When I read your work - the Casandra in my head shuts up for once and things make sense again. You untangle our domestic tragedy - giving us tools and hope. I was never more happy to subscribe !
I am convinced that we need to remove specific industries from the free-market loop. Healthcare, utilities, and education are better run by government, whether federal, state, or local, as not-for-profits. Our government needs to be more responsive to the 99% of the country, instead of the wealthiest 1%.
Absolutely! Things all people need (not a complete list): healthcare, utilities, housing, food, education, internet access, work, and appreciation for a community that provides the basic necessities.
Many things differ only by small degrees of scale. Corbin has the talent to create momentous thought and dialogue combined with potential solutions. Compared to the outrage, blame, and self aggrandizement of other so-called leaders. This post on healthcare is a good example but, might have been titled "...we've done it before...", it doesn't matter.
One of my pet peeves discussed here is the qualifications required for "non-profit".
We need a better system of both measurement and qualification for awarding a organization the title "non-profit'. A few ideas might be to use the ratio of CEO & management pay, benefits, and, bonuses to those of the workers, another is a way to measure contribution relative to cost.
Fix my other pet peeve of "auto-renew" subscriptions or allow donation based support and I'm all in. Substack is a great platform for powering human dialogue and progress.
Corbin, have you ever pitched any of your posts as an op ed to a major paper? This piece should be widely read! I agree with Margaret Reis that you would be a great candidate for office, but on the other hand, then who would there be to do the research and make the revelatory connections that are needed to go forward? You are doing the foundational political thought work that I have not seen anyone else doing in what I've read or listened to.
Corbin, this is the BEST article that I've read this year!!!! I'm also very familiar with Ashland and Medford, because my best college friend's father was born in a small town north of Medford in the Rogue River Valley.
Why not look at McKenzie Scott's Yield Giving website? You have done so much good research and worked out so many detailed plans. There could be a place there for your community-based plans. Her essays posted on the site are worth reading. They will give you a sense of where she's coming from, which maps with your instincts. They take open calls. I think that if there's a way, she has the will. You should check her out.
Thanks for suggesting McKenzie Scott's Yield Giving. I've heard about what she is doing, but never thought of it as a good resource for organizations that are doing some good to try to promote.
I have enjoyed Asante Ashland’s care for many years. It is/was a community hospital in the best way. The picture painted in this article is excellent. I will pass it on to the State House and Senate representatives.
I grew up in rural Texas. I am old enough to remember these co-ops and public options very well. They weren't just the services themselves. These entities bound small communities together. You could say all the citizens had a real stake in their utilities. My family owned and operated a municipal service area telephone company in town. This was between 1949 and 1993 when de-regulation hit and we sold. Telecommunications were heavily regulated at the time we operated it. The PUC determined what a reasonable profit would be. Rate increases required significant proof in front of the PUC. It was sort of a hybrid public option.
Using my experience as a kid running around the company, there are also social and community benefits to publicly owned local services. The phone company was not just a phone network. It was a pre-internet network. We had a switchboard with live operators. People called the operators and got directions, movie times, and calls from latchkey kids with questions like can they have a coke. Does anyone besides me remember before 911 services when you dialed "0" for an emergency and the operator plugged you into the hospital, the sheriff, etc?
Public options/co-ops/hybrids are major economic engines. They hire people into dignified and meaningful work. Without all the corporate political BS, people enjoy working there. Employees play dominoes and cards on their breaks. They blend seamlessly between high school football and work, church, etc. In the days before big box stores, our phone company purchased office supplies and other goods and services locally. [If we didn't, they would hear about it and chew us out.]
I could tell a lot of funny stories about the town and the telephone company. It was basically Mayberry. So, I love what Corbin is putting down here. I want the youngsters out there to realize he is really on to something here with the public options idea. And the beauty of it is, all we have to do is pull out the New Deal legislation and update for today.
The phone company's slogan was "Service is our only product". Let's get back to that idea.
Hi Corbin, great piece. I'm trying to find a video interview you did maybe 2 years ago where you laid out the alignment between Crypto & Israel - do you know what show / podcast that was on?
