With some exceptions, I think this is true. If there are 40 million people without healthcare, there are 240 million with it.
Living in the heart of empire, we are all the bourgeoisie. We are all hypnotized, distracted, co-opted in some way. I buy fresh fruit at Costco, even though I know it's travelled three thousand miles to get here, and been harvested for god knows what miserable wages.
The proletariat is now the rest of the world, while we watch sports and drink beer.
BobW
--- Wojtek Sokolowski <sokol at jhu.edu> wrote:
> B.
>
>
> And still -- the one thing still lacking is serious
> workshop organizing -- hitting the fuckers where it
> will hurt them the most. Everything is happening but
> that. But talking about unions to many people is
> often
> like talking about universal healthcare. Yeah, you
> can
> relay the facts all you want, but at the end of the
> day, I can probably find something on some blog to
> contradict you, the person thinks, so in the
> meantime,
> thanks, but no thanks.
>
>
> [WS:] Two observations. First, due to the so-called
> endowment effect
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endowment_effect people
> generally tend to
> prefer what they already have, even if it is crappy,
> to alternatives, no
> matter how good, with which they are not familiar.
> That means that they
> will always be paying lip service to the status quo,
> unless they have a good
> compelling reason to abandon it. Usually, such
> reason arises when the
> status quo can no longer meet popular expectations
> (as it was the case of
> Eastern European socialism, for example.) However,
> as long as popular
> expectations are met, people will tend to stick to
> the status quo.
>
> This brings us to the second point - the US system
> does deliver a lot of
> popular expectations - either actually or virtually.
> The system as a whole
> may not be efficient - there is a lot of waste and
> unsustainable practices -
> but individuals do get what they thing is valuable
> to them. True, there is
> a great deal of propaganda to shape their
> expectations - but most people
> like material stuff - plenty of food, big and fast
> cars, flashy clothing,
> big houses, toys, circuses etc. Even the poorest
> can get most of that stuff
> in the US one way or another. And as long as they
> will be getting their Big
> Macs, SUVs, sneakers, ipods, cell phones, tee-vees,
> mind altering
> substances, trendy clothes etc. - they will be happy
> like pigs in shit with
> the status quo, and very un-receptive to any
> alternatives.
>
> In short, do not expect any serious push for a
> social change until the
> system is not able to meet people's expectations. I
> personally do not think
> this will happen in the US during our life time.
>
> PS. Contrary to the views held by some, the US
> system is relatively
> receptive to popular pressures - especially
> comparing to most other
> countries. The powers that be know how to
> manipulate those public pressure
> to their own advantage, but claiming that they
> simply ignore this pressure
> or do something blatantly against it is demonstrably
> false.
>
> Wojtek
>
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