Dear Friends,
We arrived in Villefranche on December 28, thanks to my typo, one day before our landlady was expecting us. As a result, there was no taxi to meet us at the airport in Nice, also our apartment was not completely ready. Our landlady who was giving a luncheon at her house at the time told us to just get a taxi at the airport which we did and that someone would meet us to help with our bags and finish the cleaning of the apartment. We took a taxi to Place de la Paix, the closest place to our apartment where a car can go. Sure enough we were met by Danny, the husband of one of the cleaning ladies. He was very strong, grabbed our two big suitcases (almost 50 lbs each) and carried them to our apartment. It is two steep blocks downhill to our apartment then two steep flights up stairs.
We were impressed. As our landlady had told us they were doing "spring cleaning" on our apartment. All the seat covers, cushion covers, slip covers, etc. had been washed along with all the regular things like sheets, towels, etc. They were all over the place drying when we arrived. We left Danny, at his urging, with everything and went to lunch. When we returned two hours later, the place was immaculate. Normally we would have been met with a bottle of rosé and flowers, both of which were missing but an amazing welcome considering we arrived a day early.
We went to lunch at Lou Bantry, a restaurant on the water. It was nice. As usual, I started my stay with moules frites. Place Amélie Pollonais which is right by the water and normally has three restaurants, a gift shop, an ice cream store and a couple of bars is being renovated so nothing is there now and will not be for a couple more months. Consequently we could not have lunch at Le Cosmos or Les Palmiers where we would normally have had our first lunch.
We were in no hurry to provision so we ate dinner at Le Serre, our neighborhood casual restaurant about half a block away. We ran into our landlady, her husband and a couple who were their friends who had just purchased an apartment in Villefranche and were beginning to furnish it.
The next day we had to actually get down to shopping. We had forgotten a few essentials, like Jane's pjs, and we needed some essentials like the Nespresso capsules for our coffee. Fortunately we had left a couple in our box in the apartment from the fall so we had some the first morning. As we got on the bus to go to Nice, we ran into the couple we had met the night before who were also on their way to Nice. Despite the fact that they had lots to do to furnish their new apartment, their first stop was their favorite chocolate store, Florian. It is nice when people have their priorities straight.
While in Nice we made great progress at becoming truly French. We now are members of the Nespresso loyalty group which apparently means I can get lots of emails from them. We are also members of the Galleries Lafayette (large French department store) loyalty group which meant that we got 40% off the items we bought that day.
The next day was Saturday, and it was a beautiful day. Of course Saturday means ex-pat pétanque. It was a small group, only six, including one new person. I am happy to report that my team won, rather handily I might add. The Saturday market was small but had all the things we needed - vegetables, fruits, flowers and patés.
Unfortunately later that day our return to Villefranche began to turn bad. As usual we were both tired as a result of jet lag and the stress of Christmas, moving to a new condo and packing, but this time Jane was sick. On the airplane she turned on the air and was blasted with every germ known to mankind as it was towards the end of the flight from Minneapolis to Amsterdam. Then a couple of days later while using nasal spray she coughed involuntarily and inhaled the spray and who knows what else. She kept getting worse. All the while I was developing a bad cold. We really did not eat much and had no energy. Our New Year's Eve was pizza by ourselves feeling miserable in front of the tv instead of a gourmet dinner at La Belle Étoile with friends.
On Tuesday our french teacher gave us the name of two local doctors and explained how to go see them. They share an office with one there in the morning and one in the afternoon. You do not need an appointment. The office is about a 10 minute walk from our apartment. So mid-afternoon, we set out on an adventure to see the doctor. When you walk in the door, there is a waiting room with no receptionist. The patients just sit down and are seen in the order in which they arrived. The doctor was seeing one patient when we arrived and there were two others ahead of us. When he was finished with the patient he was seeing when we arrived, he came into the room and simply said "Allons y" let's go. The next patient got up and followed him out of the waiting room. He was a middle aged man wearing jeans and a blue checked shirt.
