Monday, April 18, 2011

Been there, done that

It's not like we don't know how all this current deficit, tax, and budget cutting mania is going to end. We do. And history shows us it's not going to end with a happy low tax/business friendly/full employment utopia.

In her masterful history of the carnage wrought by Milton Friedman's economic policies Naomi Klein, my long time imaginary Canadian intellectual girlfriend,

shows us that time and again countries that bought into the IMF/World Bank meme that in order to 'cure' their economy they had to cut taxes in increase investment (which never ever really happens when taxes are cut), slash public benefits (which is actually the worst thing to do in a time of fiscal crisis), and privatize public utilities (which is the worst thing to do for the biggest number of people), all saw their countries go into economic and sociopolitical free fall. They all saw their populations suffer, the poor and working poor the most, and they all, and this is true for every single one of them and it will be true for the USA, Canada, and the UK, came back only after they dumped conventional thinking that said if they followed the IMF/World Bank plan they'd be an economic paradise. They came back only when governments stopped privatizing and cutting taxes. They came back only when governments shifted away from the disaster capitalism models and back to a model that offered regulation of capitalism and a strong government hand in the economy.

The Paul Ryan budget plan will lead us down the same road Chile went down under Pinochet, the same road South Africa went down when they saddled the ANC with the apartheid debts of the past, the same road numerous Asian countries went down when financial speculators caused the 'Asian tiger' financial crisis a few years back, and the same road the Britain is going down under Cameron and the budget and benefit cutting Tories, in fact it's already happening over there, the British economy is not expanding as they said it would once these cuts began, it's contracting, just like ours will if we adopt the Draconian cuts offered up by Republicans and conserva-Dems.

Disaster capitalism benefits the capitalists who rigged and still control the system.

Everybody else gets screwed.

1 comment:

Mnmom said...

Yup, we're screwed. Just hope I don't have to go out in the woods to die when I'm old.