovered out of China and they
knew a pandemic was going to hit. I mean when six people or twelve
people or twenty people had it,they knew because you cannot stop a pandemic
on this planet anymore under any circumstances. So from the time it was discovered
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till the time they could test forit, to the time they had a
vaccine for it, what was thattimeline? Do you know? It was
less than a year, which waspretty impressive. And that is a miracle.
I mean that when you think aboutthat is today, I mean that's
because of the new mRNA technology ofcourse, So from the time a mutation
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occurs that is really contagious and adifferent mutation that are vaccines and the treatments
don't help. Right now, howlong does it take now from discovery someone
has it to the time there's avaccine. You know, I don't know
the answer to that. But again, you think about influenza in the normal
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year, right, they they lookat what's circulating in the southern hemisphere during
their winter, and then they startworking on the vaccine at that point,
and then we get it the followingyou know, September. So well,
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no, is that right? Yeah, I guess that's right. It takes
over a year for them to developit, and then remember they have to
grow it in eggs and that typeof process, so it's pretty easy for
the whole process to fallow heart andwe end up with a shortage of vaccine
and that type of thing. Sothe government is just doing, you know,
what they can to be prepared becauseobviously if they didn't have this and
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they weren't prepared, they'd be heavilycriticized. Yeah, and certainly my philosophy
and many other philosophy, many otherpeople believe this that we're better off having
too much than too little. Toomuch means you're probably going to be okay.
Too little means you might die.Oh, talking about dying antidepressants.
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A lot of people take antidepressants becausewell they're depressed. And I have taken
antidepressant in mindfe I should live.I should be eating antidepressants like skittles because
I'm always depressed. But news justcame out a new study that shows antidepressant
can cause you to gain weight.That is something new, Yeah, I
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mean, so the new part ofthis study is that they were looking at
which ones you to gain more weight. I think people have known for a
long time, and that's a commonreason people stopped taking their antidepressants is that
they gain weight and it makes themeven more depressed. So it's interesting to
study. I mean, it showedthat one group caused more weight gain,
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and things like sol off well betraincause less weight gain. But the one
thing they all had in common isthey all cause weight gain. And so
that's the game you play with antidepressantsis lots of side effects and you're trying
to find the one where the sideeffects are tolerable and you can get out
of that depression, you know.And so for many reasons people stop the
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antidepressants, and one common reason isweight gain. And I don't know if
you know this, but West Medicalhas doctors on staff that actually give you
prescriptions for antidepressants. You know thatdid not know that. Yeah, that's
just because they have bariatric surgery andthey just well, I'm not going to
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get into that, which, bythe way, all of that is a
complete joke. Okay, let medo this. And then because I got
a bunch of questions to ask you, let's start with taking multi vitamins.
Now, I've been told over andover again through my life taking multi multi
vitamins is kind of a crock thatyou should get all of your multi vitamins
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from the foods that you eat.And a matter of fact, multi vitamins
don't even help now I take thembecause I eat like crap. But your
suggestion studies, what is going downwith that one? Yeah, so there's
a there's an interesting recent study.It shows that you that there's a slight
increased death rate or you die youngerwhen you take multi vitamins. So it's
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interesting because you know, you thinkthat it's a reasonable recommendation right that if
you have multi vitamins pretty cheap,what damage could it cause? You know,
you have vitamin than your food.Maybe this will just kind of smooth
over all the gaps, right andjust fill in any vitamins you're not getting.
They're essential that required you need thatyour body needs them to produce certain
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chemicals. But you're right as faras what you've been told. All the
studies as far as vitamin intake thatshow up benefit are about that if you
have a balanced diet and you're gettingit from your food. And there's something
about and this is kind of likethe juicing phenomenon that was for a while
was a juicing kraze where you takea whole vegetable and then you take out
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the sugary part of it, whichis the juice, and expect to get
some you know, magic health benefitout of it that you that's better than
if you just would have eaten thewhole fruit. And that's really not true.
So you know, the vitamins arethe same thing you need. What
you need is a balanced diet thatprovides all those vitamins and that ends up
being a healthy diet and you dobetter. What if you don't have a
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healthy diet. Let's say, hypothetic, you live on Costco frozen burritos,
okay, and you would think thata vitamin would help, right, Yeah,
that's the whole point. Does thevitamin help well? And that's the
problem is there's no study that looksat people with a you know, in
this particular study, they did notlook at do these people have a vitamin
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deficit and then by improving the vitamindeficit that they live longer. We have
it, we don't have that information. I mean, we do have it
from third world countries right where theyhave a vitamin A deficiency and then they
make that you know, there's thisgenetically modified rice that looks orange and all
of a sudden they get the vitaminsthat they need and they do better.
