Our God That Failed

The high doctrine of Economic Correctness of the Reagan-Bush-Clinton-Bush years is as bankrupt as Soviet Communism. It is all but officially dead. Why then are the president's economic advisers paid to prop it up and apply a sickly rouge and embalm it and set it in motion with galvanic shocks to simulate life? All the money proposed to be donated to bankers and brokerage houses to keep their discredited privilege is a proof of religious belief. The hundreds of billions in public funding to indemnify a huddle of private owners represent a sacrifice to our own god that failed -- an idol we cannot surrender the habit of adoring. And the plucking of state subsidy out of taxpayer pockets to ensure that nothing is state-owned: a form of savage prayer or burnt offering.

Comments

[OldHeathen]

"officially dead. Why then are the president's economic advisers paid to prop it up and apply a sickly rouge and embalm it and set it in motion with galvanic shocks to simulate life?"

Because it feeds the Rich and InSlaves the Poor and MiddleClasses. Because Reaganomics is a Wealth Redistribution Plan - from the Workers to their Masters.

[Ganapati]

Well, it has become blatantly evident that The U.S. of America is a country moved, almost guided and decided by faith.
Look at the last few electoral cycles, how we elect our presidents.
Add the comforts of consumerism to the equation, the American-Christian belief in the relationship between prosperity and "god's blessing".
The list goes on and on...
This is hardly surprising or novel.
Thank you for bringing it up again, though.

[dobberdoss]

So, youv'e grown up your whole life dreaming Capitalism is king, that having stuff & buying stuff is the key to happiness, that having more than your neighbours is the point of life, well, your right IT WAS ALL A DREAM! time to wake up. hehe

[BigLeagues]

For me, perhaps . . . and this, of course, is just a suggestion . . . a literary reflection of the road that lead us to financial ruin would appeal more to me if it didn't miss the mark.

The lineage really began much earlier in the 20th Century, certainly most notably with FDR, but perhaps earlier when the National banking system was beginning to take shape. So let's run from FDR down: Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, LBJ, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush, and now Obama.

These are the died in the wool believers of the Keynes School of Economics. Deficit spending, job exporting, globally expanding, currency deflating, public sector growing, tax revenue addicted, central planning oriented to mention just a few of the negative qualities of this dead end philosophy.

It's time to reverse these Demoplican, Republicrat, Fortune 500 and banking friendly policies and return to more practical, productive, less taxing, citizen friendly economic policies of the Austrian School and Mises Institute Economists.

[selikson]

This is typical neocon tactic. "They all did it." It's just to cover up their failure. Keynes economics has nothing to to do with job exporting, or tax revenue addiction or currency deflation. And the size of the public sector hasn't grown at all in almost 60 years. Check Dunn and Bradstreet. The neocons used worship in the "magic of the market" to divert attention as they dismantled oversight, dismantled well regulated markets, and went about the business of pilfering all the public and private coffers they could get hold of. Understanding what happened is not rocket science, it is just immoral.

selikson
radnor pa

[desertman]

Yes, and it happens every 70 years. Go figure.

[dadw5boys]

CREATING CHAOS AROUND THE WOLRD CREATED PROFITS.

CHAOS = PROFITS

[Osusuki]

I was there personally for all but the first two of your list, and friend, you're wrong. This catastrophe started with Ronald Reagan, and thanks the mindless worship of the Reagan Myth, we have not been able to rid ourselves of it to this day. I'll even admit Bill Clinton shares the blame. I liked Clinton, sexual foibles and all, but I would rather have had him run hookers through the Oval Office all day every day and twice on Sunday than have seen him crucify Glass-Steagall by signing Financial Services Modernization Act (sometimes known as the Phil Graham Guaranteed Income for Life Act) of 1999. FDR saved this country. Ronald Reagan began the process of burying it. And all the conservative talking points in the world won't change those two facts.

[Skepticat]

Reagan and his successors were not Keynesian economists. There was spending galore but not for the public good but rather for private gain. It was tax cuts for the rich and borrow lavishly.
No one is buying neo-con revisionism.

[coco mees]

I've always noticed that fundamentalist economists have similar traits to fundamentalist religious believers:

1. Clinging to the same old myths
2. Denial of obvious facts
3. Reinforcement of their values through constant repetition

[desertman]

and maybe also learning lessons of history.

[MsLiz]

My favorite history is TR and the trust busting legislation.

[VictorLudorum]

The high doctrine of Economic Correctness of the Reagan-Bus­h-Clinton-­Bush years is as bankrupt as Soviet Communism. ... True ,because the actual process is different .......

