Jimmie Higgins
2nd January 2011, 04:12
I read this from the Guardian - nothing groundbreaking for any of us but he puts the arguments in a direct and clear way that I thought was helpful and well-done. I don't know anything about the author - the name's familiar, but I don't know about his political background or ideas so any info would be appreciated.
2011: calling time on capitalism (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/jan/01/economics-usemployment)
Republican and Democratic politicians alike dare not link this crisis to an economic system that has never stopped producing those "downturns" that regularly cost so many millions of jobs, wasted resources, lost outputs and injured lives. For them, the economic system is beyond questioning. They bow before the unspoken taboo: never criticise the system upon which your careers depend.
...
No Keynesian monetary or fiscal policies address, let alone change, how that system works and who uses its wealth to what ends. No reforms or regulations passed or even proposed under Obama would do that either. To avoid the instability of capitalism and its huge social costs requires changing the system. That remains the basic issue for a new year and a new generation. Will they break today's version of a dangerous old taboo: never question the existing system?
And the ironic answer to the authors question about questioning the system as a whole from some readers in the comment section:
Are you against capitalism or neo-liberalism? If you are against the latter then it is not too hard to imagine plausible alternatives: Norway, Denmark, etc. But, as far as I can sell, you are against capitalism root and branch.OMG! So taboo!
Isn't it the form of capitalism - the unrestrained deregulated free market Thatcherite/Reaganite insanity we've had since the '80s - that's the problem, rather than all capitalism?
At any rate, I thought it was a good read and a good thing to forward to your pro-capitalist relatives for New Years. Sometimes we get bogged down in the daily grind of politics and the strangeness of mainstream politics in most of our respective countries, but it's also good to take a step back and look at the big picture. The right may be steering the capitalist boat right now, but the winds are against the whole course that either wing of capitalism (lib or conservative) want to take it.
2011: calling time on capitalism (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/jan/01/economics-usemployment)
Republican and Democratic politicians alike dare not link this crisis to an economic system that has never stopped producing those "downturns" that regularly cost so many millions of jobs, wasted resources, lost outputs and injured lives. For them, the economic system is beyond questioning. They bow before the unspoken taboo: never criticise the system upon which your careers depend.
...
No Keynesian monetary or fiscal policies address, let alone change, how that system works and who uses its wealth to what ends. No reforms or regulations passed or even proposed under Obama would do that either. To avoid the instability of capitalism and its huge social costs requires changing the system. That remains the basic issue for a new year and a new generation. Will they break today's version of a dangerous old taboo: never question the existing system?
And the ironic answer to the authors question about questioning the system as a whole from some readers in the comment section:
Are you against capitalism or neo-liberalism? If you are against the latter then it is not too hard to imagine plausible alternatives: Norway, Denmark, etc. But, as far as I can sell, you are against capitalism root and branch.OMG! So taboo!
Isn't it the form of capitalism - the unrestrained deregulated free market Thatcherite/Reaganite insanity we've had since the '80s - that's the problem, rather than all capitalism?
At any rate, I thought it was a good read and a good thing to forward to your pro-capitalist relatives for New Years. Sometimes we get bogged down in the daily grind of politics and the strangeness of mainstream politics in most of our respective countries, but it's also good to take a step back and look at the big picture. The right may be steering the capitalist boat right now, but the winds are against the whole course that either wing of capitalism (lib or conservative) want to take it.