Comments on: “Binding Us Together” by Michael DeChiara, Anne Rosen & Meg Kroeplin http://commonhealth.wbur.org/guest-contributors/2007/05/binding-us-together-by-michael-dechiara-anne-rosen-meg-kroeplin/ CommonHealth Fri, 19 Mar 2010 17:52:41 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: jimmy http://commonhealth.wbur.org/guest-contributors/2007/05/binding-us-together-by-michael-dechiara-anne-rosen-meg-kroeplin/comment-page-1/#comment-2439 jimmy Sat, 02 Jun 2007 04:47:45 +0000 http://www.wbur.org/weblogs/commonhealth/?p=118#comment-2439 The poetry in this is that the more Massachusetts metamorphoses over the years into this ungainly, inbred, massively overpaid and underproductive state ogre--now inbreeding even with local health corporations--the only bite left is DOR. But the Connector's DOR pinch won't help the state when revenue drops off a cliff in the next several years, as layoffs escalate with a withering national finance picture, as mortgage origination bankruptcies snowball, more people lose their properties in foreclosures, out-migration picks up, and more storefronts close. The money will have just evaporated: with the result that financial jobs will also be cut en-masse, further exacerbating the realities of the state economy's stagnation and decline (recession). And this poverty will drive even more into Commonwealth Care, a construct that is--not figuratively, but literally--this state's gift to corporations. But back to the poetry: The more hundreds of thousands of dollars this state pays its employees (and there are thousands of them that this state compensates in this way), the less work seems to get done by many of them, and the further removed they seem to be from both their job definitions and their constituencies. So comparatively little work will get contributed by them. So you can presume they'll be of little help in this endeavor. Still it is a wonder that the businesses and individuals that are expected to just Hand-It-Over in increasingly greater amounts, will for much longer put up with the kinds of extravagances and opulence that are only most recently represented by the 498,000,000 dollar ten-story addition just announced at one local hospital. By comparison, $300,000,000 will build a 50-story luxury condominium tower. That's almost $200,000,000 less than what's just been announced. And that's only one (1) Boston location. (Other health care groups have made other multi-million dollar announcements elsewhere in the city.) Then you have to staff it, light it, heat and cool it, and maintain it. Now to pay for the opulence, they want money from you. They'll try to get it from your employer as well. (If that succeeds, the employers have much higher costs to foist onto a hoped-for consumer that is economically underwater. More layoffs follow.) And you can bet the health empire building plan announcements have just started; the building never stops. (While the state is reported to lose population.) It is endorsed by a state populace that inhales its own health marketing propaganda. And you'll check your pockets and your bank accounts to pay for it, and there will be nothing there. The poetry in this is that the more Massachusetts metamorphoses over the years into this ungainly, inbred, massively overpaid and underproductive state ogre–now inbreeding even with local health corporations–the only bite left is DOR.

But the Connector’s DOR pinch won’t help the state when revenue drops off a cliff in the next several years, as layoffs escalate with a withering national finance picture, as mortgage origination bankruptcies snowball, more people lose their properties in foreclosures, out-migration picks up, and more storefronts close. The money will have just evaporated: with the result that financial jobs will also be cut en-masse, further exacerbating the realities of the state economy’s stagnation and decline (recession). And this poverty will drive even more into Commonwealth Care, a construct that is–not figuratively, but literally–this state’s gift to corporations.

But back to the poetry: The more hundreds of thousands of dollars this state pays its employees (and there are thousands of them that this state compensates in this way), the less work seems to get done by many of them, and the further removed they seem to be from both their job definitions and their constituencies. So comparatively little work will get contributed by them. So you can presume they’ll be of little help in this endeavor.

Still it is a wonder that the businesses and individuals that are expected to just Hand-It-Over in increasingly greater amounts, will for much longer put up with the kinds of extravagances and opulence that are only most recently represented by the 498,000,000 dollar ten-story addition just announced at one local hospital.

By comparison, $300,000,000 will build a 50-story luxury condominium tower. That’s almost $200,000,000 less than what’s just been announced. And that’s only one (1) Boston location. (Other health care groups have made other multi-million dollar announcements elsewhere in the city.) Then you have to staff it, light it, heat and cool it, and maintain it.

Now to pay for the opulence, they want money from you. They’ll try to get it from your employer as well. (If that succeeds, the employers have much higher costs to foist onto a hoped-for consumer that is economically underwater. More layoffs follow.)

And you can bet the health empire building plan announcements have just started; the building never stops. (While the state is reported to lose population.) It is endorsed by a state populace that inhales its own health marketing propaganda.

And you’ll check your pockets and your bank accounts to pay for it, and there will be nothing there.

]]>