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But we don't live in that world. So it's surprising that to come up
with a study that maybe taking vitaminsmight actually shorten your life. But again
it's a problem of selection. Arewe selecting people? Are people taking the
vitamins to make up for an unhealthysituation? Either they've been ignos with something
bad and they think, all right, well if I take vitamins, it'll
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help me out or are we talkingabout people who are eating poorly and figure
it. Well, I'll just fillin the gaps with vitamins. That's the
kind of information that the studies missing. Okay, I want to take a
break and come back. And it'ssomething that we talked about yesterday for a
couple of hours, and that isand you are really an expert on this.
Not only have you been an erdoctor for a zillion years, but
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you're actually you actually have studied whater rooms are about, and I mean
really studied and the foibles, theproblems, and maybe the fixes. So
we'll be back. Are you okaywith that? Jim? By the way,
sure, what the heck? Oh, what the heck? Okay,
we'll be back with it. Andby the way, that was not on
the list. I just thought ofthat, all right, Jim. Yesterday
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we were talking for a couple ofhours and we're going to finish the show
with this. Yesterday we were talkingfor a couple of hours about our medical
system in the US, and yousaid something really interesting, saying, at
the same time, we get thebest medical care in the world and some
of the worst medical care in theworld simultaneously. It's kind of counterintuitive,
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And we talked about your specialty,the er room, and how it is
failing across the country, and youare studying this and there may be some
answers out there, would you sharesure? I mean, it's everybody who's
been in the er knows that youcan be stuck there for hours, sometimes
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just waiting for your turn. Thesystem is a complicated system. I think
what we talked about is that thereis no easy solution that if you add
more nurses, there's still not enoughspace. We're holding patients in the emergency
department that should be admitted inside thehospital. There's not enough beds up there
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to hold those patients, or they'rehaving trouble getting through the system. Sometimes
we have trouble getting people out ofthe hospital because they have no one to
pick them up, or they haveno place to go, or they need
to go to a rehab facility andthere's not enough of those, or they
need to go to a nursing homeand there's not enough of those, or
they're waiting for a cat scan andit's just waiting forever. So it's really
the entire system is failing us.So when you ask what you asked me,
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well, what's the solution as ifthere's one or two things, one
or two levers we can pull,and there really aren't. I mean,
this really needs to be an effortfrom the bottom to the top. We
need you know, you need morelabs to grow an er, you need
more ability to do labs, Xray, catscans. Those all require more
personnel to do to do all thosetests. So it's just unfortunately, there's
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just not a simple answer to thisproblem. But it's granted. How do
other countries do it? You know? I was in Spain and my daughter
was hurt when she was very young, and E was at the airport and
they had a full medical facility atthe airport, in an ambulance at the
airport for their medical and it wassome of the best medical care I've ever
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seen. I mean we had anhour to get on the airplane and we
were able to do it. Andshe had this laceration on her skull and
they had to shave it, Imean all of it, and they were
able to pull it off. Itwas phenomenal. How can they do it
and we can't? Well, Imean, our systems are so different.
It's true. Every system has itspros and cons I mean I've seen,
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you know, after running an internationalair ambulance, I've seen a lot of
other systems and been super impressed withplaces that people are scared to be and
kind of disappointed in some places thatI thought would would be a lot better.
So our system is more of acapitalistic driven system. You know,
we have Medicare, which is probablyat least a third of the population,
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if not more, gets their healthcarethrough government paid services. And if you
add the VA and all of those, it's probably you had medical or Medicaid.
It's definitely more than half. Nowyou know, you're down to maybe
thirty or forty percent of the populationget their healthcare. It's for their work
and so, and then that's boughtby your employer. It's not bought by
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you. So you're not the customer. Your employers the customer. They're the
ones mostly paying for it, andthey're the ones the insurance company is trying
to make happy, not the patient. I mean, of course they have
to make the patient happier. Ifeveryone complains to their employer, then they
would lose the business. But that'sthe point. People don't complain to their
employer about their health care. Theycomplain to the doctor, they complain to
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their insurance company, and as longas they can keep it in that little
window and you don't complain to youremployer, well then that's all good.
