Exposing the Wrong Side of Right
"Has the United States been usurped by subversives?" a woman asked at a recent talk I gave in Massachusetts.
"Yes," I answered, adding, "If you want the whole story, I suggest you read Arianna Huffington's new book Right is Wrong."
I give this advice often these days.
Huffington has walked among those she chastises, the hallmark of the most believable of critics. Few in the U.S. are more qualified than she to lay bare the sad facts around the betrayal of the United States by its leaders -- in the Republican Party and with the corroboration of both the Democrats and the mainstream media.
Her assessment of the current hijacking of a nation that emerged from World War II as the hero of freedom and the defender of democracy is insightful, eloquent, and shockingly informative. Most of the world -- outside the United States -- understands that the corporatocracy (those who run our biggest corporations and, through them, control the majority of our politicians) have not only emasculated us, but have sent us spinning toward global environmental disaster.
Unfortunately, few who live within the empire's borders are as enlightened as those who are subjugated by it. Huffington is determined to change that.
As a past servant to the corporatocracy, I am deeply moved by the honesty of this self-avowed "former right-winger". Like her, I have witnessed first-hand the clandestine nature of the Right's strategies and also the temptation on the part of the citizenry to accept the Right's lies that what they do is done to serve the nation's best interests, rather than to promote their own greed for more money and power.
Right is Wrong exposes the underbelly of a beast whose claws have shredded our most sacred documents. It slams the Right for mocking our most revered principles through its support of torture, its reliance on thugs and mercenaries, its sacking of civil liberties, its gutting of universal health care, and its inability to understand that complex problems like those surrounding immigration cannot be solved simply by constructing a wall or enacting deportation laws. (Reading Huntington's comments on this last subject, I was reminded of a conversation I recently had with a top official in the Nicaraguan government. "Your immigration problems," she said "are the result of flawed Washington-driven 'free' trade agreements. When you destroy a country's economy, you must see that its people have no choice but to find work among you, the ones who stole their jobs.")
Perhaps Huffington's most devastating indictment is her conclusion regarding the callous manner in which the tragedy of 9/11 was used as a vehicle for consolidating power:
The Right's hijacking of America would not have been possible without its masterful use of fear to sway a nation terrified by the 9/11 attacks. It's a symptom of just how sick the radical Right is that their immediate response to 9/11 was to look for opportunities to push their agenda.
Huffington's analysis inevitably leads to a conclusion that more and more people are reaching. If we are to pass a planet on to our children that they will want to inherit, we must rise out of our adolescent colonizing worldview. We must evolve into a mature recognition that we are a highly interdependent species. We must see that the environmental and social problems confronting us today are forcing us to unite, to recognize that old ideas of nation-hood have gone the way of the nation-state concepts of yesteryear. Our very survival depends on our ability to comprehend the simple fact that we live on a small, tightly knit planet.
Not long ago I spent an afternoon with an ex-CIA officer, a man who had risen to the top as an agent-in-the-field. He confided in me his concern that the Right refuses to admit to the damage it has wrought. He fears that its strategists will trigger another 9/11 type event before the next election. "If that happens," he said, "the majority will vote for the fighter pilot, McCain."
Books like Arianna Huffington's latest offer us our best protection against such an occurrence. Her masterful exposure of a Right that is capable of provoking an ex-CIA agent to even entertain such thoughts is a gift to us and our progeny.
John Perkins is the author of The New York Times bestsellers, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man and The Secret History of the American Empire.
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It slams the Right for mocking our most revered principles through its support of torture, its reliance on thugs and mercenaries, its sacking of civil liberties, its gutting of universal health care, and its inability to understand that complex problems like those surrounding immigration cannot be solved simply by constructing a wall or enacting deportation laws.
Who are the thugs and mercenaries? If you call them thugs, which I normally define as criminals, name them and the violations of USC that they have committed, please. If mercenaries, name the foreign troops that are serving in the US military, please. What civil liberties have been suspended, precisely? Health care is not a right. Earn your pay, and buy it! And, immigration is not a right, it is a privilege that must be earned.
