The United States
For a long time I have believed that the U.S.
It has been hard to find others who agree with me as our worship of capitalism runs deep and is as fixed an icon in America
According to Moore
That snapshot of Ronald Reagan, as well trained actor (and excellent communicator, I might add) as being in bed with Wall Street and the moneyed interests of the nation, is now permanently embedded in my mind. Other presidents have followed in his footsteps. Easy to understand. Since it now requires untold millions of dollars to run a campaign for the highest political office, who can better afford to back a candidate than millionaires and billionaires? The final ‘nail in the coffin’ enabling this practice was placed by the Supreme Court recently with its passage of a law allowing unlimited corporate contributions to candidates running for office. Fairness? Equality? Sorry but I just don’t see it.
The movement away from government of, by and for the people continues to this day, begun by Reagan’s quote that “Government is not the solution to our problems, government is the problem.” That, followed by financial deregulation, successfully moved the country even further away for our original “self-governance” mandate, although that may not have been its intention. Reagan allowed the Savings and Loan industry a license to gamble with taxpayers’ money at best or to loot at worst. By the time the government closed the books on this nasty S&L affair, the taxpayers had lost $130 billion. Additionally, a longer term effect, Reagan era legislative changes essentially ended New Deal restrictions on mortgage lending that, in particular, limited the ability of families to buy homes without putting a significant amount of money down. It allowed corporations to pursue their ever greater love of profits undeterred by government regulations, checks and balances.*
Perhaps a healthy balance between government regulations and free market enterprise is the best answer. Because, ultimately it is people who are the problem, whether they work in government or outside of it. Until people can behave in a more altruistic, unselfish manner through the development of their higher inclinations, there will continue to be abuses in both the government and free enterprise sectors alike.
I don’t want to get into another tired debate about the Republican’s purported cry for smaller government vs. the Democrat’s supposed tendency towards big government, tax and spend approach. Both are no doubt wrong and exaggerated for the sake of politics with no real truth in actual fact. What is true is that our government (no matter which party is in control) is run by the moneyed interests, which control most policies, buy many of our lawmakers and run rough shod over the environment, the general population and the ‘good of all living things’ in its ever more frantic and fevered pursuit of profits. This is ‘capitalism run amuck’ in my opinion and can only lead us over the cliff to our demise. Moore starts the documentary with a clever juxtaposition of ancient Rome ’s demise with the current situation in America
This afore-mentioned love of profits, to the exclusion of all else, including common sense, was the background for our recent downward slide; the out-of-control and illegal gambling style practices of Wall Street which caused the financial and housing bubbles to burst, drowning many in their wake with attendant heartache, misery, loss, illness and death.
Visions of the French Revolution keep dancing in my head, without the guillotine, of course. Perhaps Americans need to start a bloodless revolution; one which will level the playing field and truly make the United States become ‘of America Moore Florida
- Information on Reaganonics from an article in the NYT by Paul Krugman, 5/31/2009
Note: As a follow-up to this blog, you might want to watch a youtube video which greatly expands upon these ideas. It is 2 hours long but brilliant and worth every minute of your time…..I promise! It is divided into segments so the viewing can be easily broken up. There will no doubt be areas with which you disagree but the overall premise is worthy of our consideration as a possible new direction.
Ramana Karkus
Ramana,u r wonderful. I watched a documentary on KERA last night about the mistreatment of the Navajo indians my our government and was sickened. when they returned from ww2 as code writer's they were not taken care of as veteran's. Finally when most had past on the few remaining were given metal's by George W.. They were given a 100 yr. bond that they would be taken care of. Another U.S. gov. lie.
ReplyDeleteRamana - good for you. I will definitely follow to see where this goes. It is your view, after all, and I've always enjoyed sharing and/or debating opinions with you.
ReplyDeleteI sent you an email but I will post here. Time we all read Griftopia by Matt Taibbi.
