To what extent are the lack of good jobs in this recovery due to an out-of-control escalating healthcare cost problem? Our healthcare system is so badly designed and wasteful at this point that it costs us in good-paying jobs. Companies balk at wanting to offer both decent salaries and expensive healthcare benefits, so instead they initiate work-around solutions (hire temps, outsource, etc.), or they simply go "lean" and expect existing over-worked employees to double-up on tasks.

Worse yet, when the firms don't hire and the leanness cuts to the bone, it ultimately costs the company in future growth and productivity. It's one thing for a firm to be streamlined and without bloat, however it's quite another for a firm to simply lack the needed number of workers to grow, simply because of cost issues.

Our flawed HC system is serving to halt employment expansion in good jobs and will adversely affect corporate output in the near future. Short-sighted stupidity with long-run ramifications.