The Hypocrisy of the West

With the financial meltdown in full swing, western governments are swinging into action to revive their economies with massive stimulus bills and spending programs. Financial institutions too big to fail are receiving bucket loads of cash, while a multitude of industries wait for their piece of the pie. Obama is proposing huge investments in infrastructure and green jobs, while Gordon Brown and the EU promise much the same.

The West responds to economic crises with swift government intervention, while it tells Third World Nations to do the opposite. 'Structural Adjustment' was the phrase coined by the IMF and World Bank -- a technocratic word to describe the gutting of public institutions in the countries they were supposed to help. Third World countries were ordered to cut government spending, allow private companies to take over state functions (like providing water, electricity and education), and borrow at extremely high interest rates. The results were catastrophic, and countries like Brazil, Chile, and Nicaragua were plunged into economic hell. Hyperinflation, mass unemployment, poverty and food insecurity soared while deficits multiplied exponentially.

Family living in derelict building ~ Managua, Nicaragua, originally uploaded by cromacom.

The West insisted this was the best road to economic prosperity, ignoring the inconvenient truth -- that they had not taken their own advice.

Central planning, protectionism and corporate welfare created the societies we live in today -- the power of capitalism to create wealth by itself was nothing more than a myth, a weapon the rich would use to lecture the poor. You live in the jungle of savage capitalism while we use the state to build our businesses and solidify our wealth.

The ideologues insisted that neo liberalism worked, ramming it down the throats of their own countries with the same religious fervor. Wealth was created, but only at the top, while the rest of the country crumbled. The financial tsunami that wrecked Latin America in the 1980's had finally landed in the North, culminating in the spectacular meltdown of giant institutions deemed invincible 6 months before.

And our response? To use the same measures we always have in creating wealth and stability. We used the power of the government to regulate, protect and subsidize.

We may pull out of this awful mess in the coming months if our governments react to the will of the people. Wall Street must pay, jobs must be created, and the wealth must be spread around. We know this, and our governments know it too.

Yet the Third World is trapped in a spiral of debt, privatization and deep, persistent poverty. They exist in a precarious state of neo colonial dependency and cannot follow our path out of economic disaster because we insist they don't. We may believe colonialism is dead, but our treatment of the Third World reveals otherwise. We may not govern their countries directly, but the results are tragically similar. It is only the methods that differ.

Perhaps the almighty shock we have received will sway power back towards the disenfranchised, and perhaps we will have more sympathy for their plight. We can mourn the death of capitalism, but know that it never really existed -- not here at least.

Ben Cohen is the Editor of The Daily Banter.com

Comments

[peterg76]

The IMF and the World Bank work for the benefit of their investors, not their customers. Just like every other bank.

[Virginia Plain]

Do as I say, and not as I do.
The White Man knows what's best for you.


I am a believer in the saying "This, too, shall pass"

The Roman and British Empires came, were thought to be everlasting, and fell.
The Industrial Revolution came, and went.
The Black Slave Trade, to keep the world forever stocked with free labour, began and ended.
The Third Reich lasted only a few of the thousand years it was supposed to exist.
Ice ages come, and ice ages melt.
Every dog has it's day!

If this is the end of Capitalism, I, for one, will not mourn its passing.
Perhaps this is the time for greed to come to an end. Perhaps a new and better global society will emerge from the ashes of materialism. Perhaps change really has come to America - and to the rest of the world.

[BeFairNow]

I completely agree with your article. The only wee point I would like to challenge you on is your use of the term 'Third World'. It is my understanding that there are developed countries and developing countries. Whose idea was it to call some countries 'Third World'? Which countries are 'First World' and which are 'Second World'? Who created this ranking system anyway? Somehow I'm willing to bet it was developed Western nations. I have traveled far and wide and the only people who tend to use the term Third World are those from developed countries to refer to less developed ones and it's usually in a derogatory way. You haven't done that, but the term grates simply because there are people who live in developed countries in the same state of poverty and deprivation as people in so-called 'Third World' ones and there are wealthy people living in those countries who have a higher standard of living and better access to education and health care than many living in developed countries.

[Vickster]

It's my understanding that the "First World" refers to Europe and the "Second World" refers to those offshoots of European society, namely the United States and Canada, although Japan, South Korea, Australia and a few other countries have since developed "Second World" economies. The "Third World" refers to developing (poor) countries. Then there is the "Fourth World", referring to those regions where most people still live as hunter-gatherers.

[peterg76]

There are few definitions. Cold War sometimes used First World = US & allied, Second = Soviet Union & "allied", and Third World was everyone else. An economic definition: First World = industrial economies, Second = planned (communist) economies, Third = developing economies, Fourth = economies only developing with assistance, Fifth = economies without potential for development.

From the perspective of international lending, "Third World" is a little bit derogatory, the same way "customer" is for regular banks.

[Dukedraven]

I'm starting to believe our whole financial system is one big Monopoly game, based on fake money and the illusion of acquiring property and wealth. Many of those who we thought were rich are now broke. And some of them are even going to jail.

[PlaceboStudman]

you're catching on to the realities of life. Namely the fact that everything is perception and perception is based on perspective. Many of us have known for years that the world is one big Monopoly game. And, really, that's okay, it's what capitalism is about, and really what evolution is about, survival of the fittest

[Stirner]

"the fact that everything is perception and perception is based on perspective". Your perspective, no doubt. Ah, is it the only perspective?