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Populist Anger Has a Role in Shaping Economy
Given what we've learned about the economic crisis, faith in free market fundamentalism -- that the unfettered market will magically solve our problems -- should be as dead as Monty Python's parrot. Even France's conservative president, Nicolas Sarkozy, has proclaimed "Laissez-faire, c'est fini" (Laissez-faire is finished). But where does this leave us?
We can quickly dismiss head-in-the-sand Republican leaders whose solution for every conceivable problem, from space invaders to a reappearance of the bubonic plague, is the tiresome and predictable mantra: reduce taxes on the wealthy.
No honest person takes this nonsense seriously.
Professional economists and the punditocracy tend to divide between genuflecting market worshipers and those now advising the Obama administration to engage in more government spending, plus re-regulation of corporations. We know that over the past 35 years both parties have worked mightily to undo regulations.
Here it's important to note that the sole reason government intervention is gaining favor inside the beltway is identical to that during the Great Depression. It's seen as the only way for the plutocrats to shore up their capitalist institutions, a system caught in a downward vortex, what some experts are terming a "death spiral." That may be hyperbole as there's a well-documented, unsavory history of the privileged and powerful doing whatever is necessary to save capitalism at the expense of everyone else.
But what about the rest of us? Why not a meaningful government solution that approaches the scale of the depression confronting the vast majority of Americans? Surely it's not about finding the money because we know that abundant funds are there for other purposes.
The recent taxpayer mega-billion bailouts constitute an enormous transfer of wealth from workers to bankers.
A better example involves the Pentagon's budget. I wonder how many Americans know that the U.S. maintains some 1,000 military bases in more than 130 countries at a cost of $1 trillion (OMB, 2007) and this accounts for more than half of all discretionary spending?
This "defense" budget exceeds the combined military spending of all other industrialized countries and serves two purposes: A massive taxpayer subsidy to high-tech companies (e.g. Lockheed, Northrup Grumman and Boeing) and the maintenance of what can only be described as an empire. Again, both the military-industrial complex and the empire benefit the few but are paid for by sacrificing the treasure and lives of the many.
No, the reason that spending on purely civilian projects is so severely circumscribed is because it's opposed by economic and political elites. As political analyst Michael Albert puts it, social spending alters the balance of power in society toward working people. It has the potential to put them in a better bargaining position and this in turn threatens the power and profits of those on top.
Of course we shouldn't discount that Obama's limited social spending will soften the worst blows for some Americans. But there's a built-in political ceiling on realizing living-wage jobs, totally free government-run health care, affordable housing, raising the minimum wage, mass-transit, free public higher education, serious environmental protection and expanded social security. Raising that ceiling requires something more.
In 1933, with unemployment at 25 percent (the actual jobless rate today is close to 14 percent) serious unrest from below, including a general strike wave, forced the government to respond and enact a further-reaching "Second New Deal" in the late 1930s. Absent that mass pressure, FDR would not have undertaken his bold initiatives.
It's my sense that in 2009 we have another rare opportunity for public discourse on what a good society would look like. Personally, I'd like to see some discussion of the Swedish model and other European systems but if we're serious about exploring an alternative -- an equitable democratic economy that meets our public need rather then private greed -- then some righteous populist anger is in order.
We need a popular upsurge from ordinary citizens to push the Obama administration in the proper direction.
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"We need a popular upsurge from ordinary citizens to push the Obama administration in the proper direction."
We need ordinary citizens to pass the hat. If we can come up with, oh, I don't know, let's say a couple billion in spare change for I'llBombYa's 2012 campign, we might buy a place at that table from which everything we want is off.
FDR wasn't pushed to take action on behalf of the working class until hordes of homeless veterans and others were camped out in DC (no, it wasn't for the Boy Scout Jamboree).
Based on the projection that the foreclosure rate will not drop for another two years, the unemployment rate will not stabilize for at least one year, and most states have enough money in their unemployment insurance accounts to pay out until the end of 2009, it will probably be one to two years before enough Americans are desperate enough to camp out in sufficient numbers in front of the White House and Capitol to spur some action that favors somebody other than Wall Street.
