Robert Reich just put up a brilliant post about the zero sum economy of the ultra-rich that drives the destruction of our health care system and so much else.
Thank you for starting this blog. A national healthcare system makes so much more sense than any other solution. Yet Americans are so accustomed to our healthcare "industry," and it is so embedded in our business culture that they put up with it rather than demand something more. I believe that part of what keeps it in place is a set of beliefs. We've been taught that ours is the best healthcare in the world. There's a historic basis for this, which is our history of medical discoveries. But if the fruits of those discoveries don't reach almost half the population, their advantages aren't realized. Probably the majority of Americans have lost faith in all of our major institutions and don't believe they can achieve anything more, certainly not as large a vision as national healthcare.
I believe that the root of many of our national problems is corruption. Our healthcare "industry" -- the idea that delivering healthcare is a business -- is a result. And yet many believe in unregulated business because they feel to do otherwise would make the delivery of goods and services more expensive. This message has been delivered by raising the specter of communist totalitarian societies and labeling such approaches "socialism." It's either capitalism or socialism, a false dichotomy.
How do you establish hope in achieving the larger vision of universal healthcare while asking for solutions for its broken parts? Does an attempt to solve those parts reinforce a belief that the larger vision isn't achievable? What have you found when researching the messaging challenges?
Robert Reich just put up a brilliant post about the zero sum economy of the ultra-rich that drives the destruction of our health care system and so much else.
https://open.substack.com/pub/robertreich/p/the-economys-large-and-growing-unproductive
Alan,
Thank you for starting this blog. A national healthcare system makes so much more sense than any other solution. Yet Americans are so accustomed to our healthcare "industry," and it is so embedded in our business culture that they put up with it rather than demand something more. I believe that part of what keeps it in place is a set of beliefs. We've been taught that ours is the best healthcare in the world. There's a historic basis for this, which is our history of medical discoveries. But if the fruits of those discoveries don't reach almost half the population, their advantages aren't realized. Probably the majority of Americans have lost faith in all of our major institutions and don't believe they can achieve anything more, certainly not as large a vision as national healthcare.
I believe that the root of many of our national problems is corruption. Our healthcare "industry" -- the idea that delivering healthcare is a business -- is a result. And yet many believe in unregulated business because they feel to do otherwise would make the delivery of goods and services more expensive. This message has been delivered by raising the specter of communist totalitarian societies and labeling such approaches "socialism." It's either capitalism or socialism, a false dichotomy.
How do you establish hope in achieving the larger vision of universal healthcare while asking for solutions for its broken parts? Does an attempt to solve those parts reinforce a belief that the larger vision isn't achievable? What have you found when researching the messaging challenges?