The Mother of all Regressive Taxes

This giveaway to the ruling health insurance industry looks like it will end up being the mother of all regressive taxes. Workers earning between about $15000 and $30000 will be especially hammered by one of the World's most regressive taxes in history. If you earn nothing or almost nothing, you will probably be better off assuming you get Medicaid, although it is well known that Medicaid is substandard health care. But if you are truly poor, it appears that at least you won't be forced to spend yourself into future homelessness.

Lower income workers who know they are at risk for homelessness if they give all their money to the insurance companies would actually be very wise to simply refuse to pay the Worlds' All-Time Most Regressive Tax. If you end up homeless after paying huge sums to the health insurance mafia, your health will go to hell in a hand basket so fast that whether or not you have health insurance becomes beside the point.

I recently read a Medical Journal article about how quickly the health of homeless individuals goes south. Roughly speaking and on average, a homeless person ages almost a month for every day of homelessness.

Its getting to the point, with the economy collapsed and politics in the cess pool, that about the only thing left in America to hope for is the Chinese pulling the plug on the dollar and/or on boosting the prices of what they export. Both of these things appear to be inevitable, but it is very difficult to even estimate when they will happen. There are a lot of things like that in Economics: you know what is going to happen unless things radically change, but you can't accurately predict when.

But when things such as that happen, the economy will collapse even more completely than it has so far, and at that point only insane people will want to continue the failed system.

When the money becomes worthless, the whole country will have to "start from scratch," and only then will it be able to set up a health care system which is halfway decent. In the mean time, we have more misery, more preventable death, more bankruptcy, more unemployment, and many other scourges too numerous to mention to look forward to.

In such an environment you need to, as some have written here, derive your happiness from within yourself, and you need to get your sustenance from your family and your community. You can't be depending on a failed far right society to acknowledge your value and your accomplishments. Believe it or not, its possible for an individual to survive and be happy even in a failed society. Its tricky, but hardly impossible, or even all that difficult, if you are smart.

[The above is in response to this article.]

The Democrats are Right of Center, all Pretending Aside

At least the Republicans are honest about being far to the right. They are proud to be to the right, as perverse as that may seem to a progressive.

But the Democrats are, by world standards, a bizarre party, because they pretend to be centrist or even a touch progressive, at least during campaigns, but they are most definitely a right of center party, more to the right than the most conservative mainstream parties in all Western and Northern European countries. Make no mistake, for example, President Sarkozy of France is substantially more progressive than is Obama, Harry Reid, or Steny Hoyer.

The progressive caucus Democrats go along with this game of pretend, instead of quitting the party and getting a new one going as they really need to do. I guess Kucinich and so forth go along because they know the political system is about as deficient as is the economics one. Due to the political culture, numerous regulations, and legal restrictions, it usually seems that 3rd parties might as well be banned outright in the States.

If this country really does go completely down the tubes, it probably will be due to BOTH a massive economics failure and a massive political failure at the same time. One of those failures is devastating but both together may be like what the fly experiences when it is swatted.

Or it may be like the prognosis for a vehicle after a nasty breakdown: "We discovered your problem, Miss: both your transmission and your engine went at the same time; your car isn't even worth fixing," laugh out loud.

[The above was in response to this article.]

The Shortcomings of Barack Obama

Another super outstanding Chris Hedges article that completely nails the topic.

Yes, whether you are black and poor, black and middle class, white and poor, or white and middle class, Obama has very little or nothing cooking for your future. For the rich, he has more funny money and illusions. The recent stock market is probably more based on fantasy and "the greed imperative" than any such market ever.

An astute friend of mine and I had a discussion this past weekend and we agree (for different #1 reasons) that Obama can not win reelection in 2012 unless there are major unexpected developments. Our predictions are very seldom wrong individually, so when the two of us agree, you can pretty much bet the ranch on it.

A RESPONSE:

Jerry D Rose August 3rd, 2009 2:41 pm
tremaine: Did you and your "astute friend" happen to agree on what we would get in Obama's stead in 2012? Instead of Tweedledee Obama would we be getting Tweedledum Sarah Palin? I'm not going to sleep very well for 3 plus years without knowing whether your crystal balls are offering any alternative. If not, I may sit out the next election, thank you!

The official favorite is Mitt Romney but the unofficial favorite is Tim Pawlenty.

Obama is lame, that is his problem in one word. I emphasize how lame his economics views and policies are and my friend emphasizes how lame his political beliefs and maneuverings are. Obama might as well be walking around with a cane.

A COUNTERPOINT

GollyGee August 3rd, 2009 3:20 pm
Tremaine, while you and Chris Hedges were sleeping or on vacation or just out to lunch, a middle-aged black man, a Harvard prof had a run-in with the cops.

This was just what the insane right wanted, a nice racial tussle to drive another wedge and further splinter popular opinion. The weakest, most corrupt Democrats headed right toward the Republican for shelter, and the media played it for all it was worth to draw attention away from national health care.

If you or Chris Hedges have some specific steps Obama should be taking to help the Black community, everyone would like to hear them.

A lot of empty rhetoric from the bully pulpit will not help Blacks one whit right now — although Rush and Fox are certainly eager for some real racial tension to scare White voters back to the Republicans.

We want jobs, and since the private sector never produces enough of them, and is currently eliminating hordes of them, we need public jobs. There is no such thing as a "worthless, make-work, Government job". You are brainwashed if you think that jobs directly created by the Government are of little value.

We want nationalization of all industries where the supply is mostly monopolized and where the demand is mostly captive. This would include, at a rock bottom minimum, electricity, health care, water, police-fire, and education. (Police-fire and water are mostly public already.)