Sioux Rose
RAY: Do you suppose some would scale the fence hungry enough to acquire fresh produce from the new victory garden being planted there? Would they risk a tomato for a taste of a taser?
That image makes me think of a Saturday Night Live style skit, shades of Cheech & Chong meet Obama. They are invited in for a surreptitous late night meeting, and next thing we know, the best grass is grown at the White House! Inheriting the mandate of Unitary Executive, Obama declares a truce against all "drug war" marijuana "crimes," and invites citizens to plant their own herbal victory gardens. The caption, "One year later," and then pan in on peace pipe being passed from Obama to the current leaders of Muslim nations with one American Indigenous male in full feathered regalia stating, "Damn! They could have used our recipe all this time!"
Who, then, could be the one to ignite this "popular upsurge from ordinary citizens"? ...the one to speak up for global justice and represent the downtrodden, the oppressed, the poor, the billions of people who just want a world of peace and balance?
Is there such a leader who is totally incorruptible, who genuinely cares about humanity 100% and can lead us onward, into a new, brilliant civilization?
Well, here's an answer...
www.WakeUpMankind.org
You may be on to something here but "the one" (Maitreya) seems (and I don't want to sound flippant about a serious matter) a bit too much like a charismatic Obama onto which people can project their diverse yearnings for a better world. "Beyond race" and "reaching out" politics hasn't really worked for me and I'm not so sure that an "incorruptible" leader (which, Maitreya knows, Obama is not) may be beyond the pale of possibility in this much-corrupted world.
Fat Chance.
The Great American Experiment is over. The Oligarchs have won.
Gives new meaning to "The Chicago School."
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The Chicago School of Economics crafted by Freidman, AND the Chicago School of Politics crafted by Richard Daley and adopted by Obama.
I think you've nailed it: Milton Friedman plus Richard Daly equals Barack Obama. Kind of like e equals mc squared. Thanks, AE!
We need a popular upsurge from ordinary citizens to push the Obama administration in the proper direction.
The hell with Obama and the Democrats! The citizens of this nation need to push them and the Republicans from power and get something that works for the vast majority of people. I haven't the slightest idea how this can be accomplished but it needs to be done.
if you are a corporation, every payment you make and every payment you receive goes into a publicly accessible database. we have the technical resources to make this possible. we also have the human resources to make it useful, beginning with the open source community.
Populist anger a role in shaping the economy ?!?!? Yeah, if you mean the culture populist war which gave us Richard Nixon, Ronnie Raygan, Bill Klinton, Dubya, and now Barry ! All that's been happening is keep Main Street distracted all the while spoonfeeding Wall $treet at the expense of Main Street. I'm sorry but the author had better realize that given Obama's long record of playing KISSYFACE with Wall $treet all the while giving Main Street the middle finger just like most Democrats and Republicans, Obama is no FDR. Besides, if populist anger really shaped the economy for the better, 3rd party candidates such as Ralph Nader, Cynthia Mckinney, Cindy Sheehan, etc ... would have had a greater say and far more votes than they could muster today.
San Francisco is considered a progressive city, yet Cindy Sheehan hardly received any votes when she ran against Nancy "impeachment is off the table" Pelosi.
I lost my respect for SF once the voters there chose pro-war Pelosi over anti-war Sheehan 70-30. SF needs to reform its own population before telling others who to vote for IMO. Sorry if I sound a bit too harsh on SF.
Exactly.
This snippet from Counterpunch may be prophetic:
Historically, the definition of a free person is a person who owns his own labor. Serfs were not free, because they owed their feudal lords, the government of that time, a maximum of one-third of their labor. Nineteenth century slaves were not free, because their owners could expropriate 50 per cent of their labor.
Today, no American is a free person. The lowest tax rate, not counting state income, property tax and sales tax, is 15 per cent Social Security tax and 15 per cent federal income tax. The “free American” starts off with a 30 per cent tax rate, the position of a medieval serf.
