For Immediate Release
Thursday, December 10th, 2009
Contact: Todd Vachon, socialistpartyct@gmail.com
On this day in 1948, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Among it's thirty articles which detail the basic rights of all human beings is included the right to health care. Article 25 states that all people have the right to "health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control."
In the years following the Second World War, every industrialized nation except for the United States has realized this right for it's citizens.
On this anniversary of the UDHR, the Socialist Party of Connecticut would like to draw attention to this violation of human rights exercised in our own backyards. Our current multi-payer, for profit, health system (and it's modifications currently being decided in congress) does not secure the rights envisaged in Article 25. With nearly 50 million Americans uninsured, millions more underinsured, patients denied vital care and yet health care CEO's earning as much as $57,000 per hour, we are certainly not treating health as a human right.
The profit-based, private insurance industry costs American consumers twice as much per capita as the services provided for citizens by other industrialized nations. Americans spend $7,129 per capita on health insurance and yet it does not even cover all Americans. Despite out-spending other nations, our system still leaves the U.S. ranked 38th in the world for health care. We score poorly on all major health indicators, including: life expectancy- ranked 30th, right behind Bosnia; infant mortality-ranked 46th, right behind Cuba and Guam, and we're ranked 20th out of the G20 for deaths by treatable causes.
The Socialist Party of CT advocates for the elimination of the private insurance industry and the creation instead of a national, single-payer health insurance plan; an expanded Medicare-For-All. There can be no solution to the health care crisis without eliminating the cause of the problem itself, the profit-motive of insurers. A national single-payer system would cost $300-400 billion less per year than Americans currently spend and would extend coverage to all. To learn more about such a system we would direct people to the following resources: www.vachonforcongress.blogspot.com, www.pnhp.org, www.socialistparty-usa.org/platform/humanneeds.html
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
The Socialist Party of CT Opposes Escalation of War in Afghanistan; Demands Money for Jobs and Health Care
Amidst the largest economic crisis since the Great Depression, President Barack Obama has mistakenly chosen to dedicate yet more resources, manpower and lives to military interventionism. The Socialist Party of CT finds this course to be foolhardy and wasteful. We advocate instead for an immediate withdrawal of all troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. The seemingly endless pool of public money spent on war could far better serve the unemployed, underemployed and uninsured people of the United States by creating a public works program and a single-payer national health insurance plan.
It has always been a core principal of the Socialist Party that public assets should be used for the public good by means of democratic administration. This recent exercise in defense spending, in addition to the ongoing health care reform "debate", further underscore the shortcomings of the capitalist political-economic system; namely that the voices of the many are repeatedly drowned out by the voices of the wealthy and powerful.
During the 2008 presidential campaign the mainstream media made a big to-do about claims that Mr. Obama was a "socialist" and yet did little or nothing to find out what the actual socialist candidates thought about the issues. Socialist Party Presidential candidate Brian Moore, Vice-Presidential candidate Stewart Alexander and candidate for U.S. Congress here in CT, Todd Vachon would have gladly informed the public that we stood for an immediate end of both wars. We also would have reminded people that mandating private health insurance is only socialism for the insurance corporations and bailing out bankers is yet further welfare for millionaires and billionaires...
We hope that the disenchanted popular movement that brought this administration into power on a tide of "hope" and "change" will not walk away and become apathetic. We invite them instead to join a real movement for real change starting tomorrow, Wednesday Dec. 2, at 4:30pm by joining us and dozens of other groups to protest the war escalation in front of the Federal Buildings in Hartford and New Haven and demand that our public assets return home to serve our public good!
SPCT platform and information available at:
www.socialistpartyct.org
www.socialistparty-usa.org
www.votevachon.com
It has always been a core principal of the Socialist Party that public assets should be used for the public good by means of democratic administration. This recent exercise in defense spending, in addition to the ongoing health care reform "debate", further underscore the shortcomings of the capitalist political-economic system; namely that the voices of the many are repeatedly drowned out by the voices of the wealthy and powerful.
