Non-Republican capitalism

There's about to be an interesting revolution in medical care in New York, one that reveals the extent to which weve been living in a society where capitalism = exploitation.  That most of us have been giving in to exploitation doesn't excuse the distortion in which corporations have become, not just people but a superclass of "people" with which our government cooperates.

We have been living in the world of the increasingly radical right and a distortion of the marketplace, a world in which government (and, of course, the Supreme Court) aligns itself with that superclass.  Now, in New York City and elsewhere, there's a shift going on.

In a bold experiment in performance pay, complaints from patients at New York City’s public hospitals and other measures of their care — like how long before they are discharged and how they fare afterward — will be reflected in doctors’ paychecks under a plan being negotiated by the physicians and their hospitals.

The proposal represents a broad national push away from the traditional model of rewarding doctors for the volume of services they order, a system that has been criticized for promoting unnecessary treatment. In the wake of changes laid out in the Affordable Care Act, public and private hospitals are already preparing to have their income tied partly to patient outcomes and cost containment, but the city’s plan extends that financial incentive to the front line, the doctors directly responsible for treatment. It also shows how the new law could change longstanding relationships, giving more power to some of the poorest and most vulnerable patients over doctors who run their care. ...NYT

The importance of the Affordable Care Act -- "Obamacare" -- can't be underestimated in its ability to shine a light on how Americans can take back the marketplace.
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Here's another example of what happens when we leave our future in the hands of a corrupted team of "super people," our government/corporate buddies.

Susan Crawford has written an analysis of how far America lags behind other nations in the wide availability of inexpensive (by our standards) broadband in her new book, "Captive Audience: The Telecom Industry and Monopoly Power in the New Gilded Age."  She was interviewed on NPR the other day. Here's one comment on the interview:

Good Morning,

I'm an American living in Sweden.

The Swedish Government has made High-Speed Internet Access (infrastructure build-out) a high priority policy issue.

There is very little competition in Sweden for customers to gain access to High Speed Internet access, however, the companies who provide Internet service, do so with the desire of providing reasonably priced High Speed Internet Service for ALL.

It is also worth noting, High Speed Internet access is nearly ubiquitous, even in the rural areas, if they have a land-line phone, ten they can get access to HIGH SPEED INTERNET. Another question may be, what is HIGH? SPEED INTERNET, what speeds would be consider HIGH SPEED.

What is surprising in the United States is the cost for, what I would consider inferior Internet Service. High cost, low connection speeds.

I live in the suburbs of Malmo, Sweden, a roughly 25 minute train ride from Copenhagen, Denmark. I have Wireless High Speed Internet Service, yes WIRELESS, not through my mobile phone, a regularly available service like WIRED service. My top WIRELESS supported speed is 64Mbps (4G), to be fair, I rarely get that full speed, but routinely avg roughly 22.5 -27Mbps. Remember this is WIRELESS! I can take my portable router device (the size of an iPod) put it in my pocket and jump on the train and surf the Internet with my laptop or iPad device, then go back home and surf like I never left home.

The price for WIRELESS ranges from 25-40 usd and the price for WIRED (VDSL/Fiber) ranges from 45-60 usd. This wired service includes phone service as well.

The United States is a vast country and yes it may be expensive for Cable and Telco provider to build an infrastructure for this type of service to be provided across the whole country, but lets not kid ourselves, if Sweden and its partners can provide this service, why can't the United States and its partner do the same?

Here's a recent infographic showing broadband coverage in the US, brought to us by Republican capitalism.