So we have these weird motivations inthe United States. I also had a
friend who was just in career recentlyand he called me and his kid was
sick and he couldn't figure out whatto get. And when I try to
tell them what to get, youknow, everything's in a different language using
different letters. So he was evenstruggling to find that. And so I
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said, let's just go to aclinic. You went to a clinic with
a kid. It was like inand out within thirty or forty five minutes
and cost something like twenty bucks.And so there are where was this and
where was this? Korea? Yeah, Korea, and he got great medical
care. So you know, it'sthat's the problem is we have these different
financial motivations. And in the UnitedStates, because of the weirdness of insurance,
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there are certain you know, specialtiesthat don't do procedures don't make as
much money. So now those peopleare can make a lot more money by
doing lifestyle medicine, right, selling, giving out prescriptions for weight loss,
for hair loss, for impotence.You know, things like that make more
money than just you know, beinga normal internist or primary care doctor.
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So that's why in Spain, youknow, I don't think they have those
type of motivations. I actually haven'tdug into the Spanish system, but I've
seen, you know, the Britishsystem. It works really well. It
doesn't work as well as you wouldthink, though, you know, they
should have a much more coordinated systemthan they. Jim, I've gotta,
I've got to cut you off.We're going to pick this up probably next
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week because this this sat two hours. Yeah it did, and so uh
and you obviously, and you havemore expertise than virtually anybody I know out
there in this uh, in thiscategory. All right, Jim, you
have a good Memorial Day, takecare or no good Fourth of July exactly,
all right, Jim Keeney, catchyou next week, and uh,
there you go. I conflate inthe meantime, Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday,
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Happy Birthday to the United States.Tomorrow is July fourth. I am
not here. Uh Hea, thereis So that starts a wake up call,
and Neil is not here. Ithink Wayne is filling in, if
I'm not mistaken. So Wayne willbe here, and of course Cono and
and we'll be here because well theysleep here. And I don't even know
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why you pay rent someplace else,because we keep you here twenty five hours
a day. All Right, guys, that's it. You have a good
one, and I'll catch you onMonday, and you have a good July
fourth weekend KFI AM six forty liveeverywhere on the iHeartRadio app. You've been
listening to the Bill Handle Show.Catch my Show Monday through Friday, six
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am to nine am, and anytimeon demand on the iHeartRadio app.
You're listening to Bill Handle on demandfrom KFI AM six forty tomorrow of course
being the big one in July fourfireworks hopefully not at your house where your
head gets blown off with illegal fireworks, but barbecues and just a great fun
holiday now, which is interesting becauseit's the independence of the country and now
(00:23):
many people died for that, soyou think it'd be a little more serious,
but no, no, it's acelebration. Okay. One of my
favorite classes in college was microeconomics.Microeconomics being how we how you, how
I live? Paying for cars andrent, and studying sort of the nitty
(00:43):
gritty, not macroeconomics, which ishow countries and companies work. It's our
stuff, and so I've always beenfascinated by this in terms of how much
we have, how much we spend, how much we need for retirement.
Survey just came out from Bank,one of the big bank companies. What
does it take in terms of anAmerican feeling financially secure? This is general
(01:10):
all over the United States. Herein southern California, it's a whole different,
whole different animal. You know whatthat magic number is to feel financially
secure? One hundred and eighty sixthousand dollars a year, of which six
percent of adults make that much money. Median family income in the US between
fifty one thousand and eighty six thousanddollars. And by the way, what
(01:30):
is financial security? What does thatmean? Well, subscribed as being able
to pay your bills, having enoughleftover to have some discretionary purchases, and
putting money away for retirement. Andguess what, we're having a tough time.
Thirty five percent of Americans are worriedabout making ends meet. This is
(01:51):
according to the Fed of Philadelphia.That's up in one year from twenty nine
percent. That's a big jump.And so according to bank Rate, the
gap between what a typical American earnsand what they want to earn means Americans
have their eyes set on a highincome and they know even they know it's
unrealistic, it's just a hope,it's a reach, and it's the top
(02:15):
of many Americans priorities. Price ofsheltered food, medical care are really high.