Americans just need to decide if we need the obscenely rich and their unregulated rapacious corporations or if we want to live as a free people in the country we own. By reform or revolution, the rich must be broken to heel, or we will just be slaves in a land our forefathers fought and died for.
Corbin, your reporting about the extraction (and everything) is really excellent and helps me see the general contours of the problem, but I've got to admit I can't figure out the CTA... what can we do? It was already an uphill battle against the Democratic Party establishment, much less the Republicans when things were "normal".
They are not "normal" now.
And Corporate/OnePercent extraction has been SO one-way since Reagan and and resistance to it in a free-fall since the DLC teed up Bill Clinton to declare "the era of Big Government is over", kick Unions to the curb, throw the Democratic Party solidly in bed with Wall St./Silicon Valley Privatizing EVERYTHING in sight!
ALL the energy had been about shrinking Government and Tax-breaking the Corporate/OnePercent while solutions have been on life support for decades already. Now that T***p/DOGE "deconstruction of the administrative state" has made government intervention in the market look as bombed out as Gaza...
WTF can we DO?!?
Speaking of that, I got to the end of the article just so damn impressed with your work when I read the the "...pledges to launch the SuperPAC" PS I was ready to go, but... where is the CTA button linking me donating?!? THANK You for the work you are doing!!!
I’m trying to get the support to launch it before I ask for small dollar donations. The original launch goal was $500k in seed funding and since Monday I’ve gotten to $255k. I hope to get there soon.
Better start relying on those small donations buddy. Thats where the heart is anyway as far as I can see and certainly we have already donated to less worthy causes to those who can't even respond to us. That says it all.
I agree a hundred percent but I want to make sure the plane can fly before asking people that have less to spare. Last thing I want is to get people to help fund something that doesn’t deliver. Gotta have a shot at change. I need to be able to confidently tell people, “donate to this, I think it has a chance to get off the ground and make a difference. “
That opened my eyes. Wow. So we're spending more than everyone else but so much sicker? It's our taxpayer money that is being siphoned off for hospital profit? That's disgusting.
Is there anyone who's seriously pushing Medicare for all? Is it just Bernie?
20-30-40 % of Congress have cosponsored Medicare for All bills repeatedly. The current idiocy over ACA shows how broken the system is. I refuse to support any new candidate unless they clearly state they will support.YOU CAN ALSO!
The finest call for unity I have read. I support this approach for all the infrastructures we need. And thank you doubly for explaining how the healthcare extraction system works. It isn't enough to say we need Medicare for all, no insult to Bernie. We need help to know how. This helps.
This is a great piece, and what tipped me over into becoming a subscriber. Your research was good and though you didn't mention it here (re: healthcare), you have elsewhere talked about another part of the "fix" is getting rid of insurance middle-people. The concrete example of Ashland hospital was excellent. It reminded me of how my company (in the day) SDRC was acquired and sold by some corporate sharks to UGS, and then UGS had a downturn, even though our business was strong. Stick with it, Corbin. And thanks!
"This is how America has always built essential services when the market failed. Federal support. Local ownership. Community accountability. We did it with electricity. We do it with agriculture. We do it with water systems and public libraries and the postal service." Great reporting here. As always, follow the money. Extraction is the right word.
The general idea of "Federal support. Local ownership." is one of the great strengths of the transformative Federal Job Guarantee. The Feds, who are the currency issuers, pay people to do work that local people decide is needed. Need to clear a vacant lot? Need extra responsible adults in classrooms? Local parks need help? Whatever the community decides. Not the paternalistic elites. Powerful stuff, and as it would shift power back to Labor by providing a hard floor under which no one who wants to work could fall. Lots to do on many different issues, but I think the FJG is a political winner, and the first step for building political strength for decades.
You should be running for office. I would vote for you.
When I read your work - the Casandra in my head shuts up for once and things make sense again. You untangle our domestic tragedy - giving us tools and hope. I was never more happy to subscribe !
Thank you for saying so.
I am convinced that we need to remove specific industries from the free-market loop. Healthcare, utilities, and education are better run by government, whether federal, state, or local, as not-for-profits. Our government needs to be more responsive to the 99% of the country, instead of the wealthiest 1%.
