Workers in Greece today stand in the forefront of the converging European class
struggles against big capital's attempt to make working people pay the costs of
its crisis.
Mobilizations against this austerity drive are spreading
across Europe. In France, strikes and demonstrations were held on May 27 and a
day of actions is planned for June 24. In Portugal, 300,000 working people
demonstrated in the streets of Lisbon on May 30 to express their rejection of
the socialist government's austerity plan. In Spain, public employees took to
the streets on June 2. In Italy, a national demonstration was held in Rome on
June 5, with strikes and other actions planned up to June 14. In Great Britain,
the unions and left-wing organizations are organizing a day of demonstrations on
June 22. In Romania public employees took to the streets on June 4.
Meanwhile the drugged and hypnotised American population continues placidly grazing away. And the idle breed of liberals and progressives is congenitally incapable of doing anything save chattering away.
Hi, Double-A. (I was gonna say: there's nothin better than suckin down a couple beers, then readin the blogs... But YOU made that comment about "the drugged and hypnotised American" ... )
ReplyDeleteSo I will sober up. You write: "And the idle breed of liberals and progressives is congenitally incapable of doing anything save chattering away."
I would say: People don't know what to do. Lots of 'em think we need to cut government spending and balance the budget... But we've been trying that since Reagan. No... Since Nixon. No... Since LBJ. Whatever; it does not work. We are unable to do that. The popular plan cannot be implemented. What to do? What to do?
Here, since I have had a couple, I'll get talkative: Everybody thinks we have debt and deficits because the government spends too much. Hogwarts. I mean, hogwash.
We have debt and deficits because we use credit for money.
To fight inflation, the Federal Reserve severely limits the quantity of money in circulation. (Most people don't say that; but most people count money in savings as money in circulation, and that's just wrong.) We have too little money circulating, and that creates problems. Meanwhile, Congress does everything it can to stimulate the economy, by which they mean stimulate growth, by which they mean stimulate spending.
Policy stimulates spending AND removes money from circulation. And the result is that people have learned to use credit for money.
And THAT is why there's so much debt in America today.
Well, it's getting hard to hit the right keys... Good luck with Europe there.
Single-A
It's a political problem, a power problem. It's dressed in the economic camouflage of deficits and balancing the books -- which is hogwash. In short, it is class war. The social welfare functions of the state -- to the modest extent they exist in the USA -- are to be savagely curtailed (which is what the European ruling elites are trying to do in Europe as well), while other aspects of state exepnditure such as the gargantuan military complex are left unscathed. *Why* are there such deficits? Lower taxes on the rich, lower taxes on corporations, and massive offshoring of manufacturing capacity leading to an evisceration of the skilled working class ("middle-class" in the USA) thus leading to lower tax revenues. The class war of the rich on the poor is multi-faceted. Thus, for the reasons listed above the state runs persistent and burgeoning deficits. These deficits are funded again partly by rich investors -- who want their pound of flesh. The power of these investors means their demands are met first and those of the disorganised and impotent public are ignored. Power is primary.
ReplyDeletePart of the problem with doing anything concrete is that the American public is not constituted as a body. "Class consciousness" is generally absent. It exists as a vast amorphous body of alienated and confused individuals.