Retired YN
@thehistoryplug.bsky.social
📚 The History Plug 🔌
History ain’t boring when you got the right plug 🗣️🔥
🗺️ Breaking down the past so we can understand the present
📍 Teaching, learning & keeping it real
💬 DM for topics you wanna hear about!
History ain’t boring when you got the right plug 🗣️🔥
🗺️ Breaking down the past so we can understand the present
📍 Teaching, learning & keeping it real
💬 DM for topics you wanna hear about!
America chose a healthcare system that protected profits, not people. Other countries made it a right; we tied it to bosses. Today, everyone pays more than universal care would cost — for less access.
August 30, 2025 at 11:20 PM
America chose a healthcare system that protected profits, not people. Other countries made it a right; we tied it to bosses. Today, everyone pays more than universal care would cost — for less access.
The Cruelest Twist
Tax dollars fund the research behind MRIs, vaccines, new drugs. But instead of lowering costs, companies patent it & charge Americans the highest prices in the world. You pay twice — in taxes, then at the pharmacy.
Tax dollars fund the research behind MRIs, vaccines, new drugs. But instead of lowering costs, companies patent it & charge Americans the highest prices in the world. You pay twice — in taxes, then at the pharmacy.
August 30, 2025 at 11:20 PM
The Cruelest Twist
Tax dollars fund the research behind MRIs, vaccines, new drugs. But instead of lowering costs, companies patent it & charge Americans the highest prices in the world. You pay twice — in taxes, then at the pharmacy.
Tax dollars fund the research behind MRIs, vaccines, new drugs. But instead of lowering costs, companies patent it & charge Americans the highest prices in the world. You pay twice — in taxes, then at the pharmacy.
Today’s Reality
Lose your job → lose your doctor. Gig workers, part-timers, contractors → excluded. Even with insurance, bills crush families. A system built on segregation now traps everyone.
Lose your job → lose your doctor. Gig workers, part-timers, contractors → excluded. Even with insurance, bills crush families. A system built on segregation now traps everyone.
August 30, 2025 at 11:20 PM
Today’s Reality
Lose your job → lose your doctor. Gig workers, part-timers, contractors → excluded. Even with insurance, bills crush families. A system built on segregation now traps everyone.
Lose your job → lose your doctor. Gig workers, part-timers, contractors → excluded. Even with insurance, bills crush families. A system built on segregation now traps everyone.
Corporate Capture
Private insurers & employers lobbied hard to protect job-based insurance. Truman’s universal plan (1945) was blocked by the AMA + Dixiecrats who refused integrated hospitals. “Socialized medicine” was smeared as un-American.
Private insurers & employers lobbied hard to protect job-based insurance. Truman’s universal plan (1945) was blocked by the AMA + Dixiecrats who refused integrated hospitals. “Socialized medicine” was smeared as un-American.
August 30, 2025 at 11:20 PM
Corporate Capture
Private insurers & employers lobbied hard to protect job-based insurance. Truman’s universal plan (1945) was blocked by the AMA + Dixiecrats who refused integrated hospitals. “Socialized medicine” was smeared as un-American.
Private insurers & employers lobbied hard to protect job-based insurance. Truman’s universal plan (1945) was blocked by the AMA + Dixiecrats who refused integrated hospitals. “Socialized medicine” was smeared as un-American.
Golden Age Ends
1950s–60s: Costs were low, unions strong, companies paid most premiums. By the 1970s, costs rose & employers started shifting premiums, deductibles, and restrictions onto workers.
1950s–60s: Costs were low, unions strong, companies paid most premiums. By the 1970s, costs rose & employers started shifting premiums, deductibles, and restrictions onto workers.
August 30, 2025 at 11:20 PM
Golden Age Ends
1950s–60s: Costs were low, unions strong, companies paid most premiums. By the 1970s, costs rose & employers started shifting premiums, deductibles, and restrictions onto workers.
1950s–60s: Costs were low, unions strong, companies paid most premiums. By the 1970s, costs rose & employers started shifting premiums, deductibles, and restrictions onto workers.
Patches, Not Universality
1965: Medicare & Medicaid. Instead of universal care, the U.S. created two limited programs. Everyone else? Still stuck with employer insurance.
1965: Medicare & Medicaid. Instead of universal care, the U.S. created two limited programs. Everyone else? Still stuck with employer insurance.
August 30, 2025 at 11:20 PM
Patches, Not Universality
1965: Medicare & Medicaid. Instead of universal care, the U.S. created two limited programs. Everyone else? Still stuck with employer insurance.
1965: Medicare & Medicaid. Instead of universal care, the U.S. created two limited programs. Everyone else? Still stuck with employer insurance.
Who Benefited?
White, unionized workers in stable industrial jobs. Black workers in excluded jobs (domestic, farm, low-wage) got nothing. Segregation ensured health insurance was a white middle-class privilege.
White, unionized workers in stable industrial jobs. Black workers in excluded jobs (domestic, farm, low-wage) got nothing. Segregation ensured health insurance was a white middle-class privilege.
August 30, 2025 at 11:20 PM
Who Benefited?
White, unionized workers in stable industrial jobs. Black workers in excluded jobs (domestic, farm, low-wage) got nothing. Segregation ensured health insurance was a white middle-class privilege.
White, unionized workers in stable industrial jobs. Black workers in excluded jobs (domestic, farm, low-wage) got nothing. Segregation ensured health insurance was a white middle-class privilege.
What Others Did
UK (1948 NHS), France (1945 Sécurité Sociale), Japan (1961 Universal Insurance), Canada (1966 Medicare). Citizens sacrificed in WWII, governments gave healthcare-for-all. The U.S. gave healthcare-for-some.
