Wednesday, September 26, 2007

For What it's Worth

Kids and Cars
Comments

There are two items in the news the last couple of days that are health-care related and tell us something very mean about ourselves.

One of the items concerns the struggle between the unions and the auto companies over the future of health care plans agreed to and managed (perhaps managed very badly) by the companies. The other is the debate in Congress over extending national health care programs for more children. Bush has promised to veto it if it is passed.

Everyone understands that US companies, especially in the auto industry, are at a profound disadvantage when competing with other advanced nations, because they have to absorb costs of very expensive health care coverage for their workers. In most other nations, health care is considered a social obligation which society pays for.

In this country, we have gladly assumed the high costs of policing the world, but not the costs of creating and running a competent national health care system. A bill of $100 billion or $200 billion for the Iraq "Mission" is nothing to Americans. They complain not at all. But to invest that amount of money into providing for the care of our own citizens is unthinkable.

So, unions demand it of their employers and now we're in a real mess.

Maybe we need to rethink our priorities.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Something is definitely wrong with a society that spends more money on warfare than on the health,education, and well-being of its people.

Anonymous said...

If the unions would just butt out and let the risk-taking entrepreneurs of this world to do what they are meant to do, that is make more and more money, then eventually all that wealth will trickle down to all the workers happily slaving away and they will all be able to afford to pay cash for whatever health care they could ever want.