tdaxp

"GM loss, Wal-Mart, and universal health care," by kos, Daily Kos, 20 April 2005, http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/4/20/11223/3967.

Daily "Screw 'Em" Kos correctly identifies a serious drag on the American economy

GM and Wal-Mart can be potent allies in a new (and this time successful) push for universal health care. It would be the ultimate corporate welfare, instantly adding billions to the bottom line of American businesses, yet at the same time helping insure the entire nation.

The instincts of the American left is to fight Wal-Mart and demand it cover its workers, when we have an opportunity to perform political jujitsu with the fiercely Republican Waltons and turn the battle for universal health care into a lopsided fight with Big and Small Business, Labor, and the progressive alliance, versus the American Taliban (who in all their supposed compassion would fight this to the end).

I can't, for the life of me, understand why a coalition hasn't formed around the issue yet. It's a no-brainer.

Earlier in the post, kos linked to a story describing GM's health-care driven troubles. But it's not just big companies that suffer.

One of my greatest professors is locked into a job against his will. He is a former Consultant and generally a mover-and-shaker. However, it is basically impossible for him to find different work than what he has because of a serious medical condition. His current work insurance pays it, but it is unlikely any other would. This is a broken price system which does not allocate labor efficiently.

We need to fix medicine in the United States. There is a crisis. Hopefully Democrats and the left can be a constructive part of the solution. Sadly, their recent childishness is not a good sign.

Update: Professor Bainbridge calls it a "terrible idea." But it's not a terrible opening for a better world.

"Raw Nerves in Motown: Making money remains tough for America's big three carmakers," The Economist, ppg 58-59, 15 January 2005.

It's hard to find a more apt example of the Social Security crisis than what is happening to pensions in the car industry. Huge greying behemoths, tied down by increasing unaffordable pensions, are becoming a shadow of their former selves. New competitors, relying on 401ks and more modern retirement vehicles, are winning market share hand-over-fist. Perhaps not coincidentally, the inflexible 1930-era dinosaurs are based in a blue state (Michigan), while the nimble new entrants are in red states.

One reason for the (belated) success of Japanese firms in light trucks is their effort to promote themselves as "domestic." Last year, Nissan sold 985,000 vehicles in America -- and built 950,000 of them in Tennessee and Mississippi. Toyota's TV ads stress the billions of dollars it has invested in America and the size of its American payroll.

Faced with this, it was hardly surprising that GM's chairman, Rick Wagoner, could manage only a strained smile when he posed in front of the Sequel, a prototype fuel-cell vehicle. The hydrogen-powered car, he said, would put GM at the forefront of automotive technology. But few expect the technology to be ready for mass production soon. Meanwhile, GM must content with the crushing burden of health-care costs for current and retired workers: $4 billion a year, roughly $2,000 for each vehicle it makes in America.

Pensions aren't the only mess. America's wildly unaffordable health care system are also dragging workers down

Without its health-care costs, GM would show decent profits in its North American business

.