A coup is underway and is near completion. It is a carefully coordinated coup against almost every nation on the planet. While national governments have been heavily influenced by financial capitalists over the past century and longer, what is happening now is blatant control of governments by a foreign installation. They are not only infesting and contaminating democratic structures, they have each and every one of us by the throat and they are starting to squeeze.
The means that are used to control you and me may not be as blatant and crude as the methods used by fascists of the 20th century; fascists like Pinochet, Mussolini, Hitler or Franco, but the control this current band of bandits have over you is probably far more personal. They are hurting you and controlling you and it will get much worse.
Financial elites are ruling societies and have not been and are not subject to elections. To the extent politicians themselves are directed by financial bodies such as Moodys of New York, the Federal Reserve, or the IMF, is the extent to which we are under the rule of financial elites. Each of these players do their bit to ensure that governments are under their control. It is they and not us that direct politicians and governments. When governments we elect work in the interests of financial elites against not only the wishes but the material circumstances of the population, the political situation can only be realistically described as oligarchy or, more accurately, plutocracy.
If it seems a little spooky that Western governments have all worked in synch over the past three decades on not only international issues, but on domestic policies as well, it should; it is. They all, suddenly and at once, identify an particular enemy as a threat to ‘national security’. They all, all at once, meet at Bilderburg. They all, all at once, agree, as if they were in the same cult, on monetary policies. In fact, they are all in the same cult.
Independence of Western European States from control of the United States no longer exists. The American government is an arm of financial elites. European states do not work against the interests of the United States. While their own financial elites control the European Central Bank, you will not see the ECB run policies contrary to the Federal Reserve. The fact is, they all in this together. (On an even more ominous note, Chinese and Russian elites are not.)
European foreign and financial policies align with their executive director in Washington. It's as if the so called Western World, including much of Latin America, is under the control of one large, unelected, international government.
The Monopolization of Europe
Throughout the so called Western world, a formula of inequality has been entrenched and forcibly enforced. Those that have been fortunate enough to live within the heart of American hegemony have lived relatively comfortable lives. The further you get from the center in class, political, or geographic directions, the more likely it is that you have experienced the brutality of financial fascism.
In Europe, there are a number of geographic divisions. First there is Germany and the Northern states. They are closest to the center of American/financial hegemony. Secondly, there are the Southern states. They are currently beginning to feel the bite of financial fascism. Then there is eastern Europe with all its baggage from its recent communist past. They are on the bottom rung of American hegemony in Europe. Greece, by the way, almost fumbles into the latter category.
Witness the recent coups in Greece and Italy by the European Central Bank. In Italy, Silvio Berlusconi was ousted by switching purchases in the bond markets on and off to enforce obedience with its directives and allowing 10-year yields to rise to 7.45 per cent. This was the last nail in his political coffin.
Whatever their methods, the European Central Bank has installed Lucas Papademos in Greece and Mario Monti in Italy to replace Italy's elected Berlusconi and Papandreou in Greece. Realistically however, politicians don't matter whether they are in Greece, Germany, or Washington. They are either simple whores or, they are gone.
Inequality between individuals, classes, and nations is an admitted necessary requirement for what our financial rulers consider a healthy business climate. Rather than lift all ships, the financial directors of the European Union demand and enforce austerity throughout the hinterland. (Please note that ‘hinterland’ refers to geographic, class, and individual distance from meetings at Bilderburg and Washington.) The medicine supplied by ECB, the Federal Reserve in the U.S. or the IMF/World Bank to those that need medicine has turned out to be poison.
Ironically, the result of this may be to reinforce and balkanize many regions throughout unified Europe as tensions between populations increase.
Increasing regional xenophobic sentiments, increasing nationalisms, increasing lateral hostilities may be encouraged by the beneficiaries of finance capitalism in order to mask the reality of horizontal class hostilities. In the 1930s, nationalist chauvinism and fascism flourished throughout Europe as economic conditions deteriorated. The current crisis has not resulted in substantial fascist movements thus far but as Germans blame the Greeks, and Greeks increasingly feel hostility toward Germans, and region blames region and they all blame immigrants, the flames of fascism will find new fuel. The European Union will crack and fracture and crumble to a climate of fear and mutual distrust. To stem this tide, a true account of and analysis of the economic collapse must be discussed and widely acknowledged. We must identify the real enemy of the people.
