Arthur Camins, a retired science educator, poses a question that everyone should answer.
He asks: What if our basic needs were met, as they are in some other countries?
He writes:
Step back from the day-to-day slog to meet your pressing needs. Put aside the daily onslaught of depressing bad news. Take a deep breath to take five away from the insecurity of its all.
Imagine what life would be like if the needs of you, your family, friends, and community were met. What if you didn’t have to worry about any of it?
Step back from the day-to-day slog to meet your pressing needs. Put aside the daily onslaught of depressing bad news. Take a deep breath to take five away from the insecurity of its all.
Imagine what life would be like if the needs of you, your family, friends, and community were met. What if you didn’t have to worry about any of it?
What would it change if ….
- the cost of high-quality health care was not an issue for anyone?
- no one had to choose between going to work and taking care of themselves and their families when sick?
- a decent place to live was assured to everyone?
- all schools got the same resources as upper middle-class schools?
- public post-secondary education was free to all?
- paying for food, clothing, and care were not an issue for any seniors?
- all work was respected and was paid with a living wage?
- clean energy was assured in the near future for our children and grandchildren?
What if we were not alone in dealing with all of it?
Pie in the sky? It’s not possible? Not so, fast. A lot of folks in a lot of other countries get some, most, or all these needs met. In the U.S. none of it is assured.
It’s not just that. Unmet needs fester, driving insecurity, toxic resentment, and helplessness.
Shifting that dynamic is all about organizing to shift who has voice and power. It is all about a shift perspective from, “I wish I had that,” to “That is my right!” And then, “We demand it.”
To achieving it, we need to know what we are up against. A recent example: Dismissing the voices of workers, Congress just preemptively stepped in to settle a private labor dispute ahead of a potential strike–undermining the only leverage unions have, withholding their labor–without even stipulating the modest demand for seven paid sick days. Railroad owners won. Railroad workers lost. Elected Democratic and Republican lawmakers regularly prioritize the voice and power of corporations and the wealthy over that of workers and their families.
Another: With a writ of certiorari, the Supreme Court appears to be preemptively poised to take up a case that may block President Biden’s modest student-debt relief program ahead of the customary wait for lower court rulings. Lenders will win. Students will lose.
The list of such examples is just too long. Why? Campaign contributions, surely. But not only.
Please open the link and read on.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
What would change is your address and nationality. You’d be in Iceland, Denmark, Norway or Finland.
Those of us in the geezer category (me) are quite thankful for Social Security, Medicare and a teacher’s pension. If not for these programs, I would be in desperate straits and would not be able to afford health care. We should have universal health care but the corporate politicians (mostly GOP) will never let that happen. The great mass of under 65 Americans are one health care crisis away from total bankruptcy. About 30 million Americans are uninsured and even those with insurance can incur punishing fees and costs.
Arthur, sounds like you’ve re-reading Karl … I’ve been looking for Utopia on a map, haven’t found it (yet). In the nations that have all or some of what you list the complaining and bitching is just as virulent as on this side of the pond, part our species DNA
No it’s not. People in those societies are regularly stunned to hear of the privations that Americans have been trained to believe are inevitable: the go-fund-mes for Medicare care, the 0 sick pays, the crushing college debt, the wealth disparities, etc. That they also bitch and moan means nothing.
No. Utopia smack of unattainable. The points are first, it takes imagining that things can be different to want to fight for it. Second, a whole lot of folks around the world already have a lot of what I asked folks to imagine.
I favor an effective safety net that ensures everyone has basic needs met while at the same time not fostering long-term dependency for people able to support themselves; I’m open to a Medicare for All plan. But Biden’s attempt to forgive student loan debt is blatantly unconstitutional, a clear violation of separation of powers and Congress’s responsibility for fiscal matters – the forthcoming SCOTUS decision will be 9-0 if the three liberal members actually believe in limits on presidential powers for Democratic Presidents.
Forgiving student loan debt on a wholesale basis can be done legally, but only if accomplished via the normal legislative process – passed by Congress and signed by the President, or with 2/3 of each house overriding a presidential veto. I thought this blog opposed the imperial presidency; apparently that’s only when a Republican President tries to end run Congress like Biden is attempting to do.
