Richard D. Wolff

I believe strongly in single-payer, or at least did.. but then I had some thoughts. The stocks of insurance companies dropping, due to transitioning over, would likely cause a crash of some of the largest stocks in the global market. If the companies fold, wouldn't they need a bail-out -- especially where you have companies like AIG insuring THEM, and the derivatives as side-bets on the stocks. It would take awhile to get single-payer up. 2.5 million workers would lose their jobs, and yes -- the current bill provides for them for two years, but again -- it would take awhile to get those checks to them. And meanwhile, we'd see a jump in unemployment. So we'd have an large industry crash, a possible stock market crash that could risk banks again, and an automatic jump in unemployment. The second worry I have, is how well the economy would be situated to absorb those workers if the economy is in middling or bad shape. Maybe I am getting this completely wrong. I hope I am. If I'm not, please talk to Bernie, if you have any connections. Get him to adjust his plan. We may need more of a public option, to make a slower transition.