When it was Jane's turn, we dutifully followed him into a nice, clean and very simple office with an adjacent examining room. We had prepared for a discussion in French. Jane said, "We are Americans." He replied in perfect English, "Everybody has something." By which he meant, being an American was a problem, but he said it with a smile and a twinkle in his eye. He said it had been a long day so let's speak in English. He asked all the right questions and actually listened carefully to the answers. He examined Jane, not by taking blood and running tests but by listening to her heart and lungs. He then announced that she had a small infection in her lungs which he would treat with a course of antibiotics. He then proceeded to give her a prescription for the antibiotic, a steroid, a cough suppressant and a nasal spray. He also gave us a bill for 30 euros and a paper for our insurance. The entire time elapsed while waiting and seeing the doctor was less than an hour.
Jane went home to bed, and I proceeded to the pharmacy. The total bill for all four of the prescriptions was 30 euros. The pharmacy also gave me a paper for our insurance. Thus began a long road to recovery which is still going on today, almost a week later.
Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal
Monday, January 8, 2018
Sunday, January 7, 2018
Capitalism in America, Part 3
Dear Friends,
In the previous two posts, I have argued that capitalism as practiced in the United States has failed us both politically and economically. I have also taken the position that the ultimate goal of any economic system must be to advance the economic interests and provide better living conditions for all in a sustainable manner. In order to achieve this goal there must be a true equality of opportunity. Obviously in some ways there cannot be true equality of opportunity. We are each born with certain abilities and limitations and not all parenting is equal. However, as a society we must do all that we can to provide true equality of opportunity.
In my view there are certain things without which there can be no true equality of opportunity:
love and inclusion
food, shelter and clothing
health care
education
security
I want to examine each of these necessities and how they can be provided within a capitalist system.
Love and inclusion
When discussing basic necessities, love and inclusion are often overlooked, but the importance of these necessities cannot be overstated. Historically, these necessities have been provided by family and community. In America, we have seen an increase in gang activities, I think because the society is failing to provide people with love and inclusion in more traditional and helpful ways. If you do not feel loved and included, you cannot achieve your potential, you will not feel the support you need to work to achieve your goals, and you will find no meaning in your life. A society can be one that welcomes all regardless of similarities and differences, that celebrates diversity.
In the United States and many other countries, we are not inclusive and those in power maintain and enhance their power by dividing and not uniting. Capitalism as an economic system cannot ensure that all people are loved and included, but capitalism as it is practiced in the United States has encouraged the creation of classes of people with artificial distinctions based on who is "entitled" or who has "earned" while at the same time creating an environment where those with wealth and power (and their offspring) retain and amass more power and wealth and those without (and their offspring) have less and less of each. This terrible cycle of increasing wealth and power disparity and increasing exclusion of "others" can only be broken by providing everybody with equal opportunity. To achieve that goal will require a significant change in capitalism as practiced in the United States.
Food, shelter and clothing
Capitalists argue that capitalism is the best way to provide goods and services, that a free market will create and allocate goods and services in the most efficient manner and that competition will ensure the appropriate pricing of them. If there were such a thing as a completely free market and if everybody had true equal opportunity, I would agree with that argument. Unfortunately, there can be no logical or intellectually honest argument that there is anything that remotely resembles a free market or equal opportunity in the United States today.
I believe that everybody in the United States should have these basic necessities and that the society should provide them by providing each person with a minimum income with which to purchase them. I also believe that with appropriate controls, a capitalist economic system could facilitate the creation and allocation of these goods and services. Today the United States fails miserably in providing these necessities. Everybody must have good, healthy food; safe, comfortable and secure housing; and clothing that is appropriate for the climate and the society.
Healthcare
The United States spends more per capita and a larger percentage of GDP on healthcare than any other developed country in the world and yet has worse outcomes (here). Clearly a capitalist economic system is not successful at creating and allocating healthcare goods and services. Consequently we need to move to a Medicare for all type system to provide healthcare for all people. There are many models around the world for accomplishing this result all of which do a better job than the current United States system. Some of those systems have care provided by private clinics, hospitals, etc. but in all case all people receive at least a minimum level of health care.
Education
Without great education for all, we can never have true equal opportunity. The United States today has a system of public education that fails those who are not born with wealth and power and enhances the wealth and power of those who are born with them. The wealthy can afford to send their children to private schools and rich communities can afford great public schools. We need all public schools to be great schools. No capitalist system will do that, the government must provide great schools.