Two years of rising inflation. That'sgoing to be one of the big
ones coming up in the election inNovember. And this is what Donald Trump
is going to argue and he is. He has an argument. Look at
inflation. Now, the fact thathe blames Widen for a president doesn't have
(02:35):
much to do with inflation. Butstill, the president gets the credit or
he gets the knock for a badeconomy and consumers. That's the most important
thing. Now here's another one.Bank Rate asked what kind of income do
you need to feel rich? Annualincome? Let me do a quick survey.
(02:58):
Neil annual income to feel rich inCalifornia? Yeah, yeah, where
you live, yeah, where welive. Two million dollars annual income yeah
wow, Cono annual income. Yeah, I was gonna go around two to
five oh easily. And annual incometo feel rich, I'm going three in
(03:23):
California. Three. Okay, Well, let me tell you what the survey
says. Survey says across the country, five hundred and twenty thousand dollars and
you feel rich. Yeah, anywhereelse in the country not no, no,
even two to three million dollars isbeyond rich. I mean, that's
that's way up and rarefied. That'sthank you. That's less than one percent.
(03:47):
Not really five hundred thousand dollars.I don't think you're rich. Rich
in southern California. But boy,are you comfortable and more so so I'll
give it eight hundred thousand million dollarsto feel rich. That is buying everything
you need to buy, paying rent, mortgage, certainly, paying all of
(04:08):
your bills, putting money aside forthe future retirement. If you have kids,
the kid's college fund, and havingsome disposable income. Let's go on
vacation. Let's go to Disneyland forthree days. Well there, you need
two point three million dollars a yearto do that once a year. I
get that. But to feel richmost Americans is five hundred thousand dollars really
(04:31):
interesting. There was a research projectdone in twenty twenty three from a Nobel
Prize winning economists with a whole bunchof other economists Daniel Cannerman, who or
Cannerman did this research, and hesaid that happiness. Now we're talking about
what makes you happy. At whatpoint are you happy with your income?
(04:56):
Okay, not rich, just happyand satisfied. Of course you want to
make more. But where you say, okay, I'm a happy camper financially
okay, not rich? Happy neilreal quickly to be written, no,
it just becomes to feel good abouthow much money you make and make it
really comfortable, not rich, justcomfortable. Pay all your bills, put
(05:16):
aside money for college, rent,two hundred, two hundred and fifty thousand,
and you're comfortable. Kno, youwouldn't see two hundred and fifty thousand
dollars in two lifetimes. But whatwhat is it comfortable for you? So
you don't have to worry about,uh, you know, living day to
day where you have money to fixthe cars, buy a nice car.
(05:41):
I have a house? Is thehouse you didn't have a house, assuming
the down payment has already covered,because that is really difficult these days.
But yeah, if you have ahouse, yeah, I'm gonna go one
hundred thousand, one hundred thousand.And by the way, that's very very
low, wow, because living ona undred thousand is not that easy.
Say, yeah, I would kneelon this about yeah, and five are
what was it? Two hundred thousand, two thousand and heather, can you
(06:04):
hear me? Uh? Yeah,okay, Uh? Comfortable you know I
want I want at least half amillion, Okay. And by the way,
comfortable equals happiness. Financial happiness isbeing able to pay all your bills
that's the way it's defined. Well, here you go up to five hundred
(06:26):
thousand dollars, uh, you're notfeeling real happy. The closer happiness is
five hundred thousand dollars nationally. Afterthat, there is no more happiness when
you go up from that. That'swhat the survey says. So at seven
hundred thousand dollars, you're no morehappy than at five hundred thousand dollars.
(06:48):
You just have money for sex,drugs, and rock and roll. And
by the way, that's what thesurvey said. And remember the bank rate
survey, this is the undone bythe economists. The bank race survey says
the same thing. Five hundred grandis what Americans suggest that happiness is at
(07:12):
that level and beyond that. Uhuh. And I you know, I
don't know. You know, I'vemade a lot of good money in my
time. I've made not such goodmoney in my time. I've gone up
and down depending on my career andwhat point in my life. And I
think it's fair to say that nomatter how much money I have, I
am unhappy that Neil, you wouldshare that, right, Well, that's
(07:34):
the only reason why it makes ushappy. Your unhappiness makes us happy.
