Sorry, it's been a while. Work, work, work. But I have been arguing with a friend of mine (both of us are members of Labor for Single-Payer, but he's more active in it), and here's my latest spew:
First let me say I do think the ACA is "woefully inadequate." Single payer is what we need, or nationalized health care, but some business
interests (and not others, interestingly enough) and their lapdog
politicians have blocked anything close to that (along with much that is
not even close). And since we failed to get either of those things, it
would have been nice for elected representatives (especially Democrats)
to at least include what was called "the public option" at the time. I
don't think any of those things would have necessarily solved the
problem this poor guy [see below] is bringing up, but I'll get back to that. I still have to say the ACA helped millions of people get coverage, and that is nothing to sneeze at.
Showing posts with label business subsidy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label business subsidy. Show all posts
Monday, December 22, 2014
Monday, January 11, 2010
Green pork?
In the news Pres. Obama is spending zillions of subsidies to manufacturers - nothing new, except for the more "progressive" focus: he targets "green businesses" for aid. (Perhaps not surprisingly, as the young, better educated, middle-income supporters of these things were a major Obama constituency in the election -- chicken and egg, you know.) So far, so good.
The stated hope is to create about as many jobs, maybe, as half of those cut in December 2009 alone.
But if we scratch the surface, what color is under all that green? Thus far, white workers are being hit pretty damn hard by the economic crisis, but workers of color are being hit a helluva lot harder. Preference will still be given to "shovel ready" jobs, i.e. they will favor folks who already have jobs -- who are of course in need of work, too -- but what about the poorest workers, some of whom have been out of work for years and have no networks currently operational for connecting with this futuristic aid package?
I'm all for green jobs, clean energy, sustainable growth ... but for whom?
The stated hope is to create about as many jobs, maybe, as half of those cut in December 2009 alone.
But if we scratch the surface, what color is under all that green? Thus far, white workers are being hit pretty damn hard by the economic crisis, but workers of color are being hit a helluva lot harder. Preference will still be given to "shovel ready" jobs, i.e. they will favor folks who already have jobs -- who are of course in need of work, too -- but what about the poorest workers, some of whom have been out of work for years and have no networks currently operational for connecting with this futuristic aid package?
I'm all for green jobs, clean energy, sustainable growth ... but for whom?
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