Don't misunderstand, I like Bernie Sanders, but being honest should always trump partisan blind adherence. Especially in this instance.
Bernie is wrong. Not everyone needs to
or should go to college. Everyone should be trained to perform a job in their
field of interest which someone will pay them a decent wage to do. This may
require a degree, but many do not. We hear a lot of bitching about manufacturing
jobs being exported offshore. How many of those jobs require a college
education? Approximately none! The person who can repair my air conditioning,
fix my plumbing or electrical problems or repair my automobile may well make
more over a career than the college graduate who becomes a teacher. That's not
right, in my opinion, but it is correct.
These manufacturing jobs are lost to
some extent because other countries pay far lower health care subsidies to
employees. As far back as 2008, the average American automobile had, as a cost
component, $1,525 in medical, insurance costs for workers. Yet everyone needs
to go to college? No, many simply need an employability skill set, easily
learned in tech schools or the equivalent, and as a nation we need to get smart
about healthcare.
Much of the early post WWII edge
American auto makers lost to the Japanese came because the Japanese, and later
the Koreans, have lower employee costs, due not only to lower, yet reasonable,
pay structures but also to much lower healthcare costs. The Japanese kōsen tech
school system starts at 15. By age 20 the student is employable and, if desired
can go on to more advanced technical and engineering training. In America,
there is almost a stigma surrounding tech training in high school, even though
many districts, includung Orange County Florida have excellent programs.
We are
still paying, as a nation, the extra cost of union gains in the feel good,
we're #1 atmosphere which existed immediately after WWII. The UAW and other
unions extorted huge (and unreasonable) concessions in health, salary, and work
benefits from companies which still clung to the old "you are my workers,
I own you, do as I say" mentality of the early 20th century, rather than
deal with quality of work life issues, the Big Three reverted to what is
commonly referred to as "Welfare capitalism" meaning throw money at
the workers in exchange for their abject compliance and lack of voice in the
process. So here we are.
A good start to fixing this problem would be a livable
entry level wage and universal healthcare. The healthcare issue would almost
instantly reduce the price of a new car , spurring new purchases as well as
allowing manufacturers to allocate funds elsewhere. Seems so simple. Requires
no expenditure for "universal college." And even better, as every
developed other nation has proven over time, universal health care costs the
nation less - In the UK half as large a % of GDP, than the US system. Even if
one desired to purchase top tier private insurance on top of it as 11% in the
UK do, the cost to the individual is far below the current US family of four
annual healthcare outlay of.....wait for it....approximately $24,000. Before
you call bullshit on that number, here's the data from the Milliman Medical
Index for 2015: "The employer portion of the total is still the larger of
the two components ‒ $14,198 ‒ but the employee portion is now almost 43% of
the total ‒ $10,473. That represents an 8% increase to employees (overall) and
a 5% increase to the employer over last year. The $10,473 amount that Milliman
calculates as employee spending is divided over two categories ‒ out-of-pocket
expenses incurred at the point-of-care ($4,065) and premium costs through
payroll deductions ($6,408)."
Read more about this here:
So my recommendation to Bernie and everyone else:
Quality technical training, beginning as
early as tenth grade and Universal Health Care. And certainly , a reasonable
cost for college for those who would benefit from it. That is all, enjoy your
day and DONATE TO IN STEVE'S NAME TO THE SPCA!
Excellent commentary Mike.
ReplyDeleteLarry