Commentary: Guaranteed health care must be part of economic solution

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.workdayminnesota.org/index.php?article_1_259


By Rose Ann DeMoro
31 October 2010

OAKLAND, Calif. - To listen to the rhetoric that has stained so much of the 2010 campaign season, you'd think the biggest problems facing our nation are excessive government spending, workers' pensions, and inadequate tax breaks for corporations and wealthy Americans.

But countering this conventional wisdom, seldom questioned by most of the press, is made much harder by the reticence of even many liberals to challenge these assumptions.

In his great 2004 book "What's the Matter with Kansas," Thomas Frank made the compelling argument that the right was able to persuade workers to vote against their class interests by manipulating social issues, and described the failure of liberals to present an effective progressive alternative.

It's déjà vu all over again. By failing to respond to the mythology perpetrated by the right, far too many Democrats have largely ceded the populist ground, which is made even most astonishing by the continuing economic crisis, the alarming erosion of living standards, and the shocking growth in income disparity that has undermined the promise of the American dream for so many.

Consider two stats from the November, 2010 Harper's Index, published by Harper's Magazine. Net domestic profits earned by U.S. corporations since the fourth quarter of 2008 – $609 billion. Net decrease in the amount these companies spent on wages and benefits – minus $171 billion.

Or as David Cay Johnson reported in a column on tax.com reprinted this week on Huffington Post, average wages, median wages, and total wages all declined in 2009 – except for those at the very top of the income bracket whose income increased five fold in that time.

Over the past quarter century, the richest 1 percent more than doubled their share of total U.S. income from 10 percent to 23 percent, and the average CEO who was paid $27 for every dollar earned by an employee now gets a ratio of about $275 to $1.


FULL story at link.

[RandomThoughts]

1. I heard three comments on MSNBC about that.

A person said the election was about social issues. That fits the concept that the 'money control' would not be challenged by them, hence why so many social issues are much of what they speak about.

Another comment was the right wing conservative approach to budgets, with a social left concept on other issues.

Social issues are important, so bringing them up and defending rights is important, but that does not mean the many other issues do not need to be fixed. It is easy to see how they are brought up to keep the conversations of theft and corruption in the money sectors from being discussed as much. And many on both sides are equally to blame for the corruption, maybe they don't think they can make a difference.

It would take a couple weeks of TV coverage to completely change the view of Americans on what goes on in the most corrupt areas of private and public sector, those issues are not reported on much.

I won't stop till the situation is corrected by returning a balance that has been stated many times as needed to be done. Although the method to achieve that and its severity or ease is not my decision.

Side note, I am still due beer and travel money and many experiences.