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Nothing but the Truth!
The Social Contract
By Will Power
July 10, 2009 (San Diego's East County)--The neo-con ninnies disagree with the neo-liberals about the role of government. Anything that interferes with the invisible hand of the marketplace is seen as anathema. People should be able to borrow, spend, invest , and cheat each other with impunity. Government should be kept to the bare minimum, and private enterprise should take over the mail, the transportation, the roads, and the prisons.
But there are some necessary services that government can do better than private corporations, just on the basis that there is public oversight.
For example, a private justice system and private prisons are a threat to public liberty. Already retired judges in arbitration cases have unconstitutionally deprived debtors of fair representation regarding credit card debts. Private armies, which are now becoming stronger, pose even more of a threat to public justice. There are now more private soldiers in Iraq than
sworn military personnel. What threat does this pose for the future?
The unemployment rate is now equal to the sales tax rate in California, about 10%. Is there a relationship between these figures? As the working poor get taxed more and more, the corporate elite finds it easier to replace workers or cut their hours to make them ineligible for benefits. If workers are lucky enough to find another job, their hours, wages and benefits are often less than a living wage, if they get any benefits at all.
Health care reform would equalize the playing field. But Republicans want workers to buy into inefficient existing private health care plans, and Democrats want a single-payer government plan to provide competition.
No mistake, health care is expensive. But no health care is even more expensive. Do we have the political will to set up a government system which would compete with for-profit private plans? In other nations, government health care has proved successful. But simply forcing all Americans to buy private health insurance is just feeding the beast. Fining them for refusing to buy into an inefficient system is just further taxation. We must provide an alternative plan if costs are to be driven down.
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