Reading the News

I don't read news papers everyday as there is just not enough time to do that. Besides, news is available online to the larger part.

It is interesting to read in the Ann Arbor News, right in the middle of the first page, about embryonic stem cell research. I guess it is about time, if Michigan wants another chance of getting out of the woods.

Another article of interest is the Other Voices written by Lynn Howard Ehrle titled Automakers, others need to support universal Medicare. It is interesting because my own thoughts are that health care, just like utilities such as electricity, needs to become universally available with the advances of a society. We could argue that having clean water is a personal responsibility, like many politicians say that health care is. However, if we make that a responsibility, what difference is there between today and the days of Jesus roaming the land of Israel? Today in this country hospitals must care for the sick when they arrive in the doors of an ER. Who is responsible for the cost of providing those care without universal health care? The answer to that question seems to be simple and clear. We might have saved a few bucks on those who never make it to an ER, just like the Bush administration may have saved some money by leaving the New Orleans to their own peril. But I just don't believe that is most Americans want this country to be like.

Just as the article writes, if the auto industry does not have to pay the $1250 per vehicle on health care, they would have saved $10 billion. That alone may not save the industry, but at least it gives them a competitive edge against companies from overseas. The big three of Detroit are hardly the only ones that need that edge.