International Socialist Review: The business of health care reform

[marmar]

ISR Issue 68, November–December 2009


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The business of health care reform


MOST GREAT American fortunes were made by capitalists who used the power of government to gain advantages over competitors or to profit from public resources.

For example, the Gilded Age plutocrats—the Vanderbilts, the Astors, the Stewarts, the Goulds—built their railroad-based fortunes on the foundation of $100 million in federal and state grants and 200 million acres of federal land grants.

The Dupont chemical empire owed much to U.S. seizure of German chemical patents and government assistance in building its plants during the First World War. The modern nuclear power industry and the Internet are both products of the privatization of technologies developed in government laboratories.

Or consider the Telecommunications Act of 1996, one of the main legislative achievements (besides ending welfare) that Democratic President Bill Clinton claimed in that election year. The bill, passed overwhelmingly with little public debate and quickly signed by Clinton, took down barriers of ownership and transmission rights of content among major media, radio, phone, and Internet companies.

Although the industry promised a new era of competition that would lead to lower prices and greater choice for consumers, the exact opposite developed. The act unleashed a bacchanal of media mergers and industry consolidation. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.isreview.org/issues/68/editorial.shtml

[dcsmart]

1. hey there marmar

hello from a fellow michigander....great article..i love the ISR...glad to see other people posting here

:fistbump:

[marmar]

2. I'm so happy I stumbled onto this forum....

And hello from 11 stories above the Detroit River....

:hi:

[MSchreader]

3. Are we all Detroiters here?

Jefferson and Conner checking in. :hi:

[marmar]

4. Awesome.....

I work downtown with a view over the river, but I actually live in Madison Heights. I'm moving back into the city though, to the Lafayette Park area.

[dcsmart]

5. LOL...at least us 3

I am a member of the Democratic Socialists of America
There is a Detroit Local that meets in Royal Oak
http://www.dsausa.org/about/locals.html
see list for website... the website is not great but it works...
i am not that active...i have my own socialist philosophy that leans more toward working as a liberal democrat and mixing the two...although Marxist analysis is the foundation of my philosophical concept of society and culture...and pretty much everything else...anyway...looking forward to hearing more from both of u...

:toast:

[MSchreader]

6. The three of us should meet up some time

Since we're all in the same area and have some common political views.