Monday, February 1, 2010

A Good Summary Of What Is Happening

From a blogger named "Slacktivist", copied mostly whole (thank you), a concise thought as to the main problem facing America:

Hey you. You there in the Glenn Beck T-shirt headed off to the Tea Party Patriot rally.

Stop shouting for a moment, please, I want to explain to you why you're so very angry.

You should be angry. You're getting screwed.

I think you know that. But you don't seem to know that it doesn't have to be that way. You can stop it. You can stop it easily because the system that's screwing you over can only keep screwing you over if you keep demanding that it do so.

So stop demanding that. Stop helping the system screw you over.

Look, you can go back to yelling at me in a minute, but just read this first.

Get out your pay stub.

Notice that your net pay is lower than your gross pay. This is because some of your wages are withheld every pay period.

Notice that only some of this money that was withheld went to pay taxes. Notice that some of the money that was withheld didn't go to taxes, but to your health insurance company.

Now go get a pay stub from last year around this time, from January of 2009.

Notice that the amount of your pay withheld for taxes in your current paycheck is less than the amount that was withheld a year ago.

That's because of President Barack Obama's economic stimulus plan, which included more than $200 billion in tax cuts, including the one you're holding right there in your hand, the tax cut that's now staring you in the face. Republicans all voted against that tax cut. And then they told you to get angry about the stimulus plan. They didn't explain, however, why you were supposed to get angry about getting a tax cut. Why would you be? Wouldn't it make more sense to get angry at the people who voted against that Obama tax cut?

But taxes aren't the really important thing here. The really important thing starts with the next point.

Notice that the amount of your pay withheld to pay for your health insurance is more than it was last year. Notice that the amount of your pay withheld to pay for your health insurance is a lot more than it was last year. I won't ask you to dig up old paychecks from 2008 and 2007, but this has been going on for a long time. Every year, the amount of your paycheck withheld to pay for your health insurance goes up. A lot.

Notice the one figure there on your two pay stubs that hasn't changed: Your wage. The raise you didn't get this year went to pay for that big increase in the cost of your health insurance.

Here's where I need you to start doing a better job of putting two and two together. If you didn't get a raise last year because the cost of your health insurance went up by a lot, and the cost of your health insurance is going to go up by a lot again this year, what do you think that means for any chance you might have of getting a raise this year?

Did you figure it out? That's right. The increasing cost of health insurance means you won't get a raise this year. Or next year. Or the year after that. The increasing cost of health insurance means you will never get a raise again.

That's what I meant when I said you really should be angry. That's what I meant when I said you're getting screwed.

OK, we're almost done. Just a few more points, I promise.

The only hope you have of ever seeing another pay raise is if Congress passes health care reform. Without health care reform, the increasing cost of your health insurance will swallow this year's raise. And next year's raise. And pretty soon it won't stop with just your raise. Without health care reform, the increasing cost of your health insurance will start making your pay go down.

I wish I could tell you that this was just a worst-case scenario, that this was only something that might, maybe happen, but that wouldn't be true. Without health care reform, this is what will happen. We know this because this is what is happening now. It has been happening for the past 10 years. In 2008, employers spent on average 25 percent more per employee than they did in 2001, but wages on average did not increase during those years. The price of milk went up. The price of gas went up. But wages did not. All of the money that would have gone to higher wages went to pay the higher and higher and higher cost of health insurance. And unless Congress passes health care reform, that will not change.

Well, it will change in the sense that it will keep getting worse, but it won't get better. Unless the problem gets fixed, the problem won't be fixed. That's kind of what "problem" and "fixed" mean.

Sadly for any chance you have of ever seeing a raise again, it looks like Congress may not pass health care reform. It looks like they won't do that because they're scared of angry voters who are demanding that they oppose health care reform, angry voters who demand that Congress not do anything that would keep the cost of health insurance from going up and up and up. Angry voters like you.

Do you see the point here? You are angrily, loudly demanding that Congress make sure that you never, ever get another pay raise as long as you live. Because of you and because of your angry demands, you and your family and your kids are going to have to get by with less this year than last year. And next year you're going to have to get by with even less. And if you keep angrily demanding that no one must ever fix this problem, then you're going to have to figure out how to get by on less and less every year for the rest of your life.

So please, for your own sake, for your family's sake and the sake of your children, stop. Stop demanding that problems not get fixed. Stop demanding that you keep getting screwed. Stay angry — you should be angry — but start directing that anger toward the system that's screwing you over and taking money out of your pocket. Start directing that anger toward fixing problems instead of toward making sure they never get fixed. Instead of demanding that Congress oppose health care reform so that you never, ever, get another pay raise, start demanding that they pass health care reform, as soon as possible. Because until they do, you're just going to keep on getting screwed.

And it's going to be that much worse knowing that you brought this on yourself — that you demanded it.

Thanks for your time.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good points; my employer takes $250 per month out of my paycheck for health insurance that was covered last year.
For a family; they must pay much more.
So, no raise (economy) and more for health insurance (=pay cut).

However: The public doesn't want universal health care because of the many past failures of (many) government-run agencies. The amount of waste and red tape would be colossal.
Name 5 well-run government agencies that turn a profit and actually are more efficient than a comparable private company.
You know what I mean? It seems a lot of people have just lost faith in the government; right or wrong?

Jil Wrinkle said...

For starters, you have to remember that government won't be "running healthcare"... in other words, they won't own hospitals, they won't employ doctors, they won't establish best practices or regulate treatment (other than the ways they already do, such as HIPAA, FDA, and Medicare/Medicaid).

A more accurate comparison to real life would be the government breakup of Bell 30 years ago, and the regulation that came about. You have to admit that it certainly costs less per minute to call California these days (internet notwithstanding) than it did back in 1980 (thirty years ago and costs less now than it did then).

The federal government is planning on setting rules for how healthcare and the administration, cost, and payments thereof is going to be run in this country.

(The "public option" would set up a government-controlled insurance option, but it wouldn't be funded by the government completely; you would have to pay to get it, albeit in a means-tested fashion. A closer description to the public option would be "not for profit" health insurance, and you know that it would be bare bones coverage... no PET scans or private hospital rooms on that!)

So, to sum it up, there will be government-regulated healthcare, not government-run healthcare. And therefore I ask you to name 5 industries that are heavily regulated by the government that would function better without said government regulation. (Obviously a point that is open to debate, but you see my point.)