European nations need to fight back, to unshackle themselves from the stranglehold of monopoly capitalism. In order to do that, they need to take control of their own economic destiny.
As it is, the European Central Bank has a stranglehold on national economic sovereignty. The UK has a degree of autonomy due to its refusal to accept the Euro as its currency. That allows for greater potential to enhance local economies. They may fight the monopolies of the hegemony through increasing taxation on corporations, through devolution of wealth from the center to the regions, by implementing trade and manufacture on their own terms, and by increased emphasis on enhancement of the public commons. As it is, these things are not possible. Corporations and large finance capitalists have effectively taken control of national governments.
Under the current stage of monopoly capitalism, capitalism proper has become archaic. What has replaced it is power struggles by and between large corporate and banking interests. The notion of ‘free enterprise’ where Mom and Pop can start up a business and make it must withstand the efficiency and ruthlessness of multi-billion dollar enterprises. That is a long way of saying, free enterprise no longer exists.
Throughout the 20th century revolutions have impacted many societies. It is worth noticing that each and every revolution occurred, not where Karl Marx expected (advanced capitalist societies) but in the hinterland, in those areas that were either forgotten or abused; where parents feared for their children's availability of food and medicine. The ominous trend is that the hinterland is expanding quite rapidly as the center shrinks with the rapid concentration of capital. The middle classes are being forced out. As the class dimension of the hinterland increases, in folds into the lands that once been privileged. A black tide of suffering is enveloping the world.
You may have noticed that unlike previous capitalisms, the current configuration holds no loyalty to its local. They have sold out American and European workers with open celebration. They, the ultimate traitor, will and are exploiting and abusing citizens of all nations.
Quantitative Easing and TARP
On September 13, 2012, the Federal Reserve announced a new round of quantitative easing. This third round of printing money for banks is hard evidence that the capitalist world is in very deep trouble. Ultimately, printing money devalues the value of money. We are heading for hyperinflation. We are heading off a cliff.
Under this scheme, the Federal Reserve will buy $40 billion worth of mortgage backed securities from the banks each month in an effort to stimulate the housing market. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said that the initiative should “provide further support for the housing sector by encouraging home purchases and refinancing.” He said, “housing is usually a big part of the recovery process” but has been “one of the missing pistons in the engine.”
Quantative Easing increases the money supply for banks but does nothing to increase the volume of money circulating on Main Street. It fuels the stock market (a grand casino). Moods, impulses, and superstition can run it up or down. But again, this does nothing for the man or woman on the street.
The Federal Reserve rationalizes this massive glorified printing of money as a means to lower interest rates for homeowners. This is the third round. It didn't work before and it won't work now.
When the housing market crashed in the United States, and the banks were in serious trouble, the banks were deemed too big to fail. They were saved by the phantom taxpayer of the future. They banks were saved and homeowners were not. Instead of stimulating Main Street, the Federal Reserve and its servile politicians saved the ultra wealthy. Instead of handing all that money directly to struggling homeowners, it was handed to the banks.
Using the banks as the directors of the economy does nothing for the economy. It only helps one class. On the other hand, the economy could be stimulated through massive public works, through providing loans to small and start up enterprises, by bailing out drowning homeowners, or through any means of actually putting money in the pockets of ordinary people. his would result in people buying goods and services and this would actually work. The spending would create many millions of jobs.
The amounts that have been provided to the wealthy classes over the past few years are inconceivable. They took the money provided through the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) with no strings attached. Obama promised to help homeowners (through the Home Affordable Modification Program) but Obama is a liar and a coward. It was an illusion like so many financial shell games that have been and are currently being played.
Neil Barofsky, United States Treasury Department Inspector General and overseer of the TARP explains in his book, 'Bailout' that prior to his involvement with TARP he had no idea that the U.S. government was "captured" by the bankers. He was "shocked" at the control they have.
