[rollei_list] Re: OT: Health Care Costs

  • From: Allen Zak <azak@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Mon, 22 Mar 2010 12:31:06 -0400


On Mar 21, 2010, at 6:14 PM, Marc James Small wrote:

Bismarck was a Far-Left Loonie by the standards of his time. He was a Big Gummit guy from the get-go. Calling him a "reactionary" simply proves that you have no concept of German politics of the era. He used Big Gummit to get the support of the nascent Socialist movement of the era and did so willingly. A bad man for many reasons, but his support for nationalized health insurance and free Gummit schools were probably the worst things he did to Germany

?? Your mischaracterization of Count Otto is considerably off the marck ;-) . The Iron Chancellor is universally regarded one of the preeminent reactionaries of his day, a tough-minded supporter of the German capitalist/aristocratic ruling class and implacable enemy of socialism. I can't imagine how you got the notion he was a "Far-Left Loonie," unless you consider any consolidation of state power as somehow leftist. If that's the case, not so. In the political spectrum, socialism and capitalism, polar opposites, are both consistent socioeconomic constructs, not simply epithets to interchangeably sling at any object of scorn, such as witnessed at demonstrations where confused and overwrought tea-baggers simultaneously depict President Obama as Hitler while calling him a socialist (as if that's a bad thing.)

As for the worst thing Bismarck did; I consider free education and national health insurance a public good.
Surely you can come up with something worse.

OTOH, I do agree that 5 members of the Supreme Court are preparing to kill the health care reform bill and maybe to bury the New Deal as well. Protecting the interests of the wealthy is what they were appointed to do.

Allen Zak





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