 |
|
| Science Forum Index » Economy Forum » We drank the cool aid of deregulated markets, private... |
|
Page 1 of 1 |
|
| Author |
Message |
| Nickname unavailable... |
 Posted: Thu Oct 29, 2009 10:26 am |
|
|
|
Guest
|
We drank the cool aid of deregulated markets, private gain as supreme
values, We let middle class jobs disappear, We let financial hucksters
buy up solid companies, load them up with debt, take the cash, then
drive them into the ground, We bad-mouth as protectionist all efforts
to keep jobs in this country
http://news.yahoo.com/s/huffpost/20091028/cm_huffpost/336597;_ylt=AiPsbQf3U36AAU.MO3xyuUqs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTFldTQ4dnQzBHBvcwMyMjAEc2VjA2FjY29yZGlvbl9vcGluaW9uBHNsawNicmVha2luZ291dG8-
Breaking out of the Billionaire Bailout Society
Les Leopold – Wed Oct 28, 12:14 pm ET
Read Les Leopold's other articles on HuffingtonPost.com
Democracy, socialism, capitalism, neo-liberalism -- none of them do
justice to who we are and where we're headed. Socialism left the
planet several decades ago, except in the minds of Fox News pundits.
We're not sure what capitalism really is anymore, now that we've
bailed out the entire financial sector. Neo-liberalism is so passé, as
major governments around the world intervene to halt the financial
collapse. And democracy is still with us, we hope, but we wonder for
how long as our politicians and policies seem so easily bought and
sold.
Perhaps we need a new vocabulary, one that helps us describe a society
that promotes the accumulation of vast riches, bails out the rich when
they take too many chances, and avoids responsibility for the common
good. Even Milton Friedman would have trouble calling that capitalism.
How about the Billionaire Bailout Society?
Here are its salient features:
1. We promote accumulation of vast fortunes without limits.
2. We
shun progressive income taxes that could narrow the gap.
3. We keep
most of finance deregulated even after it has collapsed so
spectacularly.
4. We let the minimum wage atrophy.
5. We discourage
unionization.
6. We let middle class jobs disappear.
7. We allow a
revolving door between public office and high paying private sector
jobs.
8. We let our public infrastructure deteriorate.
9. We
belittle government and public service.
10. We promote private gain
as the best way to promote the common good.
11. We force our children
to pile up debt in order to get an education.
12. We live with a
porous safety net.
13. We encourage health care to be a profit
maximizing enterprise.
14. We allow institutions to become too big to
fail.
15. We bail out the largest financial institutions when they do
fail, even if that means transferring trillions to Wall Street.
16..
We allow Wall Street to use its bailout money to lobby against the
public interest.
17. We let Wall Street keep its bailout-created
"profits" and bonuses.
18. We have no clue if the financial sector
provides any real value to our economy.
19. We permit financial
hucksters to buy up solid companies, load them up with debt, take the
cash, and then drive them into the ground.
20. We bad-mouth as
protectionist all efforts to keep jobs in this country.
21. We don't
have any serious plan for returning to a full-employment economy.
22.
We live in awe of billionaires.
Of course, it takes a billionaire to help us understand how the
billionaire bailout society really works. Here's what George Soros
said recently about Wall Street's latest profit binge:
"Those earnings are not the achievement of risk-takers. These are
gifts, hidden gifts, from the government, so I don't think that those
monies should be used to pay bonuses. There's a resentment which I
think is justified." (Reuters)
Yes, there's resentment, but most of the action has come from the tea-
baggers who are the foot soldiers for our new social order. Although
the vast majority of Americans are upset about the financial casino,
the bailouts and the loss of jobs, we need a progressive
infrastructure to mobilize it. Perhaps the recent demonstrations at
the American Bankers Association meetings in Chicago signal the start
of labor and community mobilizations. It's long overdue.
It would be easy to give up. Apathy is Wall Street's best friend. But
we've been here before. It took the populists several generations
before they were able to bust the trusts when Teddy Roosevelt rode to
office. It took decades of labor agitation and the organization of the
Progressive movement before its ideas became the core of the New Deal.
It took even longer for African-Americans to build a successful civil
rights movement to end Jim Crow. We shouldn't expect it to be easy to
build an alternative to the billionaire bailout society.
We drank the cool aid of deregulated markets and private gain as
supreme values. We got drunk on its bubbles until they burst. Now
we're bailing out the super-wealthy while 29 million of us need work.
Turning that around is going to take hard work and planning for the
long haul. It's going to take years of education and organizational
development. Twitter is a great tool, but it can't substitute for
organizational structures. Most of all, it's going to take a new
vision that focuses on the common good, on what ties us together, on
something more precious than private gain.
What does that mean? Imagine what we could do if we had the courage to
institute steep progressive taxes. Today, the top 400 wealthiest
Americans have a combined net worth of about $1.5 trillion. Had
progressive taxes reduced their wealth to "only" $100 million each, we
would be able to endow every public college and university, two-year,
four-year and graduate school, so that all of our children could go to
school free, in perpetuity.
Wouldn't that be worth it?
Les Leopold is the author of The Looting of America: How Wall Street's
Game of Fantasy Finance destroyed our Jobs, Pensions and Prosperity,
and What We Can Do About It, Chelsea Green Publishing, June 2009. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
|
All times are GMT - 5 Hours
The time now is Sat Nov 28, 2009 5:33 pm
|
|