Next, a couple replies and then on to my outline. First the replies:
In taking the challenge, C Cox prefaces his outline with this:
>>This seems to me vaguely analogous to something like, "If the constant e
were to change suddenly, what would happen to the universe?" Also, such
a nominal situation in D.C. & the state governors can't be even vaguely
imagined without also trying to imagine what had happened in the
preceding 10 to 20 years to bring about the balance of forces that would
have made that possible.>>
Really? How vague does an analogy have to get before it no longer works as an analogy? Well, I didn't ask you to fantasize how impossible it was; I asked you to fantasize what you would do it were possible (which you did do eventually). I myself was more inspired by the fantasy that I was Hilary Clinton tasked with assuring health cover for all Americans back in the 90s. If only she were a socialist instead of a confused, gloomy, paranoid, internally conflicted Democrat.
The point wouldn't be to create a program that US capital could get behind, but rather one you could sell to the 40 plus plus million Americans who want health care and the many more millions who want a more assured system than the one they participate in now. Which brings me to a digression about a left labour party and its projected popularity (see L. Weiger's recent musings). Of course I would see no reason for a party like this to be immediately successful. They would have a lot of convincing to do. That's called 'leadership' in politics. Something a confused, conflicted, gloomy Democrat can't do.
Still yet one more digression and then on to my brief outline of actions. That is about corporate status. It seems to me that American capitalism is headed into even more sinister directions because a lot of it in equity terms is moving away from publicly traded companies and towards incomprehensible and unregulated entities acting as enormous holding companies for the economy (the only oversight seemingly whether or not this quarter's cut to the equity holders is more than the last quarters). Ask yourself, just what in the f- do entities like Warren Buffet's group, GE or Caryle Group actually OWN? Start with your ass.
OTOH, as a socialist, I have to think not just about reining in hegemonic US capital or destroying it, but also about the creation of alternatives for those who actually create all that wealth . For alternatives we might look at what is already there: non-stock companies (like mutuals), co-ops and national corporations.
My plan:
1. I would use Medicare and Medicaid to create a national insurer of any American who wanted to join. Rates would be based on reported income.
2. I would use the Veterans' and US military systems of medical care and medicine purchasing to create a national health care system available to all Americans who had no other cover. The in-bred national security state cultures of these systems would resist, but by cutting military spending elsewhere (for example, a withdrawal from Iraq, even with billions in war reparations would be cheaper than being sugar daddy for CentCom lunatics) , they would soon learn to shut up and accept that their better-funded systems are for all Americans, not just the military.
3. I would direct the federal government to use federal funds to start up or subsidize further successful health insurance and health care mutuals and co-ops. Policy holders have ownership, and because stock holders would not get the profits, such entities would more than compete with for-profit health insurance and health care and eventually drive for-profits out of business.
4. The issues of stable, adequate retirements and health care are kept separate in the US so that neither issue is seriously addressed. I would re-create the social security system so that it formed the foundation of both retirement and health care. After retirement, the two concerns are to quite an extent the same for many Americans, because they have to draw down savings to pay for health care. And many younger Americans don't save for retirement because they have to spend savings on health care for the their families. Models for business operations would include large insurance cooperatives in other countries, large national postal savings-insurance systems in other countries, and the national retirement systems in place in most other OECD countries.
5. I would create a federal drug purchasing system that acted as a co-operative for any not-for-profit health care provider. The existing Veterans' and military systems would be the basis for starting it. If we had to go to Canada, Australia, Europe and Japan to purchase drugs until the US drug cartels were willing to cooperate, so be it.
F the gloomy marxist
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