Economy
"You
can have concentrated wealth in the hands of a few, or you can have
democracy. You can't have both."
--Louis Brandeis--
"The hundreds of billions of dollars spent on commercial propaganda make a mockery of any notion of markets based on information and rational actors; the whole system is designed to suppress honest information and promote irrational behavior." Robert Jensen
----
In
the US constitution there is NO reference to "economy,"
"economics," "economic system" or "capitalism."
So our economic system is distinct from our form of government.
This may be a reason such a large portion of Americans seem to vote "against their own interests." If one believes the misrepresentation that loving democracy means one must love capitalism, as we know it, then one is much less likely to expect the government to address the effects on the populace of the "excesses" of the economic system.
The Bush administration is the "MBA administration" and it lives and broadcasts this misrepresentation. It seems to have come to office primarily to exploit the "economy equals government" fallacy.
While the Bush administration's behavior is perhaps consistent with an extreme capitalism, it is highly suspect and detrimental to the populace as a whole. The Bush group is efficiently using the power of the government for personal financial enrichment for themselves and their crony supporters.
It's "all
tax cuts all the time" for the ultra-rich. Profiteering is rampant
both in a "war of choice" and in disaster recovery. To increase
profits on no bid contracts, many to Halliburton, Mr Bush, in an Executive
Order, suspended fair wage laws for the gulf region that is full of
new homeless who obviously need work at decent pay. (Later he reversed
this order.) The Secretary of Defense is Chairman of the Board of the
company that will not offer nor be asked, to suspend its patent for
the only recommended medicine for the "bird flu." Prescription
drug "reform" took away the government's power to
negotiate with drug companies for volume purchase discounts.
These examples only scratch the surface.
Since 1980, the real wages of American workers have actually decreased. The proportion of both federal and state tax revenues have decreased for corporations and increased for individuals. The US manufacturing industry is increasingly being exported to foreign countries. For each year of the Bush administration there has been an increase in the number of Americans living in poverty. The gap between the rich and poor continues to grow. The Bush administration has demonstrated many effective techniques to widen that gap!
"In the 21st century the US economy has ceased to generate net new jobs in middle and upper middle class professions. This is a serious economic, social and political problem that receives no attention ... This process of substituting foreign workers for American workers cannot go on for too long before the US consumer market dies from lack of income and purchasing power. US policymakers have no clue. " Paul Craig Roberts
At the beginning of 2000 Bill Gates was worth $100 Billion. This represented the combined net worth of the poorest 45% of the population of the United States, as here . That means about 125 million Americans have an average net worth of a measley $800 !!?? (You probably pay more than that for your yearly phone bill.) Compare this disgraceful figure with the current individual share of the national debt of $24,000 per person.
US citizens can and must reclaim their legitimate control over the economic system before it proceeds to the ugly, logical conclusion of the so-called "Reagan Revolution" so eagerly fostered by Bush, essentially a system of neo-feudalism.
An "economy" is the system by which people allocate available resources. We must aim to promote a better distribution of our vast resources among all Americans and to reverse the current, sometimes legal, process of concentration of wealth into fewer and fewer hands.
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Economy in
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Outsourcing
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When
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Voodoo
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How the
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Min
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Class war
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What
recovery 4-12-06
Crumbling under debt
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Growth
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GM
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WA
Post editorial on new debt limit 3-15-06
US trade deficit
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The economics
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The
numbers behind the lies 3-12-06
Massive
trade deficit widens 3-10-06
US
retirement fund tapped to avoid debt limit 3-08-06
US
productivity down for first time in five years 3-08-06
Dark ages of
the auto industry-Nader 2-28-06
Bush
insists India outsourcing beneficial 2-23-06
US trade deficit
hits all time high 2-10-06
China's
plan to eradicate poverty 2-9-06
Tax cuts not helping economy
2-5-06
Economy
grows slowest in three years
1-28-06
Saudis
offer $1 trillion to outside investors 1-14-06
China:
capitalism doesn't require democracy 1-10-06
Nobel
economist: Iraq could cost 1 trillion 1-07-06
China signals
reserves away from US $ 1-07-06
Central America
doesn't like CAFTA 1-03-06
China lays down
energy gauntlet 12-31
Michigan
Gov courts Toyota 12-28
Tax Cut Zombies -
Krugman 12-23
(Eroding
civil liberties are) Bad for Business 12-23
A
proper global agenda 12-23
The
economy in a nutshell 12-23
On
supporting local businesses
US
drops a spot in Foreign Direct Investment list 12-14
Rich
countries like their subsidies 12-12
How
Greenspan skewered America
GDP
does not measure families' economic health 12-05
The
war on our children 11-25
Age
of Anxiety - Krugman 11-28
Krugman
on 30K GM Layoffs 11-25-05
Many
jobs pay below living wage 11-18-05
Still
No Jobs 11-10-05
Portly
R's squeeze the poor 11-08
Do
free traders think Americans are stupid? 11-08
The
Market Myth 10-31-05
Service
sector hurt by spiraling prices 10-06
The
easy way or the hard way 9-29
Uncle
Sam's Rich Uncles Overseas 9-18
There
Goes Another Pension Plan 9-18
WSJ's
War on Minimum Wage 9-14
Flood Lifts
Poverty Debate into Focus 9-13
Incomes
Down - Poverty Up 8-31
US Poverty
Up Despite "Growth" 8-30
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