We would be so much more free. So much more. We could be more inventive, more adventurous, more innovative. The cry for “individual responsibility” has become an excuse to stop bothering to create a social environment we can all feel comfortable in. And that has consequences for everyone.
Here’s an analogy: You have a choice of two parks. One is well-tended, clean, and its amenities (playground, ice-cream stand) carefully maintained. The other is dirty, there’s broken glass on the ground, the slide might fall down any moment, and the guy selling ice-creams keeps sneezing into the vanilla.
Doesn’t the condition of each park shape how you play in it? Regardless of whether you have enough money, the crappy park is much less nice. For poor people, the only way to shield yourself from the broken glass is to play more cautiously, if at all. But even for rich people, it’s a hassle. They have to organize people to clean their part of the park, to hold the slide steady, and to bring their own ice-cream; and they also have to hire people to watch over all those angry non-rich people who glare at them as they coast down the slide.
We can create the social environment we live in. That’s what governments are for.
An interesting question is, how much struggle should be balanced with how much help. I cannot answer that, but perhaps there are some experiences that might be instructive.
I had to pay some of my way through college. It meant giving up a lot of what I really wanted. I wanted those long evenings in the library reading about stuff that excited me, but I had to milk cows. I wanted to go to concert or a play, but farming was work. Even with all that, I would not have been able to go at all today, so high are the tuition rates. So I advocate some balance that is reasonable. Maybe you should have to give a bit so you will value what you get. That said, most of my education was paid by taxes. After 40 years of teaching, I think they got what they invested in me, perhaps more.
Health care seems a different matter. Our system seems to ration health care to the wealthy or at least the people who have good jobs. I cannot see why we should have a system that differentiates who gets what care based on anything but need.
The question naturally lends itself to the contrast between personal freedom and responsibility and societies and an individual’s relationship to that society. It is pretty complex.
This all would be great and we should strive for it; but we would still be miserable because someone else has more.
Other folks having more doesn’t make me miserable as long as I have what is reasonable.
Speak for yourself, Flerp.
I was going to Reblog this until I read: “Dismissing the voices of workers, Congress just preemptively stepped in to settle a private labor dispute ahead of a potential strike–undermining the only leverage unions have, withholding their labor–without even stipulating the modest demand for seven paid sick days. Railroad owners won. Railroad workers lost.”
I think that is misleading because it leaves out the fact that this is a democracy with elected officials and if you don’t have the votes in Congress or support of the US Supreme Court then you negotiate and get the best deal you can.
My father belonged to a construction labor union and when they went out on strike, we suffered at home because the income wasn’t the same. After one long strike finally ended with a negotiated settlement where both sides didn’t get what they wanted, the company my father worked for fired/laid off workers and my dad was one of them. We lost our house because of that were almost homeless, until dad found another job through the union.
I belonged to a district that was with CTA/NEA, and I remember when middle school and high school teachers didn’t have a planning period. We taught six periods a day everyday with an average class load of 34. We voted to go out on strike to get a planning period and the majority of teachers voted no. A few years later, when we voted on that issue again, the majority voted yes.
We picketed before a strike vote and eventually voted to strike. The district settled and we finally ended up with a planning period and only five classes to teach a day.
Next, I want to compare that school district to the railroads. Rowland Unified in Southern California had about 1,000 teachers and 19,000 students.
“The way the rail unions operate — all 12 unions representing roughly 115,000 freight rail workers must ratify the new contract to prevent a nationwide rail shutdown. If one strikes, the others all honor the picket lines. Nov 17, 2022”
Teachers do not move freight. So, if the school district where I taught went on strike, how would that affect the country?
What about the railroads?
“The workers who would go on strike work for freight rail companies, such as Berkshire Hathaway’s BNSF and Union Pacific.
“They carry about 40% of the country’s freight each year – vital goods including shipments of grain and other crops; chemicals such as fertiliser; three-quarters of new cars; roughly 70% of the country’s coal and 30% of packaged food; as well as thousands of other products destined for store shelves.
“If workers were to walk out on 9 December, that would knock roughly 7,000 freight trains per day out of service, wreaking havoc on supply chains across the country – driving up prices and causing a political mess just before Christmas….”