But I will tell you I've madelittle and I've made a lot, and
it's never made me more happy.Well, it reached it. Well,
let me put it this way.Going a little makes you unhappy. A
lot may not make you happy,But having not I find ways to give
(07:54):
you. Yeah, because that's you. I mean, Neil, setting aside
all the crap. You are anoutlider, outliar. You've been able to
do that all right? Now,I have a bitch and moaned about how
governments and municipalities and counties spend waymore money usually than are brought in,
especially here on the West Coast,here in California, here in La County,
(08:18):
here in the city of Los Angeles. So what's going on? I've
often said that when money comes in, new programs are instituted and they don't
go away. And right now moneyhas gone away in California. We're looking
at a budget deficit of forty fivebillion dollars. We don't have the money.
(08:39):
So what kind of programs are outthere? What's going on? You
ever heard of cal Kids? No, you haven't. Cal Kids is a
taxpayer funded scholarship program aimed at helpingkids start saving for college from the day
they are born. Not bad.I think it's a great idea. The
(09:05):
problem is is we, the taxpayers, are paying for it. It grants
up to one hundred dollars automatically toevery child born in California on or after
July one, and up to fifteenhundred dollars automatically to every eligible low income
student tax free money. I investedin a mutual fund funded by ScholarShare,
(09:30):
the state's college Savings Plan, ofwhich I funded. When my kids were
born, I started putting away fortheir college, so they have money put
away for their college. Now alot of people don't have the money.
But you know what happens is yougo out and you if you want a
(09:50):
college education, simply you go outand you borrow the money. I certainly
did. Now, granted it's alittle bit different today. College education is
insane expensive relative to when I wentto college, and so it was doable.
I borrowed money, but I borrowedI think it was thirty thousand dollars,
and I borrowed it for law schooland I paid it off. I
(10:15):
had a ten year low interest loanwhich I paid off in ten years,
and that was eminently doable. Todaypeople have to borrow enough money to pay
for four years, and it's waynorth of one hundred It can be one
hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Didyou know that until nineteen seventy, the
UC system University of California system hadno tuition. It was absolutely free,
(10:39):
and it was considered the best universestate university system in the world. There
was a chancellor by the name ofClark Kerr who ran the UC system,
and he took it to heights thatare unbelievable. Today. It's very,
very different now, according to researchand it works. Research demonstrates that kids
(11:03):
with a college savings account three timesmore likely to enroll, in roll in
college, and four times more likelyto graduate than kids with no savings.
Okay, that makes sense, butyou know again, people who put away
money for their kids at the timethey are born and fund a home plan,
(11:26):
write a down payment plan, thosekids when they hit twenty twenty one,
twenty five are more apt to buya house than people who don't have
money. I mean, that's sortof a given. But the point is
the money for that is going up. While California is an insane deficit and
(11:50):
by the way, it's legitimate.The science here is legitimate. The stats
I gave you this follows the modelfor child development accounts at the the Center
for Social Development at Washington University inSaint Louis. There's no question about it.
So what do you do? Youregister online with cal Kids, You
(12:11):
get access to your account, andyou get money starting September. By the
way, low income kids entering thefirst grade in public schools will automatically receive
a cow kids account with five hundreddollars. You don't even have to apply.
It's automatic. Kids living with fosterparents get an additional five hundred dollars,
and if someone is if the kidis deemed homeless, there's an additional
(12:35):
five hundred dollars there. By thewait, it's a good thing. I'm
not arguing. I vote in favorof Prop ten to give preschool education to
kids, because up to that pointit was it was started at kindergarten.
I went to kindergarten. I didn'thave preschool. I didn't know from preschool.
(12:56):
Well, the studies are really clear. Kids that go to preschool simply
do utter. Okay, now,what what is preschool? Okay? A
year before Okay, let's look atthe stats. How about kids started three
in preschool? Well, they doeven better. And my kids started at
three, which is kind of interestingbecause you think they would do better.
(13:18):
Look what look what they did tome? Huh? I mean come on,
guys. Uh preschool, public andprivate school tutors? What the hell
happened? Please? You can't competeagainst genetics, man, you can't.
When did Max first start going toa preschool kind of thing? What?
(13:39):
Agree? So we had a reallycool experience one that it was like this
this really community outdoor school, butthey very interactive and yeah, now was
that? Was it public or itwas private? It had to be private
because there are no pub private.Yeah, it had to be But that
that sounds fancy. It isn't fancy. See it's a co op. Okay.
(14:01):
So it was relatively cheap. Yeah, I thought it was incredibly realiable.
