April 16, 2012

A Brief: The State Of Capitalism In The United States Of America

I want to make one point very clear, there has never been a “free market” in the United States. If lobbyists can descend on Washington to sway congress to shape legislation in favor of their clients (corporations) then there is nothing free about the marketplace of capitalism in this country. A free market would mean no oversight, no favors, and no regulations. I’m not saying that would be desirable, I’m simply pointing out a fact that gets overlooked when people talk about the free market. They are talking about something that doesn’t exist.

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April 6, 2012

Health Care Is Rationed By Private For-Profit Insurance Companies. Is That Really What We Want?

We are told by conservatives that we don’t want government-run universal health care because it would mean rationing care. During the health care debate in the summer and fall of 2009 we heard talk of ‘death panels’ and ‘killing grandma’. Of course all of this was nonsense meant to scare people into thinking and voting a certain way, and it was quite effective, particularly on the Republican side of the aisle. The truth is we already ration health care in the United States. 50 million people are uninsured. How is that not rationed care? Health care costs are higher than they need to be (due to insurance company profits and waste) which means in some cases people forego treatment because they can’t afford it (even if they have insurance). How is that not rationed care?

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April 6, 2012

‘Only’ 120,000 Jobs Added In March, But Public Sector Job Losses Continue To Shrink

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 120,000 jobs were added to the U.S. economy in March. This is the 15th straight month of job gains when combining public and private sector. It is the 25th straight month of private sector job growth. The unemployment rate dropped from 8.3% to 8.2% but this was largely due to people dropping out of the labor market. The breakdown for March is 121,000 private sector jobs added and 1000 public sector jobs lost.

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April 2, 2012

The Republican Endgame: An America Where Big Ideas Are Dead

Republicans have become the party of “No we can’t” and Democrats have become the party of “Yes we can, but…”. Gone are the days of big ideas and big plans for the future. We no longer live in a country that is capable of shooting for the stars and solving big problems. Instead we are in a race to the bottom that has coincided with a political shift to the right that caters to rich and powerful interests.

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