The
Globalisation
Revolution.

[citizenfirst]

Wonderful metaphors, and so very true. Free market Capitalism did approach a kind of "faithful" religious fervor that usurped common sense. But then again, when you think about where this mind set originated, it is not difficult to see that the Southern far right base routinely views wealth as something that is "blessed" and "sanctioned" by God. It still startles me, however, when I hear Baptists and other Christians say that the reason they give tithes to their churches, is the hope that they will be "blessed" by receiving more money (from God) in return. What we lived through, was really the "Christianization of Capitalism".

[MsLiz]

By tithing, some get "free" segregation academy education for their kids. The megachurches also provide all kinds of services "free" to their congregants: rec centers, health clubs, music lessons. Some even help employment networking.

Give me a small Episcopal church full of gays and misfits. Of course, I am not going this morning, as usual.

[Skepticat]

Calvinists believed that most men were damned but the "saved" could be recognized by their material success. Why is it not surprising that an unholy alliance formed between austere protestant fundementalism and unbridaled capitalism.

[uneeda]

change= more of the same

[esquire07]

You got that right !!! Hope an d Change is nothing but empty rhetoric.

Obama is a good man and means well. But under Capitalism America is a sinking ship.

How much longer before utter collapse ??? What happens when it fails ? Martial Law ?

Ain't gonna be pretty.

[Ganapati]

The problem is expecting that change will come from anywhere other than from the people.
Don't like what is going on?
Do something more than bitching here.
Want change? PUSH FOR CHANGE.

Also, how long has it been since we have a new administration?

[ChristianEcon.com]

There's still a lot of people who worship the God of Capitalism. As long as there're belief-based dupes, there'll be false gods.

[leonel]

The awful truth may be that Obama has an impossible job. Not logically impossible to recover from the recession, stop two wars, do enough about global warming, make peace with the Russian and Muslims, get rid of terrorist threats, fix Social Security, Medicare, etc. All of this with a polarized and semi-dysfunctional Congress and bureaucracy. As an optimist I don't believe that any or all of these issues can't be dealt with, but it may be humanly impossible for a President to come out seeming successful. In his first two weeks it can already be reasonably suggested that his team is sputtering or strained at least. The answer has to be applying Positive Psychology to politics. No more apologies. We are in revolutionary times and may not get to the promised land in 4 or 8 years. The promised land is a green, globalized, demilitarized planet where the majority of elected officials are women and there are no starving people.

[Catamount]

oy

[Ganapati]

The Re-education of the United States, the building of a new reality.
Can we get over this "dream" once and for all?
Doesn't this notion of American Dream speak volumes about how deeply engrained faith is in us?
A sour awakening, yes, but that also means that we have the whole day ahead...

[jozinha]

Excellent. Yes, we're putting rouge on a cadaver. But the alternative is something we haven't thought up yet.

The question is: does BHO get this or is he going to spin the public in his own way like Bush did in his?

[KayDGee]

Our Dollar
Invested in the Big Board
Hallowed be Thy Price to Earnings Ratio...

[BelGazou]

The problem was that first big business and government became intertwined and then big business proceeded in a hostile takeover of government with the Bush years. Bean counters know or care little beyond their own very narrow concerns, much to the detriment of everything and everyone else. Bush & Co. was a disaster waiting to happen, a slow-motion train wreck that ended with a plunge off a cliff. Out with the bean counters and in with a return to statesmanship.

[Ooftyman]

I definitely agree with your assertion that business is in bed with government. However, this was a trend started long before the Bush years. Every administration since at least Teddy Roosevelt has been in bed with business. Yes, even the so-called trust-buster himself...

[desertman]

The US government has always been about business since it's founding.

[BelGazou]

The difference is that government is not only in bed with Big Business, Big Business has become the government. Almost every decision that Bush & Co. made was made with the welfare of Big Business as the number one priority, all other considerations were a distant second, if considered at all. Obtusely ignorant and contemptuous of the rule of law, Bush & Co. ran the government the way the Robber Barons ran their businesses. Bush & Co. exemplify Eisenhower's warning about government establishing a military-industrial complex.

Bean counters as mayors can work out fine perhaps even bean counters as governors but bean counters as leaders of the free world are in way beyond their depth. These self-appointed "masters of the universe" get an A for hubris which unfortunately, combined with their narrow, myopic frame of reference and cut-throat tactics, is disastrous.

