Analysis, Commentary, Opinion
02.22.2020
The Left is Not Extreme
If you listen to the right-wing politicians and
pundits spout their invectives against the policies of Bernie Sanders,
Elizabeth Warren and their supporters who number in the tens of millions you
would come away thinking that the progressive wing of the Democratic party are
raving lunatics.
Even some of those people who are contending for
the Democratic Party’s nomination for president from time to time slip into
this irrational fervor.
Universal Healthcare, otherwise known as single-payer
or Medicare for all, this is not a radical idea.
Free college or trade school tuition, this is not a
radical idea.
Forgiving people their student debt this is not a
radical idea.
We have to be careful not to get swept up into
heated arguments with those who oppose these policies, because these are not
radical positions, and we are not extremists for wanting to see them enacted.
Democrats in particular need to hold the line against other democrats who are
made nervous by these policy proscriptions, we have to normalize them, and this
should not be too difficult because they are normal policies.
Universal Healthcare: There are eighteen countries that
offer true universal health coverage: Australia, Canada, Finland, France,
Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, the Netherlands, New Zealand,
Norway, Portugal, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, and the
United Kingdom.
These so-called “first world” countries are all our
allies and our biggest trading partners, if they can do it so can we. They have
figured out the problem. They all have different systems tailored to the
individual needs of their societies. They are leading the way, and it is long
past time we figured this out for ourselves.
What is extreme is to promote the belief that universal
healthcare is not doable by the United States, that is the extreme position.
The we can’t do it position is the position that flies in the face of so-called
“American exceptionalism.”
We need to confront the naysayers with the truth,
and just tell them to relax. We believe in America, we can do this.
Free universal college tuition is less common than
universal healthcare but there are seven industrialized countries that offer
this to their citizens: Norway, Finland, Sweden, Germany, and France,
Ireland and Australia. If America
is going to continue to promote itself as first among equals in the so-called
free world, it is time that we move past the nay-sayers, and hold fast to the
position that America can do, because America can do anything.
These countries have different ways of funding
these programs, but here is how Australia does it.
If you are accepted to a college or university, and
you complete your degree program, and you subsequently become employed in a job
where you earn more than 50k per year, then you are subject to a tax that funds
the entire program.
If you do not complete your degree, or do not
become gainfully employed, or if your circumstances change and you lose your
earning power due to some unforeseen circumstance than this tax does not apply
to you.
If you go to college, and your degree pays off, if
you are earning well then you pay in.
This is simple, it is not radical, this should be
easy to normalize.
Some people balk at the idea of forgiving the
current load of student debt, they get really incensed by it, as if this
proposal involves some kind of crime.
The current load of student debt is 1.5 trillion
dollars.
The 2017 Trump tax-cuts cost the country 1.9
trillion dollars.
The second round of proposed Trump tax-cuts are
projected to cost the country another 1.4 trillion.
The difference between the tax-cuts proposed by the
Republican party and the proposal to eliminate student debt is this.
The tax cuts benefit the wealthiest Americans,
allowing them to keep more of their money, without requiring them to put it
back into the economy, the stimulative effect to the economy is negligible.
The 1.5 trillion dollars in student debt, is held
by Americans who are solidly in the middle class, from the working poor to the upper-middle
range. Almost forty-five million Americans are carrying student debt. The
average monthly student loan payment (which includes principle and interest) is
$393 dollar.
Americans spend 17.5 billion dollars per month
servicing their student loan debt. If those revenues were freed up to be used
by middle class Americans, it would go directly into the economy. It would be
the biggest single economic stimulus for our economy that you could possibly
imagine.
This is not radical; it is sound economic policy.
The left is not extreme, we just make sense.
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