There's a particle of risk involved in every venture.
~Allardyce T. Merriweather
The engine of "free enterprise" that is the "magic of the marketplace" touted as sacrosanct dogma by every U.S. president since Ronald Reagan has hit a rough patch recently. First came the great Wall Street meltdown of 2008, and now comes the immolation of the Gulf Coast economy. Both of these things were the direct and predictable result of 30 years of right-wing assualt on "Big Government" through the deregulation and ineffective oversight of corporations. Most of the damage here can be laid at the feet of Republican presidents, especially the petrochemical nightmare years of Bush/Cheney. Of course, the assualt didn't stop under the Democrats, it just barely slowed down. Barack Obama's obviously false promise of change we could believe in makes us recall Bill Clinton's disastrous free trade policies, which haunt us to this day with lost jobs and lower living conditions for working people on all sides of the border.
Let's avoid the knee jerk reaction to defend Barack Obama from the wolves of the Republican Party. The Democrats, Obama included, are part of the problem. They can't help it, they are in a life and death struggle for funding from the truly soul-less old men that have been gaming the system since the days of big plantations, railroads and Northern industrialization. We must not delude ourselves thinking that anything can change as long as the system of legalized bribery which is our campaign finance laws are intact. Unless some major changes are made there, we are going to be learning just how corrupt, self-centered, and downright misanthropic the ruling class can be for decades to come. And the fallout from their fetishes will last decades beyond THAT. We have no real brakes on the system right now. Corporate lobbyists write the laws for legislators that were once lobbyists themselves or will soon be once they retire from or get kicked out of office. And the mainstream media is in collusion with all of them, since they are owned by those same interests that write the laws.
Our last best hope is for the people of WalMart Nation to awaken and fight for an end to the deadly corporate merry-go-round of death and desolation.
Hello, Sixth Extinction!
5 comments:
As always, Ernesto, your comment is astute, and well thought out, and a joy to read.
Do you get the feeling that we're yelling into the wind--that no one is listening, or can't hear us, because they're deaf, and have been most of their lives, the deafness a conflation of behaviors and attitudes, supported wittingly, or unwittingly--the result of parental example, the result of schools indoctrinating our kids, rather than teaching them the value of independent, and critical thought, the result of a society that is blindly accepting of whatever proposals, and policies their government representatives say is in their best interest, and the result of a governmental structure that's more beholding to Big Business, and corporate interest, than to the people and the people's interest?
"Our last best hope is for the people of WalMart Nation to awaken and fight for an end to the deadly corporate merry-go-round of death and desolation."
Yes, the people, en masse. No one person can take on this behemoth of government hubris and corruption. And the task, and challenge, of organizing a large-scale revolt against the status-quo, seem almost prohibitive.
Yet, as you suggest, it can be done, but it'll take sacrifice, and more sacrifice.
Progress--that is, going forward--always require the painful choice of what should be, or can be, left behind, and, usually, it's aways imperative that something be left behind.
In the case of our oil dependence, for example, giving up our insidious addiction, and driving less--walking, or using mass transit, or a motorcycle, or motorbike.
"Free enterprise isn't free." True. Where it exists, or is supported, it's the people who're freely exploited, and freely made to pick up the tab when that "free enterprise" stumbles, and requires a shot in the arm (think bailout), or need a rescue (think oil-spill disaster, and auto industry).
Only a few days ago, a couple of wingnuts (John Boehner, being one) were saying that the oil-spill was as much the government's responsibility, as British Petroleum.
What a boneheaded, but predictable response to the spill. Boehner has since recanted, and has put the recovery cost solely at the feet of BP.
Isn't it a marvel what a little political pressure can accomplish!
"We must not delude ourselves thinking that anything can change as long as the system of legalized bribery which is our campaign finance laws are intact."
Changing "campaign finance laws" would be a good beginning. But we're asking those who benefit from the current system to change it.
Without a great deal of external pressure, congressional incentive to change how campaigns are now financed will be non-existent.
Ernesto,
BD recommmended that I check out this post and I agree totally with your characterization. I think this was set up place even before Reagan, although he certainly accelerated the situation. Our descent into the morass begin with the 1970's, particularly after we came off the gold standard and lost the manufacturing base. Those events contributed to a great consolidation of industries and services IMO that needed a loosening of rules to allow the transition.
I think our only solution is the collapse of this system as it's too corrupt to reform and the best thing most of us can do is figure out ways to operate outside of it by doing stuff like growing your own food, patronizing local businesses, switching deposits to local/non national banks or credit unions and etc.
BD,
Several states have passed clean election laws. Check out
http://www.publicampaign.org/
Progress is being made on the local and state level. We need to make it on the national level, especially the U.S. Senate which is the biggest problem. It might take a constitutional amendment, but if a lot of people get involved it can get done.
Greg L, thanks for stopping by and I am checking out the blog you link to right now.
I strongly agree with your points on separating ourselves out of WalMart Nation and becoming more self-sustaining and buying local. Uncle Sam has a problem with this as the MOVE organization and others have found out over the years, because they know this is the way to starve the beast.
I'm in a credit union. I'm lucky enough to have one within walking distance of my house. I am also producing roughly one quarter of my food this summer through a large garden plot. If only my sub-division would allow animal husbandry I would have it up to 75 percent with some serious BBQ wings and ribs. :)
I'm in a credit union. I'm lucky enough to have one within walking distance of my house. I am also producing roughly one quarter of my food this summer through a large garden plot. If only my sub-division would allow animal husbandry I would have it up to 75 percent with some serious BBQ wings and ribs. :)
LOL! I too am looking at some serious changes in lifestyle by looking at growing my own stuff. I think I'm going to start with a container garden so I can get my feet wet with the goal of providing at least all of my own vegetables. I'm also seriously looking at acquiring some land in a rural setting. I really believe that this thing is going to get really dicey and it will be important to be in a self sustaining position. The situation is going to be desperate all over, but particularly so in cities and areas reliant on government services that will no longer be available.
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