Absolutely! Things all people need (not a complete list): healthcare, utilities, housing, food, education, internet access, work, and appreciation for a community that provides the basic necessities.
Many things differ only by small degrees of scale. Corbin has the talent to create momentous thought and dialogue combined with potential solutions. Compared to the outrage, blame, and self aggrandizement of other so-called leaders. This post on healthcare is a good example but, might have been titled "...we've done it before...", it doesn't matter.
One of my pet peeves discussed here is the qualifications required for "non-profit".
We need a better system of both measurement and qualification for awarding a organization the title "non-profit'. A few ideas might be to use the ratio of CEO & management pay, benefits, and, bonuses to those of the workers, another is a way to measure contribution relative to cost.
Fix my other pet peeve of "auto-renew" subscriptions or allow donation based support and I'm all in. Substack is a great platform for powering human dialogue and progress.
Government does have a purpose much like that proposed by Lincoln in 1854. We need that kind of purpose to return to our government no matter what the party. (https://housedivided.dickinson.edu/sites/lincoln/fragment-on-government-july-1-1854/)
Otherwise, fire their ######!
Keep up the great work Corbin!!!!
Thanks Alan. I hate the auto-renew model too.
Lots of good points about the non-profits. It's a fraud-friendly system as-is.
Corbin, have you ever pitched any of your posts as an op ed to a major paper? This piece should be widely read! I agree with Margaret Reis that you would be a great candidate for office, but on the other hand, then who would there be to do the research and make the revelatory connections that are needed to go forward? You are doing the foundational political thought work that I have not seen anyone else doing in what I've read or listened to.
Corbin, this is the BEST article that I've read this year!!!! I'm also very familiar with Ashland and Medford, because my best college friend's father was born in a small town north of Medford in the Rogue River Valley.
Wow! Thanks so much.
Why not look at McKenzie Scott's Yield Giving website? You have done so much good research and worked out so many detailed plans. There could be a place there for your community-based plans. Her essays posted on the site are worth reading. They will give you a sense of where she's coming from, which maps with your instincts. They take open calls. I think that if there's a way, she has the will. You should check her out.
Thanks for suggesting McKenzie Scott's Yield Giving. I've heard about what she is doing, but never thought of it as a good resource for organizations that are doing some good to try to promote.
I have enjoyed Asante Ashland’s care for many years. It is/was a community hospital in the best way. The picture painted in this article is excellent. I will pass it on to the State House and Senate representatives.
I grew up in rural Texas. I am old enough to remember these co-ops and public options very well. They weren't just the services themselves. These entities bound small communities together. You could say all the citizens had a real stake in their utilities. My family owned and operated a municipal service area telephone company in town. This was between 1949 and 1993 when de-regulation hit and we sold. Telecommunications were heavily regulated at the time we operated it. The PUC determined what a reasonable profit would be. Rate increases required significant proof in front of the PUC. It was sort of a hybrid public option.
Using my experience as a kid running around the company, there are also social and community benefits to publicly owned local services. The phone company was not just a phone network. It was a pre-internet network. We had a switchboard with live operators. People called the operators and got directions, movie times, and calls from latchkey kids with questions like can they have a coke. Does anyone besides me remember before 911 services when you dialed "0" for an emergency and the operator plugged you into the hospital, the sheriff, etc?
Public options/co-ops/hybrids are major economic engines. They hire people into dignified and meaningful work. Without all the corporate political BS, people enjoy working there. Employees play dominoes and cards on their breaks. They blend seamlessly between high school football and work, church, etc. In the days before big box stores, our phone company purchased office supplies and other goods and services locally. [If we didn't, they would hear about it and chew us out.]
I could tell a lot of funny stories about the town and the telephone company. It was basically Mayberry. So, I love what Corbin is putting down here. I want the youngsters out there to realize he is really on to something here with the public options idea. And the beauty of it is, all we have to do is pull out the New Deal legislation and update for today.
The phone company's slogan was "Service is our only product". Let's get back to that idea.