During the 2008 presidential campaign the mainstream media made a big to-do about claims that Mr. Obama was a "socialist" and yet did little or nothing to find out what the actual socialist candidates thought about the issues. Socialist Party Presidential candidate Brian Moore, Vice-Presidential candidate Stewart Alexander and candidate for U.S. Congress here in CT, Todd Vachon would have gladly informed the public that we stood for an immediate end of both wars. We also would have reminded people that mandating private health insurance is only socialism for the insurance corporations and bailing out bankers is yet further welfare for millionaires and billionaires...
We hope that the disenchanted popular movement that brought this administration into power on a tide of "hope" and "change" will not walk away and become apathetic. We invite them instead to join a real movement for real change starting tomorrow, Wednesday Dec. 2, at 4:30pm by joining us and dozens of other groups to protest the war escalation in front of the Federal Buildings in Hartford and New Haven and demand that our public assets return home to serve our public good!
SPCT platform and information available at:
www.socialistpartyct.org
www.socialistparty-usa.org
www.votevachon.com
Monday, November 30, 2009
Horatio and Santa
Horatio Alger was an author in the mid 1800's whose books, such as "Ragged Dick", promoted somewhat of a "rags to riches" theme. In a very formulaic fashion, his working-class protagonists would always come out on top by working hard, abstaining from pleasures and often times having a lucky break.
I like to characterize the American psyche's understanding of the Horatio Alger myth to the American (christian/capitalist) child's understanding of Santa. It is something that we are taught to believe in at an early age. It is something that we will likely realize is not true at some point, but if we have made out okay we will continue to pass on the belief. So, just as kids who have always received presents from Santa continue to want to believe in him after they know he isn't real, adults who have ended up with decent jobs want to believe that it is exclusively due to their own merit.
The flip side is that the children whose parents couldn't afford gifts from Santa tend to blame themselves, just as workers who wind up unemployed blame themselves. And just as charity organizations collect toys to give to poor children, the government collects taxes to give assistance to those in poverty. The only difference is that the children think the gifts are from Santa and no longer feel bad about themselves, but the workers are forced to feel even more inadequate and down on themselves. While it might be nice to believe in Santa, it would certainly be more desirable to believe in oneself, and that is what makes the Horatio Alger myth so dangerous.
Average people don't realize that capitalism requires an unemployed reserve army of workers in order to: 1. be on standby for periods of expansion, and 2. keep down the wages of those who do have jobs. Think about that. There must always be a certain percentage of the workforce unemployed. Furthermore, there are those who have "low level jobs" that also feel bad about themselves, but never stop to consider that there must always be a certain percentage of the population who occupies those socially necessary positions. So, no matter how hard you try; I mean even if every single working age person gave 100% all the time, there would still be those who are unemployed and those working mundane jobs. So, without even considering any details about personal or socio-economic circumstances, there is an inherent flaw in the Horatio Alger logic as applied within a capitalist economy.
I like to characterize the American psyche's understanding of the Horatio Alger myth to the American (christian/capitalist) child's understanding of Santa. It is something that we are taught to believe in at an early age. It is something that we will likely realize is not true at some point, but if we have made out okay we will continue to pass on the belief. So, just as kids who have always received presents from Santa continue to want to believe in him after they know he isn't real, adults who have ended up with decent jobs want to believe that it is exclusively due to their own merit.
The flip side is that the children whose parents couldn't afford gifts from Santa tend to blame themselves, just as workers who wind up unemployed blame themselves. And just as charity organizations collect toys to give to poor children, the government collects taxes to give assistance to those in poverty. The only difference is that the children think the gifts are from Santa and no longer feel bad about themselves, but the workers are forced to feel even more inadequate and down on themselves. While it might be nice to believe in Santa, it would certainly be more desirable to believe in oneself, and that is what makes the Horatio Alger myth so dangerous.
Average people don't realize that capitalism requires an unemployed reserve army of workers in order to: 1. be on standby for periods of expansion, and 2. keep down the wages of those who do have jobs. Think about that. There must always be a certain percentage of the workforce unemployed. Furthermore, there are those who have "low level jobs" that also feel bad about themselves, but never stop to consider that there must always be a certain percentage of the population who occupies those socially necessary positions. So, no matter how hard you try; I mean even if every single working age person gave 100% all the time, there would still be those who are unemployed and those working mundane jobs. So, without even considering any details about personal or socio-economic circumstances, there is an inherent flaw in the Horatio Alger logic as applied within a capitalist economy.
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