ReplyDeleteDear Ramana, right on!. In my book, in the chapter on Economic and social justice with Pres. Theodore Roosevelt, ML King and Emma Lazarus, I portray TR as rolling over in his grave at the pollution of Am capitalism. Remember he called them in his time plutocrats. So in the paragraph in your savy piece that begins with "Perhaps..., I know TR would agree completely. Too bad he is not physicaly present to set capitalism on its ears. I also, agree with you that some kind of non violent social revolution may be the only solution.
ReplyDeleteMazal tov and shabat shalom, Posner
Ramana - good luck to you! Thoughtful and well written - AND I question it.
ReplyDeleteI don’t know if what you envision - “unselfish capitalism” - is possible. Capitalism by definition is based on self interest, i.e. the individual works to create wealth for himself (or herself) and his family. As a side effect-in the process of creating wealth for himself, he creates wealth for the common good, i.e. goods or services and jobs.
Federal taxation, which did not come into effect until the early 20th century, was an attempt to temper the self interest of capitalism by directly taking some of the wealth the capitalists created for themselves and distributing it for the common good. And the consistent argument since then has been “how much” – how much do we take from the creators of wealth to redistribute?
Re your comment: "Because, ultimately it is people who are the problem, whether they work in government or outside of it. Until people can behave in a more altruistic, unselfish manner through the development of their higher inclinations, there will continue to be abuses in both the government and free enterprise sectors alike".
You are correct – but I don’t think that it has ever been much different – nor do I think it ever will be. Most people lose the drive to work if benefits that they have worked hard for are taken from them and given to others who do not work as hard or do not work at all. Which is precisely why socialism, desirable in theory, has never been successful in practice.
And then even if we were able to follow our higher inclinations, there is the problem of determining exactly what constitutes a “more altruistic, unselfish manner”. How much giving is enough – 30% of earnings, 60%, 90%? High income people living in NYC already pay almost 50% of their income in federal, state and local taxes, plus an additional 7% or 15% for social security taxes and almost 9% in sales taxes.
And the next concern is where will those taxes go – to fund bureaucracies and political cronies or to better the lives of the less well off? If you haven’t read this excellent book I would like to suggest it to you: "Uncle Sam’s Plantation" by Star Parker. Star Parker was a juvenile delinquent and a welfare mother and is now an entrepreneur.
And so while capitalism is far from a perfect system, I look at it this way;
Where in the world is the system better? Where is there more economic opportunity to advance? That opportunity is why millions of illegal immigrants risk death to get here.
And when in the history of the world or specifically the US was the general population better off? I think we have forgotten that historically in most of the world - including America – the majority of people lived poorly and without government assistance. I think back to how most of our immigrant ancestors lived when they came here: in tenements with shared toilets in the hall and without food stamps, Section 8 Housing, Medicaid etc. In truth, in this moment in time, even though we are in a “self-centered” era, there are also more luxuries available to the middle class and more social services available than there have ever been. And although we are in a nasty recession and there may be wider discrepancies in affluence (i.e. the rich are richer), more people, both middle class and the poor, have access to a higher standard of living and more educational opportunities than in any other era.
Certainly we can always do better at lifting up those less fortunate, but I think we have to be very cautious about killing the capitalist incentive. If we attempt to radically even out the distribution of wealth, we risk killing that incentive and destroying the enviable standard of living and great opportunity that is the hallmark of America.
Jackie Reckseit
Jackie, thanks for your thoughtful comments. My reply: I am not against capitalism per se, only against the abuse of it. For more info on this, check out:http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/exclusive-excerpt-america-on-sale-from-matt-taibbis-griftopia-20101018
ReplyDeleteThis takes abuse to new levels and was brought to my attention by Helyn in her comment on this post. My analogy is this: If you had a love for children but saw that they were acting in a very anti-social manner which was harmful to many, wouldn't you discipline them towards better and more socially responsible behavior? That is the crux of my argument for curbing the abuse of capitalism. I agree that (despite its flaws) it is the best system going as it encourages entrepeneurial instincts and creativity. Can't beat that. It is when it becomes a threat to the environment (our home) and people's health that I draw the line. Ramana