--- On Thu, 6/4/09, Dennis Claxton <ddclaxton at earthlink.net> wrote:
> From: Dennis Claxton <ddclaxton at earthlink.net>
> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Baucus to Meet with Single-Payer Advocates
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org, lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Date: Thursday, June 4, 2009, 3:17 PM
> At 11:48 AM 6/4/2009, Wojtek
> Sokolowski wrote:
>
>
> > As far as the 8 hour work day in the US is concerned -
> my understanding is that this was a "reform lite" - doing
> the least objectionable to the capital minimum to avoid more
> substantial social protection programs.
>
>
> But why did they think they had to do anything at
> all? I chose eight hour day because the movement for
> it was so strong that the backlash marked the beginning of
> red scare politics in the U.S.
[WS:] I am not sure that you are following my argument. I did not say that public opinion, support etc. are not important. They are. But they are not sufficient to get things pass by legislature. You need institutional conditions that are favorable to a particular public demand to pass.
In other words, people demand many things but not all of them pass. Only those do that the institutional system is amenable to. The US system is generally NOT amenable to universal public services.
This was in response to Carrol's argument that we need more people in the streets to get universal health care. I do not think this alone would do the trick.
Wojtek