If Only Being United Weren’t So Communist
May 12th, 2011
Republicans in New Hampshire are trying to pass a new anti-union law, claiming that weakening the unions would draw more businesses into the state.
The current right-wing drive to crush any pro-left entity aside, this brings to mind the fact that businesses get great deals by playing state against state. Just as they play workers against each other to the workers’ disadvantage, they shake down the states for billions with these coy “I’ll settle in your state only if you give me even bigger benefits than the next state” game.
If only the states were to form some sort of, oh, I don’t know, union, so they could join forces and gain from the advantage.
But that’s probably just crazy talk.
What will New Hampshire Republicans do to attract business when the People’s Republic of Vermont implements its single payer healthcare system, that the Governor of Vermont will soon be signing into law now that it has passed both houses of the legislature there?
What business that is footloose that provides healthcare for their employees wouldn’t choose to relocate in Vermont? And how many companies on the east bank of the Connecticut river could just as easily move to the west bank?
Prediction: Single payer will spread from Vermont to New Hampshire and then to Massachusetts and finally New York. Also, Democratic states such as Hawaii, Oregon and New Mexico will be likely to follow suit. That will squeeze Washington. If Minnesota goes, then so will Wisconsin and Illinois, and from their goes the entire Mid West.
Of course Green Mountain care doesn’t kick in until after 2014, and it faces hurtles nonetheless, so a lot can happen, and we’re talking about things that won’t happen altogether for another 15 years. But this is how universal healthcare came to Canada.