The Great Shift

Fewer and fewer Americans are working.  Money quote:

Yes, the unemployment rate has fallen. But almost the entire reason it has fallen is the drop in the number of people in the labor force — either working or actively looking.

A couple of things:

1.  Is Office Space one of the most prescient movies of the last 20 years?  Office Space captured the absurdity of what the workplace had become for most working Americans -- how so much of our workforce was mostly doing nonsense or managing nonsense.  When the financial crisis hit, all the corporations got rid of all the dead wood and didn't replace them.  This is why corporate profits are doing fine, but fewer people are working.

2.  Americans should be more upset at our political system for not even recognizing this issue.  To hear the politicians say it, unemployment is going down.  Absurd.  We need to be re-thinking how American life is going to be different for the next 50 years, how healthcare cannot be directly tied to employment, how retirement is going to be funded, how Americans can work less and still earn an honest living (since there is less work to go around), how education costs and healthcare costs can be curtailed.

I had a random idea the other day regarding healthcare.  Why not create an insurance system that more accurately is "insurance," ie for catastrophic issues?  Basically, all healthcare costs under $5000 a year become of the over-the-counter variety, pay as you go type of thing?

De-couple health insurance from employment.  Make sure the savings go toward wages and not into corporate profits.

Everyone can buy "catastrophic coverage" for their family and it covers everything over $5000.  If you make below a certain wage, you qualify for discounted catastrophic coverage and perhaps the government has some free clinics for all other under-$5000 issues.  Sort of like food stamps.

I imagine this system would be a lot cheaper than our present system.  Over the counter stuff would be cheaper and driven by market competition.  People would be more incentivized to stay healthy as it might save on the out-of-pocket expenses.  Health insurance would only be used rarely, in the true cases of horrible accidents, diseases, and other really awful, costly stuff that only happens rarely.

Just an idea.