What he discovered was similar to what has been described above in Europe. The financial elites have tight control of the U.S. government. He aimed to publicize the rot and corruption but received no interest from the press. Instead, he was threatened and shut down. His reports were ignored or shut down.
To the extent governments are controlled by financial elites is the extent to which we effectively live under a dictatorship. The financial elites not only control governments, they control the lives of each and every one of us. What they do has a profound impact on each and every one of us.
Time to Wake Up
Austerity is being forced on Europeans and Americans and really, throughout the capitalist world. While the people suffer, the stock market booms. Their party rages on.
Additionally, pressure on local governments continues to increase and reduced spending on infrastructure is multiplying our collective misery. Physical and social infrastructures are collapsing and local governments are selling off what they own to pay bondholders. What was public property is now private. User fees for essential services will make them that own more secure and more free and they will make you and me less secure and less free.
The private sector is using the crisis to drive down wages and cut benefits to workers.
And throughout political and media opinion, the parasites and drain on society are Romney's 47%. Political and media stooges agree, they are only shocked at the bluntness with which he said it. In Europe as well, social programs and spending are seen as the problem, the drain on society. It is the citizens and not the elite criminals that are at fault.
In fact, every euro or dollar those criminals own has its genesis in other people's work.
Prior to Keynes and the modern era of gentle social programs, private capitalists pushed their jackboots against the throats of citizens with unbelievable cruelty. The Company Store and the private company forced workers and citizens to buy their water, food, housing, electricity from them. Workers were left with barely enough to survive. Examples of the depth of the misery people had to endure are well documented but have been forgotten after eight decades of Keynesianism.
Barbarism is returning. Everything that can possibly be sold will be privatized. Wherever a price can be extracted from a citizen it will be. If they can find a way to make us pay for the air we breathe, they will. And the state will back them up. They will criminalize and demonize the poor. That has already started.
Workers will work harder for less. The terms of exploitation are getting grim. To back that up, as social infrastructure crumbles, as benefits to the unemployed and the poor are more meager and jobs are more scarce, we find ourselves slipping back into the world Charles Dickens preserved in his accounts of the hardships of Victorian England.
As social problems beget social problems, our spiral to hell increases. As with any poor neighbourhood, one set of social problems exacerbates others. Concentrations of poverty where hopelessness fuels addictions problems, which increases domestic violence, which compromises child development, which causes many more social problems in the future and so on and so on, will expand from being neighbourhood problems, to whole cities to whole counties, provinces and states to whole nations. Increased homicides, suicides, crime of all sorts play off each other contributing an increasing reality of violence, insecurity, and instability.
We have become reliant on an expectation that somebody else will organize manufacturing, they will fix roads, they will educate and feed our children. We expect politicians and 'the market' to take care of it. We are waiting for criminals, psychopaths, and cowardly political whores to take care of us in an age of barbarism.
Wake up!
This blog is an archive of articles I've published in MWC News, Indymedia, and on Newsgroups.
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Sunday, September 02, 2012
Beyond Occupy Wall Street
These troubled economic times coupled with the disturbing distance political and media elites have travelled to the right will move us to action. The question of 'when' is pressing. The absence of organization and serious discussion about moving forward (from Occupy Wall Street protests) is troubling, to say the least. Perhaps the time to actually organize in ways that have a substantial impact has arrived.
It has become obvious that capitalism has ripened and has become not capitalism but monopolism. We have entered a period of tremendous instability. On the path we are on, we will eventually stabilize into third world conditions. It's in the cards.
The powers that control our societies have taken an increasingly ominous and threatening tone. Unapologetic in their contempt for rule of law or human rights, they are sending messages, repeatedly, that force and fear will replace the friendly face of social programs. The state itself is morphing from the apparent sweetness of Keynes to the bitterness of Ayn Rand and Machiavelli. The reason for this is the predicted transmutation of capitalism to mafiaesque monopolism.
