Wall Street was making boatloads of money…Yada yada yada… the US is sliding into socialism.
By Daniel at 26 December, 2009, 8:29 pm
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it’s essential to realize that this is happening totally as an unintended consequence of the plan to save capitalism. Again.
We’ve been through chapters in our history like this before (1890-1919; 1932-1952). It’s just a cycle. When wealth and power get too concentrated and there is a major power imbalance at a time of economic instability then there is a choice: redistribute wealth and power and solidify the middle class or permit even greater disparity and oligargich rule with inevitable class warfare. We and the world have been down that road. The road is strewn with corpses.
Mature post-industrial countries inevitably drift to socialism or unravel politically. There just isn’t enough wealth creation to go around. The majority reject the notion of having half the country living in tent cities. Even the Bush administration felt this way and initiated the GSE conservatorship, TARP and other programs aimed at cushioning the economic shock from spiraling out of control.
We are one of the few developed nations still without a single payer healthcare system, education system and pension system. Go and ask the “efficient” Germans, Australians and Israelis what entitlements their governments give them. Your eyes will widen. Lots of questions will be raised the longer this crisis goes on.
- Dargoola
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“The majority reject the notion of having half the country living in tent cities. Even the Bush administration felt this way and initiated the GSE conservatorship, TARP and other programs aimed at cushioning the economic shock from spiraling out of control.”
What unmitigated bullshit. The Bush administration didn’t give a damn about Americans living in tent cities. GSE and TARP were aimed at protecting the investments of their corporate lobbyists, not the welfare of Americans at large, and they worked as designed. That’s why corporate profits have exploded for the past decade, while middle class fortunes plummeted. It’s why corporate America is well-protected, and no one but corporate America is enjoying a recovery.
Socialism has been with us since the early eighties, but only for corporations. The rest of us can only dream of being so well looked-after.