| Photo by Piron Guillaume on Unsplash
Part XXIV of “Cancer/Medical Moonshot” Series
Mainstream media reported this week that “China’s dominance in the electric vehicle (EV) sector has forced Ford, Toyota, and Honda into critical strategic shifts and public admissions that they currently cannot match Chinese manufacturing speed or cost. While Ford and Honda have suffered significant sales declines in the face of this competition, Toyota has shown relative resilience by launching hyper-competitive, locally-produced EVs in China”.
Probably, the news about Chinese dominance in the EV industry does not attract the attention of ordinary workers. Many workers rely on their membership in health-maintenance organizations (HMOs). Many of them rely on their employer’s health-insurance coverage (EHIC). Senior citizens depend on their Medicare coverage. The poor, especially infants, children, and their mothers, are aided by social benefits and health and safety nets.
But what if American automakers drastically scale down their production lines in North America—because it’s unsustainable? And Japanese, European and Korean firms that established EV factories in the United States, Canada or Mexico follow suit? And more automation through artificial intelligence (AI) results in more auto and manufacturing job layoffs? Then fringe benefits like sick leave and, ultimately, EHIC end. Many families cannot afford private health insurance coverage because premiums are too high. Yes, laid-off workers who AI and automation replaced cannot afford them. And soon, Medicare and even Social Security will be bankrupt, as per forecasts. The federal government has been relying on borrowing to fund its normal operations, as well as unnecessary and unsustainable forever-war ventures abroad.
As this series has discussed, more government funds should be devoted to healthcare and for funding campaigns against cancer and other major diseases. And other back-to-basics needs, like education and housing. Instead, trillions of dollars have been spent, and continue to be spent unwisely, over the last three decades and counting. The federal government insists on bankrolling the military-industrial complex and foreign wars for the flimsiest of reasons. Yes, wars that are illegal and have no constitutional basis in fact and truth. The only solution is to make not only governance but also the economy of the people, by the people, and for the people, and their cooperatives, credit unions, and labor co-ops. How? You can read the presentations about Cooperative Economics in several articles in this column.
On March 2, 2025, this column discussed “Cooperative Economics Can Reinvent Commerce, Consumers’ Co-ops and Credit Unions.”
This columnist also presented “How Cooperatives Can Reinvent Corporations, Especially HMOs” on October 19, 2025. We shall continue with the discussion on Cooperative Economics next Wednesday. Because starting this third Sunday of Easter, we will discuss how the “War on Cancer and Other Major Diseases” can be launched in the Philippines. It will be a template for fighting cancer, among other things, in the United States and other countries every Sunday. Why the Philippines? It is a former colony of the United States, and it is where the first American overseas medical center was built in the early 1900s. And more historical facts support the hypothesis that will be presented in a mini-series of its own.
