The saddest part about the period of sleepwalking that the U.S. has experienced over the past eight years is that we don't have to return to the status quo before Bush was elected. History can move forward to the benefit of America, but only if we recognize that some uneasy trends cannot be reversed. The reactionary backlash that allowed the neocon vision to take hold has been disastrous. Since it was based on cherished illusions, there's a strong chance that the voting public might be seduced by McCain's promise of "no surrender" and the promotion of old-fashioned nationalism backed up with overwhelming military threat.
Those illusions need to die, and with them another that prevails on the economic front.
5. The illusion that America and the free market are synonymous. Fifty years ago the slogan "What's good for GM is good for America" was at best a half truth (was it good for women, blacks, and immigrants?), but today, in the guise of the free market, the same shibboleth lives on. Capitalism prevails as a system that once vied, supposedly, with Communism for world dominance, yet its deep flaws remain. Three come to mind. Capitalism discourages equal access to wealth, leading to enormous gaps between rich and poor. The free market lacks a conscience, giving rise to inequalities of education, health care, and job opportunities. Finally, capitalism if unchecked promotes corruption, both economic and political. In the wake of Tom DeLay's corrupt selling of Congress to the highest bidder, the collapse of Enron, and the untrammeled greed that led to the current subprime mortgage crisis, these flaws should be glaringly obvious. They always existed, and yet the illusion of the free market as a godsend and purveyor of all good things persists.
A wealthy society isn't automatically a society without a conscience. The free market's flaws -- which are more than its excesses, the usual term for it -- can be ameliorated. By promoting socialism and Communism as the twin evils that keep the goodness of free markets from flowing, the right wing deals in sheer illusion. Social planning exists in many countries and many beneficial forms, from successful mass transit in Europe to Brazil's independence from fossil fuels. The U.S. is addicted to overconsumption and the ethos of unregulated wealth. It's the robber baron philosophy, with some amendments, all over again. One does not have to claim that the chickens came home to roost in the current economic crunch. In good times and bad society needs to distribute its benefits fairly, to treat every citizen in good conscience, and to promote general well-being, not just the indulgence of the wealthiest.
Under the spell of free market virtue, this country has seen stagnation in benefits, economic and social, even to the middle class, not to mention the poor, whose interests have largely been ignored. Without returning to the welfare state, we need to devise a modified capitalism that encourages humane attitudes over selfish ones. There are many signs that all of the illusions I've recounted are weakening, but choices remain open. The best any citizen can do is to promote the new realism that wants to emerge. Reversing history is a toxic dream. Moving ahead is the only option that favors everyone's well-being in the long run.
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And they said dinosaurs were extinct, and yet we have here a living breathing example, spewing his ancient, lumbering marxist invectives against the evils of capitalism, completely ignoring that it has created the most prosperous, free-est nation in the history of the planet.
I love the particularly insidious rag on rich vs. poor, completely ignoring the fact that billions of people around the world would love to be in American poverty. The average poor person in the United States suffers from obesity, has two television sets and automobile and air conditioning. Go tell someone in Nigeria how unfair capitalism is to the poor.
Hey, Mr. Blogger. Let me clue you in. The only way to guarantee equality of outcome is to institute a dictatorship. But I doubt you ever thought of that since your mental processes never left the shallow end of the pool.
There is nothing free about a free market system in which corporations are allowed access to Government in ways the people are not, in which the corporations not only lobby government, but write the laws that are designed to stifle and crush competition, laws that govern us all.
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I have to proof this stuff before I post
"Capitalism prevails as a system that..."
...enabled Deepak Chopra to make a fortune by bilking the public with New Age nonsense.
Deepak, if it weren't for capitalism, you'd be back in India and living a much different life.
Yes, I like cut of your jib Deepak. What I think you are getting at is called Conscious Capitalism.
It still allows great wealth for those who earn it and work for it. It gives the very wealthy the option and consideration to be more caring and generous in a way that benefits many more than just a few.
We will still have poor people as well.
Except poor people will have adequate housing, health care and basic needs met as a part of just being a human being whom we all care for.
Those who desire the boats and airplane toys can still get them. They just don't have to get them in a way that creates poverty to others in doing so.
The problem with this anti capitalistic theory is that it lacks any mention what the source of poverty is,Over Population! To many people wanting the same thing. When an uneducated poor woman who can't feed or house herself decides to make a child she can not feed or cloth or house,she is being selfish and harming the planet and society. In America they know because of our screwed up socialist laws, we the tax payer have to pay for that whole child's life. We need soup lines and army style housing for the poor rather than,the same standard of living as those who work,in essence a reward for selfish decisions. I personally can' afford health care because I have to pay about 5000 $ a year in public school tax,and I don't have kids. How about we all stop mandating charity and spend our money on what we feel is important.
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