A Legacy of Slavery Hinders Healthcare Reform
Alex Blaze says that America is still paying for the sin of slavery and quotes Nathan Glazer from this paper to explain why working class whites are really worried about a big government takeover of healthcare:
AGS [Alesina, Glazear and Sacerdote] report, using the World Values Survey, that “opinions and beliefs about the poor differ sharply between the United States and Europe. In Europe the poor are generally thought to be unfortunate, but not personally responsible for their own condition. For example, according to the World Values Survey, whereas 70 % of West Germans express the belief that people are poor because of imperfections in society, not their own laziness, 70 % of Americans hold the opposite view…. 71 % of Americans but only 40% of Europeans said …poor people could work their way out of poverty.” […]
“Racial fragmentation and the disproportionate representation of ethnic minorities among the poor played a major role in limiting redistribution…. Our bottom line is that Americans redistribute less than Europeans for three reasons: because the majority of Americans believe that redistribution favors racial minorities, because Americans believe that they live in an open and fair society, and that if someone is poor it is his or her own fault, and because the political system is geared toward preventing redistribution. In fact the political system is likely to be endogenous to these basic American beliefs.”(p. 61) “Endogenous” is economics-ese for saying we have the political system we do because we prefer the results it gives, such as limiting redistribution to the blacks.
Thus the racial factor as well as a wider net of social beliefs play a key role in why Americans don’t care about income inequality, and why, not caring, they have no great interest in expanding the welfare state.
Alex sees this as an example of how racism hurts us all. “I know this explanation isn’t 100% of what’s going on, but I can’t help but look at people protesting against health care and think that we’re suffering from some sort of deep cultural sickness.”
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13 Responses to “A Legacy of Slavery Hinders Healthcare Reform”
Hmmm? So it's a deep cultural sickness to believe that people can and should take responsibility for their own lives? I'd suggest the opposite – that the more European idea that people cannot better themselves is a direct result of their historically class-based society, a sickness that we avoided.
While it may in part be a legacy of slavery I think it is as much a legacy of Calvinism – you are poor because you are undeserving. Calvinism may have started in Europe but it took root in the US. C-Street/The Family is an example of super Calvanism in the US.
I tried to read Glazer's paper (with some difficulty, for some reason my Acrobat didn't like it much) and it seems to be mostly opinion than based on evidence. My opinion would be that the belief that people are mostly responsible for their own situations has been widely held for centuries, and the link to racism is weak.
I believe that attaching racist motives to those who disagree with the current Health Care Reform legislation is unfair and unhelpful. An argument can be made against further government regulation of the Health Care industry on purely economic and Constitutional grounds.
Joe, this post / paper, in combination with some other dialogue recently on TMV, called for more response than I could reasonably fit in a comment thread.
“I Don't Understand Why You Don't Understand.“
I see a lot of opinion here from Glazer and Blaze, but no evidence to support it. This 'link' to slavery is largely of their own making. Glazer's bias towards the European model is also pretty evident. He also discounts his own conclusion when talks about “”racial fractionalization” (p. 46), which is not very convincing to me” and the fact that beliefs and values are more important.
“West Germans” great…now we are using cold war polling data. I bet if you did the same survey in Gemany right now, you would get vastly different numbers.
“because Americans believe that they live in an open and fair society, and that if someone is poor it is his or her own fault”
This is more the reason than anything and most of us understand that this isn't completely true.
“Alex sees this as an example of how racism hurts us all. “I know this explanation isn’t 100% of what’s going on, but I can’t help but look at people protesting against health care and think that we’re suffering from some sort of deep cultural sickness.”
yes. . . .we are suffering from a deep cultural sickness. . . sick trying to fix sick. . . and getting sicker. . . our uncompromising rigid beliefs are killing many and our Nation. . .
As I posted in PM's thread… Glenn Beck did recently make a comment that health care reform was based on “reparations.” And he continues to make similar comments. While I can definitely argue that it's not a majority view among opponents to reform, I'm not going to pretend that the racist comments and arguments haven't been made.
“For example, according to the World Values Survey, whereas 70 % of West Germans express the belief that people are poor because of imperfections in society, not their own laziness, 70 % of Americans hold the opposite view…. 71 % of Americans but only 40% of Europeans said …poor people could work their way out of poverty.” […]
Very interesting perspectives. Societies should ensure that there are as many opportunities as possible for people at the lowest income levels to work their way up the social ladder so there is no excuse for failure. Redistribution of wealth is definitely not the solution to poverty.
ja_guide, do you mean to suggest that redistribution of opportunity is the solution to poverty?
FuzzyFace – that answer was brilliant! What has our country come to? Every time you disagree with liberals they now call you a racist – how can that be constructive? Throughout most of my adult life I have been a social democrat verging on outright communist but as this proliferation in unfounded claims of racism has reached horrific proportions I have disavowed my former allegiances. To me it appears that there may be a racism lurking beneath the surface of slanderous claims made by or on behalf of the minority population. Such dismissive allegations might be motivated by a hatred of the perceived majority. How else is one to interpret such statements as “…the healthcare opponents are not concerned about the effects on our national debt, they have a burning rage against a man of color being at the helm…” HELLO? Did the idiot saying that consider thinking before they spoke? WTF – if you disagree with the president you're a racist? If that were logic then applying it to the opponents of Bush would only validate my concerns!
Almoderate – as I've said elsewhere get your Beck quotes correct!
Let's reiterate:
- Obama is on tape saying 'reparations don't go far enough'
- Beck asks the question 'is public option healthcare a veiled attempt to get reparations in kind (conceivably a type of reparation Obama may like more because of the permanency once implemented)?