Sunday, November 8, 2015

Unions, Health Care and the Middle Class.

It always seemed odd to me how conservative lower and middle class workers jumped on board the union bashing bandwagon. Even though union membership never exceeded 35%, their presence did help both labor and the wealthy share in the nations prosperity during the 40's and late 50's.

But conservatives have an odd built in envy factor that goes into overdrive when they detect somebody is getting something they're not, and that was ripe for manipulation.

Anti-union corporate forces decided to exploit the envy factor in private sector workers, and that's where things went wrong for the lower and middle class:


To be fair, the researchers do note that these are just correlations, and while they seem to harbor some belief that they are causal, they reiterate that more testing would need to be done to connect them definitively.
There's a similar dynamic with health care. The US is the only industrialized country using health care as a weapon against its own citizens to prove how well capitalism works. Capitalism not only failed and killed Americans prematurely (loss of insurance), but the Affordable Care Act proved access helped in the nations jobs recovery.

Imagine what would happen if we really did repeal the Affordable Care Act, and its impact on jobs:
Over the past year, health care has added 495,000 jobs.
For Scott Walker, who love's to whine about how high the non-participation rate is nationally compared to Wisconsin, he left out one important factor; retiring baby boomers who have stopped looking for work. Kind of skews the numbers...:
The number of Americans not in the labor force last month totaled 94,513,000 -- a slight improvement from the 94,610,000 not in the labor force in September.

The number of Americans not in the labor force, still near the all-time high recorded in September, includes retirees.

...reducing individuals’ and employers’ health spending would make the U.S. economy more dynamic, while the ACA’s coverage provisions would free up workers from “job lock” and help protect them as they looked for better, more desirable employment.




8 comments:

  1. I can't believe anyone believes the nonsense that you write. Maybe just maybe there is a downside to being part of a labor union. Maybe?

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-11-07/19000-premiums-4x-passage-crippling-effect-obamacare-middle-class

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  2. Nonsense? Sure, deny the actual record shown in the graphs. And your link to the supposed ACA failures are the product of right wing spin, easily disproved (I might even post it).

    The downside is to unions is...? Maybe...what? I guess this is you making a point?

    Of course there's no downsides in the private sector nonunion businesses. Nope, they're perfect and worked well leading up to the Great Depression when unions shops were discouraged and at their lowest in history.

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  3. You'll also notice why costs are increasing despite the ACA. An incredible increase in premiums was based on healthier people and people living longer...so, the insurer had to raise prices?

    Or insurers leaving the ACA or going out of business...because they can't make enough of a profit. Profit? This is the grotesque underpinnings of the US system. And you're blaming Obama, and not insurers?

    Americans like you don't think, and that's the problem.

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  4. Actually that's all I do is think for myself. Something I have yet to see you do John. I liked your article on the Recovery and Reinvestment Act saving 5 billion and created 62,902 jobs. And it only cost America another 10 trillion in debt which will never be repaid and 94 million kicked off the labor force participation rate...

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-02-17/5-years-later-what-did-obamas-american-recovery-reinvestment-act-achieve

    When are you going to admit that you might be wrong about some of these things and start looking at the BIG picture??? Obviously never as you are too stubborn.

    And increase in premiums was based on healthier people??? PLEASE! Yeah Americans went from Mcdonalds to Wendy's.

    Obviously you have no clue how capital markets work, what the difference between money and legal tender is, how much a dollar is worth, or anything that isn't cultural marxist crap. You parrot progressive talking points and are incapable of understanding that 2+2=4 and does not equal 5 no matter how much they tell you that it does. This will be hilarious to me watching you get angrier and angrier as it all unfolds. I'm sure you will blame President Trump for putting everything back into some sort of financial normalcy, but just remember... the Federal Reserve's balance sheet has already gone from 800 billion to 4.5 trillion. And you can't just print money out of thin air without repercussions (which we haven't had yet).

    You are part of the problem. Not me. I come here to help you but debating an idiot is the biggest waste of time there is. Good luck to you. You're going to need it.

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  5. I take back the "don't think" comment. I read through many of the linked articles, all by one guy who knows his stuff, and came to the conclusion insurers are at the heart of the problem.

    We can try to work them into the system, as the ACA does, but the bottom line is they're killing reform. If the U.S. wants to keep private insurers rolling in the cash, it should look at single paying countries using the private marketplace. It's something I'm going to do now to get a better handle on issue.

    But expanding the private insurance sector with stripped down policies and unaffordable high deductibles and copays is obviously not the answer, but the only plan pushed by Republicans.

    Thanks for the link.

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  6. Your a part of the problem because your a whiny freeloader not willing to tax and pay for what we need. That's never the answer. I understand, asked I can see it bothers you.

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  7. Here's a comment I accidentally deleted, but was lucky enough to save:

    Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Unions, Health Care and the Middle Class.":

    I paid over $25,000 in Federal and State Taxes last year. How much did you pay (freeloader)?

    In return, i got absolutely nothing but more Tyranny. You're right, I don't want to pay for you. Why don't you pay for yourself instead. Nothing is free in this world, and I can't think of any reason why I should pay for you. Can you?

    As for your other comment, insurance companies wrote the ACA. So yeah they might have something to do with the skyrocketing premiums. Why else would they ram through a vote on a Sunday before anyone had a chance to read it? And if I remember, it was Democrats that did that.

    The government can't solve your problems so don't expect what can't be done. If you want to go down with the Titanic, be my guest. Allowing insurance policies to be bought across state lines creates competition and competition keeps prices low. This is basic economics 101. Don't you ever go shopping for the best price???

    Only a doofus still sees a difference between Republicans and Democrats.

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  8. Here's my response:

    I paid taxes too, and help pay for the roads you're using.

    Many conservatives believe insurance companies set a little piggy bank aside for their premiums, and then pay medical bills out of that. No, that's not what they do. And when your bills are larger than what you paid in, you take my premiums too, "freeloader."

    Republicans helped shape the ACA and then didn't sign on to it. Yes, insurers were right there too, but according to you, they're the heroes. And yet you're complaining about skyrocketing premiums?? Confused much.

    Democrats didn't ram it through, they had a super majority of 60 votes. Doh! Act 10 wasn't rammed down the Democrats throat? I'm confused.

    Yes, government can solve society's problems, and lucky too after reading your irresponsible response.

    The individual market of health care insurance, which I've been trapped in as a sole proprietor, didn't compete as much as drop risky sick people, and raise my premiums 30% a year. My last deductible reached $11,500 before I dropped out of coverage. Yea, real competition. You would even buy policy's with small print that covers nothing because it's cheap and you're so smart. Please leave everybody alone before you hurt someone.

    There is a difference between D's and R's: you have Carson, Rubio and Trump, Dems have Sanders and Clinton. No comparison unless you like clueless liars with weird autobiographies.

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