The state and private business are married and stand over and above societies and we, powerless to govern ourselves, helpless in our troubling and increasing deprivation, wait for a master to take care of us. The time is coming where we, individuals and members of various societies must take the initiative to move ourselves a fraction; from late capitalism to early socialism. Don't be alarmed. Early socialism should and will look like late capitalism but at that point, we will have switched tracks. Our trajectory will have changed and we will be on the road to the abolition of state barbarism and naked selfishness toward true democracy and stable societies.
Our Historical Dilemma
The latter part of the 20th century gave witness to a period of prosperity throughout developed nations that was truly impressive. Memories of the Great Depression of the 1930s faded and the momentum of post war enthusiasm showed the world that the cynics and the malcontents were wrong. Capitalism has lifted us from the muck of feudal tyranny and misery. It had rendered communism and socialism a joke. History was finished. The excessive inequality that is part and parcel of raw capitalism was buffered by Keynes. His magic formula was up and running and the general notion was, the sky’s the limit. The trajectory was clearly upward.
Behind the scenes however, problems emerged. Economists began to question the stability of capitalist based economies. In the 1970s, a century of rising real wages came to an almost unnoticed end. In the 80s deficits became more an ominous threat than ever. The narrative began to crack. Keynes solid ground had weakened. New radical and bold neo liberal policies were widely promoted, especially by right wing think tanks. De-regulation and globalization found their way to the collective lexicon. Thatcher and Reagan led the political direction away from the social safety net and toward a new era of unbridled finance capitalism.
Stagnation and the reduction of real wages would have enormous consequences for the capitalist classes. The remedy for this was not a remedy at all. The problem was masked through credit. The party could continue. This has been but one of many schemes that have built up an illusion of stability. It was primarily aimed to continue the flow of money into the pockets of the very wealthy.
Another deeply relevant event occurred in the world of state capitalism. At the end of the 80s, communism died a silent and bloodless death. It died of old age and morbid stagnation. It was buried on the ash heap of history. The Western world could celebrate. The time had come for the ghost of Karl Marx to finally rest in peace; it seemed.
Now capitalism could operate more easily. With the cold war left to historical analysis, capitalism was now free to express itself more freely. There would be no more racing to the moon or building social safety nets aimed to be more impressive than the public sphere of communism. The time for authentic capitalism had arrived. The Keynesian model had been failing. The time had arrived for the resurrection of classical economics re branded as 'new'. Even though it would be branded with the prefix ‘neo’, there was nothing new about it.
Essentially there are two models for capitalism; the classical model (read Dickens) where you sink or swim or, the Keynesian model where a social safety net softens the hard edges; the places where the American dream could not reach.
Liberalization of the financial world (neo liberalism) was promoted as a means to generate wealth by allowing investors to acquire as much wealth as they could with as few restrictions as possible. This increased wealth, it was argued, would raise all ships. It is where capitalism is free, they argue, where most wealth is generated and consequently, ordinary citizens are most affluent. This line of argument ignores the fact that the best quality of life across the board has been in nations where generous social programs, high wages to workers, and a generous and healthy public sphere made that quality of life possible for everybody. The good life occurred where equality had been a political priority. On the other hand, nations that have accentuated inequality are the most tense socially and most unstable politically and economically.
Classical or neo liberal economists will argue that it is the free market that best regulates prices, wages, and demand. The market is democratic and what people want, they will demand. The free market is efficient and the competition that exists between firms will increase efficiency. And in that effort, technology as well as processes becomes ultra-efficient. That efficiency not only made it possible to produce very cheaply with far less labour input, it also made it possible to move capital around the globe at the flick of a switch and then, with even less effort. Playing with money became far more attractive than producing things.
The layers of economic illusion including selling sub-prime loans and the financial voodoo among bankers and investors cannot hide the underlying reality. The loss of wages among the working classes may not matter in the heat of short selling and hedging. The soulless masters of the capitalist world continue to pretend there is money, somewhere, to make good the enormous wealth that exists on paper but the bottom line is, every dime of real wealth including the wealth they 'own' begins with work. The genesis of wealth is rooted in the production of goods and services. Financial voodoo does not create wealth. When those chickens come home to roost (and they are) they will discover, and so will we, that all that wealth they accumulate through magical financial wizardry has no basis in reality. In other words, the real adults (workers) don't have jobs and cannot pay the bills. We are in trouble.