Semper fi
There are many of us who are not at all in favor of universal health care. You act as if the government is thwarting the will of the people in this case.
Who are the thugs and mercenaries? Well let's see, I'll call bush himself a thug, the very man who is causing (indirectly, I'll grant you) all of these problems. As far as mercenaries, have you ever heard of a little company called Blackwater????
You're right, healthcare is not a right, but LIFE, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are. Since part of life is LIVING, I'm gonna say that healthcare should certainly be looked at as a right, just like they looked at a public defender in criminal cases if a person couldn't afford it. Further, do you have ANY idea how difficult it is nowadays to find an employer who provides healthcare AND enough pay to afford it???? I'm guessing not!
And speaking of life, LIBERTY and the pursuit of happiness, you ask what liberties have been infringed upon. Have you ever heard of a little thing called the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America??? I'm guessing not, since you don't think that it's wrong for the government OF the people, BY the people, and FOR the people to be spying on whomever they decide to without a warrant.
And one more thing. You've never answered this question before, but I must ask it again: How can you claim to be allowed to use the term Semper fi while being so obviously anti-American???
Mr. Perkins I think you used the word "corroboration" when you meant "collabera
"... the betrayal of the United States by its leaders -- in the Republican Party and with the corroboration of both the Democrats and the mainstream media."
"It's a symptom of just how sick the radical Right is that their immediate response to 9/11 was to look for opportunities to push their agenda."
==========
May we please stop EUPHEMIZING??!!
They are not "sick", they are not "mistaken" or "misguided".
They are EVIL.
Spell it out: E-V-I-L.
Say it: EVIL!!!
Lying, cheating, starting wars on false pretenses, stealing elections
and Billion$ of dollar$ of taxpayer money is CRIMINAL, EVIL AND
probably even TREASONOUS.
It's empirical, folks.
There's no getting around it.
More & more people are waking up every day and realizing
AMERICA HAS BEEN TAKEN OVER BY CROOKS AND THUGS.
I have been saying evil about them for 20 years. They must be weeded from the garden. Pulling weeds from my garden is so goooooood.
weeds are not evil.
They are persistent but unwanted visitors who come and stay because the environment is hospitable.
If I follow through with your analogy, it makes more sense to change the environment than pull the weeds -- they'll only come back again. But taking the analogy further, your garden is the interloper in nature, and the weeds are the rightful natives.
Yes, weak analogy. Right-wingers are not weeds. Nor are they evil, IMHO. I don't think it's appropriate to call any people "evil" (even Hitler and Stalin); their deeds may be evil, but I think there's hope for redemption in everyone.
Calling people "evil" feels good, in the vent-your-outrage sense, but I don't think it is actually helpful in mitigating evil actions and preventing more of them in the future. It diminishes us (the namecallers) as well, and, by giving full reign to our anger, enables and promotes lapses in judgment like those that followed GWB's denunciation of the "Axis of Evil".
I think "sick" is the better word.
Any country that openly allows legislation to be purchased can't survive for long. In the USA it is quite possible to pay a Senator or Representative to put forth legislation that is injurious to the citizenry and to never be punished for it.
The return on the bribe tends to be minimally at least 1,000 to 1. You need merely call the bribe a campaign contribution and make sure it appears to come from several individuals.
There is no way that Big Pharma did not pay someone to insert the "no medicine price negotiation" section in the healthcare bill. No politician nor low level functionary would do such a thing without some monetary reward. There is ideology in existence that would claim it is a right and proper action benefiting the American Public. The refusal of the GOP to overturn it bespeaks even more bribes.
Even more interesting is the refusal to investigate and uncover the people involved. How much did that cost? I know it cost the citizenry several billion dollars but I bet it cost Big Pharama well under $1 million.