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-63798110
The U.S. is a gigantic Monopoly board. There are up to four players. Not three hundred million. Four.
Someone once wrote…’Socialism will rescue Capitalism’…Look at the standard of living in the Scandinavian countries (Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark) and then ask yourself why a supposedly rich country like the US stands in such a crass contrast.
Stronger social safety nets would be possible if America wasn’t owned by billionaires. Then, we could have policies that best serve the needs of the people instead of serving the interests of corporations and the leisure class.
Yes. The nation would’t be run by billionaires if the rest of us imagined a different way to live, made our voices heard, and organized to make it happen.
The problem is just the opposite of what FLERP asserted.
“In America they provide just enough, to just as many as necessary, to prevent real change” (Howard Zinn)
If the problem were envy, the solution would be easier . Lets take the most basic parts of your Utopian vision,’ Universal Healthcare’ and living wages.
Here we are at the Democratic debates with 20 something candidates. the vast majority at first calling for some form of Universal Health Insurance paid for with tax dollars . That is until, Tim Ryan gets up and says “What about those great Union healthcare plans.” Well what about them Tim ? Some unions have great plans if they can keep the plans or workers keep their Unions!
Within days public opinion shifted dramatically. Was that an outlier? NY legislators proposed a Universal Health Plan, who fought it? None other than NY’s Unions Public and Private . And of course they were not alone . Most people have employer based health plans which they seldom use. And are clueless about the actual costs. My plan had cost my Union employer $20+ for every hour I worked. If I polled the membership they would tell me $5. Most (working age ) people are relatively healthy, so they would not know how good or bad their plans are. But if you tell them you are going to take their plans away , they will bring out the pitch forks. While repeating stories of waiting lines for an MRI .
Most people favor raising the minimum wage or providing a living wage. Of course that is until the price of Twinkies goes up. Then labor gets blamed for causing inflation. Which brings us to the damn good contract those rail workers received. Most private sector union workers wish they had the Secondary Boycott rights that those workers covered by the RLA vs the NLRA have. But with that power comes a responsibility to the other workers in those other Unions who will honor your picket lines. Not only did 8 out of 12 Unions vote for the contract. The majority of rail workers voted for the contract . In the largest Union it was a bare majority of 0.3% rejecting the contract with non voters far in excess of the no vote margin.
The railroads cut the staffing levels by 30% in the last 5 years, causing the excessive need for overtime and on call status. Why wasn’t this the issue . Why weren’t there calls for caps on overtime that would have forced the employers to increase staffing . Sick days were never the issue that would solve the displeasure with Precision Scheduling. Most workers do not get sick often and well paid workers can afford a day or two off. Of course it is precisely those well paid workers who have the best sick pay policies.
Most low wage workers with compensation for sick days aren’t getting enough compensation to use them.
A National Rail Strike would have been a disaster for the Nation and the entire Union movement. And the contract they got in September/ November was a hell of a lot better than the one they would have gotten from Kevin and Marjorie on January 3rd.
But if we spent tax dollars on the needs of ordinary folks, where would we find all the billions for corporate welfare?
What about the needs of the billionaires and corporate persons?
For example, how could we afford to give tax breaks to billionaire welfare queens like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and their companies? It would be a veritable crime if they actually had to pay taxes.
And how could we scrounge up all the billions to give to Elon to explode all his rockets* (and inevitably astronauts) for a (supposed) Mars expedition in just a couple years?
And how could we finance trillion dollar boondoggle military projects like the F-35 Lightning? (which, ironically, can’t fly in lightning storms)
*As Nobel physicist Richard Feynman once said about all of NASA’s screwups, including the Challenger explosion that killed all the astronauts, “We seem to be constantly learning … Learning what not to do”.
As we have learned recently, Elon Musk is no genius and certainly should not be in charge of NASA’s multimillion dollar rocket program.
That is just asking for disaster.
Only an actual idiot would have done the things that Musk has done — buying Twitter for grossly inflated price and then proceeding to fire all the people who knew how things worked (including anyone who challenged the brilliant know it all Elon), alienating all the advertisers with his welcoming back of Nazis and other right wing extremists and completely undermining Twitter identity with his “blue check mark for $8” nonsense.
