Absolute Zero: The Second Newsletter

Attached is the second edition of Absolute Zero, my new newsletter/publication and a companion to the Zero Hour radio/TV program. When I announced this newsletter, I asked whether people would like to receive it once or twice a week. The votes are in, and most of you wanted to receive it twice a week. For those of you who only wanted one, a couple of consoling thoughts: First, you don’t have to read both. And I’m pretty sure there will be weeks when I don’t manage to write two of them.

Here’s this week’s roundup. (It's shorter than the last one, also by popular demand):

HEALTH AND SURVIVAL

A 9/11 Every Day: I wrote an essay on the fact thousands of people are dying every day and no. one – not even on the left – seems to be behaving as if that were true. Our first priority must be to stop the dying as quickly as possible.

What should we be demanding? “After One Hundred 9/11's, Here Are 9 Life-Saving Actions Progressives Must Demand Now.”

Speaking of saving lives:

Medicare For All: The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) studied the economic impact of adopting Medicare For All. As Matt Bruenig explains, it concluded that Medicare For All would save between $412 billion and $732 billion in a single year (2030), depending on the plan design. If it also covered long-term care and treatments, costs would go up by $290 billion – but we would be fixing a terrible social and economic problem.

Tell me again: Why do people say we can’t afford it?

Vaccines for Vets: The Veterans’ Administration has 400,000 employees and provides medical care to 8 million veterans. So far, it’s only been issued 73,000 doses of the vaccine

The House just passed a $740 billion military spending bill, but only a small fraction of the VA’s facilities have the freezers needed to store the vaccine. But we “support the troops” …

WORKING IN THE USA

Dash to the Bottom: A DoorDash worker (they’re really employees, although the law doesn’t recognize them as such) would have to work for two entire days to buy a single share of the company’s stock. The company’s valued at $60 billion because these underpaid people are risking their lives every day during a pandemic.

Train wreck: From the Roosevelt Institute: “… training programs that focus on skills learning without addressing underlying labor market power dynamics between employers and workers can perpetuate existing inequalities.”

“Training for the jobs of the future” has always been a form of misdirection to distract us from the real issue: worker power. (I wrote about the “skills gap” myth for The American Prospect.)

Power play: An op-ed in the Financial Times argues:

“While policymakers complain that many of the companies these workers serve are too powerful, I can’t help but wonder whether the workers themselves aren’t even more powerful. A strike by UPS drivers and Amazon warehouse workers would bring the parts of the American economy to its knees.”

This is 100 percent true. Workers will hopefully channel that power soon.

And that's it for this week. Thanks for reading.