this post was submitted on 06 Dec 2024
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[–] pkill@programming.dev 28 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

btw, the NHS in the UK offers a cautionary tale. Once it was a beacon of universal care. But look at how the decades of privatization have chipped away at its promise. Even now, UK workers defend it against the creeping tide of market logic, which has not ceased under Starmer because warfare matters more than healthcare to them.

It's absolutely clear: systems run for the many must remain in the hands of the many. This fight really requires worker control—why should administrators and profiteers dictate care when the expertise and needs of frontline medical workers and patients could lead?

Even if a mass movement for universal healthcare is born and somehow the government with both parties being virtually on the insurance profiteers' payslip somehow concedes, it will be immediately subject to sabotage.

And then the billionaire media would point a finger at the alleged inefficiency of "public services", all while it is implemented in a way where it isn't at the expense of

  • the military-industrial complex
  • the wealth of the mega-rich and their corporations' profits

so if not that, then it'd be financed at the expense of the already ballooning public debt, which would then be paid in austerity.

If universal healthcare is to succeed in the U.S., it must be accompanied by bold economic realignments: ending absurd military expenditures, expropriating billionaires and putting critical industries under public and worker control. Otherwise, the promise of care for all will collapse under the weight of contradictions, and the media will be more than happy to point fingers at "socialist inefficiency" while the real culprits—corporate greed and the war machine—walk away unscathed.

[–] bunchberry@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago

Yes, it's ultimately a cautionary tale as to why social democracy is unsustainable, as it is just the implementation of social policies while maintaining capitalist hegemony. There is no such thing as a benevolent oligarch. Capitalists have utilitarian reasons to implement pro-worker social policies, and it's usually to reduce unrest or increase productivity. The moment those reasons no longer become relevant, they will begin to dismantle it. Much of western Europe in general right now is suffering from nonstop austerity for a long time now.