In addition, great and free public education must begin well before a child is 5 or 6 years old and must continue at least through a college degree. The data is clear that providing early childhood education is critical to long term learning. It is just as clear that a high school diploma is no longer sufficient to provide access to good, well paying jobs. The government must provide great free education pre-K through a college degree.
Security
We all need to feel secure in order to do our best. Security includes the obvious things like police and fire protection and national security which no capitalist system will provide to all so they must be provided by government at various levels. In addition, we must feel economically and emotionally secure. Capitalism as practiced in the United States has clearly failed to provide any emotional or economic security to all. People will feel these kinds of security if the essentials listed above are provided.
While well regulated capitalism can play a role in provided basic goods and services, a capitalist system will never actually provide the necessities for true equality of opportunity. So why am I not joining the Democratic Socialists of America? Maybe we will all find out when I write the next post.
Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal
In the previous two posts, I have argued that capitalism as practiced in the United States has failed us both politically and economically. I have also taken the position that the ultimate goal of any economic system must be to advance the economic interests and provide better living conditions for all in a sustainable manner. In order to achieve this goal there must be a true equality of opportunity. Obviously in some ways there cannot be true equality of opportunity. We are each born with certain abilities and limitations and not all parenting is equal. However, as a society we must do all that we can to provide true equality of opportunity.
In my view there are certain things without which there can be no true equality of opportunity:
love and inclusion
food, shelter and clothing
health care
education
security
I want to examine each of these necessities and how they can be provided within a capitalist system.
Love and inclusion
When discussing basic necessities, love and inclusion are often overlooked, but the importance of these necessities cannot be overstated. Historically, these necessities have been provided by family and community. In America, we have seen an increase in gang activities, I think because the society is failing to provide people with love and inclusion in more traditional and helpful ways. If you do not feel loved and included, you cannot achieve your potential, you will not feel the support you need to work to achieve your goals, and you will find no meaning in your life. A society can be one that welcomes all regardless of similarities and differences, that celebrates diversity.
In the United States and many other countries, we are not inclusive and those in power maintain and enhance their power by dividing and not uniting. Capitalism as an economic system cannot ensure that all people are loved and included, but capitalism as it is practiced in the United States has encouraged the creation of classes of people with artificial distinctions based on who is "entitled" or who has "earned" while at the same time creating an environment where those with wealth and power (and their offspring) retain and amass more power and wealth and those without (and their offspring) have less and less of each. This terrible cycle of increasing wealth and power disparity and increasing exclusion of "others" can only be broken by providing everybody with equal opportunity. To achieve that goal will require a significant change in capitalism as practiced in the United States.
Food, shelter and clothing
Capitalists argue that capitalism is the best way to provide goods and services, that a free market will create and allocate goods and services in the most efficient manner and that competition will ensure the appropriate pricing of them. If there were such a thing as a completely free market and if everybody had true equal opportunity, I would agree with that argument. Unfortunately, there can be no logical or intellectually honest argument that there is anything that remotely resembles a free market or equal opportunity in the United States today.
I believe that everybody in the United States should have these basic necessities and that the society should provide them by providing each person with a minimum income with which to purchase them. I also believe that with appropriate controls, a capitalist economic system could facilitate the creation and allocation of these goods and services. Today the United States fails miserably in providing these necessities. Everybody must have good, healthy food; safe, comfortable and secure housing; and clothing that is appropriate for the climate and the society.
Healthcare
The United States spends more per capita and a larger percentage of GDP on healthcare than any other developed country in the world and yet has worse outcomes (here). Clearly a capitalist economic system is not successful at creating and allocating healthcare goods and services. Consequently we need to move to a Medicare for all type system to provide healthcare for all people. There are many models around the world for accomplishing this result all of which do a better job than the current United States system. Some of those systems have care provided by private clinics, hospitals, etc. but in all case all people receive at least a minimum level of health care.
