Comments by "Dan A" (@DanA-nl5uo) on "Economic Update: The Challenge of Progressive Unionism" video.

Move the labor money to the people's party. We need a true left party in the USA.
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@chrisj984 if you can't understand how single payer healthcare and reduced income inequality will help you I can't explain it to you.
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One small point home ownership isn't that great a sign of wealth. We call people homeowners who don't have equity in their home. Which would be a better measure of wealth. Both because people use homes for home equity loans but more importantly there is a class of people who have to move every 5 to 7 years to find more work. I know people in their late 40s who have done this for 2 decades and have zero equity to show for 20 years of home ownership. If they had been able to make mortgage payments on one home the entire time they would have generated wealth but having to move for work they lost that wealth.
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@chrisj984 you have allowed the right wing propaganda to rot your brain. You are all for socialist police forces socialist military socialist fire departments socialist highways. Socialist education. If you hate those things you hate America because we have had all of them for centuries now. So stop pretending you hate socialist society because you grew up in a mixed society. The reality is the wealthy have brainwashed you into believing that their greed is more important than the health and wellbeing of the working class who actually created the wealthy they profited from.
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Yup I have found the same thing to be true. The longest I have worked in one job is 5 years. It also factors into the issue of homeownership. Hard to earn equality in a home when you have to sell it for a new job first.
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@richardsprout9259 the green party has proven to not challenge the Democratic party.
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@chrisj984 like I said if you can't understand why the structure we have today designed to protect the wealthy isn't helping you I can't help. Just keep listening to Richard Wolff and Chris Hedges they can explain much better. But you have to be willing to listen.
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@chrisj984 you think reducing income inequality means you will get no reward for your invention? Wow talk about a black and white world view. I am simply saying that a society where the person working full time at minimum wage and unable to afford housing and healthcare while creating the wealth of the wealthiest people on planet earth has serious problems. That doesn't mean no one will be rewarded for their efforts it means we have better balance between those at the top and those at the bottom. More like the 1960s when the CEO made 20x the avg pay of their employees not the 200x to 1000x they make today. So clearly you don't understand the goals of the people's party movement if you think those of us who want things like Medicare for All are looking for a free ride. Actually what we are looking for is what other countries like Norway has proven give you to opportunity to take the risk of starting your own company building your intention without the fear of being one illness from bankruptcy. Something I know full well having been forced to make that very choice in order to help and elderly parent. I live without health insurance in the only country in the world to have a condition know as medical bankruptcy because the alternative was to not be self employed and not have the time I need to take care of family. Medicare for All isn't free stuff it is simply paying taxes at half the cost of our for profit healthcare system to get the same service. It is economy of scale and the removal of profit motives from protecting lives. Something you just admitted you understand when it comes to the police fire roads and military. So why you lack understanding of that same thing applying to healthcare is willful blindness and propaganda brainwashing by the wealthy elite who profiteer off your healthcare today.
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@chrisj984 the fact is we have long waiting lines in the USA today. How many people do you personally know who refuse to get medical care for fear of the bill they will receive even with healthcare? My uncle died of bone cancer partly because even with health insurance in the 90s he was worried about the cost. That is before you get to the denial of service issues comming from our for profit health insurance companies who have a fiduciary duty to deny any claims to minimize their expenses. As to waiting lines in other countries like Canada the reality is they do not have waiting lines for critical care. There are waiting lines for elective surgery when the citizens choose to defund the healthcare system. That is a choice of the society like the UK where they choose to under fund the NHS. But google the videos of them reacting to the cost of our for profit system you will rapidly see their citizens say there is no way they would trade either the Canadian healthcare system or the British system for what we have here. I know people who live in Canada and when we discuss healthcare issues like a friend of mine who refused to get tested for a medical condition her mother suffers from because while there are medications that would help her it would be a pre existing condition as soon as she is tested which will effect her ability to afford healthcare in our society. People in Canada look at you like you are insane when you tell them that and say that simply doesn't happen here you would go get tested and get the meds that will help delay the development of the disease. As to the transition to renewable energy. I can tell you on a personal level I cut my power bill in half by installing solar panels and batteries here on my farm. I literally pay the bank half what I was paying the power company each month and at the end of the loan payment the solar panels will have years of life left the only thing that I will have to replace is the batteries. As to how do we handle workers transitioning the green new deal is clear there will be pay at the previous pay rate for displaced workers for 18 months IIRC while they are trained with new job skills. If you don't think that plan is acceptable I ask you what has been the caplistist alternative when a coal mine closed or any company declares bankruptcy and lays off their labor force what responsibility does the former management team have to help the ex employees find work. I will tell you before you have to look it up. Good caplistist believe in rugged individualism in that situation. Meaning sorry bad luck for the coal miners the fact that natural gas is cheaper for electric companies is just the free market at work. So before you shoot the massager for not having all the details in a concept proposal you should consider what the status quo is that you are by default defending. Because by rejecting the green new deal you are saying you support the free market rugged individualism solution to the energy transition because at the moment wind and solar are the cheapest forms of new energy and and EV has the lowest total cost of ownership. So the free market and rugged individualism is your current alternative to the green new deal.
