[lbo-talk] LBO #112: Auto Agony Miscellany

[lbo at hvgreens.org]

I just got my copy of LBO #112 in the mail today and would like to take
issue with the following quote in the Miscellany section titled "Auto
agony", "Of course one thing that could help GM a lot is if it didn't have
to buy all that health insurance for workers and retirees.  But few are
talking seriously about nationalizing medical finance.  It looks like the
U.S. corporate class is so ideologically opposed to a public health
insurance system--and so pleased with the way that a minimal welfare state
keeps the proletariat docile--that it can't support a reform that would
save them big money."  Look, the neocons love the U.S. healthcare system
for the following reasons, 1) they make a lot of money selling drugs, 2)
the profit margins in the "health" industry are high, lots of lobbying
money greesing the skids in D.C., 3) annual double digit increases in
health care are starving/bleeding the "beast", that is government (in my
home town of Saginaw, MI, the city has three hundred active city employees
but five hundred retirees.)  4) Annual double digit increases in health
care hit unionized industries like auto, steel and airlines (notice a
pattern?) hard.  5) Bush's medicare/medicade drug plan is a twofer for the
have mores; they get rich at the public trough selling overpriced drugs to
Americans and bankrupt the Federal Government at the same time.

The point is there is no money to be made in Universal Health Care so they
would not save anything.  Plus, while Rick Wagner probably means what he
says when he indicates that he is doing everything possible to keep GM out
of bankruptcy (it'd look bad on his resume), Scott Sprinzen of the S&P
sees exploding health care costs as the route to a bankruptcy led, union
busting restructuring of the auto industry.  Health care is now a weapon
to wield against the working class the same way debt was used in the 80's
to hobble unionism. I'm surprised LBO has not picked up on this.  Your
observations are correct, that is the ruling class is dead-set against
Universal Health Care, but not out of simple me-too ruling class
convenional thinking.  There's a strategy behind it that reflects material
interest, and it's working.  At least for now.

I would point out the above strategy is frought with pitfalls, like an
invigorated socialist/unionist movement that has finally decided enough is
enough.  The faultline is the Delphi bankruptcy which has yet to play
itself out.  Steve "I feel your pain, 'cause I'm causing it" Miller &
Wilbur Ross have been successful rolling out the same game plan up to now,
but this time, they don't have the element of surprise like they did
before.  Nobody was surprised when Miller declared bankruptcy in October
and since then, workers are very much getting the sense that a lot more is
at stake than just their own company.  Workers are getting the sense that
now is the time for a decisive showdown between labor and capital and if
workers give-in, they will be surrendering 70 years of struggle and there
will be nothing to protect them.  Despite fabulous improvements in
productivity in the last 25 years, there has been nothing but downsizing
and outsourcing of jobs.  Workers are increasingly realizing that
concessions don't save jobs but only make the owners richer.  The UAW's
opening of the contract to make concessions to GM have shown that the
ripple effect is real and broad based.  Already, Ford and Chrysler are
demanding similar cuts.  Precedents matter and if workers can inflict
enough pain on capital, this so called "new reality" can be shown to be a
smoke and mirrors snake oil roadshow.