Huh - Looky At That - What's Good For General Motors REALLY IS Good For The U.S.!

[BlooInBloo]

From the Department Of Tying It All Together, I bring you the 2nd-only-to-Wolcott Digby!

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2007/09/strike-by-digby-its-our-duty.html

Strike!

by digby

“It’s our duty. It’s the only power we have.”
--Eric Lehtonen, 50, of DeWitt Township who works at the Lansing Grand River assembly plant, where the Cadillac CTS, STS and SRX are made.

Amen brother.

GM says it needs to cut costs. Perhaps it would like to work with the Democrats and the Unions to get universal health insurance. It would be good for their workers, good for the country and good for the bottom line.

And Kos-commentary:

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/9/24/155243/919

For GM, health care costs was $5.2 billion back in 2005. Probably much higher today. This doesn't just affect GM's bottom line, but our competitiveness in a global economy.
...
One of the biggest failures of Clinton's health care efforts back in the early 90s was getting Big Business aboard with crass appeals to their bottom line. But can there be any doubt today that universal health care is desperately needed?

In a world where the plight of regular people is irrelevant to the decision-makers in DC and the oaf in the White House, perhaps the cries of financial anguish from the nation's top business mavens will cut through the indifference. Heck, even Business Week has written glowingly of the French system and the lessons it can deliver to the US.

If GM wants out of this mess, it should work to create a cross-industry group to work with organized labor and the Democratic Party to push for universal health care. It's one of those rare issues where all of their interests align. Might as well push that rare advantage.

EDIT: Forgot Kos link.

[Mythsaje]

1. I think universal health care WOULD be good for business...n/t

[BlooInBloo]

2. With the single exception: It would break the leash that business has over its workers....

... Other than that, yah.

[Mythsaje]

5. Good point.

You're the second person to hand me an important piece of the puzzle today. :) Thanks.

[BlooInBloo]

6. W00t! Full picture... on it's way!

[xchrom]

3. universal healthcare would improve everyone's bottom line. n/t

[Coexist]

4. that is a no brainer - health care costs make us non-competitive.

it would be a win-win for this country to treat its ill, not just its rich.

[izzybeans]

7. potential talking points: Universal free health care frees the market place

by relieving wage pressures on employers while simultaneously freeing up the capital they need to offer more competitive wages and redeploy valuable resources for product development, safety, training, marketing, etc. Universal free health care strengthens the union's and employer's position by offering the bargaining chip, whose absence blocked their negotiation-free capital.

...and yet Universal health care will free the market in another way, it will infuse the consumer market with newly liquid capital.

Mandating employers spend even more money on health care can not be the answer. It is a weak willed politician who offers that choice. Do the right thing free the market and do it with Universal and free health care. The bureaucracy of insurance companies and big pharma has held it hostage for far too long.

Imagine what you get in return for a few pennies on the dollar with small changes to the tax code and a massive budget over haul shifting war making dollars towards the health and wellness of the citizenry. Less debt, less war, your father and mother will live longer, your children and wife will be less likely to die in labor, you will take home on average $350 dollars more a month (if not more if an employer free of the benefit burden chooses to increase wages at any % of the current rate + no longer having to pay the premiums), your debts will be forgiven (at the expense of the war machine).

Imagine if only a politician showed the leadership on this issue...imagine one strong enough to free the markets with universally free health care. We have the resources to do it. We just choose not to.

Privatized health care IS ALSO socialized medicine. It is just socialized to hold the marketplace captive in an iron cage of debt. It need not be that way.

[BlooInBloo]

8. I might take the word "free" out - to avoid the hassles of an obvious rejoinder....

... But looks good to me!

[izzybeans]

9. I was sort of mocking the word given the present health care system

supports a market that is less free than the "socialized" healthcare alternative. But variations on the theme are welcome-the language is interchangeable.

but perhaps leaving it would force some folks to actually reflect on what that word means and whether it actually applies to anything pertaining to our economy.

[BlooInBloo]

10. Oh - that's ok - I just meant the first occurrence of it in your prev post. The rest are fine...

... as hammers to hit them over the head with.