You could apply this many transactions and groups. It really all started with FDR's trashing of the constitution. SS, medicare and welfare are all unconstitutional functions of government. Once these things were put into law without a constitutional amendment what was to stop anything from being made into law. Once the populace realizes that it can vote itself benefits from the public treasury you are going downt he path to ruin.
I don't see Dems or Reps stopping it.
You mention Big Pharma because they are seen as villians. But many groups "bribe" government officials. Trial Lawyers, public employee unions, latinos, teachers, police, firefighters, etc. Everyone is trying to feed at the trough of big government.
I am not being insincere when I say that nothing opened my eyes more widely as to how our "great" nation operates under the surface than John Perkins' book "Confessions of an Economic Hitman".
I have maintained since reading it that it should be required reading in all high schools. This is obviously a pipe dream because the book is so threatening to the corporatocracy in America that they could never allow these truths to be that widely exposed.
If you know anything about John Perkins, his whole life since he stopped doing the corporatocracy's dirty work has to been to raise the level of awareness within these very same corporations as to their culpability in the serious problems that are besetting the earth, the environment and the billions and billions of organisms that are so closely connected to each other.
So John Perkins' recommendation of Arianna's new book is high praise indeed. And when you're done reading "Right is Wrong", I'd highly recommend "Confessions of an Economic Hitman" and his followup book, "The Secret History of the American Empire".
I could say that about Charles Murray's Book, "Losing Ground....
Was the "Great American Experiment" in fact a failure?
The United States of America was never militarily defeated from without, but it seems to be worse-than militarily defeated from within. Rome fell in just the same way.
When a nation is strutting around the globe demanding that World War III be started, and when it makes no secret of the fact that it has thousands of nuclear weapons and is anxious to use them, there is a "clear and present danger" to the world community. One way to address that is, of course, to give the war-hawks what they so earnestly want: war. The other is to drop that nation's economy into such a dark hole that the people of that country rebel before any shots are fired. I believe that this struggle is being played-out before our eyes, or rather that it would be if our eyes were not bound-up and our ears stuffed.
We know ... we have always known ... that "World War Episode III" is overdue. We also know that each Episode begins where the last one left off. So we're looking at nuclear war, but with a twist: the aggressor is not Russia, is not Germany, is none other than ... the United States.
The time to interdict this fate is ... right now.
Ready to impeach? Do you yet comprehend the calamity that may befall you if you DON'T?
This is classic liberalism. We are so bad. We are so selfish. Blah, Blah. That's why after about two years of democratic hand wringing and weeping and depression the voters usually backlash in favor of the less popular but more realistic and pragmatic republicans. Who then go about screwing up a slam dunk.
When the great american public sees a problem and begins to correct it thats a sign of strength, not weakness. I'm a republican and even I know that it's time for a change. The politics of our system is beginning to correct the excesses of the neocons [thats "neocons", not conservatives]. American conservatism and liberalism are now fighting over idealistic, economic and political issues. It has happened before and will happen again. But, if democrats insist on demonizing the american public like they have 60% of democratic voters in West Virginia your party will be in for a long cold winter in the wilderness.
Bitter much?
And don't forget to kiss your tightly-clutched gun.
LOL!!
Here's a bit of news for you, Brownshirt. The American public has already backlashed. It happened in 2000 and again in 2004. These days, the Dems need not only a majority but a great majority to overcome the "Diebold election correction".
And why haven't the "true conservatives" booted the Neocons from their ranks. Are you guys just as whimpy as you say Dems are or are they just too busy enjoying the ride?
in answer to your second comment:
Wake up Republican
To rebuild America back to what it was before you, proud Republicans, got your greedy mits on it, we will have to somehow change how the rest of the world we live in views us. Heal ourselves from within and without.
Your best comment was Blah Blah Blah....th
Good morning.
This is classic liberalism. We are so bad. We are so selfish. Blah, Blah. That's why after about two years of democratic hand wringing and weeping and depression the voters usually backlash in favor of the less popular but more realistic and pragmatic republicans. Who then go about screwing up a slam dunk.