To top it all off Musk has completely undermined the faith of Tesla investors in his own competency and alienated potential Tesla buyers with all his “vote for right singers” bullshit.
NASA’ s multibillion dollar rocket contract
As Forest Gump liked to say “Stupid is as Elon does”
In addition to all the Twitter idiocy, Musk and his “brilliant” rocket engineers actually believed that the rigid 5 and a half foot “minisubmarine” that they developed for the Thai socker team trapped deep in a cave would have worked to get the boys and their coach out.
The reality, as described by one of the British diver who actually rescued the boys (documented in the movie The Rescue), was that the rigid sub had ** zero** chance of working due to the twists and turns of the narrow passages of the cave which required flexibility to navigate.
Unlike the British divers, Musk and his engineers , who had not been in the cave , had absolutely no clue about the problem they were supposedly solving. That’s not good engineering. Not even close.
When the British diver pointed out the reality, Musk called him a “pedo guy” on Twitter, with absolutely no evidence (it’s not true,not incidentally)
So Musk is a liar and an a**, in addition to all his other “lovely” attributes.
The head of NASA should be fired for allowing Musk to continue as the head of NASAs Mars rocket program.
More evidence of Musk’s idiocy.
He fires the engineers who understand an issue when they point out that Musk does not understand.
Seriously, anyone who still believes this fellow is a “genius” needs to have their head examined to look for the presence of even a single neuron in the neocortex.
Technically, Musk is head of the SpaceX billion dollar contract to provide Mars rockets for NASA, but its a distinction without a difference.
Above all else, Musk is a car salesman
with all that that implies.
“ Above all else, Musk is a car salesman
with all that that implies.”
Well said, brother. And Gates sells computers. Right place at the right time with resources at hand.
Aggressive/narcissistic people tend to do well with money. Wealth isn’t an indicator of intelligence.
And a salesman of crappy cars at that.
Not my opinion.
See Consumer reports and JD Power, which rank cars based on faults and
reliability.
The reason Tesla stock has tanked in the last year is not just that they have a car salesman running the company.
It is also that from an objective standpoint
their cars are just not all that great, despite what Tesla fan boyz will tell you.
And consumers and investors are starting to see through the hype.
“ And consumers and investors are starting to see through the hype.”
Tesla was the first to develop the technology in a commercial scale. A lot of people don’t even know that there are other makers to choose from.
At first blush, the combination of my retirement and social security should allow me to live modestly but in a good degree of comfort. However, between health care shenanigans and covering the school loans required to get my kids through college, we are not financially secure. I have been living with this specter most of my adult life as an educator as I have focused on public service as a value. It seems that many in our republic support the predatory capitalist screed because they believe the mythology that perhaps they will someday gain the same wealth while having the same benefits our oligarchs give themselves today. Taking care of our basic needs would actually allow more Americans to become less dependent on Government and more self sufficient. Investments in education and health care alone would make our citizenry an effective contributor to our economic well being. The bottom ten states in poverty and quality of life actually require far more in government services than they pay in yet they continue to support politicians who keep the resources out. The data is very clear about the benefits of a government that cares for its people. It’s called an investment.
Right on. And ain’t happening here.
Take Trumps’s tax returns for instance. IRS doesn’t have the resources to go after the wealthy…so they don’t keep up. Biden introduces an initiative to hire more agents and it’s shot down by the Republicans, who say they’re going to barge down JQ Public’s door…when it’s actually a means of going after the rich who are getting away with murder.
How I would LOVE to see a comprehensive campaign finance reform package made I to law. But guess who’s making the laws…
I refuse to accept that change is not possible. Can’t live with no hope.
We can imagine a different way to live, make our voices heard, and organize together to make it happen. That’s how all advances for social and economic justice prevailed against the opposition.
You’re right and I apologize for my cynicism.
From the ‘60s through to the turn of the century, I was often derided for what people called my pie in the sky attitudes towards initiating change. I was “chicken little”, too. It’s a bit alarming to see myself doing the same, now. I’m still working towards change and raising my voice, but I can see a change, now, moving towards defeatism…which of course is the ruling class’ goal.