Education
Without great education for all, we can never have true equal opportunity. The United States today has a system of public education that fails those who are not born with wealth and power and enhances the wealth and power of those who are born with them. The wealthy can afford to send their children to private schools and rich communities can afford great public schools. We need all public schools to be great schools. No capitalist system will do that, the government must provide great schools.
In addition, great and free public education must begin well before a child is 5 or 6 years old and must continue at least through a college degree. The data is clear that providing early childhood education is critical to long term learning. It is just as clear that a high school diploma is no longer sufficient to provide access to good, well paying jobs. The government must provide great free education pre-K through a college degree.
Security
We all need to feel secure in order to do our best. Security includes the obvious things like police and fire protection and national security which no capitalist system will provide to all so they must be provided by government at various levels. In addition, we must feel economically and emotionally secure. Capitalism as practiced in the United States has clearly failed to provide any emotional or economic security to all. People will feel these kinds of security if the essentials listed above are provided.
While well regulated capitalism can play a role in provided basic goods and services, a capitalist system will never actually provide the necessities for true equality of opportunity. So why am I not joining the Democratic Socialists of America? Maybe we will all find out when I write the next post.
Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal
Thursday, January 4, 2018
Capitalism in America, Part 2
Dear Friends,
In my last post, I said that capitalism as practiced in the United States has failed us both economically and politically, but deferred the discussion of its failure politically to this post. The United States is supposed to be a democratic republic, i.e. a country where the majority rules except as limited by its constitution. In the United States, our constitution has always contained a number of very un-democratic features. Some of these features have been removed, e.g. slavery and only white male landowners can vote. Others continue to exist, e.g. the Electoral College and each state gets two Senators. In recent decades, gerrymandering by both major parties and voter suppression, primarily by Republicans have been added to these structural impediments to make the United States even less of a democratic republic. Capitalism has failed us politically because as it is practiced in the United States, capitalism protects and enhances the money and power of the already rich and powerful at the expense of all the others and has, therefore, encouraged this movement away from a true democratic republic.
Electoral campaigns in the United States are bribery contests. They are not at all democratic. According to the Pew Research Center, the percentage of American adults who contribute to a political party, campaign or organization has grown from 11% in 1992 to 15% in 2016 and 32% of households with income over $150,000 make such a contribution compared to just 7% of those with family income of less than $30,000 (here). Making political contributions is for the wealthy. According to Open Secrets, only 0.68% of US adults made political contributions in excess of $200 in 2016. Of the $4,533,700,000 in political contributions in 2016, $2,606,200,000 or 57.5% were given by just 45,129 people or 0.018% of US adults. The Open Secrets website has lots of very interesting and disturbing data (here). If you have time, take a look.
There can be no logical or intellectually honest argument that our elected officials are not impacted by the people who make big contributions more than they are by those who make little or no contributions. Consider for example that in the days leading up to the passage of Trump's tax bill, somewhere around 55% of the American people we opposed to the law and about one-third were in favor of the law. Nevertheless, Congress passed it because the big Republican donors demanded it. Or consider that when the FCC repealed the net neutrality rules 80+% of Americans were in favor of keeping them, including over 70% of Republicans, but the big Republican donors demanded the repeal. I could go on and on, but you can provide examples of your own.
While there is some debate around the edges of the amount of influence of money in our elections, there is a clear consensus that it is extremely influential, particularly in state and local races. Capitalism in the United States has led to gross inequality in both income and wealth and hence power, including the ability to contribute to and hence influence the outcome of elections. Capitalism has allowed rich donors the ability to unduly influence local elections which has enabled state legislatures to gerrymander both state and congressional districts. This gerrymandering in recent elections has led to the Republicans winning far more seats in state legislatures and Congress than the number of people voting for them (in the aggregate) would justify.
Here are a couple of paragraphs from an Associated Press analysis (here):
We should try to remove the influence of money from politics, but money will always equate to power. Our form of capitalism protects and enhances the wealth (and therefore power) of the already rich (white) and prevents all others from achieving a level of income or wealth to challenge the economic and political status quo. We need to constrain our current capitalism so that it provides for true equality of opportunity which is the only way that we will be able to say that capitalism as practiced in the United States is an economic system that advances the economic interests and provides better living conditions for all in a sustainable manner. How to accomplish that result is the topic of another post.
Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal
In my last post, I said that capitalism as practiced in the United States has failed us both economically and politically, but deferred the discussion of its failure politically to this post. The United States is supposed to be a democratic republic, i.e. a country where the majority rules except as limited by its constitution. In the United States, our constitution has always contained a number of very un-democratic features. Some of these features have been removed, e.g. slavery and only white male landowners can vote. Others continue to exist, e.g. the Electoral College and each state gets two Senators. In recent decades, gerrymandering by both major parties and voter suppression, primarily by Republicans have been added to these structural impediments to make the United States even less of a democratic republic. Capitalism has failed us politically because as it is practiced in the United States, capitalism protects and enhances the money and power of the already rich and powerful at the expense of all the others and has, therefore, encouraged this movement away from a true democratic republic.
Electoral campaigns in the United States are bribery contests. They are not at all democratic. According to the Pew Research Center, the percentage of American adults who contribute to a political party, campaign or organization has grown from 11% in 1992 to 15% in 2016 and 32% of households with income over $150,000 make such a contribution compared to just 7% of those with family income of less than $30,000 (here). Making political contributions is for the wealthy. According to Open Secrets, only 0.68% of US adults made political contributions in excess of $200 in 2016. Of the $4,533,700,000 in political contributions in 2016, $2,606,200,000 or 57.5% were given by just 45,129 people or 0.018% of US adults. The Open Secrets website has lots of very interesting and disturbing data (here). If you have time, take a look.
There can be no logical or intellectually honest argument that our elected officials are not impacted by the people who make big contributions more than they are by those who make little or no contributions. Consider for example that in the days leading up to the passage of Trump's tax bill, somewhere around 55% of the American people we opposed to the law and about one-third were in favor of the law. Nevertheless, Congress passed it because the big Republican donors demanded it. Or consider that when the FCC repealed the net neutrality rules 80+% of Americans were in favor of keeping them, including over 70% of Republicans, but the big Republican donors demanded the repeal. I could go on and on, but you can provide examples of your own.
While there is some debate around the edges of the amount of influence of money in our elections, there is a clear consensus that it is extremely influential, particularly in state and local races. Capitalism in the United States has led to gross inequality in both income and wealth and hence power, including the ability to contribute to and hence influence the outcome of elections. Capitalism has allowed rich donors the ability to unduly influence local elections which has enabled state legislatures to gerrymander both state and congressional districts. This gerrymandering in recent elections has led to the Republicans winning far more seats in state legislatures and Congress than the number of people voting for them (in the aggregate) would justify.
Here are a couple of paragraphs from an Associated Press analysis (here):
The AP scrutinized the outcomes of all 435 U.S. House races and about 4,700 state House and Assembly seats up for election last year using a new statistical method of calculating partisan advantage. It’s designed to detect cases in which one party may have won, widened or retained its grip on power through political gerrymandering.The analysis found four times as many states with Republican-skewed state House or Assembly districts than Democratic ones. Among the two dozen most populated states that determine the vast majority of Congress, there were nearly three times as many with Republican-tilted U.S. House districts.Traditional battlegrounds such as Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Florida and Virginia were among those with significant Republican advantages in their U.S. or state House races. All had districts drawn by Republicans after the last Census in 2010.The AP analysis also found that Republicans won as many as 22 additional U.S. House seats over what would have been expected based on the average vote share in congressional districts across the country. That helped provide the GOP with a comfortable majority over Democrats instead of a narrow one.While gerrymandering often has racial overtones because people of color tend to vote for candidates from the Democratic Party, voter suppression efforts lead by state legislatures are more overtly racial and with the same effect to keep the rich (primarily white) in power.
We should try to remove the influence of money from politics, but money will always equate to power. Our form of capitalism protects and enhances the wealth (and therefore power) of the already rich (white) and prevents all others from achieving a level of income or wealth to challenge the economic and political status quo. We need to constrain our current capitalism so that it provides for true equality of opportunity which is the only way that we will be able to say that capitalism as practiced in the United States is an economic system that advances the economic interests and provides better living conditions for all in a sustainable manner. How to accomplish that result is the topic of another post.
Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal
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