My kids went to a Jewish daycareschool or Jewish cheah. You have
no idea how much it costs peryear? It was science fiction. But
then again, what can I tellyou? You know, is that a
religious issue? You know, theydon't pass the plate in synagogue. You
(14:26):
know that, don't you? Theyjust don't do that to get in well
for highgazz services. They do.It's a sort of a donation. I'll
tell you why they don't pass theplate at services because they want checks.
Forget about this change business. Okay, we want checks with lots of zeros.
(14:46):
Okay, does that me making funof the religion? Yeah? Pretty
much? Pretty much? All righttomorrow and of course the fourth of July
and Jim, who is I'm assumingcelebrate eating the fourth of July. Yesterday
we had a good long lunch talkingabout how miserable life is. Jim.
One of the things, well,you know, Jim is usually an optimist
(15:09):
except when you're having lunch with me, and then I just take you down
to my depths, which is justa wonderful thing. Jim Maderna just got
a contract with the FEDS for avaccine. Now this is a new vaccine,
and this is just a backup.This is like the petroleum reserves just
(15:31):
in case. Let's go through that. Yeah, I mean, so they
have because of this mRNA technology.You know, we talked about this back
during COVID. That technology is almostlike a like a box car on a
train. You can fill it withwhatever you want. And deliver it,
and so they have the ability tomodify this vaccine and make and make it
(15:52):
for really whatever protein they want togo after. So it's still it's got
a long way to go before whereit's actually going to be a vaccine,
but they're starting the process so thatif anything bad happened, they could they
could, you know, just rampup production and push it forward. Now,
when you look at COVID from thetime and I don't know if you
(16:15):
know the timeline, because I don't, I'm just asking you assuming you know,
that is from the time COVID firstwas discovered out of China and they
knew a pandemic was going to hit. I mean when six people or twelve
people or twenty people had it,they knew because you cannot stop a pandemic
on this planet anymore under any circumstances. So from the time it was discovered
(16:38):
till the time they could test forit, to the time they had a
vaccine for it, what was thattimeline? Do you know? It was
less than a year, which waspretty impressive. And that is a miracle.
I mean that when you think aboutthat is today, I mean that's
because of the new mRNA technology ofcourse, So from the time a mutation
(17:03):
occurs that is really contagious and adifferent mutation that are vaccines and the treatments
don't help. Right now, howlong does it take now from discovery someone
has it to the time there's avaccine. You know, I don't know
the answer to that. But again, you think about influenza in the normal
(17:26):
year, right, they they lookat what's circulating in the southern hemisphere during
their winter, and then they startworking on the vaccine at that point,
and then we get it the followingyou know, September. So well,
(17:47):
no, is that right? Yeah, I guess that's right. It takes
over a year for them to developit, and then remember they have to
grow it in eggs and that typeof process, so it's pretty easy for
the whole process to fallow heart andwe end up with a shortage of vaccine
and that type of thing. Sothe government is just doing, you know,
what they can to be prepared becauseobviously if they didn't have this and
(18:08):
they weren't prepared, they'd be heavilycriticized. Yeah, and certainly my philosophy
and many other philosophy, many otherpeople believe this that we're better off having
too much than too little. Toomuch means you're probably going to be okay.
Too little means you might die.Oh, talking about dying antidepressants.
(18:30):
A lot of people take antidepressants becausewell they're depressed. And I have taken
antidepressant in mindfe I should live.I should be eating antidepressants like skittles because
I'm always depressed. But news justcame out a new study that shows antidepressant
can cause you to gain weight.That is something new, Yeah, I
(18:56):
mean, so the new part ofthis study is that they were looking at
which ones you to gain more weight. I think people have known for a
long time, and that's a commonreason people stopped taking their antidepressants is that
they gain weight and it makes themeven more depressed. So it's interesting to
study. I mean, it showedthat one group caused more weight gain,
(19:18):
and things like sol off well betraincause less weight gain. But the one
thing they all had in common isthey all cause weight gain. And so
that's the game you play with antidepressantsis lots of side effects and you're trying
to find the one where the sideeffects are tolerable and you can get out
of that depression, you know.And so for many reasons people stop the
(19:40):
antidepressants, and one common reason isweight gain. And I don't know if
you know this, but West Medicalhas doctors on staff that actually give you
prescriptions for antidepressants. You know thatdid not know that. Yeah, that's
just because they have bariatric surgery andthey just well, I'm not going to
(20:00):
get into that, which, bythe way, all of that is a
complete joke. Okay, let medo this. And then because I got
a bunch of questions to ask you, let's start with taking multi vitamins.
