Conservative economic policies have us slip-sliding down that old rocky slope. The mantras of that vision are well known to us all, as we've heard them over and over for the last 2 or 3 decades:
No free lunch
What's good for business is good for the country
Free trade
Tax cuts
Starve and shrink government
Outsource
Bust unions
Privatize government services
The fundamental problem with this vision is that it ignores one simple, indisputable fact: WE'RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER. This is true whether we are talking about the economy, the environment, towns and cities, states and nations, social groups, or our overall existence in space and time. If, we're all in this together, then the "Golden Rule" that we care for others as we care for ourselves is our best strategy, not just for mere survival, but to thrive and live lives of purpose and meaning.
From the 1940s to the 1970s, based upon our collective understanding that we are all in this together, this country built up a social safety net, consisting of things such as disability insurance, retirement systems, minimal income support (welfare), health care access for the elderly and the poor, worker safety and benefit programs. In the 1980s, conservatives began efforts to systematically dismantle those. Remember when we heard the calls to "end welfare as we know it" because "there's no free lunch" and "everyone must work for their living?" Government was too big, they said, and was "redistributing wealth" by taxing the rich to spend it on the poor (especially poor people of color). It was that evil socialism!
Remember when conservatives demonized welfare as money down the drain, given to ne'er-do-wells who blew it on luxuries like the most famous nonexistent object in history, the "welfare Cadillac?" They refused to listen to those of us who warned that welfare money was not being given to the recipients alone, but to all of us, to our society in general. They refused to hear that the welfare "giveaway" went from hand to hand through the economy building jobs and income repeatedly and even generated tax income back for the government. They could not see that we are all in this together.
These were the same people who were telling us that the profit motive (ie., greed), unrestrained capitalism and free trade would solve all our problems. They proudly busted up unions so that working folk had no advocates and then they shipped the jobs overseas. These were the same folk who actually believed that the investment house Smith-Barney earned their money "the old-fashioned way" when, in fact, they never earned a single dime that way.
There were some voices in the wilderness who warned where all this was heading. But progressives didn't have many strong voices to present the alternative views and, most important, they did not have control of the government and the media. Some, who might have stood stronger against this madness, like Bill Clinton, were suppressed by a conservative Congress and by their own political missteps.
Over the years, middle class economic power, the engine that drives our economy, was eroded. Not surprisingly, people stopped saving. They didn't have any choice but to spend every dime they earned. As savings were exhausted, to keep them spending, the financial powers opened up credit available at exorbitant and rising interest rates. This soak-the-middle scheme could only go on so long. The Bush administration added to the burden by engaging in a war of aggression paired with further tax cuts for the wealthy. Those who benefited most of this war--the Haliburton profiteers, the oil companies who now have control of Iraqi oil--got this war booty at the expense of Middle America.
The coup de grace was deregulation that allowed rampant speculation in the oil market and creation of fictitious investments ("toxic assets") for rich people to swap among themselves. In recent years, as speculation drove gas prices up (which in turn drove up the price of just about everything else) who do you supposed was hurt the most? It wasn't the Wall Street wizards; it was the millions upon millions who were driving the trucks, growing the food, manufacturing the goods, driving to and from work and school. It was the small and mid-sized businesses where the bulk of our jobs are created and the majority of our real goods and services are produced.
So wham! We hit that brick wall; now we ALL are waking up with the same headache. Once again we see clear evidence that we're ALL in this together. Well, some of us see that anyway. Some still don't get it; they're looking everywhere for someone to blame when the mirror would be the most logical place to look. When John Q. Public couldn't keep paying those "adjustable-rate-upward-only" mortgages because he'd lost his job or had a health care crisis (there's a whole other story), Mr. Moneybags in the loan industry turned to that former "enemy" he'd been busily trying to starve to death, the mean ole big US government. "Help us, please, or we'll stop making the loans everyone depends on now!" I guess they don't consider it socialism when they are the recipients of the "welfare."
The financial institutions got their money and continued merrily along on their same old ways in secrecy. There's little indication that they are using it to help out the folks who were really in distress. If that money had been directed to assist those in foreclosure, instead of their financial "captors" it would have benefited everyone including the big financials. Then here comes the auto industry asking for LOAN assistance of $15 billion--about the same as a few weeks of the war in Iraq. It was termed a bailout, but it was a very different kind of bailout that genuinely would help middle and lower income folk across the country. Conservative Republican Senators killed the deal unless the auto industry busted their unions and cut worker pay (when worker pay was not the problem). Better to hold to their ideology than, Heaven forbid, help middle America. They just don't get it that we're all in this together.
It's not only here in America that conservative economic principles have been wrecking havoc. Please read The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein in which she details how economic shock has been applied to countries all over the globe to force them into unregulated capitalism. And this recession now is worldwide.
Continued>>>
http://www.opednews.com/articles/-Thanks-but-no-thanks-to-by-Mary-Bell-Lockhart-081223-140.html
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