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Americans fly to Turkey for $3,000 dental implants that cost $40,000 in Manhattan. They drive to Tijuana for $800 MRIs priced at $12,000 in San Diego (literally 15 minutes north). Medical tourism revenue hit $100 billion globally in 2023 while US healthcare spending broke $4.5 trillion. The market speaks louder than any policy wonk ever could. When you can get the same cardiac surgery in Bangkok for $15,000 that costs $200,000 in Boston—using the same equipment, often better facilities, and surgeons trained at Johns Hopkins—the pricing isn't reflecting scarcity or quality. It's reflecting capture. Insurance companies created this beautiful racket where they negotiate "discounts" off artificially inflated prices, hospitals play along because the government backstops the whole charade through Medicare reimbursements, and pharmaceutical companies... well, they just price whatever the market will bear (which turns out to be everything you own plus your firstborn). Austrian school economists predicted this decades ago. When you remove price signals and direct payment, costs explode. When Americans rediscover actual market prices by flying to Mumbai for heart surgery, suddenly they remember what healthcare actually costs when providers compete for cash-paying customers instead of...

New York City spent $81,705 spent per homeless person last year. Meanwhile, the household median income was at $81,228, per Newsweek.

Me when my wife tells me to put my phone away at the dinner table

Craving a trip to Italy

This one’s for all of you who enjoy a bit more risk in your lives. I ran the numbers on $QQQ. Same setup as $VOO and $SCHD: $500/month from age 25 to the average U.S. retirement age of 62. The assumptions: - $QQQ annualized total return since inception (Mar 1999): 10.11% with dividends reinvested - $500/month for 37 years - Dividends reinvested, no withdrawals The results: - Total contributed: $222,000 - Portfolio value at 62: ~$2.14M - 89.6% of that is compound growth Now here's where it gets interesting: - $QQQ's 10.11% CAGR includes the dot-com crash (3 straight years of -33% to -37%) and 2008 (-41.73%). - Max drawdown: -82.98%. - $VOO and $SCHD didn't exist during either crash. $QQQ vs $VOO vs $SCHD at retirement: - $QQQ: $2.14M portfolio, ~$12K/yr dividends - $VOO: $6.17M portfolio, ~$73K/yr dividends - $SCHD: $4.41M portfolio, ~$153K/yr dividends But QQQ's last 10 years? 18.96% annualized. At that rate: $19M+. The takeaway: QQQ is the highest risk, highest recent reward. The "since-inception" return depends entirely on whether one lived through the dot-com bust. Not financial advice. Just an analysis I did with actual $QQQ returns since the funds inception.

Escape the fades, grow your hair out