First, people here need to know that we *don't* have all these things that many other countries have. Most people here think wages, working conditions, healthcare, living standards, childcare, schools, are better here than anywhere else in the world. Getting a reality check on that might help us ask the second question.
>...The [healthcare] picture is getting worse yet, not because of
>"Trotskyist"/"Marxist"/whatever rhetoric on health care, as you know.
>Don't you guys have more important enemies to confront than
>left-wingers whose voices you would rather not hear?
Are you addressing me? I didn't think I was confronting an enemy, and I'm not a guy. I'm not sure what politics you're ascribing to me but they sure don't sound like mine. If you want a sense of where I'm coming from, I co-edit a local monthly paper--the September issue is on the web at http://www.afn.org/~iguana The issue is primarily about Bush & the war.
I'm quite clear on the main enemy and at the same time, yeah, I think the left could do better, in our arguments for universal health care and a lot of other things. Not arguing when I disagree would be a pretty piss-poor way to treat comrades.
To your many questions: I didn't say all the capitalist countries--I said all in the countries in the OECD besides Turkey, Mexico and the U.S. I suspect that such capitalist standouts as the Philippines and Indonesia don't have what one could call universal health care.
>How did the "shadow welfare state"
>come about here, rather than social democracy,
My extremely short answer would be ferocious anti-communism combined with some miscalculations on the part of the labor movement. But there are so many interesting details--for example the 'benefits' model came in partly as a result of WWII wage freezes. In Canada in the '60's, they didn't have the kind of large, entrenched, and very profitable private insurance system we're up against. And race, sex, and age politics have been very important.
>and how do we overcome it?
Now we're really beyond the scope of a discussion list. However, I will be in Columbus in January talking at a Single Payer Action Network conference so maybe you, me, and Jerry Gordon (Ohio LP pres.) can hash it out over a bottle of tequila. I'll buy.
>What answers do you give to good questions asked by those who
>want health care?
I'm sure you (and any long-suffering others following this thread) don't want a screed from me on universal health care. The main *reactions* I get are: How do we pay for it; What about the waiting lines in Canada, "rationing," etc.; We'll never get it cause of 1) the politicians are bought off 2) look what they did to Clinton when he even mentioned changes 3) Americans aren't for it etc.
But that makes it sound too negative, most people are quite positive, I'd say 60-70 percent when we petition in front of stores or in non-rich neighborhoods, and one in twenty will open up with some personal tale vilifying our ludicrous, inhuman, corrupt health insurance system. We compile them, in fact. People are glad to hear they're not the only one who thinks the system is insane. This is a helpful aspect of nonbinding referenda, too, people get to find out they're not in a small minority but in a large majority (65% in our county).
Jenny Brown