From: bstring@mainz-emh2.army.mil (BOB STRINGFIELD)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african.american
Subject: [John Gorentz:  Re: Some Welfare Notes]
Date: 18 Aug 1992 08:24:16 -0500
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu

Hmmm.  Lets see.  As Carter stipulated.  Facts.  Now all this seems
to be based on *MONEY*.  Money at the very root and core.  Seems
as if I read something about that someplace in my travels.  Money would
be found at the root of all that is evil/ignorance etc.  Now that I
peek over here behind Carter, I find nothing no 'input'.  No external
source.  This is all being said here and here only.  

Landlords have become lords of the land and it takes money to live in
their habitats and for that I need a job and of course someone on this
job to give my guidance as to what is being done.  The guidance does
not have to be factual just as long as I obey (do not resist) for they
seek only to control not with wisdom but just to say they are in charge.

Strange and stranger still.  The appetite of the body (reproduction,
sustenance, self-preservation, self-gratification) is in charge.  It
forces me to bend to the will of the oppressor for how else can I
tool all around in my ride, nuture my body, look good and be with
my woman without money.  There is a way out?  Where?  I am living
in darkness and STATS are not helping me....
--bob
*************************original text**************************
From:         John Gorentz <GORENTZ%MSUKBS.BITNET@pucc.princeton.edu>
Subject:      Re: Some Welfare Notes

William H. Magill reports on dislocations in the computer industry.

I'd like to make a few points of my own:

Even in a healthy economy, there will be job losses and dislocations.  One
commentator in the Wall Street Journal tried to make this point by saying the
problem with the economy is that not enough jobs are being lost.  Of course,
the corollary (sp) to this should be other jobs becoming available.

One problem these days, though, that makes loss of a job more traumatic than it
needs to be, is that the employer-employee relationship has become almost a
feudalistic one of lord and vassal, rather than one based on fees
paid for services rendered.

You don't want to lose your job because you depend on your employer's
insurance.  You don't want to leave your job for another, or to start your
own business, because you might end up getting caught without insurance.
Your employer has got you.

Why is insurance so expensive when you try to buy your own?  Because of
runaway health costs caused by all these people (like me) with tax-free group
health plans, who have no incentive to weigh risks and do price comparisons
when consuming health care.  The poor suckers who have to buy their own
(non-tax-free) insurance can hardly afford to in the current market with all
its price distortions.

Therefore,

1) I'm against any plan to mandate employer-paid insurance, like the one
being proposed by Slick Willie.

2) I'm for bills that would make individually-purchased health insurance
completely tax deductible, starting at dollar $0.  (Well, perhaps an upper
limit would be in order.)

3) Employer-paid health insurance should be taxed as regular income.

4) A plan of health-care vouchers should be instituted for the poorest
people.  (George Bush once proposed one, but he hasn't done anything to
promote it.)

I think this would undo the feudalistic nature of current employment
practices, and help bring health care costs back down to earth.  Employees
would have greater mobility, which would put upward pressure on wages.

John Gorentz                        bitnet: gorentz@msukbs
W.K. Kellogg Biological Station   internet: gorentz%kbs.decnet@clvax1.cl.msu.edu
Michigan State University   USA