I don't discount the corruption or its importance. In re: the point at hand -- unions' non-support of single payer -- I don't think it's the fundamental problem.
One of the funniest scenes in Casino is a mobster's mother (played by Scorsese's mother) scolding her boy for cursing.
mbs
-----Original Message----- From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org] On Behalf Of andie nachgeborenen Sent: Wednesday, February 01, 2006 9:49 AM To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Subject: RE: [lbo-talk] OK, Nathan
Yeah, e.g., the Teamster's Southeastern, etc. States Pension und was run by the mob and financed its expansion into Vegas. (See, e.g., Nicholas Pilaggi's Casino, the basis of a not-bad DeNiro/Psci/Sharon Stone movie of the same name). There's going to be a problem as long as many/most unions are top down institutions with little democracy. That doesn't mean your points about fragmentationa nd disunity are lacking, but with regard to the latter point, don't you think the unions' Babylonian capitivity to the Democratic Party may be relevant?
--- Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> Max B. Sawicky wrote:
>
> >Unions with well-run funds could have a reason for
> opposing single-payer.
> >Like a lot of other people, if they are happy with
> their current coverage,
> >there is less reason to rock the boat for an
> unknown alternative.
> >
> >The root of this is not corruption, but the
> fragmentation and implied
> >political disunity underlying an employer-based
> system.
>
> That's part of it, but Fitch's tales of corruption
> in union-run funds
> go on for pages. They're used for self-enrichment
> and patronage, and
> the tales go back decades.
>
> Doug
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