[essbird]

You made me realize that all this debate over whether it's Government or Business that's gotten us in this pickle misses the point. It's a morality play. It's the individual's morals regarding his fellow creatures. "It isn't that," said Scrooge, heated by the remark, and speaking unconsciously like his former, not his latter, self. "It isn't that, Spirit. He has the power to render us happy or unhappy; to make our service light or burdensome; a pleasure or a toil. Say that his power lies in words and looks; in things so slight and insignificant that it is impossible to add and count them up: what then? The happiness he gives, is quite as great as if it cost a fortune."

Should the debate not be about which economic system is better, but rather about the social contract, its value to all participants, and the obligations of the winners? As Christ reportedly taught, "WHATEVER YOU DID UNTO ONE OF THE LEAST, YOU DID UNTO ME." Seems like that's what's missing every time things go wrong.

[Buddy McCue]

Yes, thanks for pointing this out. Matthew 25 has long been one of my favorite pieces of Scripture. More conservatives should know the Parable of the Sheep and Goats. If they read it (and understood it,) they wouldn't like it one little bit.

Conservatives hated "A Christmas Carol" back when it was published, too. They knew that they were being criticized by it.

[essbird]

Heck, morality aside, it's enlightened self interest. History is full of examples of the angry mob that's had enough. Our country was born from such a one. If you hoard what you get and leave others with nothing, sooner or later they come for you, and they are rarely stopped.

[steve-in-abq]

I'm a conservative (with libertarian tendencies) that loves "A Christmas Carol". I believe most conservatives like the story, but we look at it a little differently that the libs. Conservatives are not opposed to helping out the less fortunate among us. We believe in charity. However, we do not believe in a government being the broker of charity. It's not a government's job to distribute gifts purchased with the taxpayer's money.

"More conservatives should know the Parable of the Sheep and Goats. If they read it (and understood it,) they wouldn't like it one little bit." I would argue that you are the one that is missing an important part of Christianity - people are free to choose. The individual has the choice to help others or harm others. To make a decent argument against my contention, quote me the Scripture that says an individual may be forced to surrender some of their property to a government for distribution to others. Good luck.

[Nickesq]

Friedman economics and the casino mentality of Wall Street are dead and need to be properly buried. The notion of a self-regulating economic system is a travesty. They lobby and pay what in any other environment would clearly be a bribe for government handouts: subsidies, free land, no taxes, no responsibility for the by-products of industry (toxic waste, obese population, cancer, autism). But they create byzantine theories and arguments to stave off regulation. Total BS - shove these greedy bleeps out the door.

[Ooftyman]

No offense, but your post seems to show you really don't understand monetarism in the least. Friedman abhorred government handouts. He always made a point of showing that negative externalities were legitimate things for governments to deal with rather than the free market alone. I have a feeling you've read way too much Naomi Klein and have never actually studied economics.

[jotunloki]

Friedman economics has been totally discredited. Our current situation illustrates that perfectly. It was created and nurtured by loyal, devoted Friedmanites.

[doober]

HuffPost's Pick

It looks to me that rather than us selling Democracy to the Arabs they have sold their corrupt method of government and doing business to us..

The Arab nations are built on corruption and bribery and have been for years..It is a normal way of doing business and running a government­..Have you noticed that bribery and corruption have been creeping into our corporations and government lately..

If big corporations find that they have to use bribery and corruption in the Arab countries in order to do business don’t you think they will bring this method home and try to use it here in our socalled Democracy.­.

I think the Neocon no regulation Capitalism that we have at present is a great breeding ground to use methods that they find to work in the
Arab Countries.­.

Therefore rather than us selling Democracy to the Arabs they have sold us their method of doing things which is bribery and corruption­..Have you noticed it..I have..

Necessary Socialism but not necessarily Socialism.­Since Socialism is a dirty word here maybe we could call it” Regulated Capitalism”

[Skepticat]

Bribery of politicians seems alas to be a time honored homegrown phenomena. There are plenty of cartoons from the 19th century portraying congress critters of the gilded age as human-locomotive hybrids to show their subservience to the big railroads. Before that Tammany Hall in NYC and it's imitators were built on graft, and they didn't have to pick up the habit from the Arabs.

[Edzero]

Nickesq:

Excellent post. You hit the nail on the head.

We have to get rid of the lobbyists, especially,
the former elected officials and members of
various departments such as defense who
then jump into the corporate world and make
a pile because they still have contacts.

This suggests not only taxpayer supported
elections, free TV time but also term limits.