Why not Universal thinking?

Let’s have universal healthcare. While we are at it, let’s have universal housing, universal food, universal employment, and universal clothing. Why just stop at healthcare? What about universal automobiles or universal automobile insurance?

A minority (42% as of November 2, 2009) of the American people support universal health care. The majority (54%) oppose it as it is currently written. The Census Bureau estimates that the number of uninsured amounts to 45.7 million people. But the agency might be over counting by millions due to faulty assumptions. Another problem: That 45.7 million includes undocumented immigrants, even though they aren't likely to be covered under new law.

About 3.5 million U. S. residents (about 1% of the population), including 1.35 million children, have been homeless for a significant period of time. Over 37,000 homeless individuals (including 16,000 children) stay in shelters in New York every night. This information was gathered by the Urban Institute, but actual numbers might be higher. 3.5 million!

Hunger in America is a huge problem. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported that in 2007:

• 36.2 million people lived in households considered to be food insecure.
• Of these 36.2 million, 23.8 million are adults (10.6 percent of all adults) and 12.4 million are children (16.9 percent of all children).
• The number of people in the worst-off households increased to 11.9 from 10.8 in 2005. This increase in the number of people in the worst-off category is consistent with other studies and the Census Bureau poverty data, which show worsening conditions for the poorest Americans.
• Black (22.2 percent) and Hispanic (20.1 percent) households experienced food insecurity at far higher rates than the national average.
• The ten states with the highest food insecurity rates in 2007 were Mississippi, New Mexico, Texas, Arkansas, Maine, South Carolina, Georgia, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri.

In October 2009, the number of unemployed persons increased by 558,000 to 15.7 million. The unemployment rate rose by 0.4 percentage point to 10.2 percent. The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over) was little changed over the month at 5.6 million. In October, 35.6 percent of unemployed persons were jobless for 27 weeks or more. The number of persons working part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers) was little changed in October at 9.3 million. These individuals were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job.

Many people do not have the proper clothing to keep them from the effects of exposure. Yes, this affects the homeless and they are covered above, but many are children. Though I could not find official numbers, there were stories of children in schools that had shoes that didn’t fit and when they went to clothing banks and took off their shoes, they usually had no socks either.

As the above examples show, there is a need for a lot of things. Why concentrate on health care? Maslow’s hierarchy of needs states that the most basic needs are physiological: oxygen, food, water, sex, sleep and a relatively constant body temperature. It is after these needs are met that we search out safety needs: security of body, of employment, of resources, of morality, of the family, of health and of property.

So again, why health care? This isn’t even one of the most basic needs. If we are going to provide universal health care, how long till we provide universal housing, universal food, universal employment, and universal clothing? What will be next; universal thinking?