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June, 2000
The End or The Beginning?
During what we are constantly told is a period of economic boom , the
majority has slipped into deep debt, and often, even deeper mental
depression. Were it not for the massive market in legal and illegal
drugs in America, our dysfunctional families and even more
dysfunctional highways might be the scenes of an even higher death toll.
It’s all due to a dysfunctional system.
When Clinton took office in 1992, the top 1% of American households
controlled 37.4% of the nation’s wealth. By 1999, their share had gone
up to 40.1%.
Back in ‘92, the bottom 40% of households had .9% of the wealth. By ‘99,
they had slipped to -.7%. That’s right, a negative figure, meaning they
were in debt.
Consumer debt has increased by more than 75% over those eight years, and
it accounts for most of what we are told is the “boom” for average
families. In truth, the top is doing better than ever, the bottom has
dwindled by a fraction, and the middle is doing worse, since its wages
have remained static, while its debt has skyrocketed.Three cheers for
the “new” economics?
During this same period, taxes on the average citizen have increased,
while they have gone down for major corporations. This more unequal tax
system is attributable to our sham democracy, which finds more money
poured into politics, with greater representation for wealth , and less
for everyone else. The gap between classes in America has never been
wider. But of course, we are not a class society.
While ministers of the market lead their parishioners in hymns praising
profit, growing numbers of citizens are at a loss to find affordable
health care or housing. But they are able to purchase affordable
automobiles or guns. They can use these to act out their frustrations
over the economic boom, which is busting them, and ruining the
environment for even those few who profit. How much longer can this go
on?
We are practicing the most socially gross national behavior , in order
to create the most socially gross national product.
Our dangerous and stupid nuclear arsenal costs us billions, even after
the legendary communist menace has vanished. We spend even more billions
on weapons and armed forces that appear almost everywhere on the globe,
and are appreciated almost nowhere on earth. We maintain poverty
standards for much of our education and health care, while squandering
our wealth on prisons and warfare.
The same forces which said It was wrong to put people in death camps
back in the 20th century, say that it is right to turn the nation of
Iraq into a giant death camp in the 21st century. Makes you wonder?
A system that can practice murder and call it peace , is a system
that can impoverish billions and call it a triumph of political
economics. It can see itself as the center of progress , while pushing
the planet closer to the edge of doom. It can see the majority of the
world go hungry while a minority goes on a diet, and interpret this as
the triumph of capitalism .
Ecological disasters that are called “natural” are like the mass
murders that are called peace keeping. These assaults on logic and
language are based on a double standard inspired by our warped
interpretations of mythology and legend. The religious teachings that
help some to find hope for mankind are interpreted by others in ways
that support the perpetuation of despair.
Worship of market forces and the continued reliance on fossil fuels are
an indication of the systemic unwillingness to treat resources as
anything but things to be exploited for profits. Some industry experts
forecast that we’ve already peaked in production, and that petroleum
sources will be in steep decline for the near future. That means prices
will go up, even for subsidized Americans. The handwriting is on the
wall, but few establishment leaders or their apologists seem able or
willing to read.
Thankfully, there is an international movement that seems to want to
create a new way of treating the world and its people. It speaks of
putting them before the notion of profit, and trying to resolve
differences between nations in ways other than war. You’d never know
that to listen to corporate capital’s information ministry, which heaps
ridicule and disrespect at any resistance, while praising the acceptance
of madness as a sign of sanity.
But change is in the air. After a generation of attacks on government
and the notion of social responsibility, a comeback may be under way.
The heavy-handed assault of Thatcher and Reagan, followed by the
smiley-faced theft of Clinton and Blair, could be nearing its end.
A sign of this is in the tiny nation of New Zealand. It has elected a
woman prime minister on a platform of rejection for the “new” politics
of neo-sadism, calling for a progressive return to concepts of worker
organizations, human rights, peace and social responsibility.
The UN proclaimed 2000 the “International Year for the Culture of
Peace”, and though you’d never know it from the behavior of the U.S. and
its NATO flunkies , there are indications that the people of the world
are responding.
The less powerful and more numerous nations are banded together in the
group of 77, which represents the world’s developing majority and
tries to counter the minority masters of the planet. They often find
unity with NGOs from the euro-american north, whose system is the
source of most global problems. That north could also play a major role
in solving those problems, if democratic efforts can bring it to its
collective senses. The hope of the future may reside in the strength of
the democratic impulse in that developed world.
Copyright (c) 2000 by Frank Scott. All rights reserved.
This text may be used and shared in accordance with the
fair-use provisions of U.S. copyright law, and it may be
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the author is notified and no fee is charged for access.
Archiving, redistribution, or republication of this text on
other terms, in any medium, requires the consent of the author
.
frank scott
http://www.marin.cc.ca.us/~frank
email: [log in to unmask]
225 laurel place, san rafael ca. 94901
(415)457 2415 fax(415)457 4791
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