How to Save the Middle Class

Today I read the headlines, and here is what I read:

The Middle Class in America Is Radically Shrinking.
by Michael Snyder.

The middle class is being systematically wiped out of existence in America.

The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer at a staggering rate. Once upon a time, the United States had the largest and most prosperous middle class in the history of the world.

It turns out that our politicians and business leaders didn't tell us that the "global economy" would mean that middle class American workers would eventually have to directly compete for jobs with people on the other side of the world where there is no minimum wage and very few regulations.

Here are the statistics to prove it:

• 83 percent of all U.S. stocks are in the hands of 1 percent of the people.

• 61 percent of Americans "always or usually" live paycheck to paycheck.

• 66 percent of the recent income growth went to the top 1% of all Americans.

• 36 percent of Americans say that they don't contribute anything to retirement savings.

• A staggering 43 percent of Americans have less than $10,000 saved up for retirement.

• Over 1.4 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009.

• Now banks own more residential housing net worth than all individual Americans together.

• In 1950, the ratio of the average executive's paycheck to the average worker's paycheck was about 30 to 1. Since the year 2000, that ratio has exploded to between 300 to 500 to one.

• The bottom 50% of income earners now collectively own less than 1% of the nation’s wealth.

• Average Wall Street bonuses for 2009 were up 17 percent when compared with 2008.

• In America today, the average time needed to find a job has risen to a record 35.2 weeks.

• More than 40% of employed Americans are now working in low paid service jobs.

• For the first time in U.S. history, more than 40 million Americans are on food stamps.

• A garment worker in China makes approximately 86 cents an hour, in Cambodia 22 cents.

• Approximately 21% of all children in the United States are living below the poverty line now.

• The number of millionaires in the United States rose 16% to 7.8 million in 2009.

• The top 10 percent of Americans now earn around 50 percent of our national income.

The American middle class is being systematically wiped out of existence as U.S. workers are slowly being merged into the new "global" labor pool, competing with very low wages.
There are now about six unemployed Americans for every new job opening in the United States, and the number of "chronically unemployed" is absolutely soaring.

The truth is that the middle class in America is dying -- and once it is gone it will be incredibly difficult to rebuild.
Click here for the full article.

To know the State of the Union, look here:
Building a Progressive Economic Vision

Einstein once said "The problems that exist in the world today cannot be solved by the level of thinking that created them." and John F. Kennedy told us "Ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man" - and the freedom of man is in danger now with our middle class disappearing.

Listening to both, Einstein and Kennedy, we have to find something new, something unheard of, and we have to do it by ourselves to save the Middle Class - or to reestablish our Middle Class.

Many of us have been happy when the hard and dirty jobs were gone by automation, but then the typewriting jobs were gone, the gas filling jobs were gone, the shops around the corner were gone, to name a few. Big chain outlets helped to cheaper products, and computers helped everybody to do perfect writing by himself.

We are not the only ones in this world hit by Globalisation. People in other countries have the same problems. May be we should look around a little bit, how they are coping.

People in other countries often have one attitude in common: Solidarity.
Can you imagine that people of a little village started to work together to build their own Renewable Energy Power Plant?
Yes, they did. The little village Burgjoss in Hesse started last year, and they are remodeling the whole village now. They reduce their dependency on oil and they give their young people an opportunity to stay. Solidarity saves their day.

What else is coming up in the old world?

More and more people are recognizing that all these problems with diminishing jobs and prosperity are connected to the free flowing money - money that would help to sustain our community is flowing to foreign countries - jobs are moving out, too.

Global Economy - we are not the winners. But we can gain ground with local economy, but how?

People prefer to drive half an hour to get things some dollars cheaper. How is it possible to reverse the trend? Telling the story that local economy is good for us all is not enough.

There is a cure, which helps to sustain and rebuild local economy and, at the same time, helps against these financial Wall Street disasters: A local currency.

And the great thing is, some courageous people started local currency here in the United States:

Communities print their own currency
to keep cash flowing!

Local Currencies have their own names: Detroit Cheers, Ithaca Hours in New York, Plenty in North Carolina and BerkShares in Massachusetts.

You will find plenty of information about local currency
on the Internet.

Don't wait that mainstream is saving you. Educate yourself, speak with people, and take a step to Solidarity and local currency.
You cannot save the whole world, but you can save yourself with the Middle Class of your village or town.

Local currency is only valid local. That means the local currency you have will go to local shops.
Local shops then will buy at local producers. Money starts flowing locally. People start buying locally because they recognize the benefit. Read about local currency and you will learn there are a lot of benefits coming up with local currency. The desperate times we are living in need courageous people. Be one of them. Speak with others.
Become a local currency community.

