What Do Health-Care Reform, the 40-Hour Work Week, Unemployment Insurance, the Minimum Wage, etc., Have in Common?

by Chuck Gutenson 11-25-2009

Well, they were all brought to you be political progressives, they were all opposed by political conservatives, and they all are now viewed as fundamental presuppositions of a healthy society by virtually everyone. Okay, all but health-care reform, but trust me, if it passes, in no time at all it will be viewed so positively that we will no longer be able to remember why it took us so long to implement it. And, of course, the list actually includes many, many more initiatives—child labor laws, basic workplace safety rules, social security, Medicare, and so on.

In each case, the vast majority of political conservatives opposed them. They told us that businesses would be ruined, that the problems resulting from implementing the initiatives would be worse than if we left things as they were, that implementing them would make us non-competitive, or, more generally, that the good life as we know it would be gone if we were so foolish as to pass these pieces of legislation. One would think that after being wrong sooo many times, political conservatives would speak with a bit more humility, but alas, not so. If one took some of the speeches in opposition to health-care reform, one could substitute “minimum wage laws” or “child labor laws” in place of “health-care reform” and it would be déjà vu all over again—to quote Yogi Berra.

So, it is not at all surprising to find that, as we are on the verge of possibly the most significant reform in American politics in the last 40 years, political conservatives are united against it. We have the highest health care cost “per unit” than anyone else in the world, we are below the countries with universal coverage as far as customer satisfaction is concerned, we are somewhere near 40^th in infant mortality (you’d think the pro-life forces would notice this), and it goes on. Yet, in the midst of these overwhelming evidences to the contrary, those opposed to health-care reform think things are just fine. All that is fine, and let’s make no mistake about it, are the financial interests of those who benefit from the status quo—the insurance companies, pharmaceuticals, etc. These are the ones to whom far too many of our politicos are indebted. We need more politicians indebted to the common good, to the common person, to the public good.

There is no guarantee yet that there will be health care reform, though we are closer than ever before. If we do succeed in overcoming the monied interests and act on behalf of the common good, check back with me in three years. We can celebrate yet another case of political progressives going against special interests to move legislation in favor of the common good. May it be so!

Chuck Gutenson is the chief operating officer for Sojourners.

Categories: Health

xfree9

Even considering the blatant false dichotomy of "progressive" and "conservative," this article does well in implementing historical fallacies to support a supposed view that tyranny in the name of justice is legitimized by well-intentioned policies such labor laws and health reform.

Social Security—Slam Bernie Madoff for a Ponzi scheme, but his plan pales in comparison to the scam that is Social Security. There is nothing progressive about a regressive benefit ostensibly promising a "social good" that is bankrupt and failing beyond comparison. It is a Ponzi scheme, plain and simple. There is no ethical or moral justification for it.

Make no mistake, so-called Progressives love to control society because they have the vision for the world that would solve all the social ills and make everybody love each other. If only we would get on their bandwagon, vote for their candidates, and ensure that those who disagree with us would live by our ethic, then society would be a better place.

But it's a very unfortunate fact that so-called progressive Christians need guns. They need the biggest guns available: the United States government. Because without the law and the gun which stands behind the law, their gospel isn't powerful, isn't active, and won't change the world.

SisterMarie

Then of course, you're planning on donating your Social Security earnings to the Union Mission. (But I won't hold my breath.)

Actually, the organization with all the guns is the NRA. And the last I checked, they are not considered to be progressive.

xfree9

Actually, to be quite honest, my wife and I were looking for ways to give more from our current income. Then a few days into this we got my SS statement and how much I've "contributed" (which is the wrong word since I didn't volunteer it, it was taken by force) to Social Security. Looks like an extra 10% could be given to kingdom purposes around the globe, plus a little extra to save for my kids' education. It's too bad that money is being spent on illegal wars and to pay off debts in 100 years.

The point is, SS is a ponzi scheme, like it or not.

And as for the guns, again, the government has the most guns, and apparently the vision of social justice from the so-called progressive camp is that we need those guns to make sure the rest of society falls in line with their agenda of social justice.

justintime

I agree with you on the illegal wars, xfree.
But by your standards, the entire US government is a ponzi scheme.
If you had any guts you'd refuse all government services, stop filing income tax returns and march in the streets against those illegal wars.
The only way America will ever be saved by a band of middle aged libertarians with assault rifles is in the movies.

Get real, xfree.
And have a Happy Thanksgiving.
I'm thankful we didn't get McCain/Palin.
What about you?

xfree9

Yeah, I'm thankful, too. The government doesn't have to be a ponzi scheme. Some state governments don't run deficits, partly because they don't have a banking cartel to print money for them. Other nations like Georgia have eliminated all debt and run surpluses.

Wanna hear something from a non-middle aged libertarian? If our government spent the next generation eliminating the national debt of 12 trillion, our grandkids could probably enjoy a universal health care scenario where things are paid for not out of debt but out of a surplus.

justintime

Well, you'll have to give Clinton some credit for paying down the debt while he was in office.
But then a so-called 'conservative' stole the presidency, cut trillions in taxes from the rich and hosed trillions more we didn't have down the war rathole.

Where were you when all that was going down, xfree?
Did you protest the Iraq war ?
Have you ever protested against any of those wars you claim are illegal?
Talking about it on God's Politics doesn't count.
Libertarians are all talk, no guts.

xfree9

Unfortunately, at that point in my political thinking, I did not see the error in the ways of conservatism. So with specifically the Iraq war, yes at this point it's "all talk," because it's more an admission of wrong rhetoric and philosophy.

