Doug Henwood wrote:
>
>
> Incremental changes in health care have often made things worse. The
> insane patchwork of programs - public & private, state & local,
> out-of-pocket & third-party - conspire to make things more expensive
> and more complicated than they have to be. Whatever little change
> might make sense in itself males less than no sense at the level of
> the whole. The only sane approach now - and I mean the only one - is
> a single, universal system that can cover everyone not now covered,
> reduce the expense and uncertainty for the already insured, and
> address cost and quality issues. Anything else is almost certain to
> do harm.
A question. Minimum wage is one of the areas where an incremental approach has meant a steady _lowering_ of the minimum wage over time. The cost of living goes up (arbitrary not real figures) 2%, the minimum wage goes up 1% (to much boasting from DP supporters), and meanwhile the cost of living has gone up another 1/2%. Total cut of 1.5% in minimum wage. (And this, of course, constitutes a drag on the entire wage structure: it is a transfer of wealth from the whole working class to the whole capitalist class.)
Is there any conceivable program in this area which could give it the appeal and political power of universal (cross-class) programs?
Carrol
>
> Doug
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