The time for federaly regulated national health care is now, people!
Taking into consideration the abuses and incompetence of the Bush administration and the larger GOP failures and abuses over their time in power, is everything the federal government does really a failure?
Social Security, despite it's many failings, is not a failure. It has, in fact, worked almost perfectly as planned. It is one of, if not the most, successful federal programs ever. The FDA has provided us with one of the worlds safest food supplies. The EPA, once again taking into consideration the Bush administration, ensures we have clean water and air, has it been, over all, a failure?
For the most part, most federal programs have been mostly successful. Of course there is waste and abuse, just as there are in any private sector industry. Efficiency alone is not the end all be all measurement of success. Cheaper does not mean better, and some things shouldn't be forced or even expected to turn a profit anyway.
Private for-profit health care has been a disaster in the last couple of decades. As the world labor market turns against us, it's becoming clearer and clearer that the private sector is unable to provide health care for the entire country based on profit and loss alone. I honestly don't see where people can argue continuing the private sector only health care system as 'effective' in any way.
And yet, watch out for the knee jerk, any mention of federally regulated health care will immediately be pounced on as a looming failure of epic proportions. It can not be worse than what we have. You can always buy extra insurance, in fact you can do so right now. People buy it all the time, and they will continue to buy it.
Employer provided health care was the aberration, not the norm. The US was well on it's way to emulating European style national health care before the industrial revolution kicked us and the US economy into over drive. Because our labor pool was so spread out and competition for manual labor intensive workers was so fierce, employers had to compete for workers and thus the employer provided health and retirement system was born.
Now the market dictates manual labor is shit. No more can someone just put in a 'good days work' and expect a living wage. There are so few new jobs being created in the US employers can pretty much pick and choose who they want to hire. Buddy of mine manages the local Papa Johns and the last ad they ran they had like 50 applications the first day for a pizza place job, and the apps ran the gamut from high school kid to middle aged with a wide selection of education and experience.
We can not continue to compete alone against the rest of the world. It's market fucking reality, people! It has nothing to do with whether you think government regulation is good or bad, it's simple market fucking reality. As long as the entire freaking world subsidizes it's workforce with government supplied health care the US will continue to bleed jobs like a stuck pig.
And despite what Romney claimed in Michigan, these jobs are NOT coming back. Other countries have lower pollution standards, lower labor and work safety standards, and they subsidize their industries with government paid health care. How the fuck are we supposed to compete against that? How is our vaunted 'American ingenuity' going to stand against that?
It's market fucking reality, it's capitalism, bitches. The same consumer system that people so hate to love is what's driving US jobs away, and it's our insanely stupid adherence to all facets of profit and loss that keeps us at an extreme disadvantage against the entire rest of the world.
What other nations health care systems look like, how they operate, how efficient they are, or how readily available services are doesn't matter dick squat. The only thing that matters is it's there and it allows everyone in the world to compete at an advantage against the US.
For profit health care and retirement is not the line to draw to make a stand behind. Keeping to it will kill us economically, it's already strangling us. Pretty soon it will choke us to death.
Social Security, despite it's many failings, is not a failure. It has, in fact, worked almost perfectly as planned. It is one of, if not the most, successful federal programs ever. The FDA has provided us with one of the worlds safest food supplies. The EPA, once again taking into consideration the Bush administration, ensures we have clean water and air, has it been, over all, a failure?
For the most part, most federal programs have been mostly successful. Of course there is waste and abuse, just as there are in any private sector industry. Efficiency alone is not the end all be all measurement of success. Cheaper does not mean better, and some things shouldn't be forced or even expected to turn a profit anyway.
Private for-profit health care has been a disaster in the last couple of decades. As the world labor market turns against us, it's becoming clearer and clearer that the private sector is unable to provide health care for the entire country based on profit and loss alone. I honestly don't see where people can argue continuing the private sector only health care system as 'effective' in any way.
And yet, watch out for the knee jerk, any mention of federally regulated health care will immediately be pounced on as a looming failure of epic proportions. It can not be worse than what we have. You can always buy extra insurance, in fact you can do so right now. People buy it all the time, and they will continue to buy it.
Employer provided health care was the aberration, not the norm. The US was well on it's way to emulating European style national health care before the industrial revolution kicked us and the US economy into over drive. Because our labor pool was so spread out and competition for manual labor intensive workers was so fierce, employers had to compete for workers and thus the employer provided health and retirement system was born.
Now the market dictates manual labor is shit. No more can someone just put in a 'good days work' and expect a living wage. There are so few new jobs being created in the US employers can pretty much pick and choose who they want to hire. Buddy of mine manages the local Papa Johns and the last ad they ran they had like 50 applications the first day for a pizza place job, and the apps ran the gamut from high school kid to middle aged with a wide selection of education and experience.
We can not continue to compete alone against the rest of the world. It's market fucking reality, people! It has nothing to do with whether you think government regulation is good or bad, it's simple market fucking reality. As long as the entire freaking world subsidizes it's workforce with government supplied health care the US will continue to bleed jobs like a stuck pig.
And despite what Romney claimed in Michigan, these jobs are NOT coming back. Other countries have lower pollution standards, lower labor and work safety standards, and they subsidize their industries with government paid health care. How the fuck are we supposed to compete against that? How is our vaunted 'American ingenuity' going to stand against that?
It's market fucking reality, it's capitalism, bitches. The same consumer system that people so hate to love is what's driving US jobs away, and it's our insanely stupid adherence to all facets of profit and loss that keeps us at an extreme disadvantage against the entire rest of the world.
What other nations health care systems look like, how they operate, how efficient they are, or how readily available services are doesn't matter dick squat. The only thing that matters is it's there and it allows everyone in the world to compete at an advantage against the US.
For profit health care and retirement is not the line to draw to make a stand behind. Keeping to it will kill us economically, it's already strangling us. Pretty soon it will choke us to death.
posted by opus512 at 11:06 AM
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