ICYMI: Elon Musk, jobs for teens and failing healthcare relationships
It's Saturday, which means it's time for the round-up of this week's top premium columns.
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1. My doctor made me cry. It summed up everything that's wrong with health care.
By Christine Bechtel
I had never cried in a doctor's office. But there I was, a few weeks back, sobbing in the exam room.
As a new resident of Fort Myers, Florida, I was trying to establish a relationship with a local primary care physician. From the start, the doctor's focus was her computer, not me. She stared at a screen, while I stared off into space.
She challenged me on why I had an inhaler prescribed by a previous doctor. I explained that hay fever leaves me short of breath. But her screen said I needed an asthma diagnosis, which I don't have. Then she asked why my blood pressure was so high – a first for me. Bewildered, I said I had ended a lifelong friendship the night before. Sidetracked again: It turns out there is no software code for that. I needed a dose of kindness and some clinical insight. I got clicking and keystrokes instead.
2. I voted for Trump twice. He shouldn't run again.
By Dennis Kneale
Sometimes telling the truth hurts even more than hearing it. That is why writing this column is so difficult.
I voted for President Donald Trump twice. I’m a big fan, in part because I helped Lou Dobbs write “The Trump Century,” which builds a convincing, fact-based case for how immensely successful was the first three years of his presidency.
Trump helped produce stronger economic growth than everyone said was possible. Unemployment for Black, Hispanic and female workers plummeted, wages rose higher than they had in years, and businesses got their groove back, buoyed by tax cuts and a president who loved them.
3. Teens are missing out on jobs. And your state could be to blame.
By Alli Fick and Haley Holik
As the end of the school year approaches, this summer break won’t be as rewarding as it should be for millions of teenagers. Most states block teens from finding their first job and best path in life.
Fortunately, some states have started to break these barriers, but more should follow suit. Every teenager deserves to discover the lifelong benefits that come with early work.
The idea of the working teenager is as old as America itself, but now they are increasingly rare. Only 36% of those ages 16 to 19 participated in the labor force at the end of 2021, down from almost 60% in the late 1970s.
4. Elon Musk should take over Twitter, shut it down and fire the social media giant into space
By Rex Huppke
Noted spaceman Elon Musk has been flittering around Twitter, scaring the bitcoins out of many who wonder what a billionaire oddball and self-declared “free speech absolutist” might do to a social media platform already overrun by racists, misogynists, Nazi wannabes and bigots of all stripes.
First, Musk bought a 9% stake in the company. Then it seemed he would join Twitter’s board. Late Sunday, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal announced the Tesla founder would not be joining the board, which could – and I stress “could,” as Musk and certainty don’t mix – mean he wants to buy the company outright, an option given his immense wealth.
5. Seize Russian yachts, jets and Picassos. Then use the money to help Ukraine.
By Sheldon Whitehouse and Tom Malinowski
The split screen is stomach-turning: In Ukraine, Vladimir Putin's rockets fall on fleeing refugees, missiles gash occupied apartment buildings and hospitals, and civilians huddle in metro stations as bombs fall above.
Outside Ukraine, mega-yachts ferry Russian oligarchs between tropical islands, private jets shuttle them to ski vacations and priceless art adorns the walls of their villas.
Putin’s enablers – and even members of his family – live abroad in laundered luxury off the wealth they stole with his permission.