Old Age, Sickness, and Death
It is precisely the things that are the strengths of the so called free market that are its fatal flaws as capitalism matures. If capitalism could survive long enough, it could produce all the goods and services human beings could consume, very easily. The problem with that scenario is that everybody is out of work in that scenario, there are no paycheques. Consequently, there is no demand. An additional problem with that scenario is the distribution problem.
Capitalism has been the driving force of a stage of human development that, in many ways, has served us very well. The wealthiest of 19th century merchants or kings could not imagine the quality of life enjoyed by the middle class of the late 20th century. Capitalism has had its day however. It's useful utility has passed. Although it lives only as a mental abstraction, like any entity in the natural world it cannot live forever. Its very energetic and dynamic nature and concomitant instability, its intense energy, naturally results in a relatively short life span. It lasted longer than Marx had imagined however thanks to John M. Keynes.
The years ahead will be tumultuous. Without the calming salve of social programs to quell social upheaval, neo liberal inspired governors will become increasingly fascistic in efforts to stem the tide of social unrest. Keynesians will aim to return to the old world order but at this point this scenario isn't possible or even desirable. Keynes strategy was to protect capitalism from its own demise. Moreover, the maturation of capitalism, the window of opportunity to squeeze profit from a unit of labour has almost vanished and without that excess, the possibility of funding social programs through taxes from workers pockets is substantially reduced.
At this point the chickens 'have' come home to roost. The afterglow of capitalism's long run was sustained by a dot com bubble, by various other bubbles and pyramid schemes and most recently, by creating liquidity through quantitative easing (read: printing money). The notion that we need our too big to fail capitalist masters to take care of us is wearing thin. Big money and their minions have kicked the can down the road about as far as they can. They are running to a dead end.
Millions of jobs in the so called developed world have gone and there is no way they are coming back. They are gone thanks to technological efficiency; the same efficiency makes it much easier to open up the so called second and third world to manufacturing and a 'new and improved' neo liberal brand of consumerism.
To say that rising real wages has ended understates the severity of the situation. The jobs that had paid for roads and bridges and schools and social care and a decent standard of living are gone. Our infrastructure, schools, roads, social programs, is crumbling. The beginning of an ugly death spiral has started and there is no way out.
The wealthy classes and the right wing (their accomplices) had been demanding cuts in worker's wages throughout boom period. They have won. They got their wish. (Be careful what you wish for.)
The Paul Ryans and the rest of the so called libertarians call for less regulations and taxes on the private sector and consequently, the further impoverishment of society as a whole, is becoming more suspicious to the public. At some point, a critical mass will realize that the ideology of neo liberalism was a rather simplistic (albeit complicated in terms of financial gyrations) scam intent on funneling large quantities of wealth to the very rich at the expense of everybody else. At that point, Paul Ryan and the rest of the capitalist classes will be on very thin ice. No Homeland Security, no militias, no threats from the state or political bullshit will stop the outrage and revolutionary upheaval of the American people. The same holds true for Canada, Europe, and for working classes everywhere. Not only will the integrity of phoney wealth vanish, they themselves will be in real danger. They have been the ultimate traitors.
Mutual Interdependence
We've become dependent on gangsters and criminals. We've become addicted to the crack they sell. The time that we need to depend on ourselves is either very close or it has already arrived. We need to do more than occupy Wall Street.
We have always depended on each other. It has always been the efforts of other workers that produced all the goods and services you needed and enjoyed. At this point we need to develop ways and means to organize work to produce goods and services for each other, for our families, and for our communities.
The time will come when revolution will not be a choice. Reality itself will demand it in the requirement to meet human needs. We are fast approaching a point where we will need to produce and distribute goods and services. The need will be/is vital.
We first must recognize that it is not investors that actually produce and provide goods and services. It is you and me. The absurdity of factories rusting while millions look for jobs, while millions do without the goods and services they need; the absurdity of millions homeless while homes lay empty is screaming at us. Those suffering screams compel us to end our reliance on wealthy investors to make things happen.
