Contending Healthcare Social Contracts: A False Choice?

On March 21, 2010, the U.S. House of Representatives approved “a far-reaching overhaul of the nation’s health system . . . , voting over unanimous Republican opposition to provide medical coverage to tens of millions of uninsured Americans after an epic political battle that,” according to The New York Times, “could define the differences between the parties for years.”[1] The vote was 219 to 212. “This isn’t radical reform,” the U.S. president said, “but it is major reform.”[2] Whether that was real change is an open question. House Speaker Pelosi said, “Today we have the opportunity to complete the great unfinished business of our society and pass health insurance reform for all Americans that is a right and not a privilege.”[3] While Obama was referring to the bill’s reliance on extant private insurance companies, absent even a public option, Pelosi made explicit the change to the American social contract—access to health-care would henceforth be a right for all citizens rather than a benefit to be conferred to those able to pay from their own wherewithal and insurance. The basis of this new right was undoubtedly the human right to life, as in the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The closeness of the House vote suggests that the people were divided on whether the new right ought to be conferred (and/or whether it should be conferred by the U.S. Government rather than decided on a State by Stat basis). Sure enough, the pendulum did indeed shift.  

The full essay is at "Contending Healthcare Social Contracts."

1. Robert Pear and David M. Herszenhorn, “Obama Hails Vote on Health Care as Answering ‘the Call of History,” The New York Times, March 22, 2010, p. A1.

2. Ibid.

3. Ibid.

Achieving Balance in American Federalism: On the Crusade of Texas’ Rick Perry

As the governor, or head of state, of Texas, Rick Perry has been on a crusade to reinvigorate American federalism. Referring to the efforts of officials in the U.S. Government to secure the Mexican border, Perry said, “It is part of that frustrating paradox where Washington neglects their responsibility for areas clearly within their purview, while interfering in other areas in which they’re neither welcome nor authorized.”  The chief executive was pointing to a little-noticed point concerning the expansion of the domains in which the federal government is active.

The complete essay is at Essays on Two Federal Empires.

See Rick Perry, Fed Up! and the critique of Perry's book, Skip Worden, American and European Federalism: A Critique of Rick Perry's 'Fed Up!

On the Cruelty of Gadhafi's Libyan Troops from a Nietzschean Perspective

Gadhafi, or any tyrant who violates the human rights of citizens, can be reckoned as weak rather than strong from a Nietzschean standpoint. Such an analysis could embolden (i.e. awaken) protesters around the world who remain under the subterfuge of a ruler's enforcement of his or her assumed dominance.

The full essay is at "On the Cruelty of Gadhafi's Libyan Troops."

On Nietzsche applied to business, see: On the Arrogance of False Entitlement: A Nietzschean Critique of Business Ethics and Management, available at Amazon. 

Labor-Management Relations: Starving Workers as a Childish Tactic

Before the industrialization in the nineteenth century, nothing "intrinsic or permanent separated those who hired from those who hired out" because "many laborers could hope to ear and saven enough to become their own employers." (1) That is to say, the employee/employer distinction was not overlaid with connotations of disparate distinctions, such as child/parent and subject/ruler. Relatedly, the two parties to the economic agreements bearing on labor in exchange for money had roughly equal bargaining power. As the United States industrialized, however, a distinct working class developed as industrial workers found their upward mobility cut off by rising start-up costs and other barriers to entry. Additionally, the advent of the monopolies (and oligopolies) swung the balance of power in contract negotiations strongly in favor of the corporations. With the added leverage came pretensions going far beyond what could be justified by the relation of labor and capital in a commercial contract. The case of the first transcontinental railroad, which was completed in 1869, demonstrates just how distended, or bloated, the pretensions on the corporate side had become.

The full essay is in Cases of Unethical Business: A Malignant Mentality of Mendacity, available in print and as an ebook at Amazon.

Tax Avoidance at GE: On Corporate Income Taxation

In spite of $14.2 billion in global operating profit ($5.1 billion on U.S. operations) in 2010, GE paid no corporate income tax to the U.S. Treasury that year thanks to offsetting prior losses by GE Capital (i.e., bad loans).  In spite of that unit having received TARP funds from U.S. taxpayers, the corporation was able to avoid paying any income tax. This seems like Rousseau's social contract run amuck: corporate welfere in exchange for nada.  Such a modus operendi is in line with the corporate mission: to economize in the sense of maximizing (or satisficing) what is taken in while minimizing what must go out.  In other words, a corporation aims to turn itself from a productive, lean throughput to a concentration of capital in its own right.

The full essay is at "Tax Avoidance at GE."