Now, I've been told over andover again through my life taking multi multi
vitamins is kind of a crock thatyou should get all of your multi vitamins
(20:23):
from the foods that you eat.And a matter of fact, multi vitamins
don't even help now I take thembecause I eat like crap. But your
suggestion studies, what is going downwith that one? Yeah, so there's
a there's an interesting recent study.It shows that you that there's a slight
increased death rate or you die youngerwhen you take multi vitamins. So it's
(20:49):
interesting because you know, you thinkthat it's a reasonable recommendation right that if
you have multi vitamins pretty cheap,what damage could it cause? You know,
you have vitamin than your food.Maybe this will just kind of smooth
over all the gaps, right andjust fill in any vitamins you're not getting.
They're essential that required you need thatyour body needs them to produce certain
(21:10):
chemicals. But you're right as faras what you've been told. All the
studies as far as vitamin intake thatshow up benefit are about that if you
have a balanced diet and you're gettingit from your food. And there's something
about and this is kind of likethe juicing phenomenon that was for a while
was a juicing kraze where you takea whole vegetable and then you take out
(21:33):
the sugary part of it, whichis the juice, and expect to get
some you know, magic health benefitout of it that you that's better than
if you just would have eaten thewhole fruit. And that's really not true.
So you know, the vitamins arethe same thing you need. What
you need is a balanced diet thatprovides all those vitamins and that ends up
being a healthy diet and you dobetter. What if you don't have a
(21:57):
healthy diet. Let's say, hypothetic, you live on Costco frozen burritos,
okay, and you would think thata vitamin would help, right, Yeah,
that's the whole point. Does thevitamin help well? And that's the
problem is there's no study that looksat people with a you know, in
this particular study, they did notlook at do these people have a vitamin
(22:18):
deficit and then by improving the vitamindeficit that they live longer. We have
it, we don't have that information. I mean, we do have it
from third world countries right where theyhave a vitamin A deficiency and then they
make that you know, there's thisgenetically modified rice that looks orange and all
of a sudden they get the vitaminsthat they need and they do better.
(22:41):
But we don't live in that world. So it's surprising that to come up
with a study that maybe taking vitaminsmight actually shorten your life. But again
it's a problem of selection. Arewe selecting people? Are people taking the
vitamins to make up for an unhealthysituation? Either they've been ignos with something
bad and they think, all right, well if I take vitamins, it'll
(23:03):
help me out or are we talkingabout people who are eating poorly and figure
it. Well, I'll just fillin the gaps with vitamins. That's the
kind of information that the studies missing. Okay, I want to take a
break and come back. And it'ssomething that we talked about yesterday for a
couple of hours, and that isand you are really an expert on this.
Not only have you been an erdoctor for a zillion years, but
(23:26):
you're actually you actually have studied whater rooms are about, and I mean
really studied and the foibles, theproblems, and maybe the fixes. So
we'll be back. Are you okaywith that? Jim? By the way,
sure, what the heck? Oh, what the heck? Okay,
we'll be back with it. Andby the way, that was not on
the list. I just thought ofthat, all right, Jim. Yesterday
(23:48):
we were talking for a couple ofhours and we're going to finish the show
with this. Yesterday we were talkingfor a couple of hours about our medical
system in the US, and yousaid something really interesting, saying, at
the same time, we get thebest medical care in the world and some
of the worst medical care in theworld simultaneously. It's kind of counterintuitive,
(24:11):
And we talked about your specialty,the er room, and how it is
failing across the country, and youare studying this and there may be some
answers out there, would you sharesure? I mean, it's everybody who's
been in the er knows that youcan be stuck there for hours, sometimes
(24:32):
just waiting for your turn. Thesystem is a complicated system. I think
what we talked about is that thereis no easy solution that if you add
more nurses, there's still not enoughspace. We're holding patients in the emergency
department that should be admitted inside thehospital. There's not enough beds up there
(24:52):
to hold those patients, or they'rehaving trouble getting through the system. Sometimes
we have trouble getting people out ofthe hospital because they have no one to
pick them up, or they haveno place to go, or they need
to go to a rehab facility andthere's not enough of those, or they
need to go to a nursing homeand there's not enough of those, or
they're waiting for a cat scan andit's just waiting forever. So it's really
the entire system is failing us.So when you ask what you asked me,
(25:18):
well, what's the solution as ifthere's one or two things, one
or two levers we can pull,and there really aren't. I mean,
this really needs to be an effortfrom the bottom to the top. We
need you know, you need morelabs to grow an er, you need
more ability to do labs, Xray, catscans. Those all require more
personnel to do to do all thosetests. So it's just unfortunately, there's
(25:45):
just not a simple answer to thisproblem. But it's granted. How do
other countries do it? You know? I was in Spain and my daughter
was hurt when she was very young, and E was at the airport and
they had a full medical facility atthe airport, in an ambulance at the
airport for their medical and it wassome of the best medical care I've ever
(26:06):
seen. I mean we had anhour to get on the airplane and we
were able to do it. Andshe had this laceration on her skull and
they had to shave it, Imean all of it, and they were
able to pull it off. Itwas phenomenal. How can they do it
and we can't? Well, Imean, our systems are so different.
