Progressive Social Reforms

From God's Politics a blog by Jim Wallis & friends from the Sojourners web site.

What Do Health-Care Reform, the 40-Hour Work Week, Unemployment Insurance, the Minimum Wage, etc., Have in Common?

by Chuck Gutenson 11-25-2009

Well, they were all brought to you be political progressives, they were all opposed by political conservatives, and they all are now viewed as fundamental presuppositions of a healthy society by virtually everyone. Okay, all but health-care reform, but trust me, if it passes, in no time at all it will be viewed so positively that we will no longer be able to remember why it took us so long to implement it. And, of course, the list actually includes many, many more initiatives—child labor laws, basic workplace safety rules, social security, Medicare, and so on.

In each case, the vast majority of political conservatives opposed them. They told us that businesses would be ruined, that the problems resulting from implementing the initiatives would be worse than if we left things as they were, that implementing them would make us non-competitive, or, more generally, that the good life as we know it would be gone if we were so foolish as to pass these pieces of legislation. One would think that after being wrong sooo many times, political conservatives would speak with a bit more humility, but alas, not so. If one took some of the speeches in opposition to health-care reform, one could substitute "minimum wage laws" or "child labor laws" in place of "health-care reform" and it would be déjà vu all over again—to quote Yogi Berra.

For the balance of the blog go to: http://blog.sojo.net/2009/11/25/what-do-health-care-reform-the-40-hour-work-week-unemployment-insurance-the-minimum-wage-etc-have-in-common/?continue