In medieval Europe, when tax rates reached beyond 30 per cent, serfs rebelled and killed their masters.
Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions.He can be reached at: PaulCraigRoberts@yahoo.com
You remind me of my fear that I had of not being employed and yet stuck in small town MO. I guess in some respects, moving to St Louis to work and earn a living meant I'd have to give up my freedom at some point. Yet I think it was my fear of feeling that I'd be a nobody if I hadn't done it that pushed me to it. Maybe someday if I have enough cash on me I can move back to the country side and be self-employed and maybe even a farmer of my own. I don't know though.
Right. Cut the taxes. The right's solution to every problem.
what we have now is taxation without representation...taxation supporting colonization, monetization and industrialization, supported by litigation and incarceration...
given that our economics support this corruption known as government, and that our economics are driving the living planet toward an early grave, and us along with it, it becomes apparent that our economics are the heart of our problem, and, given our lack of governmental representation, our economics are also our main avenue of meaningful change as individual citizens...given that economic growth will only exacerbate these issues, the answer is shown to be individual citizens en masse pursuing a shrinking economy...downsizing, cohabitating, sharing, growing food...the key factors involved are water, food and shelter, all deeply enmeshed and entrenched in the currently incontrovertible premise of private property...
first, every transaction in the light of day. then we can decide what to do about it all. else full-bore socialism. the other choices all boil down to fascism, i.e., the rich maintaining their power through terror.
If Obama and the banksters (a term popularized by FDR) can "stablize" our economy, then at best it will be back to business as usual. The decline of the American Working Class will be slower than if the system collapses into a Great Depression II, but the progressive social and economic vision will be crushed under war & bailout debt.
It looks to me like we are probably headed down the Depression road. The plans proposed by Obama's banksters (i.e, Summers, Geithner et al) are unlikely to stop the slide, but they will enrich the hedge fund managers and banksters. If these plans go through, the banksters will have an even stronger grip on our government, economy and society.
It leads me to the conclusion that Obama is a fink!
Why does everyone in the mainstream media and press use 'populist anger' instead of 'citizens' anger'?
Think about what that expression was used to characterize over the decades.
A word about "movements":
Movements happen for only one reason; a desperate need for a society to address a problem which is perceived as lethal to said society.
Well then, the ones at the top aren't stupid, you know. So they have a hush hush meeting and, after the appropriate verbal hypocricies about danger to the "nation" and the "economy", they get down to business. The business is heading off the angry rabble which they have been squeezing mightily for decades. A large some of money is added to the already hefty sum going to "think tanks" (more like make a stink tanks) and private detectives as well as PR agencies. Once the appropriate strategy is devised, the "ads" start coming out (i.e. only perverts march in protest, sick people complain a lot, complainers are traitors, sit down strikes give you prostate cancer, etc.). Oh, such busy, busy bees. Now on the other end of this situation we have the people. We have the internet and we get it. We are fully aware that we are pissing into the wind. We decide not to do anything but vote with our buying habits. This crashes the economy. The elite knew this was coming and they crank up the PR do defend the politicians so they don't lose in the next election. Of course they line up a few "candidates" to appear to be progressive just in case. In addition they try to starve us into submission with unemployment. Then is when the heroes are separated from the cowards and we get a more just government or a new feudal kingdom. We'll see.
Now for those who think our buying habits don't speak loud enough to be considered a worthy strategy against the elite, just look at this:
Sometimes irony rules...
Thomas Friedman’s World Is Flat Broke
But based on the bad news coming out of shopping-mall owner General Growth Properties [GGP], it is no wonder Friedman is feeling crankier than usual. That’s because the author’s wife, Ann (née Bucksbaum), is an heir to the General Growth fortune. In the past year, the couple—who live in an 11,400-square-foot mansion in Bethesda, Maryland—have watched helplessly as General Growth stock has fallen 99 percent, from a high of $51 to a recent 35 cents a share. The assorted Bucksbaum family trusts, once worth a combined $3.6 billion, are now worth less than $25 million.
