Capitalism is Dead! Let's bury it.
Did the title get anyone's attention? Well, it is only slightly hyperbolic. The ongoing collapse of our economy should tell any thinking person that capitalism doesn't work. In fact none of the pure economic "ism's" work. But, they all have some good features.
We now have a golden opportunity to make some big changes in how our economy works, an opportunity that will vanish very soon. It is when people are reeling from a disaster that major changes can be made without the majority being too fearful to allow the changes to happen. Bush took advantage of the disaster of 9/11 to make some major changes, all of which were in the wrong direction and none of which were designed to benefit our nation. This particular disaster is the Democratic Party's chance to make major changes that do benefit the nation.
My blueprint for change follows. First, we need to separate basic human needs from capitalism. It is utterly immoral to tie health care, for example, to profits for big businesses. It is equally immoral to tie education, housing and food to big business profits. Those four basic human needs should become our socialist experiments, just as Social Security was such an experiment in elder care back in the 1930's.
Capitalism is fine for non-essentials, such as entertainment, luxuries, and extra-basic human needs, like 6000 square foot houses for 2 person families, or SUV's, or long distance air travel. That capitalism should, however, be the heavily regulated variety, with strong oversight by the government to rein in the lust for money that reigns supreme today.
Health care is an excellent place to start this transformation. Now is the time to force our government to adopt a pure, single payer form of health care, with all basic care available to every occupant of this country, at no cost. The cost of this basic care must be a shared cost paid by every occupant of the country, whether they want to opt in or opt out. Even Congressmen should be covered by and pay for this same basic health care.
One reason for high health care cost is the rapidly escalating cost for medical training in our universities and hospitals. That cost, along with all other education cost should be paid for by all occupants of the country, whether they use the education opportunity or not.
Housing and food require a lot more thinking to find good ways to socialize their costs, but the principle of basic needs being paid for by every occupant of the country, whether they eat a lot or a little, and whether they choose to opt for a 6000 square foot house instead of the more modest basic housing or not.
FDR did not make the mistake of thinking small when our nation faced its last economic disaster. I'm afraid Obama is making that mistake now. But, if we apply sufficient pressure on him and on our Congressional representatives I do believe it is possible force them to think big and make these needed changes.
Obama's change.gov website set up health care community meetings all over the country to hear our input about the needs in health care. But, they organized those meetings to preclude any really significant input from occurring, asking instead for us to wail about our own personal problems, and then decide what form of future similar meetings we preferred. As soon as possible Obama needs to learn that this won't be acceptable to us.
I'm running short of ideas about how to force the Obama team to open their minds, and think "Yes, we can", instead of "we can't do that" when it comes to the changes we need.
We now have a golden opportunity to make some big changes in how our economy works, an opportunity that will vanish very soon. It is when people are reeling from a disaster that major changes can be made without the majority being too fearful to allow the changes to happen. Bush took advantage of the disaster of 9/11 to make some major changes, all of which were in the wrong direction and none of which were designed to benefit our nation. This particular disaster is the Democratic Party's chance to make major changes that do benefit the nation.
My blueprint for change follows. First, we need to separate basic human needs from capitalism. It is utterly immoral to tie health care, for example, to profits for big businesses. It is equally immoral to tie education, housing and food to big business profits. Those four basic human needs should become our socialist experiments, just as Social Security was such an experiment in elder care back in the 1930's.
Capitalism is fine for non-essentials, such as entertainment, luxuries, and extra-basic human needs, like 6000 square foot houses for 2 person families, or SUV's, or long distance air travel. That capitalism should, however, be the heavily regulated variety, with strong oversight by the government to rein in the lust for money that reigns supreme today.
Health care is an excellent place to start this transformation. Now is the time to force our government to adopt a pure, single payer form of health care, with all basic care available to every occupant of this country, at no cost. The cost of this basic care must be a shared cost paid by every occupant of the country, whether they want to opt in or opt out. Even Congressmen should be covered by and pay for this same basic health care.
One reason for high health care cost is the rapidly escalating cost for medical training in our universities and hospitals. That cost, along with all other education cost should be paid for by all occupants of the country, whether they use the education opportunity or not.
Housing and food require a lot more thinking to find good ways to socialize their costs, but the principle of basic needs being paid for by every occupant of the country, whether they eat a lot or a little, and whether they choose to opt for a 6000 square foot house instead of the more modest basic housing or not.
FDR did not make the mistake of thinking small when our nation faced its last economic disaster. I'm afraid Obama is making that mistake now. But, if we apply sufficient pressure on him and on our Congressional representatives I do believe it is possible force them to think big and make these needed changes.
Obama's change.gov website set up health care community meetings all over the country to hear our input about the needs in health care. But, they organized those meetings to preclude any really significant input from occurring, asking instead for us to wail about our own personal problems, and then decide what form of future similar meetings we preferred. As soon as possible Obama needs to learn that this won't be acceptable to us.
I'm running short of ideas about how to force the Obama team to open their minds, and think "Yes, we can", instead of "we can't do that" when it comes to the changes we need.
