Thread by @Noahpinion

1/Someone on Twitter asked me what my top three priorities to boost American material prosperity would be.

So I wrote a @bopinion post about it.

They are:
1. National health insurance
2. Cheap housing
3. Sectoral bargaining for stronger unions

bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…

2/There are a lot of big policy ideas floating around this country. All of them on the political left, I should note.

Universal basic income, a federal $15 minimum wage, a job guarantee, child benefits, free college...

So why did I pick these three?

3/Let's start with national health insurance.

Our health care system is just a total mess. It's a source of terror, of catastrophe, of massive expense. It's hideously inefficient. It lags behind all the other rich countries.

commonwealthfund.org/publications/i…

4/How can you live a good life in America when you're forced to be in constant terror of injury, illness, surprise bills, medical bankruptcy, and loss of insurance?

You can't.

And how can we give people good health care when it costs so damn much?

We can't.

5/National health insurance will attack both problems at once. It will provide people with much more safety and security, while also attacking the cost problem.

Just lower the Medicare age to 0!

bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…

6/The Medicare system already exists. It already works. And we already know it keeps costs down.

So let's just use it! Use what we have! Just lower the age from 65 to 0!!

7/Another thing that Americans just can't live good lives without is HOUSING.

Housing has been getting more expensive since the bubble crashed.

And it's much worse in the big cities, where the good jobs are!

8/Fixing housing won't be easy. It'll take a lot of state-level reforms.

My favorite idea is to use eminent domain to have the government build new housing in prime areas, then sell those new units cheaply to first-time and low-income homebuyers.

bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…

9/This is basically what Singapore does, and it's basically what America did with the G.I. Bill (but then stopped doing).

bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…

10/So those are the two most essential things Americans lack: Health care and housing.

But we also need higher wages.

11/The best way to get higher wages is a revival of unions.

And the best way (by far!) to revive unions is SECTORAL BARGAINING, in which all workers in a sector benefit from the wages that the unions negotiate.

bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…

12/Sectoral bargaining really works! It removes the competitive disadvantage for unionized shops, making unions much less scary for business owners. It raises wages across the board. And it might even boost productivity!

papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…

13/So there are my three things.

Yes, I know there are other things Americans need. And other good policies that should be implemented.

But just to have health care, housing, and good wages...that would mean so much to Americans.

14/And these policies have the added benefit of mostly not requiring higher taxes -- except for national health insurance, which pays for itself via reduced employer-side premium contributions and out-of-pocket costs.

So we can avoid big fights over taxes vs. deficits.

15/Just those three things -- health care, housing, and good wages -- would go a long way toward restoring the American middle class, and making Americans feel like the system was materially benefitting them.

(end)

bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…