Is this country really a Christian country?

Some people claim this country is a Christian Country.
But is this country really a Christian country?

The ongoing debate about Healthcare Reform shows that our country itself needs healing.

This ongoing debate about Healthcare Reform is part of the healing process we all, the people in this our country, need.

Credo. "I believe." This is such an important word for people of faith.

In the heated debate about health-care reform, it is increasingly difficult to know whom to believe - and what to believe in. In the face of negative ads, partisan rhetoric, and a news cycle filled with fear and half-truths about health-care reform, Christians must affirm what we believe in: the fundamental values found in Scripture, which value all life. Therefore has to be quality, affordable access to life-giving services for all people.

As one of God's children, I believe that protecting the health of each human being is a profoundly important personal and communal responsibility for people of faith.

I believe God created each person in the divine image to be spiritually and physically healthy.
I feel the pain of sickness and disease in our broken world (Genesis 1:27, Romans 8:22).

I believe life and healing are core tenets of the Christian life. Christ's ministry included physical healing, and we are called to participate in God's new creation as instruments of healing and redemption (Matthew 4:23, Luke 9:1-6; Mark 7:32-35, Acts 10:38).
Our nation should strive to ensure all people have access to life-giving treatments and care.

I believe, as taught by the Hebrew prophets and Jesus, that the measure of a society is seen in how it treats the most vulnerable. The current discussion about health-care reform is important for the United States to move toward a more just system of providing care to all people (Isaiah 1:16-17, Jeremiah 7:5-7, Matthew 25:31-45).

I believe that all people have a moral obligation to tell the truth.
To serve the common good of our entire nation, all parties debating reform should tell the truth and refrain from distorting facts or using fear-based messaging (Leviticus 19:11; Ephesians 4:14-15, 25; Proverbs 6:16-19).

I believe that Christians should seek to bring health and well-being (shalom) to the society into which God has placed us, for a healthy society benefits all members (Jeremiah 29:7).

I believe in a time when all will live long and healthy lives, from infancy to old age (Isaiah 65:20), and "mourning and crying and pain will be no more" (Revelation 21:4).
My heart breaks for my brothers and sisters who watch their loved ones suffer, or who suffer themselves, because they cannot afford a trip to the doctor.
I stand with them in their suffering.

I believe health-care reform must rest on a foundation of values that affirm each and every life as a sacred gift from the Creator (Genesis 2:7).
Amen.
I signed Sojourners' "Health-Care Creed" to remind our leaders what is really important in the health-care debate. Will you join me? Just click here: http://go.sojo.net/campaign/health_care?rk=OdB9YWnaCF3_W

Systemic Health-Care-System-Flaws

It is a good thing that there are hearings about our healthcare system. There are some revelations to get.

Some days ago I wrote about one systemic flaw of the United States Healthcare System, and that is because Insurance Companies have to decide to give their money to their shareholders or to their ill clientele.

I wrote, too, to discover the reason for this by walking in the shoes of Insurance CEOs.

Today a new system flaw was revealed to me on TV:
Health Insurance in this country is not mandatory.

Here what happens because of that:
Health Insurers argue that people do not buy any health insurance until they have a serious condition, and this behavior is very costly to the Insurers. For that reason they sort out everybody who has a serious condition and sell health insurance only to people who are really profound healthy. To further protect against fraudulent getting Health Insurance, in case there is an illness in later years, there will be a research on the patients medical records to find any sign or hint that this condition may have been recognized earlier, but not mentioned by the person who asked for Health Insurance. In case this fraud is recognized, payment will be denied, even if the patient paid his premiums over years. This is a very understandable behavior of the Insurance Company, as everybody will recognize.

What does this say?
The United States Health Insurance System has weak points and systemic flaws:
1. Because Health Insurance is not mandatory, people are denied to get Health Insurance.
2. Because Health Insurance is not mandatory, less people pay in, and premiums are higher.
3. Because Health Insurance is business for profit, denying payments is raising profits.

The result: with raising premiums less people can afford Health Insurance, so premiums are always on the raise, until the system collapses. That's why I am saying the United States Health Insurance System is shoveling it's own grave.

But now a reform of the United States Health Insurance is in the making. There are a lot of other points to look for, but if Health Insurance is not payable, it does not help anyway.

