Links for Friday, September 8
More tales of appetite, the universal wolf
Today’s links form a varied collection, though the common thread of most is greed, the “universal wolf” of Shakespeare’s description, the beast that “at last eats up himself.” For one example, see the image of Capitalism above.
Links
Five links and a musical treat for your viewing and listening pleasure.
• Political Cartoons: Art Young (David Apatoff)
Art Young's 1911 cartoon about capitalist greed needs no words to say what it took Karl Marx 106,444 words to say in Das Kapital.
For the cartoon, see above. Notice the cliff’s edge the man is threatening to fall over. It’s not just the pathological gluttony; it’s the risk. Find more of Art Young’s work here, here, and here.
From Wikipedia on his conversion to socialism:
Young started out as a generally apolitical Republican, but gradually became interested in left wing ideas, and by 1906 or so considered himself a socialist. He began to associate with such political leftists as John Sloan and Piet Vlag, with both of whom he would work at the radical socialist monthly The Masses. He became firmly ensconced in the radical environment of Greenwich Village after moving there in 1910.
Naturally, he and his colleagues at The Masses ended up being charged under the Espionage Act. After two trials the defendants were acquitted, though in the first they narrowly escaped conviction, 11-1.
His attack on the AP (below), which Young considered an agent of capitalist propaganda, is notable, perhaps for modern reasons.
File under “Appetite, the universal wolf.”
• Medicare for All, Not Medicare Advantage (F. Douglas Stephenson, Common Dreams, via Naked Capitalism)
An excellent, comprehensive and accessible go-to piece on the evils of Medicare Advantage, in the context of “The Medicare for All Act of 2023,” House bill H.R. 3421 and Senate Bill S. 1655.
Among the essay’s many points:
Dismantling Medicare With Medicare Advantage: Over 50% of Medicare beneficiaries now have for-profit corporations in charge of their care through Medicare Advantage (MA). Insurance companies are paid handsomely for these plans, and much of that money goes to corporate profits instead of care. The companies running MA plans want to take over Medicare entirely, leaving patients with no option but to give their money to private insurers.
And:
2. What Is a ‘Direct Contracting Entity’ and ‘REACH’?
This program hands traditional Medicare to Wall Street by inserting a profit-seeking middlemen [sic] in Traditional Medicare to “manage” care for seniors and people with disabilities, allowing companies to keep up to 40% of what they don’t spend on care as overhead and profit. Beneficiaries are assigned[,] without their knowledge or consent[,] automatically to a ‘Direct Contracting Entity’ (DCE) if their primary care physician has joined one. The only way for beneficiaries to opt out is to find a different primary care physician.
Pay attention to “direct contracting entities.” These are relatively new, both Trump and Biden support them, and you could be in one and never know it, even if you’re not signed up for Medicare Advantage.
File under “He who gives the most bribes wins.”