To do this we need to organize. We need to work. If ever there was a time for us to think outside the box, it is now.
One way to do this is for workers to organize industrial production and for the workers that actually produce to be the board of directors for that enterprise. What is important is that while those workers are in control of surplus, that surplus have a mechanism to social responsibility.
Another element to this will require the focus of research and investment to be attuned to both local and international needs. The old paradigm's outcomes meant much research on getting an edge on making a tastier hamburger (not that there's anything wrong with that on its own) as opposed to research on or providing medicine to people suffering from various diseases. The focus must be on alleviating the suffering of those that suffer most.
While productive workers must have decision making power over their own work and what it is to be used for, input from the community truly democratizes the process. Industry that does not respond to the needs of the community is not worth anything to the community. Integration between producers and consumers (the community) is vital to the democratization of free enterprise.
On the public sphere, municipalities make decisions on what they need and want. If the citizens in a town want to make their town a version of a resort, the national government supplies the expertise to build the pools, the tennis courts, the landscaping and as needed, the supplies. The locals provide the labour.
To get there, to get to the place where we can realistically take back control of our workplaces, our communities, and our nations, we must take control of the state from the gamblers and the criminals. That will take organizing and it will require much effort. But it is not futile. The very same thing has been done and is being done in Venezuela.
As a collective and individually, we cannot be held hostage to old and archaic paradigms. We can no longer afford to submit to the master-slave dialogue. We need to build our own communities and workplaces. We need to provide for ourselves and each other.
We need to understand that the reality has always been, their wealth is based in our work. We need to understand to our bones that our wealth is our work. It does not come from 'them'. It never did.
It has become obvious that capitalism has ripened and has become not capitalism but monopolism. We have entered a period of tremendous instability. On the path we are on, we will eventually stabilize into third world conditions. It's in the cards.
The powers that control our societies have taken an increasingly ominous and threatening tone. Unapologetic in their contempt for rule of law or human rights, they are sending messages, repeatedly, that force and fear will replace the friendly face of social programs. The state itself is morphing from the apparent sweetness of Keynes to the bitterness of Ayn Rand and Machiavelli. The reason for this is the predicted transmutation of capitalism to mafiaesque monopolism.
The state and private business are married and stand over and above societies and we, powerless to govern ourselves, helpless in our troubling and increasing deprivation, wait for a master to take care of us. The time is coming where we, individuals and members of various societies must take the initiative to move ourselves a fraction; from late capitalism to early socialism. Don't be alarmed. Early socialism should and will look like late capitalism but at that point, we will have switched tracks. Our trajectory will have changed and we will be on the road to the abolition of state barbarism and naked selfishness toward true democracy and stable societies.
Our Historical Dilemma
The latter part of the 20th century gave witness to a period of prosperity throughout developed nations that was truly impressive. Memories of the Great Depression of the 1930s faded and the momentum of post war enthusiasm showed the world that the cynics and the malcontents were wrong. Capitalism has lifted us from the muck of feudal tyranny and misery. It had rendered communism and socialism a joke. History was finished. The excessive inequality that is part and parcel of raw capitalism was buffered by Keynes. His magic formula was up and running and the general notion was, the sky’s the limit. The trajectory was clearly upward.
Behind the scenes however, problems emerged. Economists began to question the stability of capitalist based economies. In the 1970s, a century of rising real wages came to an almost unnoticed end. In the 80s deficits became more an ominous threat than ever. The narrative began to crack. Keynes solid ground had weakened. New radical and bold neo liberal policies were widely promoted, especially by right wing think tanks. De-regulation and globalization found their way to the collective lexicon. Thatcher and Reagan led the political direction away from the social safety net and toward a new era of unbridled finance capitalism.
Stagnation and the reduction of real wages would have enormous consequences for the capitalist classes. The remedy for this was not a remedy at all. The problem was masked through credit. The party could continue. This has been but one of many schemes that have built up an illusion of stability. It was primarily aimed to continue the flow of money into the pockets of the very wealthy.
