The voters are just as much victims of a corrupt electoral system. Also the Left is too divided and diffuse to have offered an electoral alternative in 2008. The Left chose not to support Nader in 2004 and then ran two alternative candidates in 2008 that split their rank. So for much of the electorate it was really a no-choice election.

In addition – sadly, what is happening is a result of what the voters did. Elections have consequences and 45,000+ per year will die because of those consequences.

I definitely agree that all personal debts–student loans, mortgages, credit cards, etc. should be deleted. There was once a time when you built a house and it was yours, and that was the end of it–you weren’t placed in debt to a bank which you would continue paying for the rest of your life (perhaps paying 2-3 times the original cost) only to have it sold upon your death in order to finally pay off the privelege of having shortened your life through worrying about the fucking mortgage payment every month. There is a huge surplus of housing in this country–more than enough for everyone to have a place to live, but the banks are still throwing people out of homes that will sit and rot. The stock market should be abolished.

Thanks Shabnam for posting your perspectives here. I hadn’t considered this aspect. That is why this open forum on DV is important.

The United States and the western governments like Canada, Britain, Germany and other nations have already stolen the skilled workers of the developing countries including medical doctors and Nurses from the continent of Asia and Africa. Iran has lost many Doctors and engineers who were trained on billions of dollars from Iranian national treasury but could not benefit from her investment made earlier because of your double standard foreign policy where creates an unstable situation in these countries and makes life difficult to live so the skilled workers are the first to go abroad and you are the first to benefit from billions of dollars where we have spent to train our educated labor force. These people cannot find a job due to your illegal sanction which makes you rich since you will benefit from the investment of other people in these countries.

This is very unfair and is an imperialist way of robbing other countries of their investments where have been made years earlier.
You should be advocating, instead, for more resources with the support of mass movement, if they don’t honor your demand, then turn against them with an organized movement.
Please stop stealing other people’s resources and call that a ‘solution.’

Forgive all debt now that’s a new way of thinking. Start over everything should be made as simple as possible but not simpler.

Don YOU HIT THE NAIL ON THE HEAD. That is the movement that is needed — DEBT REPUDIATION. The government is not going to forgive the people’s debt like they did the banks. 12 trillion dollars of tax payer money has been committed to rescue the banks while $0.00 for the people.

Thus what is needed is civil disobedience to repudiate ALL individual DEBT (mortgages, credit cards, etc). Such a movement would have enormous impact on the system that the power that be would then have to yield to the public.

In fact why isn’t the LEFT coming up with new ways to allocate housing like the are coming up with chatter about health care. Why should people have to put themselves into hundreds of thousand of dollars into debt just to have a basic human right to shelter. These are question that are missing from the health care discussion.

How many people die every year from stress due to debt or bankruptcy or unemployment or divorce or pollution. Stress cause increases in cortisol and adrenaline thus having negative health effects. These important aspects are missing from the health care debate.

Health care is not just about seeing a doctor — allopath or naturopath. Health care is not just about single payer.
Health care demand that we analyze and integrate the POLITICAL ECONOMY.

There has been articles about the Aussie doctor and his team that caravans across the U.S. providing humanitarian health service to American citizens. I think he originally appeared on Mutual of Omaha Wild Kingdom and started providing humanitarian health care to third world countries but then realized that the U.S. is pretty much “third world” in its own health care provisions.

That being said, while HR 676 is a good bill there is no real power to get this bill passed. At this point the bill is “a dream” rather than a reality. Obama’s initially started with a compromised position and if like many of his critics stated had started with single payer then the compromised position would be still a lot less than single payer.

Single payer will only become a reality when there is a movement that shakes up the ENTIRE system. Right now the Left is no where near such a movement and neither is the general public. Single payer as a demand is too isolated and insufficient. It needs to be integrated with the other needs like housing, debt forgiveness, income security, redistribution of wealth and an overall repudiation of capitalism.

The piecemeal approach especially in this time of dislocation and crisis will not move the powers that be because going piecemeal automatically is coming from a position of weakness. And weakness doesn’t win you anything.

I am advocating for a movement to make a massive plea to other countries so that they will send doctors, dentists, and other medical personnel here. Cuba made an offer after Katrina. The US government refused the help and tried to keep it secret that an offer of humanitarian aid came from Cuba.

The real answer is SINGLE PAYER that is universal and comprehensive – covering all medical needs. It would save money because it would eliminate Wall Street and the need for profits.

Here is another problem that is never discussed – do you know how much the CEO of your hospital is paid – including benefits, golden parachute, etc.?