When the great american public sees a problem and begins to correct it thats a sign of strength, not weakness. I'm a republican and even I know that it's time for a change. The politics of our system is beginning to correct the excesses of the neocons [thats "neocons", not conservatives]. American conservatism and liberalism are now fighting over idealistic, economic and political issues. It has happened before and will happen again. But, if democrats insist on demonizing the american public like they have 60% of democratic voters in West Virginia your party will be in for a long cold winter in the wilderness.
Wake up Republican
To rebuild America back to what it was before you, proud Republicans, got your greedy mits on it, we will have to somehow change how the rest of the world we live in views us. Heal ourselves from within and without.
Your best comment was Blah Blah Blah....th
Good morning.
And yet when we ARE, in fact, strutting around the world attempting to say how everyone should bow down to us because we can destroy them all militarily
Poppy cock! the downfall of america due to fear mongering and greed is no way for this great land to fall. So we shall persist, we are good people not afraid of the monsters among us unlike the german people during Hitlers reign.
Call me paranoid if you must, but I'm getting scared. This morning's headline on Drudge: 'Bush intends to attack Iran before the end of his term'. I've said for many, many months that I doubt he'll leave. The neocons are becoming visible as the lunatics that they are. I no longer discount the nuts who supported the 9/11 conspiracy theory. And I no longer think this administration is beyond ANYTHING to keep power.
Lord help us.
Thank you for no longer discounting me, one of the "nuts."
I doubt if there are any levels the neocons won't sink to. They're sociopathic, if not psychopathic.
He may try to not leave, but do you honestly think that will matter? If he attempts to stay in power, he needs the military on his side. Not only will they not stand with him (since the military is VERY good about training the people who fight for them to respect the constitution!!!!) but they WILL stand with the rightful president! And don't worry about blackwater, the military (even with all the troops out in other countries) outnumbers and outguns them by several times!!!
"Conspiracy Theorist" is a label given to those who tend to speak truth to power.....
Iran will be the great dewbacle, the military will not go for it believe me on that one. 76 percent of the armed forces hold bush in distain and along with MCain. Let hi try to hit Iran. He will be impeach and held in detention.
"Not long ago I spent an afternoon with an ex-CIA officer, a man who had risen to the top as an agent-in-the-field. He confided in me his concern that the Right refuses to admit to the damage it has wrought. He fears that its strategists will trigger another 9/11 type event before the next election. "If that happens," he said, "the majority will vote for the fighter pilot, McCain.""
Maybe it was the same guy that told me about the mind-controlling aliens that landed in Roswell back in the fifties.
Again, corporations are the bad guys......
What people have a problem with is the lack of culpability of corporations and the people who run them. The bottom line is not always the bottom line. Example, in Canada they had a train line which went through the mountains and it was popular with tourists going through remote parts of Canada, but it never made enough money to pay for itself. They shut the train down. They did not realize that these tourists were a necessary part of the economies of the towns and cities that they visited. These economies suffered and less taxes were then collected than the cost of running the train. I see mom and pop stores, I see old architecture that can't be built again, and I see companies that provide a good service service and are making a modest profit being torn down for corporations that only want to pay people minimum wage. I see corporations paying too much to CEOs who have done terrible jobs running their companies into the ground and leaving the little guy with the bill with very little recourse. Something must be done.
Ummm, guess you're looking thru mud colored glasses. What explains the low unemployment started under former Prez Clinton and continued today, the exploding rejuvenation and new building construction in inner cities, expanding not diminishing corps even with stilting tax rates (forget the clown way above this making up his corp rates), new business registration at historic rates, and on and on and.......
Where I studied history it became clear that a huge contributor to our "wonderful high standard of living" is that we inherited a vast nation that our ancestors stole from its original owners. This particular truth does not make us, somehow, morally superior to folks who were never given that same headstart in life.
Total. Unadulterated. B.S.