Bush cut taxes but the revenue stream to the gov't was greater by the end of the Bush Administration than it was in the beginning. That doesn't excuse it, however, because I'm equally against the Federal Reserve printing money, so of course the revenue stream would be greater. And Clinton gets kudos for at least reducing the debt of the "official budget," but compared to the amount of debt we have, it was a pittance. It will take real reform to actually eliminate our debt in the next generation.

NC77

Unless I missed something. Clinton didn't pay down the debt. And wasn't Social Security raided to balance the budget that one year (was it 1999?). Remember Al Gore running on the "lock box" for Social Security in 2000?

SamHamilton

And what do eugenics, prohibition and leftist strongmen in developing countries have in common? They were all supported by progressives. As were forced sterilization, economically harmful price controls (ironically, the price controls during WWII were the genesis of today's archaic employer-based health care system), the internment of the Japanese, Western dictators in pre- and post-war Europe, and the modern-day European cap and trade system that has cost billions of dollars while not reducing emission at all.

Perhaps the worst thing that progressives have inflicted on American society is the belief, as John Dewey put it, "Natural rights and natural liberties exist only in the kingdom of mythological social zoology." Progressives altered the standard view held by Americans for generations that natural rights are a gift of God or nature. Instead they insisted that rights are derived from the government. The meaning of "freedom" was not something with which everyone was endowed and that the government was created to protect, but a gift from the state; freedom is a condition created by the government so that people can "effectively realize the potentialities that are theirs" (Dewey again). This belief relegated the idea of limited government to the dustbin and endowed the state with any power it needs to allow people to fully achieve their potential.

Of course, this silly game can go 'round and 'round. We can all name things that "progressives" and "conservatives" have supported or opposed throughout history that were beneficial or detrimental to our society. None of them are reason enough to support or dismiss something that a contemporary progressive or conservative is supporting or opposing. Writing that because progressives supported some things in the past that we generally view as favorable today doesn't mean we should support every idea progressives come up with.

mikeoliphant

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) released a merged version of the Senate comprehensive reform on 11/19/09,
which Mike Oliphant, whom manages www.benefitsmanager.net for Utah based health insurance plans for employers could get
behind and support some of it (Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or H.R. 3590).
This should encourage the private sector health insurance carriers to form INSURANCE EXCHANGES which is what we have
done here in Utah. They carry the risk and burden, not the tax payer. See more about this at www.utahhealthplans.info
You would be surprised about the willingness of carriers to co-share risk amongst their immediate competitors. They simply
focus on profit from the 4 to 5 percent administration fees. A government run public option could not achieve this.

letjusticerolldown

What do jobs, insurance and decent wages have in common? They were brought to you by conservatives.

justintime

LJRD, You don't think progressives own businesses and hire workers?

No doubt, LJRD, it WAS conservatives who brought us insurance industry ponzi schemes -- and the Wall Street ponzi schemes, too.
Why do you think conservatives are fighting regulation of those markets?
Do you think the GOP fights regulation out of libertarian idealism?
No, my dear friend, they fight regulation out of sheer arrogance and greed.

Labor Unions are the direct cause of decent wages for Americans.
Conservatives have always been the enemy of decent wages.
Ever since way before Charles Dickens.

Hope you have food on your table this Thanksgiving.

letjusticerolldown

I was just hoping I might catch Sojo's attention thinking they might hire me as headline writer.

justintime

Looking for a job?
Weekly Standard circulation is in the tank right now.
If you buy a Sarah Palin book for $4.97, you get Weekly Standard for FREE!
They could sure use some new talent.

But you're joking, no?

xfree9

It's a good thing we can celebrate capitalism for Thanksgiving, cuz the first few years of socialism (it wasn't called that then) didn't work out for the Pilgrims. (To be clear, I celebrate God's blessings, not capitalism itself.)

justintime

I've heard a lot of stories about the first thanksgiving, xfree.
But the political screed you linked to at the von Mises libertarian website is a total crock of libertarian hogwash.

What really happened was the Pilgrims were rescued from starvation by a merciful, socialist native American tribe.

It appears the next wave of immigrants to America learned from the example of the Pilgrims:

Although Indians and Pilgrims joined together for a meal of thanksgiving in 1621, the Indians didn't fare so well at other thanksgiving observances. Many towns in New England held thanksgiving days to celebrate victories over the Natives. In 1641, a raid against the members of the Pequot tribe in Connecticut was very successful, and the churches declared a day of "thanksgiving" to celebrate. During this feast, the decapitated heads of Natives were kicked through the streets of Manhattan.

Was this the sordid beginning of Wall Street capitalism?

Octoberfurst

Conservatives brought "decent wages"? Surely you jest. Conservatives fought decent wages for employees for decades! It was the liberal Unions that made decent wages possible. Conservative CEOs used to bring in strike-breaking goons to bash in the heads of those workers who demanded better wages.

letjusticerolldown

"in no time at all it will be viewed so positively that we will no longer be able to remember why it took us so long to implement it."

Will that be before or after we pay for it??

xfree9

haha, good point. It blows my mind the ignorance of some folks who believe that with good intentions and legislation they can accomplish good things.

justintime

It blows my mind the ignorance of some folks who think nothing can be done to make this world a better place -- those who think this is the best of all possible worlds and anything you can think of to make things better will only make things worse.