What is most important to do?
Health Insurance has to be mandatory for everybody, to make premiums affordable.
With mandatory Health Insurance denial of Health Insurance no longer has to be tolerated.
Health Insurances shall have a mix of wealthy and poor people, of healthy and ill people, this mix, based on solidarity, guarantees cost compensation and makes premiums depending on the paying abilities of the insured possible.
There have to be nonprofit Health Insurance Providers, to fully support people in need instead of insurance stakeholders. Preferable shall be nonprofit Health Insurance Providers supervised by a parliament of the insured people.
These points are totally important.

I thought by myself, would be nice if somebody has written a book titled "History of the United States Health-Care System" - nobody has, but some Universities are asking their students to write about it.

Googling for the "History of the United States Health-Care System" is really interesting.
I like to quote some of my results, starting with a remarkable one:

There is great variation between health systems around the world. In the U.S., health care providers, insurers, employers, and the government are all unofficial partners in a complicated and loosely defined health care "system." In contrast to most other nations where the government finances health care for the majority of its residents, most Americans have some form of private health insurance sponsored by employers. A sizable share have government-sponsored insurance, with those over 65 years of age covered by a federal program (Medicare) and some poor children and their families eligible for a state-federal program (Medicaid). This public-private model is unique among nations and affords those who are most affluent and who have insurance with access to among the best quality of care in the world. At the same time, 45 million individuals in the U.S. have no insurance and experience considerable barriers to care and in many instances poorer health outcomes than their insured counterparts.

And here are more excerpts of history you should know:

The history of managed health care
The history of managed health care is fraught with problems and potholes. We should not be proud of health care history in the USA - it is a disgrace. We pay more than any other country in the world and get less than two-thirds of the services received by most of the worlds population. And, the worst part of it seems that everybody says we have the best doctors, hospitals and nurses!

A Brief History of Health Care in America
Managed Care as we know it today has its roots in a number of prepaid healthcare arrangements in the early 20th century. This article gives a short history on the evolution of America's modern-day healthcare system.

Any successful attempt to reform health care in the United States must accommodate two realities:
Reality 1: The current system is increasingly inaccessible to many poor and lower-middle-class people (about 47 million Americans lack health insurance, up from about 40 million in 2000); those lucky enough to have coverage are paying steadily more and/or receiving steadily fewer benefits.
Reality 2: Open discussion of a "single-payer" system in which the government pays for and regulates health care is verboten within the political mainstream because it is presumed that Americans would never accept socialized medicine. Whatever solution arrived at by Congress and the president (in all likelihood, not this president) will have to harness market forces because, it's widely believed, markets will always outperform the dead hand of government.

Read this Website:
Why doesn’t the United States have universal health care as a right of citizenship? The United States is the only industrialized nation that does not guarantee access to health care as a right of citizenship. 28 industrialized nations have single payer universal health care systems, while 1 (Germany) has a multipayer universal health care system like President Clinton proposed for the United States.

Did I write, nobody has written a book? But wait, there is one:
Jonathan Cohn, a senior editor at the New Republic, has written such a book. Cohn's book is Sick: The Untold Story of America's Health Care Crisis—And the People Who Paid the Price. Each chapter of Cohn's book is devoted to one or two patient narratives that illuminate a particular dysfunction of the present medical system, and the chapters are arranged in such a way that the dysfunctions appear more or less in the order in which they first became significant national problems. The result is an 80-year chronology of repeated market failure, with each successive reform serving at best as temporary respite from the previous problem. Read it and weep. Capitalism can't deliver decent health care.

Do you need Health Care?
Get your Information, find out why and how a real Health Care Reform has to happen now!
Write to your Representatives, ask for the right things to do!

Take Care - Take on Health Care!

Today I was invited to attend a telephone conference with Senator Dodd, about the ongoing process of the Health Care law making. I was struck hearing him say that when former President Bill Clinton offered his Health Care plans, a poll immediately after his speech did show support of 90% of the American People, but then his opponents well-oiled scaring machinery started, and a few days later there was another poll showing only 30% support leftover.

Now different opinions are more in the open, and the holy cow is the income of the Health Insurance Companies based on payments of the American People who need Health Insurance and on the denial to give Health Insurance to people who have been ill and to deny payments for medical treatment as much as possible. Not all Health Insurance Companies are that way, but I am sure these with this attitude are the ones who do not like any public or self-organized mutual insurance.

But what has to be done, really? There are some points, which are mandatory to make Health Insurance affordable for everybody:

First of all, everyone has to have healthcare insurance. If everyone has healthcare insurance, individual premiums can be lower. This is pure Mathematics, which cannot be denied!

Second: It is a shame that companies earn a fortune by squeezing ill people or people with so called preconditions out of health insurance. It is a shame and it should be forbidden that companies are living on the expenses of people who need health insurance. As long as this is the case, it is only natural, that payments will be denied and that people with preconditions have to pay a fortune or do not get any health insurance at all. This is a system immanent flaw! Please recognize that!

