A Work Force Betrayed
Watching Greed Murder the Economy
Paul Craig Roberts
The collapse of world socialism, the rise of the high speed Internet, a bought-and-paid-for US government, and a million dollar cap on executive pay that is not performance related are permitting greedy and disloyal corporate executives, Wall Street, and large retailers to dismantle the ladders of upward mobility that made America an “opportunity society.”
###
~:~
The Pluto/Chiron combo of ‘class warfare’ is having its heyday now as its further undermines and leaves begging the ‘disenfranchised.’ And many people thought I was overemphasizing the possibilities for meltdown and totalitarian coup with my constant barking about Pluto/Chiron and their Great Conjunction of Dec 30, 1999, with their strong parallel in mid-August 2004.
~:~
But the view looks vastly different in 2007/08, and sad to say, American middle class, you ARE on their take-out menu – but you’ll have to scare up your own supper from the nearest soupline, if you can find one.
~:~
For more info see: http://www.augustreview.com/
~:~
~And in my Pages column, see the ‘Reaganomics Eclipse’ article, if you’ve managed to miss it thus far.
judecowell Said:
on July 14, 2008 at 2:30 pm
Thank you for adding your insights, D.G.
We are witnessing a much larger panorama of history than our US politicians/economists let on. They like to keep Americans as shortsighted as possible with noses to the grindstone and payments in the mail.
Since deceptive illusionist Neptune entered Scorpio and the ‘credit card’ was invented and promoted, we’ve been mired in sticky debt which has bartered away the future of this idealistic nation. The People are, for the most part, well-meaning but the leadership is as you say. jc
D G Bokare Said:
on July 14, 2008 at 11:40 am
Marx’s socialism failed due to over centralisation of economic powers, too much interference of the state in the economic activities, wrong economic theory of Marx in respect of surplus value, price, transformation issues, concept of reserve army, etc. Too much economic concentration in the hands of rulers or private capitalists have the same tendency of imperialism. Collape of erstwhile was due these reasons. Same is happening in the USA, at present. Initially economists of capitalist world did not want any interference of the state in the economic affairs of the country under a false notion of “Free Market Capitalism”. Let us be frank in saying that there is no “free market” any where in the world. There is monopoly market system. The economists are fooling themselves and the common people. Today the situation is just opposite. There is cry from the same economists to have state intervention to save prive monopolies. We have just been witnessing Fed’s action in saving some big banks from “run on the bank” situation.
Marx says that laws are to be made to bring people together. In reality, he broughts laws to divide people on the basis of privileges, money power, legal protection, etc. Inductrial workers can only bring revolution was fundamentally wrong. He left out the entire lot of farmers, farm labor, self-employed entrepreneurs, workers attached to non-profit organisations, etc from the program of revolution on the ground that these forces are not fit to bring revolution and as such they are called ‘reserve army’. We know the final result of such an imbalanced economic society- the collapse.
What is now happening in the USA is on the same lines. Capitalists are now worried about their own investments and profits and not about the common people’s pains in the economy. Earlier it was a manufacturing-based capitalism thereby creating some values. Today the capitalism agenda has been hijacked by a few financiers who are controlling not only US economy but also the world’s economies. Super economic powers in the hands of a few can only lead to imperialism and thereafter the collapse of the economy. The economy of the uS has reached the stage when no medicines will now work to bring back the original health of the economy. Capitalism and half-cooked socialism have to lead to warfare. Both these “isms” cannot survive without wars.
Capitalism has its own internal contraditions and theoretical weaknesses. Laws are made to protect capitalists, trade union workers, to exploit other people. Monopoly laws such as patents, trade marks, copyrights, brands, joint stock companies with limited liabilities are identified as monopoly laws in any text book on economics. This kind of protection for a few in the economy has to have negative effects on the economy. We are now seeing the results.
What Marx should have done was to allow the recession its full course instead of arresting the recession to protect his work force. Full run of recession could have ‘cleaned up’ the economic ills of capitalism and Marx could have freshly started his socialism exercise. He; instead; became a friend (philosophically) of capitalists and saved their exploitative powers by arresting the recession in the past. This is what is now required in the case of capitalist economic systems across the globe. Count down of capitalism has already started. Today capitalists only are bringing down the capitalism. There is a need today to look at the “third option” for saving this planet and the human beings.