Medicare for All and tie minimum wage to inflation

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

There. More to help the actual lives of the American people and the economy than months and years of debate.

[Klukie]

1. I like it

[Honeycombe8]

2. I prefer to keep the debate within the realm of possibilities. This is a "won't happen" scenario.

nt

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

4. I don't understand why minimum wage wasn't tied to inflation years ago

I HAVE been a business owner with a significant payroll. Business owners pretty much accept that utilities go up, insurances go up, the cost of goods go up,(usually) - so why WOULDN'T the cost of labor go up incrementally year after year as well?

Labor is the only thing that is depressed. More money to wage earners and employees goes right back into the system and gives them more to buy goods and services with.

Wages HAVE NOT kept pace with inflation and that is a major reason that everyone turned to living off credit cards and home equity lines. If you increase the wages at the bottom, the other tiers have to move as well, in order to keep compensation commensurate with skills, responsibilities, etc. What happened is that all profits were siphoned off to the upper tiers while the mainline employee/wage slave saw their earnings eroded. As is still the case right now. If anything they are eroded further as employers are now denying increases because they can since people are unemployed and lining up for whatever work is available.

[babylonsister]

3. Wh pays for Medicare for All? Shumer's on morning schmo and says

the gov't couldn't pay for it-costs would be too astronomical. Sounds like a non-starter to me though I wish it weren't.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

5. Well as was pointedout in another thread, Canadians pay approx 5% more in taxes

and look at their healthcare - about 1400 ANNUALLY for a family of four and that's it!

Of course they aren't running out and waging war on false pretenses and invading and occupying other countries either. I always reject the affordibility argument out of hand because of the way we spend with no limit when it comes to our defense spending. We have chosen to be the world's policeman at great cost while eroding the quality of American life daily.

[babylonsister]

6. I would love nothing better than to stop the

wars and concentrate on problems at home. I just don't know how realistic that is.

Here's how the Germans do it, warts and all:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x486472

[flpoljunkie]

17. Read their average income tax rate was about the same as ours--18%.

They get health care. We get a military empire.

[dionysus]

7. great idea, but you realize that wouldn't pass?

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

8. If it is a great idea, why wouldn't it pass?

I would really like to hear your opinion as to why great ideas that help the populace won't pass in our Congress. Who would you put the blame on?

[dionysus]

9. there's a litany of reasons, unfortunately. but i'll give you the biggest one.

if you can't even get enough dems on board with a public option, how on earth are you going to get enough dems to vote for something that will basically destroy the insurance industry (which i wouldn't shed a tear over) overnight?

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

10. What about tying minimum wage to inflation? nt

[dionysus]

11. that i'm totally down with as well. you got me on that one. has that been proposed anywhere?

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

14. Oh, it's seen as a very "anti-business" move. I mean look at how hard it is to raise

minimum wage at the Federal level and how infrequently it happens.

That's why it SHOULD be tied to inflation and made automatic. They always talk about a rising tide floating all boats - raising minimum wage is a GUARANTEE of raising the wage boat all around, but they always use that terminology strictly to defend corporate tax cuts which don't benefit anyone but the upper executive tier who now get MORE money to siphon off. God forbid the Congress ever does anything to help the W-2 wage earner at the expense of the wealthy.

[area51]

15. The insurance industry wouldn't have to be destroyed.

They could sell extra-perks insurance for a private hospital room, insurance for non-covered things like face-lifts and tummy tucks. Also, they can start, if they aren't already, selling insurance for homes, businesses, floods, cars, etc. There's no reason why they have to go out of business.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

16. They can continue to sell supplemental policies

they can definitely stay in existence and there is still a role for them to play, it just won't involve the huge percentage of GDP that it does currently and they will have to adapt to having just puddles of money to give to their CEOs (still quite large) as opposed to OCEANS of money.

I'm telling you that there can be just one single reason that the Congress is so protective of an industry that kills and bankrupts us - they like their cut!! They want to keep the gravy train rolling. The deaths of Americans is strictly collateral damage for them.

[mucifer]

12. medicare for all isn't the cure for cost. Bill Moyer's Journal did a great show about

it. The push for high cost procedures and expensive treatments without choices to the patient and family at the end stages of disease drive up cost a lot. People should more often be given the CHOICE of hospice care versus painful expensive treatments.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

13. In my personal experience, individuals and families are offered the choice

of hospice care versus expensive treatments. I just recently found out that hospice care can be as long as 2 years.

[Bluenorthwest]

18. Here in Oregon, the minimum wage is already tied to inflation

under state law. Other states do not need the Beltway to make that a reality either.

[TheKentuckian]

21. It would be best if the beltway did it though to steer clear of imbalance

similar to what we deal with the "right to work states".

Failure to tackle these issues at the widest scale creates mini-NAFTA situations. Of course I am biased because I'd like to see state houses emasculated and the balance of power to be pivoted on the people and central government. Local control and the direct relationship to the constituent are vastly overstated. My metro council is probably further removed from the will of the people than Congress and the state legislature worse than them. If not for the central government the majority of the country would be a 2nd or even 3rd world cesspool a long time ago.

[Vinca]

19. It can be that simple and be exactly what we need.

[Uncle Joe]

20. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Phoebe Loosinhouse.:thumbsup:

[juno jones]

22. K&R! n/t