Health insurance should only be allowed to be offered by nonprofit companies, only nonprofit companies will not have to choose between profit and payment for medical causes. There are countries with mutual health insurance companies, and these companies are supervised by representatives of the insured people (not by politicians, but by with secret ballot elected people).

Our Forefathers only could survive with solidarity, the times we now have are asking for solidarity again! Do not leave anyone behind.

Are you happy knowing that there are people being sick and living in tents or cardboard boxes like they do in India, but here in the United States?

How far have we come?

4th of June

Today is celebration day. The 4th of June Celebration.

You may wonder if I am right, you may be thinking of another 4th of Ju... ?!
There is another country with a 4th-of-Celebration. It is Poland. Poland is celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the first free elections in the former Warsaw Pact, which signaled the end of Communist rule in Poland.

Quoting Ian Kelly, Spokesman of the United States Warsaw Diplomatic Mission: "The past twenty years have seen Poland emerge as a regional leader, a member and significant contributor to NATO for ten years and to the EU for five years. The United States and Poland celebrate 90 years of diplomatic relations this year, and one of the greatest events of that period is the one we commemorate today. Poles have every right to be proud of what they accomplished on this day in 1989."

How come?
There have been people at the shipyards of Gdansk (former Danzig), who asked for improvements of their lives, and came together under the name "Solidarność", which means Solidarity. There have been requests for some improvements, mostly history now, but there was one highly actual request: improvements in the national health service - every person that is employed or works in Poland has to be insured, here in our country of the American Dream this is still a dream.

And just today, 4th of June, the day of Poland's celebration, I read disturbing news:
Medical bills are behind more than 60 percent of U.S. bankruptcies !
Quote: "Unless you're Warren Buffett, your family is just one serious illness away from bankruptcy" - read this article!

And this:

1. Killing patients with fine print.
2. No definition of "medical necessity" and "experimental treatment."
3. Delays of medical care.
4. Junk insurance.
5. Manipulating "risk."
6. Dumping the sick.
7. No accountability.
8. Refusing access to expensive doctor recommended medications and devices.
9. Balance billing and Network Restrictions.
10. Staggering rate increases.

These are the ConsumerWatchdog.org Headlines posted today, June 04, 2009 !

Most of these points I know from my own experience and observations. The Company I worked for dumped me after my Cancer treatment (by Law Layoff os not allowed during treatment), and now I am happy having an affordable health insurance after finding a loophole to get in, but I know many have not.

Reading these ten points you may ask "How come?"
Imaging that:
You are CEO of an Health Insurance Company.
Your primary goal for your company is to increase the wealth of its shareholders (owners) by paying dividends, to deliver a maximum shareholder value - what is the easiest way to achieve this? Of course you have to have customers, people who need health insurance, they pay your income. You need Advertisement to get customers, that's a lot of money you have to spent for.
These are vital expenses for your company. Advertisers will not lower their fees because it is for your health insurance company. So you have to save money elsewhere. You need helping ideas?
There are ten points which may help you. Look at the ten points above!

I often heard the saying one should "Walk in Another Person's Shoes" - we just did that.
I am pretty sure you are not a CEO. But you may have been ill and you experienced your side of view. May be you are thinking what I did before I met my wife and she walked with me to a specialist who discovered that I had cancer. Before this I thought "I cannot afford to be ill without any income. I better die".

This is the situation we have. How can we get a situation which helps us, the people, who need to have affordable health insurance which will cover the costs we cannot afford ourselves in case we are ill?
The Shareholder Value looks like a sheer obstacle. But what if all the insured people are the shareholders themselves? In this case it would be much harder to use the ten points list to save money, because everybody will be interested in having a good treatment by his insurance company. To get such an insurance owned by the insured people themselves it needs solidarity.

Is it a coincidence that today, 4th of June, Solidarity is celebrated and the despairing news ask for solidarity? Everything happens for a reason, they say.

There are countries where people have solidarity kind of insurance.
Even People get paychecks when they have to stay at home or at the hospital.

Look at the benefits:
The more people are insured by one company, the more the financial burden can be shared. This is pure Mathematics.
The broader the mix of insured people - poor and rich, healthy, less healthy, and even ill - of a company, the better the financial burden can be shared. This is pure Mathematics.
It is called Solidarity.

Will a health service for every citizen remain an American Dream, or will this Dream come true?

Solidarity has brought freedom to the People of Poland, and today they are celebrating the 2oth anniversary of their choice.
With solidarity a health service for every American Citizen will become possible.