Now I have no bone to pick with these folks but you have to connect the dots here, people. When the rich don't have money to buy politicians, the people always benefit. Do the world a favor; withhold a rich person's profit by not buying all that shiny useless shit.
"The recent taxpayer mega-billion bailouts constitute an enormous transfer of wealth from workers to bankers.
A better example involves the Pentagon's budget. I wonder how many Americans know that the U.S. maintains some 1,000 military bases in more than 130 countries at a cost of $1 trillion (OMB, 2007) and this accounts for more than half of all discretionary spending?"
As long as we are looking for $$$ for the people, who by the way SUPPOSEDLY run this country, what about hunting for the $2,000,000,000 Donald Fucking Rumsfeld "lost" on September 8, 2001? Two trillion dollars just turn up missing. Yeah, sure. I wonder if a board, a cloth, and a couple of milk jugs full of water might jar his memory?
Face it, until we the people do something that will rattle the shit out of the elite's security & lifestyle, we are going to keep getting the same old reaming we have always been subjected to.
Why Not Start The Uprising Right Here On Common Dreams
"First move?"
"We get the word out online."
"Why online?"
"That's where everyone is?"
"And the message?"
"Something like, 'All those who can't take it any more and want to have a say in what sort of world, starting April 15 (tax day) gather outside your residence, 6:00-6:30 pm, holding a handmade sign that says 'Yes We Can & Right Now.'"
"How long are these vigils to take place?"
"Until President Obama & Congress cave."
"Will they even know what's happening?"
"If we're serious they will, because after a couple weeks, as the movement really catches on, it'll be the number one news story."
"Who'll be the movement leaders?"
"All who participate."
"Based on?"
"One equals one."
"And then what sort of world?"
"It'll be up to us."
"Populist anger": The term used by wealthy Wall Street executives, elitist elected politicians, and their media puppets to dis-enfranchize and throw-under-the-bus the justfiable demands of the MAJORITY of American workers. It's the excuse they give themselves to demonize us so they can ignore us.
They need an attitude adjustment. We are the "Outraged Populace." Ours is the righteous indignation of the blue collar, hard-working, productive, we-want-our-our-money-back, we-want-our-economy-fixed, and we'll-throw-you-out-of-office-unless-we-get-it MAJORITY of the voting taxpayers.
Oh you poor, poor frightened Big Corporate executives. And you too, you government elitists living out of the pockets of Wall Street lobbyists. Well welcome to the real world, chumps. Did you think we didn't mean it when we warned you to change your greedy habits and to get over your sense of entitlement?
We could let AIG fail if our Congressional leaders weren't being paid in campaign donations to save it. It would be difficult and a bit risky, but it could be done. I''ve said this before and I'll keep saying it until we get our leaders to listen to us.
Breaking The Banks - That's the answer:
Open Letter to Both US Houses of Congress
The current banking crisis is a result not just of Wall Street greed, but of the Republican-dominated Legislature of the 90's giving more and more freedoms to Big Corporations by deregulation. Going forward, campaign contributions donated to candidates from both parties helped to ensure Legislative compliance in giving the Big Corporations their stranglehold over We the People.
I have solutions.
First, on the AIG affair:
It is not just the money in the bonuses, it's that they were paid at all to those who brought down our taxpayer-owned company. Stop listening to these executives' fear-mongering and terror tactics. Stop letting them hold the taxpayers hostage. You take taxpayer money, you are now taxpayer employees. Do as you're told, or do without your jobs.
Regardless of whatever loopholes were left in the law, regardless of who knew what and when, you greedy executives CHOSE to take the risks -- fraught with moral hazard -- which have so damaged the US economy. Then you paid advertisers and set up agencies to encourage the public to overspend. Then you packaged them up and sold them to other banks and other countries.
And when the housing bubble burst, the people you defrauded lost their jobs and homes and dreams.
1) Taxing to get back the bonuses won't work and is probably unconstitutional.
2) The unwarranted bonuses just paid were the morally-hazardous fruit of fraud, so charge them with it and sue as the company owners.