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@chrisj984 oh by the way my 75 year old neighbor just told me yesterday that he has waited over a week for a hospital to schedule a follow up test for the surgery he had recently. The test is to insire they fixed his kidney problems if they delay he will likely end up on dialysis as he told them he is pissing blood now. So there are your waiting lines in our for profit healthcare system. He has private insurance to cover his healthcare needs too which combined with Medicare makes his the top of the pay pool in the USA. A friend of mine in Canada told me this morning that is insane here if that happened they would drop everything to get you back in after the surgery to see what happened but in the USA he has waited over a full week to just schedule the follow up ultrasound having called the hospital multiple times
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@richardsprout9259 how many seats in the house and Senate do they hold after all these elections cycles??? How many presidents have the put on the oval office? Oh right zero.
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@chrisj984 well unemployment is paid for while you work for the company before they lay you off. It isn't a government handout to the ex employees it is a government mandated and managed insurance plan paid for by the employer. I have once in my life been eligible and I had no trouble taking the payment because I knew my former employer was paying the unemployment benefits. In my case I actually gave my two week notice and the department head met me at the door and walked me out the next day not allowing me to work my notice and not paying me for the 2 week notice which changed it into them firing me on the spot not me quiting. I almost didn't apply for unemployment because I knew where I would be working in a few weeks already but someone talked me into it and after I filed my former boss caught up with me and actually thanked me for doing it. He said we paid that unemployment insurance anyway and his boss was wrong to not let me work the 2 week notice it hurt the company as I had spent the night with my boss and the other employees able to fill my job laying out a training program for the next 2 weeks to make sure that could do the work I had been doing. So that is my take on unemployment it is a insurance program your former boss paid for you are wasting their insurance premiums by not taking it. Now as to public utilities and the green new deal. Everything I have read and I have read the full transcript of the orginal concept which isn't too long. Google green new deal text cleantechnica you will find it from about a year ago I guess in the orginal text word for word. But anyway the proposal is to mandate that the current utility companies switch their power generation over to renewable energy. It isn't a government take over of the energy sector it is simply government mandated change of energy sources by the private sector. There is government funding for the new infrastructure but as far as I know the Tennessee valley power authority is the only government run power system in the USA outside of the military I guess. But the TVA is actually well liked by the citizens of Tennessee who both work there and get power from them. There was some talk about expanding the TVA but I think it's charter is limited in scope. It was started because at the time there was no private sector power company willing to provide power to the area IIRC. But I am far from an authority on the TVA. So I am not sure what public utilities you are concerned about if you are asking will the government become your employer as a member of the cable company no the cable company isn't part of the green new deal at all as far as I know.
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@chrisj984 oh as to property taxes I am with you there I live in NH we have no sales or income tax so our property tax is insanely high and it is worse because I live in a tourist trap with tons of shopping centers that get onto the town government and make sure the tax burden is on the home owners not the businesses. The same business that bring all the traffic that destroys our roads and all the tourist that make our police and fire departments bigger than any other town in a huge radius around us. So yes I am not at all a fan of property taxes they are regressive as they tax the wealth of the working class far more than the wealth of the caplist class. Meaning far more of my wealth is tied in in my home than Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos. So property taxes are regressive by nature.
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