Sunday, October 13, 2013

Why is Big Business in Favor of Socialism?

Wow, that seems like such a contradictory question but I am afraid it is true!  In the "old days", the '50's and '60's and for hundreds of years before that when society didn't have much of a safety net, business, big and small had to foot the entire bill.  There was no public housing or food stamps and if you hired someone you had to pay them enough to live or they would simply die or move on.  The meanest businesses might have had barracks for their workers and pay barely enough to get by but the really successful businesses paid more than that.  The best, of course was Henry Ford who was famous for paying his workers enough that they could afford to buy the cars they were making.  Somewhere along the line, maybe beginning with Walmart, "Big Business" discovered that they could pay less than a living wage if society would make up for the difference.  "Society" is us, the taxpayer and Big Business loves subsidized housing and food stamps and other government hand outs.  Keeping the workers happy and business doesn't even have to pay them enough to live on!  There are three costs of doing business:
materials, labor and taxes.  The way to reduce your labor costs is to let the government pick up the slack.  Don't ever accuse Big Business of not being smart!
   Under our present system, most Americans who have Health Insurance (over 25 Million have none!)
get it through their place of employment.   This has become a horrible burden for business and puts us at a competitive disadvantage with the economics of the rest of the world.  It adds over $1,300 to the price of an American Automobile.  Many smaller businesses simply can't afford it at all.  Over the past several years they have been dealing with this problem by reducing benefits, increasing co-pays, increasing deductibles or, when they can get away with it, simply by dropping out of providing insurance entirely.   Now, if you were "Big Business" what would YOU want to do?
   Like any good mystery novel, sometimes you can get to the truth by following the money and that doesn't mean it's "bad".  Sometimes it is the reasonable thing to do.
   Clearly you cannot open the Government by funding the laws you approve of and declining those you disagree with as our House seems to think.  Yes, it is in the Constitution that they control the purse but it is also in the Constitution that they are to enforce the laws.  The "power of funding" is over Policy, not laws!  and was Intended to prevent International shenanigans single handedly placed upon us by the White House.  It was never, this law I like and that law I don't.  What a horrible precedent that would be!
   Big Business, a lot of Small Businesses, even The Chamber of Commerce are jumping the ship!  For the last hundred years these organizations have supported the Republican Position and now they are bailing out!  I am glad they have sense but  feel sorry about what has become of the Republican Party, hijacked as it were by The Teabaggers!  It was under Republican Administration, under Eisenhower when we had a massive infrastructure building in this country, under President Nixon that we opened the doors to China and the Environmental Protection Agency was created and while Reagan was President taxes were raised, the debt ceiling was raised six times, the Berlin Wall came down and the "Cold War" ended!  Those are the Republicans I want.  Where did they go?

1 comment:

Optimistic Existentialist said...

I agree 100% that the Republican Party is being hijacked by the Tea Party. They're self destructing.