Thanks for the wake up call. 21st century has been a rough stretch in many ways.
Lots of Democrats hate Ralph Nader because he supposedly threw the election to Bush (the reality is that the Supreme Court did, but I don’t want to get into an idiotic debate about that)
But Ralph Nader understands that change is possible and he comes across as surprisingly optimistic after all these years.
He keeps telling people they can make change happen.
I have enormous respect for the man.
And anyone who wants to debate the role of Nader in 2000, spare me. I ain’t interested.
Supreme Court killed us that election year. Nader was and still is Bernie: speaking truth to power. Always was and always will be.
Just to set the record straight about the election of 2000.
George W. Bush defeated Al Gore by 537 votes in Florida. Nader received 97,421 votes in Florida (and Pat Buchanan and Harry Browne received 17,484 and 16,415 respectively).
You can say that Nader did not cause Al Gore to lose Florida, but it’s obvious Nader wasn’t taking votes away from Bush or Buchanan.
The outcome of the election hinged on Florida’s electoral votes. “As the final national results were tallied the following morning, Bush had clearly won 246 electoral votes and Gore 250, with 270 needed to win. Two smaller states—Wisconsin (11 electoral votes) and Oregon (7)—were still too close to call, but Florida’s 25 electoral votes would be decisive regardless of their results.”
Yes and… no matter who we elect we can’t count on them to “speak truth to power” that’s why making our voices heard and organizing to bring what we imagine could be to fruition is what we must do.
“ Yes and… no matter who we elect we can’t count on them to “speak truth to power” that’s why making our voices heard and organizing to bring what we imagine could be to fruition is what we must do.”
Don’t know if I agree with that. Electing someone line Bernie or Nader gives voice to those who want to instigate change.
Organizing is how we build a movement that elect enough people like Bernie to get stuff passed.
This is true.
And thanks for the historical clarification, Diane.
As I said, I don’t want to get into an idiotic debate.
But the quote of Nader votes leaves out several key facts
“Only about 24,000 registered Democrats voted for Nader in Florida, whereas about 308,000 Democrats voted for (wait for it…) Bush! Further, approximately 191,000 self-identified “liberals” voted for Bush, as opposed to the fewer than 34,000 who went with Nader.”
https://reason.com.
To simply claim that if Nader voters had voted for Gore he would have won is obvious, but misses the point. Nader voters did not “owe” their votes to anyone.
Basically, if one is going to argue that Nader cost Gore the election in Florida, one can use the very same “logic” to claim that Democrats who voted for Bush in Florida cost Gore the election.
It’s simply not a sound argument.
When the election was decided by 573 votes, it’s kind of hard to shrug off the 97,000 votes that went to a guy running to the left of Gore.
And far more Florida Democrats voted for Bush than for Nader.
It’s worth noting that if all of the Florida Democrats who voted for Bush had instead not voted at all, Gore would have handily won **even if all of Nader voters had actually voted for Bush!!*
I didn’t shrug it off.
I just noted how illogical it is to argue that Nader cost Gore the election while ignoring the far greater number of Democrats who voted for Bush.
If the latter is irrelevant, please explain how it is irrelevant?
I know it’s probably heresy, but , if one ignores the interference by the Supreme Court, maybe (just maybe) the folks who voted for Bush cost Gore the election.
What is so tragic is that the money IS there to provide our society with the “nice things” to live decently. However, the corporate/billionaire classes do not want a healthy, content population.
We, the people, have been cheated out of $7 TRILLION over the last decade alone, due to the enormous amount of tax cheating/evasion being done by the billionaire/corporate class.
“Trump Audit Shows Depths of I.R.S. Funding Woes”
Billionaires domination can end when the rest of us imagine a different way to live, make our voices heard and organized to make it happen.
Billionaire domination will end when we let them willingly blast off in their rockets, but forbid them from returning to earth, under threat of being zapped with a Jewish space laser if they try.
Of course, Bezos will have more of an “issue” than Musk cuz Bezos’ rocket never even makes it into earth orbit which means he automatically comes back to earth. Hellow space laser!