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Correction: February 4, 2014 An earlier version of a headline accompanying this article on the home page was incorrect. The health law is projected to result i
by michaelochurch 13y ago
Correction: February 4, 2014
An earlier version of a headline accompanying this article on the home page was incorrect. The health law is projected to result in a voluntary reduction in the work force equal to 2.5 million full-time workers, according to the Congressional Budget Office, not two million fewer jobs.
If true, this is a good thing. We, as a society, don't need "jobs" or hours worked. We need stuff made. Voluntary attrition of the least productive 5-billion person-hours per year won't hurt us much, but that will cause wages to rise (which will, over time, improve what is produced).
We're already producing a lot of stuff. What we need now is a qualitative focus, serious consideration of sustainability and, above all, better leadership. Taking some pressure off the lower and middle classes (i.e. peeling back the wage serfdom that gives power to feudal strongmen) is a start.
There used to be a Fordist connection between general prosperity and the well-being of businesses, rippling up to the very rich. But the consumer credit boom killed that (sort of). Instead of letting wages rise or prices fall, the poors could be pumped full of loans they couldn't afford to repay. We saw, in 2008, how well that works out, but the fundamental structure of society hasn't changed.
Obama has made many tactical mistakes with the PPACA, and I wish he had started at single-payer to make public-option the compromise, but if "Obamacare" is bringing us back toward a more cooperative, progressive society, then that's a good thing.