this post was submitted on 24 Mar 2026
127 points (97.0% liked)
Asklemmy
53706 readers
795 users here now
A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions
Search asklemmy ๐
If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!
- Open-ended question
- Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
- Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
- Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
- An actual topic of discussion
Looking for support?
Looking for a community?
- Lemmyverse: community search
- sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
- !lemmy411@lemmy.ca: a community for finding communities
~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~
founded 7 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
For people to demand anything you'll need a democracy. For people to want universal healthcare they need to understand that socializing the health cost is a benefit for the population.
Add the words together and you get social democracy.
In most countries this is what lead to universal healthcare. In most countries the social democracy parties were founded by labour unions.
Despite USA being first with labour unions, they never really succeeded, because they were violently struck down early on.
Anyway, it's that simple: Join a union, let the union establish a political party, let the party make universal healthcare. I know that seems very uphill, but it doesn't actually have to take centuries to do.
When the first unions were formed in Europe, the workers also expected it to be a multigenerational battle, and yet decided to try it in the vague hope that it might eventually benefit their grandchildren. However they were so successful that they achieved the goal within their own lifetime.
You're also missing the vital context that it was the soviet union being right next door, with their massive expansions in social safety nets, that forced western countries into capitulating to worker demands. It also misses that these safety nets in western countries are funded by imperialism, creating a domestic working class with class interests aligned with imperialism, rather than against it.
The US the first with Labour Unions?