3) Going forward, it's simple: Unwarranted bonuses = No more bailouts. Period.
4) Repeal the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1998 and the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000.
5) Use the Anti-Trust laws to break up AIG (and other financial giants) so it is
no longer possible to be "too big to fail."
6) After the breakup(s), let us deal with the remaining US institutions, and let the other countries deal with their own.
We US taxpayers don't have the resources or the will to bailout the whole world. And we shouldn't be expected to.
On Congressional Campaign Reform, "The Voters' Revolution":
1) We demand that the House and Senate set term limits for themselves.
No elected legislator may serve more than four terms in office. This
acknowledges that it does take some acquired experience on your part.
2) We demand reform of the system of campaign contributions. Each
Legislator may add to their individual "war chests" only the contributions
of individuals. All corporate contributions must go into a general fund to
be distributed equally to ALL candidates for election. This includes not
just the Reps and Dems but the smaller parties as well. This would
effectively level the playing field and give us voters more options. "Money
talks" in campaigns. We voters must therefore control the money.
3) We demand the right to recall our elected officials by referendum. Our
letters of our officials can be -- and often are -- ignored. I suspect that
getting dragged back to your home states to explain to your constituents
WILL get your attention. If you fail to explain adequately, we will THEN
replace you.
(A version of this letter has been sent to several high-ranking officials in both Houses. If you agree with me, tell your Congressional representatives
so, in no uncertain terms.)
QUOTE; A better example involves the Pentagon's budget. I wonder how many Americans know that the U.S. maintains some 1,000 military bases in more than 130 countries at a cost of $1 trillion (OMB, 2007) and this accounts for more than half of all discretionary spending? UNQUORE
The MIC doesn't care if Americans are homeless or impoverished.
Capitalism feeds itself by its corruption and crime.
If you want a "populist uprising" you need to direct it properly --
Congress is not making the economic political decisions we need it
to make -- the Federal Reserve is.
The Fed has to be moved under the control of the the Treasury --
and all must be subject to Congressional decision making.
Only elected officials subject to re-election should be making these
decisions -- not a private bank.
PLUS, Obama has to stop looking to the DLC-corporate wing for advice,
STOP looking to Wall Street for solutions, STOP putting the same people
in charge who permitted this criminal capitalism ... and begin anew.
FDR and the New Deal provide all the instruction needed -- !!!
"According to all myth, the female - not the male -- gives life"
I won't hold my breath until elected representatives actually start representing the interests of the electorate instead of the corporations, special interests and lobbyists that represent them. After living thru the 60's amd 70's it's pretty clear they'll throw you the occasional bone if you raise enough hell. Then it's back to business as usual. Guess I'm too old to keep falling for "change you can believe in" and other peddlers of hope and false promises. Been there, done that.
"there's a well-documented, unsavory history of the privileged and powerful doing whatever is necessary to save capitalism at the expense of everyone else."
There certainly is! And Geithner's Public-Private Partnership Investment Plan will be added to that "unsavory" history in the form of another taxpayer bailout scheme to the largest banks and Wall Street firms; without any transparency or demand to change their corrupt business models which brought us to this global collapse.
Mortgage loans simply initiated the crisis. In reality, it's the Tens of Trillions in toxic financial derivatives (credit default swaps) that the top five banks are holding that we're bailing out.
Geithner's plan is will simply dump these toxic and mostly worthless assets onto taxpayers while the culprits of this "unregulated" banking system build their own personal wealth while destroying ours.
Kudos to all of the above.
Meanwhile, Raydelcamino wrote, in response to my "Gives new meaning to The Chicago School":
"The Chicago School of Economics crafted by Freidman, AND the Chicago School of Politics crafted by Richard Daley and adopted by Obama."
Wasn't this also the home of Samuel Huntington and his "Clash of Civilizations" thesis? Which led Dubya early on to refer to post-9/11 U.S. REACTION as a "Crusade"? No time now to research the answer, leave it up to you all to revognize that there is no necessary relationship between intelligence and Power. Suggest read Bertrand Russell's hard to get book, "Power."
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