UK (1948 NHS), France (1945 Sécurité Sociale), Japan (1961 Universal Insurance), Canada (1966 Medicare). Citizens sacrificed in WWII, governments gave healthcare-for-all. The U.S. gave healthcare-for-some.
August 30, 2025 at 11:20 PM
What Others Did
UK (1948 NHS), France (1945 Sécurité Sociale), Japan (1961 Universal Insurance), Canada (1966 Medicare). Citizens sacrificed in WWII, governments gave healthcare-for-all. The U.S. gave healthcare-for-some.
UK (1948 NHS), France (1945 Sécurité Sociale), Japan (1961 Universal Insurance), Canada (1966 Medicare). Citizens sacrificed in WWII, governments gave healthcare-for-all. The U.S. gave healthcare-for-some.
The Shift: WWII
1940s: Wage freezes blocked raises. To attract workers, companies offered health insurance. IRS ruled it tax-free. Healthcare became locked to jobs — not government.
1940s: Wage freezes blocked raises. To attract workers, companies offered health insurance. IRS ruled it tax-free. Healthcare became locked to jobs — not government.
August 30, 2025 at 11:20 PM
The Shift: WWII
1940s: Wage freezes blocked raises. To attract workers, companies offered health insurance. IRS ruled it tax-free. Healthcare became locked to jobs — not government.
1940s: Wage freezes blocked raises. To attract workers, companies offered health insurance. IRS ruled it tax-free. Healthcare became locked to jobs — not government.
Before WWII
1900s–30s: No universal system. People paid doctors directly. Unions ran “sickness funds,” but many excluded Black workers. Healthcare = luxury, not a right
1900s–30s: No universal system. People paid doctors directly. Unions ran “sickness funds,” but many excluded Black workers. Healthcare = luxury, not a right
August 30, 2025 at 11:20 PM
Before WWII
1900s–30s: No universal system. People paid doctors directly. Unions ran “sickness funds,” but many excluded Black workers. Healthcare = luxury, not a right
1900s–30s: No universal system. People paid doctors directly. Unions ran “sickness funds,” but many excluded Black workers. Healthcare = luxury, not a right
Today: The U.S. has a severe housing shortage. The projects prove a contradiction: when America invested in white citizens, generational wealth followed. When it pulled support from Black citizens, poverty deepened.
August 30, 2025 at 1:27 AM
Today: The U.S. has a severe housing shortage. The projects prove a contradiction: when America invested in white citizens, generational wealth followed. When it pulled support from Black citizens, poverty deepened.
Instead of reinvesting, the gov’t turned to Section 8 vouchers — taxpayer money flowing to private landlords. Public housing went from New Deal investment to privatized profit.
August 30, 2025 at 1:27 AM
Instead of reinvesting, the gov’t turned to Section 8 vouchers — taxpayer money flowing to private landlords. Public housing went from New Deal investment to privatized profit.
1990s: HOPE VI demolished thousands of units. A 500-unit complex (90% full) might be replaced with 200 “mixed-income” units, only 60 set aside for low-income tenants. That left 390 families displaced. Where were they supposed to go?
August 30, 2025 at 1:27 AM
1990s: HOPE VI demolished thousands of units. A 500-unit complex (90% full) might be replaced with 200 “mixed-income” units, only 60 set aside for low-income tenants. That left 390 families displaced. Where were they supposed to go?
Design made things worse. Towers like St. Louis’s Pruitt–Igoe concentrated poverty. Federal budgets prioritized FHA loans for suburbs, not maintenance for projects. By the 1970s, the “projects” were stigmatized as crime & failure.
August 30, 2025 at 1:27 AM
Design made things worse. Towers like St. Louis’s Pruitt–Igoe concentrated poverty. Federal budgets prioritized FHA loans for suburbs, not maintenance for projects. By the 1970s, the “projects” were stigmatized as crime & failure.
1950s–60s: Public housing shifted. No longer working-class stability, it became racial containment. White flight drained investment. Black families filled the projects during the Great Migration, but funding dried up.
August 30, 2025 at 1:27 AM
1950s–60s: Public housing shifted. No longer working-class stability, it became racial containment. White flight drained investment. Black families filled the projects during the Great Migration, but funding dried up.
1950s–60s: Public housing shifted. No longer working-class stability, it became racial containment. White flight drained investment. Black families filled the projects during the Great Migration, but funding dried up.
August 30, 2025 at 1:27 AM
1950s–60s: Public housing shifted. No longer working-class stability, it became racial containment. White flight drained investment. Black families filled the projects during the Great Migration, but funding dried up.
Post-WWII: The GI Bill changed everything. White veterans got low-interest mortgages & education benefits. They left the projects for booming suburbs. Black veterans, blocked from loans & colleges, stayed stuck in public housing.
August 30, 2025 at 1:27 AM
Post-WWII: The GI Bill changed everything. White veterans got low-interest mortgages & education benefits. They left the projects for booming suburbs. Black veterans, blocked from loans & colleges, stayed stuck in public housing.
1940s: Early projects like Atlanta’s Techwood Homes were whites-only. Black families were placed in separate, underfunded projects. Public housing wasn’t “for the poor” yet — it was for working-class whites climbing out of the Depression.
August 30, 2025 at 1:27 AM
1940s: Early projects like Atlanta’s Techwood Homes were whites-only. Black families were placed in separate, underfunded projects. Public housing wasn’t “for the poor” yet — it was for working-class whites climbing out of the Depression.
Punchline: The School-to-Prison Pipeline wasn’t born because kids got worse. It was built as the War on Drugs shifted into classrooms. Racial control first — class-wide punishment later.
August 29, 2025 at 5:19 AM
Punchline: The School-to-Prison Pipeline wasn’t born because kids got worse. It was built as the War on Drugs shifted into classrooms. Racial control first — class-wide punishment later.