It's true. Every system has itspros and cons I mean I've seen,
(26:27):
you know, after running an internationalair ambulance, I've seen a lot of
other systems and been super impressed withplaces that people are scared to be and
kind of disappointed in some places thatI thought would would be a lot better.
So our system is more of acapitalistic driven system. You know,
we have Medicare, which is probablyat least a third of the population,
(26:51):
if not more, gets their healthcarethrough government paid services. And if you
add the VA and all of those, it's probably you had medical or Medicaid.
It's definitely more than half. Nowyou know, you're down to maybe
thirty or forty percent of the populationget their healthcare. It's for their work
and so, and then that's boughtby your employer. It's not bought by
(27:14):
you. So you're not the customer. Your employers the customer. They're the
ones mostly paying for it, andthey're the ones the insurance company is trying
to make happy, not the patient. I mean, of course they have
to make the patient happier. Ifeveryone complains to their employer, then they
would lose the business. But that'sthe point. People don't complain to their
employer about their health care. Theycomplain to the doctor, they complain to
(27:36):
their insurance company, and as longas they can keep it in that little
window and you don't complain to youremployer, well then that's all good.
So we have these weird motivations inthe United States. I also had a
friend who was just in career recentlyand he called me and his kid was
sick and he couldn't figure out whatto get. And when I try to
tell them what to get, youknow, everything's in a different language using
different letters. So he was evenstruggling to find that. And so I
(28:02):
said, let's just go to aclinic. You went to a clinic with
a kid. It was like inand out within thirty or forty five minutes
and cost something like twenty bucks.And so there are where was this and
where was this? Korea? Yeah, Korea, and he got great medical
care. So you know, it'sthat's the problem is we have these different
financial motivations. And in the UnitedStates, because of the weirdness of insurance,
(28:30):
there are certain you know, specialtiesthat don't do procedures don't make as
much money. So now those peopleare can make a lot more money by
doing lifestyle medicine, right, selling, giving out prescriptions for weight loss,
for hair loss, for impotence.You know, things like that make more
money than just you know, beinga normal internist or primary care doctor.
(28:52):
So that's why in Spain, youknow, I don't think they have those
type of motivations. I actually haven'tdug into the Spanish system, but I've
seen, you know, the Britishsystem. It works really well. It
doesn't work as well as you wouldthink, though, you know, they
should have a much more coordinated systemthan they. Jim, I've gotta,
I've got to cut you off.We're going to pick this up probably next
(29:15):
week because this this sat two hours. Yeah it did, and so uh
and you obviously, and you havemore expertise than virtually anybody I know out
there in this uh, in thiscategory. All right, Jim, you
have a good Memorial Day, takecare or no good Fourth of July exactly,
all right, Jim Keeney, catchyou next week, and uh,
there you go. I conflate inthe meantime, Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday,
(29:40):
Happy Birthday to the United States.Tomorrow is July fourth. I am
not here. Uh Hea, thereis So that starts a wake up call,
and Neil is not here. Ithink Wayne is filling in, if
I'm not mistaken. So Wayne willbe here, and of course Cono and
and we'll be here because well theysleep here. And I don't even know
(30:02):
why you pay rent someplace else,because we keep you here twenty five hours
a day. All Right, guys, that's it. You have a good
one, and I'll catch you onMonday, and you have a good July
fourth weekend KFI AM six forty liveeverywhere on the iHeartRadio app. You've been
listening to the Bill Handle Show.Catch my Show Monday through Friday, six
(30:23):
am to nine am, and anytimeon demand on the iHeartRadio app.
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