The corporate tax rate is the LOWEST it has EVER been.
Corporate profits are the HIGHEST they have EVER been.
The top level personal income tax it the LOWEST it has ever been (since PIT has existed)
Executive compensation is the HIGHEST it has EVER been.
This is "straining" under the yoke of something?
We would all be perfectly happy to "go back" to the tax/compensation structure of the 1950's.
You know, the one with 55% Corporate taxes, 95% PIT in the top rank, CEO's only making 100 times what their janitor makes. Capital Gains taxes, Strong Unions, the G.I. Bill, etc.
Or do you REALLY want to go back to the 1880's, with Robber Barons, no Unions, child labor, no health care, no PIT, no corporate accountability, no voice in Government.
Or better yet, lets just jump right back to feudalism. Would THAT make you happy?
The Middle Class was created by the New Deal. That is a FACT.
You HATE the New Deal. That is a FACT.
Yeah, I thought so.
Yeah I liked the middle part of the 20th century too but events have moved on.
No, he never said corporations are the bad guys. He said that unchecked power in ANY way is bad, and that corporations currently have an unchecked power, much like bush does!
As far as profit being bad, nobody has EVER said that. All that we said is that, since corporations are looking ONLY for profit, we need some non-profit organization to ensure that they perform the tasks which NEED to be performed to allow for good products AND good profits!
And please tell me that you aren't dumb enough to think that we weren't regulating business in the middle of the 20th century, when we had that major expansion you are being so bubbly about!!!
Obviously you have not mastered 'reading between the lines.'
He fears that its strategists will trigger another 9/11 type event before the next election. "If that happens," he said, "the majority will vote for the fighter pilot, McCain."
Unpacking the pronouns reveals the following premiss: "Some on the American Right have become so enamored of the effects of the last 9/11 event that they might well trigger another one themselves
Another hidden premiss: "the American people are so shocked and awed that the next 9/11 event -- and the next, and the next -- will always have the same effect. (Then what is so crazy about asking the Congress and our famous "independent" journalists to actually investigate the original 9/11 event and get to the bottom of it?)
Trouble is, you don't know what world war really is.
The French do. One hundred years after World War Episode I ended, they are still cleaning up poison gas shells from their forests. They will be doing it for a hundred years more.
World War Episode II was "Over There." There was never any serious attack on the United States homeland because it was too far away.
World War Episode III will most-certainly be "over here" and everywhere, and it will certainly be nuclear. Furthermore, it will find the US's famous industrial infrastructure decimated. Think "famine." Have you ever in your entire life been truly hungry? What would you do if there WAS no fuel to be had anywhere in your city for two or three months?
Have you read the National Service Act of 2007? Look it up at http://tho
"Impeach." Is that word still off the table, Soldier 5134482?
The depression and labor wars of the early 20th century were pretty bad. Most people are stuck on American Idol or going to the mall to think about it enough to feel the reality of it.
The first attack on the World TradeCenter was during Clintons regime. His CIA chief was also Bush's. Are you saying it was a democratic conspiracy?
No, we're saying that it was an al qaeda conspiracy. Remember them????? I didn't think so!
No, I'm saying that Congress and our famous "independent" journalists ought to conduct a real investigation and get to the bottom of it, if for no other reason than to prevent the next one from happening.
"The first attack on the World TradeCenter was during Clintons regime. His CIA chief was also Bush's. Are you saying it was a democratic conspiracy?"
The perps are in jail, and no laws of physics were violated by the explanation given.
One other thing, the first attack on the WTC occurred less than a month after he took office, so you really can't blame him for that one.......
Folks, I don't have a link, but I read somewhere the other day that the IP's of many of the right-wing commenters on left-leaning sites were traced back to the RNC office in Washington, D.C. FWIW
Growing up, I fully believed in the American dream. I felt that it was everyone's obligation to be the best they can, and to treat others fairly and honorably. In that context, what I find amazing is that there are not hundreds of people like Arianna, leading the fight to restore honor and sanity to our government and our society. People who used to respect Republican ideals (like myself), but who are now shocked by the hijacking done in the name of a new dogma that values irrational greed and megalomania over traditional American values.