Hi Corbin, great piece. I'm trying to find a video interview you did maybe 2 years ago where you laid out the alignment between Crypto & Israel - do you know what show / podcast that was on?
Americans just need to decide if we need the obscenely rich and their unregulated rapacious corporations or if we want to live as a free people in the country we own. By reform or revolution, the rich must be broken to heel, or we will just be slaves in a land our forefathers fought and died for.
Corbin, your reporting about the extraction (and everything) is really excellent and helps me see the general contours of the problem, but I've got to admit I can't figure out the CTA... what can we do? It was already an uphill battle against the Democratic Party establishment, much less the Republicans when things were "normal".
They are not "normal" now.
And Corporate/OnePercent extraction has been SO one-way since Reagan and and resistance to it in a free-fall since the DLC teed up Bill Clinton to declare "the era of Big Government is over", kick Unions to the curb, throw the Democratic Party solidly in bed with Wall St./Silicon Valley Privatizing EVERYTHING in sight!
ALL the energy had been about shrinking Government and Tax-breaking the Corporate/OnePercent while solutions have been on life support for decades already. Now that T***p/DOGE "deconstruction of the administrative state" has made government intervention in the market look as bombed out as Gaza...
WTF can we DO?!?
Speaking of that, I got to the end of the article just so damn impressed with your work when I read the the "...pledges to launch the SuperPAC" PS I was ready to go, but... where is the CTA button linking me donating?!? THANK You for the work you are doing!!!
I’m trying to get the support to launch it before I ask for small dollar donations. The original launch goal was $500k in seed funding and since Monday I’ve gotten to $255k. I hope to get there soon.
Better start relying on those small donations buddy. Thats where the heart is anyway as far as I can see and certainly we have already donated to less worthy causes to those who can't even respond to us. That says it all.
I agree a hundred percent but I want to make sure the plane can fly before asking people that have less to spare. Last thing I want is to get people to help fund something that doesn’t deliver. Gotta have a shot at change. I need to be able to confidently tell people, “donate to this, I think it has a chance to get off the ground and make a difference. “
Don't you think we already know the risk? We already been risking it for a lot less hope than what you've been able to give.
That opened my eyes. Wow. So we're spending more than everyone else but so much sicker? It's our taxpayer money that is being siphoned off for hospital profit? That's disgusting.
Is there anyone who's seriously pushing Medicare for all? Is it just Bernie?
Healthcare on Wall Street has reached a market cap of $8 Trillon.
People are afraid of the corporate/investor class!
20-30-40 % of Congress have cosponsored Medicare for All bills repeatedly. The current idiocy over ACA shows how broken the system is. I refuse to support any new candidate unless they clearly state they will support.YOU CAN ALSO!
The finest call for unity I have read. I support this approach for all the infrastructures we need. And thank you doubly for explaining how the healthcare extraction system works. It isn't enough to say we need Medicare for all, no insult to Bernie. We need help to know how. This helps.
This is a great piece, and what tipped me over into becoming a subscriber. Your research was good and though you didn't mention it here (re: healthcare), you have elsewhere talked about another part of the "fix" is getting rid of insurance middle-people. The concrete example of Ashland hospital was excellent. It reminded me of how my company (in the day) SDRC was acquired and sold by some corporate sharks to UGS, and then UGS had a downturn, even though our business was strong. Stick with it, Corbin. And thanks!
"This is how America has always built essential services when the market failed. Federal support. Local ownership. Community accountability. We did it with electricity. We do it with agriculture. We do it with water systems and public libraries and the postal service." Great reporting here. As always, follow the money. Extraction is the right word.
The general idea of "Federal support. Local ownership." is one of the great strengths of the transformative Federal Job Guarantee. The Feds, who are the currency issuers, pay people to do work that local people decide is needed. Need to clear a vacant lot? Need extra responsible adults in classrooms? Local parks need help? Whatever the community decides. Not the paternalistic elites. Powerful stuff, and as it would shift power back to Labor by providing a hard floor under which no one who wants to work could fall. Lots to do on many different issues, but I think the FJG is a political winner, and the first step for building political strength for decades.