Health Insurance

Today I looked at my employee Health Insurance update for 2011.

I should be grateful that I get a fairly good insurance benefit through my employer but somehow feel that the whole thing is a big scheme to get large amount of money out of my pocket and not give me much in return.

I will note here that my benefit costs the equivalent of $5-6 an hour if broken down as a rate of pay in a full time equivalent of 2080 hours per year.   I note that for a family of four the rate goes up to about $7-8 per hour for a full time equivalent.  

My thinking here is that how stupid are we in this society?  Minimum wage is now set at about what?  I know the Federal level is not even $7 per hour, in Washington state it is up about $9 per hour.  Wow, and now all you need is for the corporate fascist state to say hey buddy, you must buy health insurance by law!?  Yeah, sure RIGHT.   How can anyone buy a reasonable health insurance for their family if the policy costs more than they make?   Yeah I know for the lawyers and bankers and corporate executives such things are petty cash but for the majority of us out here $7 bucks an hour levy for health insurance is pretty damn hefty.  

I think if we will not do universal health and tax all income to pay for it then we need to get that minimum wage up.  Up a lot. Like to 28 dollars an hour.   Think about it.  If you have to pay $7 bucks an hour for insurance, and then 8% to Social Security or and 15-25% for income tax, you would only have about $10 an hour  left over, then if a cheap dive 2 bedroom apartment is going for like $1000 a month, then your left with $600 a month to buy food, pay utilities and keep the car going. 

I spend about $500 a month on food and I am just a single guy trying to get by shopping at Costco.


Really even $28 an hour is an absurdly low minimum wage.  How could anyone make it on even that?
With my benefits I make about $29 an hour right now.  SO whoop dee doo I should thank the capitalist world that I am so rich and so blessed because most of my fellow travelers are making far less.  Hooray.   Or actually, I am stuck in a bind and now in this great exceptional nation $29 bucks an hour is just about enough crumbs to scrape by and if I loose my job or get sick or my employer cuts my wages and benefits I am basically screwed and will be selling my home and car and moving in with relatives.

So how about it folks how ya doing out there in the richest most exceptionalist nation on earth?

And how the hell does this have anything to do with green economics???

Green Phoenix Points:
If the global minimum wage were $30 per hour, then the consequences are very green.
People with money don't have to destroy their local environment to get by.
People who have money can get educated and education leads to less child birth.
People who have money can buy stuff that you make or services that you provide.
If workers globally had a high base then corporations would be forced to innovate not exploit.