It seems to me that more people should have done like Arianna, and stood up to the lunatic fringe takeover of the GOP. McCain had all the reasons in the world to hate what the neo-cons did to him. However, instead of rebelling, like Arianna has done, he has tried very hard to be accepted by the same people who trampled him into the dust. There are times when it is the right thing to do to respect authority, and there are times when it is best to reject authority. This is one of those times when it is best to choose to reject immorality and incompetence, and to leave the new Republican Party.
Welcome, Mamacat! You have left the DarkSide and have come into the light! ;o)
Corporations have declared war on us and we have yet to join the battle. Economic control, like it or not, is the guardian of freedom.
We must begin to see our spending habits as fundamental to our Democracy, and to use our dollars not just to acquire goods and services, but to determine which companies live, and which should die!
Contrary to Caligula Bush's assertion that to keep shopping is our contribution to the war on terrorism, every penny we commit to the coffers of international corporations is at risk of being diverted to our foes. In addition to this, the whole purpose of those corporations is to control as much of the wealth we generate as possible. It is time for a new Patriotism!
The New Patriotism I propose says that our duty is to keep as much money as possible in the hands of the people, as opposed to allowing it to feed our corporate parasite. People create value, corporations can only manipulate it! If we buy food from a farmer, the money goes to human needs, ant time we can hire a person instead of a company, we have taken a meal from our enemy! If we generate our own power with an alternative energy system, utilities have to pay us for any extra, and we reduce their market, freeing those resources for other purposes. There are many ways this philosophy can be used.
Do we love this country enough to buy it back? Are we Patriots?
I read your book, 'Confessions of an Economic Hit Man' and was both depressed and more angry than I have ever been in my life. Your book and the many others by fine authors I have read since have made me feel like I have been in a dream and am waking up to discover that I don't know who we are anymore. Outside of our small lives, our hopes and dreams is this other reality, the business as usual side of politics that mocks everything we have ever believed about ourselves, our country and what we thought we stood for.
I have given your book to more people than I can remember now and will certainly read Ms. Huffington's book on your recommendation.
The only way we will ever take our country back is to understand what has been done in our name, carried out in the shadows of board rooms and other lands. The pain and suffering we have caused in this world not the least of which to our own, is heart breaking and shameful.
Where do I start?
Corporatocracy? I think you have it backwards. Corporations have been forced to defend themselves against overzealous legislators who have the power to destroy their businesses with the stroke of a pen. Faced with possibility would you not seek to influence these legislators? Corporations are not the biggest contributo
Shreds our sacred documents? Going back to the days of FDR I would say that liberals shredded our most sacred document the constitution. Most if not all the the new deal programs were originally found unconstitutional (and they were). FDR however rallied public opinion and eventually got a chance to replace many of the justices with known socialist/liberals and got the depression extending programs passed. this ushered inteh era of big government. The correct process would have been to amend the constitution. What a concept.
Environmental Disaster? Only you guys can whip up a frenzy over a 1/2 degree increase in the temperature. You are willing to destroy entire economies on a hypothesis drummed up by a group of scientists funded by the government.
You shouldnt have started.
What diseased priorities you have. "Corporations have been forced to defend themselves against overzealous legislator
"You are willing to destroy entire economies on a hypothesis drummed up by a group of scientists funded by the government
Get a clue.
Considering that corporations have no rights under the constitution, and in fact it was the SCOTUS, "legislating from the bench", which allowed them to gain the right to free speech. The constitution allows the PEOPLE to seek redress of wrongs from THEIR govt, not the corporations who have as their ONLY goal to make more profit than anyone else!
