Social Responsibility

OK - so I’m going to bring it up again, because the president is about to take on healthcare. There are going to be special interests with huge media campaigns fighting him. But I urge everyone to consider why these interests feel so threatened - they will tell you that the government will decide your medical fate - that a politician will decide what doctors you see and who gets health care.

They will tell Doctors that they will lose income. They will warn you that your healthcare will be nationalized and subsequently suck - that it will be the worlds largest bureaucracy. They will tell you he is destroying the American dream, that hard work will no longer be able to allow one to “get ahead”. They will tell you that the system works and try to make every American think that the tax on big business is a tax on the everyday American. They will tell you the deficit will grow to a level that will drown our children. They will tell you it is socialism and communism. But it’s not. In fact, it is capitalism in it’s best light - working for the people.

The special interests? Banks. Insurance Companies. Big Oil. And the congress members that support them. Why? Because the president is planning on taking away the corporate windfall wealth that has been substituted for the care for the well being of the American people.

The truth? The deficit will go up, but it will be paid down. Insurance companies will have to compete for government business. It means that banks and student lenders would lose their taxpayer subsidies and require competition with each other to lend. Oil companies will lose their tax breaks. Competition for a tight dollar will keep costs reasonable. Competition is a basic principle of capitalism. These businesses know it will make them work harder. Conservative congressional Representatives and Senators see themselves losing corporate funding. Conservative state representatives, vested in the insurance industry see themselves losing revenue.

We must question true motives. The president doesn’t wish to spend money for the sake of it. His agenda is to improve our medicare system, to make insurance affordable (for both people and the businesses they work for), to increase revenues to pay for research into alternative energy and to make higher education more affordable and reachable.

These will strengthen the American dream, not undermine it. Because the dream is for all of us, not just a select few, not just the upper class, not just the middle class, but everyone. America is not a special interest. It is a diverse population, with many different ideas. Everyone needs to thrive for us to take advantage of it.

If everyone can eat, have a roof over their head, stay healthy and get an education, we can bring ourselves back into a relevant and competitive place in the world. Not only will our businesses thrive, but our people will too. Many other nations that are smaller, but more progressive, have already done this. It is time that we join them. This is how we sustain Democracy - through socially responsible capitalism - not through greed and special interest.