Another deeply relevant event occurred in the world of state capitalism. At the end of the 80s, communism died a silent and bloodless death. It died of old age and morbid stagnation. It was buried on the ash heap of history. The Western world could celebrate. The time had come for the ghost of Karl Marx to finally rest in peace; it seemed.
Now capitalism could operate more easily. With the cold war left to historical analysis, capitalism was now free to express itself more freely. There would be no more racing to the moon or building social safety nets aimed to be more impressive than the public sphere of communism. The time for authentic capitalism had arrived. The Keynesian model had been failing. The time had arrived for the resurrection of classical economics re branded as 'new'. Even though it would be branded with the prefix ‘neo’, there was nothing new about it.
Essentially there are two models for capitalism; the classical model (read Dickens) where you sink or swim or, the Keynesian model where a social safety net softens the hard edges; the places where the American dream could not reach.
Liberalization of the financial world (neo liberalism) was promoted as a means to generate wealth by allowing investors to acquire as much wealth as they could with as few restrictions as possible. This increased wealth, it was argued, would raise all ships. It is where capitalism is free, they argue, where most wealth is generated and consequently, ordinary citizens are most affluent. This line of argument ignores the fact that the best quality of life across the board has been in nations where generous social programs, high wages to workers, and a generous and healthy public sphere made that quality of life possible for everybody. The good life occurred where equality had been a political priority. On the other hand, nations that have accentuated inequality are the most tense socially and most unstable politically and economically.
Classical or neo liberal economists will argue that it is the free market that best regulates prices, wages, and demand. The market is democratic and what people want, they will demand. The free market is efficient and the competition that exists between firms will increase efficiency. And in that effort, technology as well as processes becomes ultra-efficient. That efficiency not only made it possible to produce very cheaply with far less labour input, it also made it possible to move capital around the globe at the flick of a switch and then, with even less effort. Playing with money became far more attractive than producing things.
The layers of economic illusion including selling sub-prime loans and the financial voodoo among bankers and investors cannot hide the underlying reality. The loss of wages among the working classes may not matter in the heat of short selling and hedging. The soulless masters of the capitalist world continue to pretend there is money, somewhere, to make good the enormous wealth that exists on paper but the bottom line is, every dime of real wealth including the wealth they 'own' begins with work. The genesis of wealth is rooted in the production of goods and services. Financial voodoo does not create wealth. When those chickens come home to roost (and they are) they will discover, and so will we, that all that wealth they accumulate through magical financial wizardry has no basis in reality. In other words, the real adults (workers) don't have jobs and cannot pay the bills. We are in trouble.
Old Age, Sickness, and Death
It is precisely the things that are the strengths of the so called free market that are its fatal flaws as capitalism matures. If capitalism could survive long enough, it could produce all the goods and services human beings could consume, very easily. The problem with that scenario is that everybody is out of work in that scenario, there are no paycheques. Consequently, there is no demand. An additional problem with that scenario is the distribution problem.
Capitalism has been the driving force of a stage of human development that, in many ways, has served us very well. The wealthiest of 19th century merchants or kings could not imagine the quality of life enjoyed by the middle class of the late 20th century. Capitalism has had its day however. It's useful utility has passed. Although it lives only as a mental abstraction, like any entity in the natural world it cannot live forever. Its very energetic and dynamic nature and concomitant instability, its intense energy, naturally results in a relatively short life span. It lasted longer than Marx had imagined however thanks to John M. Keynes.
The years ahead will be tumultuous. Without the calming salve of social programs to quell social upheaval, neo liberal inspired governors will become increasingly fascistic in efforts to stem the tide of social unrest. Keynesians will aim to return to the old world order but at this point this scenario isn't possible or even desirable. Keynes strategy was to protect capitalism from its own demise. Moreover, the maturation of capitalism, the window of opportunity to squeeze profit from a unit of labour has almost vanished and without that excess, the possibility of funding social programs through taxes from workers pockets is substantially reduced.
At this point the chickens 'have' come home to roost. The afterglow of capitalism's long run was sustained by a dot com bubble, by various other bubbles and pyramid schemes and most recently, by creating liquidity through quantitative easing (read: printing money). The notion that we need our too big to fail capitalist masters to take care of us is wearing thin. Big money and their minions have kicked the can down the road about as far as they can. They are running to a dead end.
Millions of jobs in the so called developed world have gone and there is no way they are coming back. They are gone thanks to technological efficiency; the same efficiency makes it much easier to open up the so called second and third world to manufacturing and a 'new and improved' neo liberal brand of consumerism.
To say that rising real wages has ended understates the severity of the situation. The jobs that had paid for roads and bridges and schools and social care and a decent standard of living are gone. Our infrastructure, schools, roads, social programs, is crumbling. The beginning of an ugly death spiral has started and there is no way out.
The wealthy classes and the right wing (their accomplices) had been demanding cuts in worker's wages throughout boom period. They have won. They got their wish. (Be careful what you wish for.)
The Paul Ryans and the rest of the so called libertarians call for less regulations and taxes on the private sector and consequently, the further impoverishment of society as a whole, is becoming more suspicious to the public. At some point, a critical mass will realize that the ideology of neo liberalism was a rather simplistic (albeit complicated in terms of financial gyrations) scam intent on funneling large quantities of wealth to the very rich at the expense of everybody else. At that point, Paul Ryan and the rest of the capitalist classes will be on very thin ice. No Homeland Security, no militias, no threats from the state or political bullshit will stop the outrage and revolutionary upheaval of the American people. The same holds true for Canada, Europe, and for working classes everywhere. Not only will the integrity of phoney wealth vanish, they themselves will be in real danger. They have been the ultimate traitors.
Mutual Interdependence
We've become dependent on gangsters and criminals. We've become addicted to the crack they sell. The time that we need to depend on ourselves is either very close or it has already arrived. We need to do more than occupy Wall Street.
We have always depended on each other. It has always been the efforts of other workers that produced all the goods and services you needed and enjoyed. At this point we need to develop ways and means to organize work to produce goods and services for each other, for our families, and for our communities.
The time will come when revolution will not be a choice. Reality itself will demand it in the requirement to meet human needs. We are fast approaching a point where we will need to produce and distribute goods and services. The need will be/is vital.
We first must recognize that it is not investors that actually produce and provide goods and services. It is you and me. The absurdity of factories rusting while millions look for jobs, while millions do without the goods and services they need; the absurdity of millions homeless while homes lay empty is screaming at us. Those suffering screams compel us to end our reliance on wealthy investors to make things happen.
To do this we need to organize. We need to work. If ever there was a time for us to think outside the box, it is now.
One way to do this is for workers to organize industrial production and for the workers that actually produce to be the board of directors for that enterprise. What is important is that while those workers are in control of surplus, that surplus have a mechanism to social responsibility.
Another element to this will require the focus of research and investment to be attuned to both local and international needs. The old paradigm's outcomes meant much research on getting an edge on making a tastier hamburger (not that there's anything wrong with that on its own) as opposed to research on or providing medicine to people suffering from various diseases. The focus must be on alleviating the suffering of those that suffer most.
While productive workers must have decision making power over their own work and what it is to be used for, input from the community truly democratizes the process. Industry that does not respond to the needs of the community is not worth anything to the community. Integration between producers and consumers (the community) is vital to the democratization of free enterprise.
On the public sphere, municipalities make decisions on what they need and want. If the citizens in a town want to make their town a version of a resort, the national government supplies the expertise to build the pools, the tennis courts, the landscaping and as needed, the supplies. The locals provide the labour.
To get there, to get to the place where we can realistically take back control of our workplaces, our communities, and our nations, we must take control of the state from the gamblers and the criminals. That will take organizing and it will require much effort. But it is not futile. The very same thing has been done and is being done in Venezuela.
As a collective and individually, we cannot be held hostage to old and archaic paradigms. We can no longer afford to submit to the master-slave dialogue. We need to build our own communities and workplaces. We need to provide for ourselves and each other.
We need to understand that the reality has always been, their wealth is based in our work. We need to understand to our bones that our wealth is our work. It does not come from 'them'. It never did.
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