As regards FDR seeding the bench, what about EVERY other president in the history of the US. WASHINGTON seeded the bench with people he agreed with, LINCOLN seeded the bench with people he agreed with, TEDDY ROOSEVELT seeded the bench with people he agreed with, and your hero, BUSHCO(TM) seeded the bench with people he agreed with!
And, finally, while you may not be a scientist enough to consider 1/2 degree a problem, when you consider that the average drop in temperature for the last ice age was around that small, it's a big freaking deal! Please turn your brain on before you post again!
Don't you think we should be seeding the bench with people that can correctly interpret the constitution? Did you see the Scalia piece on 60 Minutes a few weeks ago. He an originalist and rails against legislating from the bench.
That is what was meant to be. The founding fathers did give a way to make it "living and breathing"
As for the global warming thing. That is why I don't buy the idea that man has caused GW. The fluctuations in temp are not outside the ranges of what has occurred natually in the past.
"Environmental Disaster? Only you guys can whip up a frenzy over a 1/2 degree increase in the temperature. You are willing to destroy entire economies on a hypothesis drummed up by a group of scientists funded by the government
Yeah, it's those damn scientists meddling around again, looking to "destroy entire economies".
Maybe those scientists think in just a little broader terms than you give them credit for. Maybe they see that those precious economies won't mean squat anyway if the planet doesn't survive to support them. I don't think the environment gives a damn about short term profits, but unfortunately, that seems to be the only way conservatives can think about anything.
Rubbish. What, are you trying to rewrite history? You're blaming FDR and big government without mentioning the crisis of the Depression which was caused by lack of regulation and speculation which is what happens when you have small government. These people didn't know a thing about economics and you are espousing the same small government beliefs of people who put us into the Depression? There many things that big government does better than corporations, like health care. I've lived in Denmark and their health care system seemed to work very well, even better than the care I pay to receive here. The difference between the rich and the poor has become so great in America that it has begun to have the effect where the dollar has become meaningless because a certain amount of cash is critical to keep the economy moving and the hoarding by the rich who hate large government are to blame. For you to intentionally ignore the problems caused by these conservatives in history shows your dishonesty.
You are partially correct. Free markets are given to periodic booms and busts and that did happen in ths case. But what also has been observed is that free markets tend to self correct fairly quickly.
Several mistakes were made in the early days of the crisis. The first thing they did was to enact protectionist legislation in the form of the Smoot-Hawley act. This made things worse by restricting trade and encouraging retailitory laws by other countries. Which further cost jobs here. The other thing they did was raise taxes in 1932. This discouraged business investment. Business investment is what creates jobs. This caused the unemployment rate to soar.
I really don't understand the decision to to kill so much livestock and destroy so much crop when people were going hungry. Here again they were trying too control prices centrally of certain commodities but looking back on it I think the decisions made were completely proposterous.
Don't even get me started on the new deal programs. They did not even cause the unemployment rate to fall.
Here again is an example of some who has drunk the Kool-Aid--and enjoys it.
Since all we've ever known in this country is a nation ruled by those who control the economic purse strings, any attempts to humanize public policy by regulating corporate greed and exploitation has been a threat to that class and has been attacked viciously.
Is there any area in our nation that wouldn't be better off if the corporatocracy wouldn't oppose regulating it because it might eat into its sacrosanct profits: health care, environmental standards, banking and finance, food and safety, etc., etc. etc.?
But the worst thing is that we citizens have been made to believe that we are an integral part of the system because we might have a 401k or some stock.
Having spent some time in Europe, I was unprepared for the level of honest mistrust of the domestic corporations. The result is that democracy is much richer and more effective than in this country where legislators are bought and paid for by the very people they should be regulating.
Blather's post is representative of the older people still stuck in the last century. Thankfully the generation coming up seem to look at things differently and fortunately will be the ones around after this sort of obsolete thinking has disapeared. Or maybe it's too late and were headed for a nuclear or environmental calamity that will at least scale back the corporations abuse of technology and there will be enough people left to repopulate. or maybe the shithouse is just going to go up in flames.
Well we some definitions here. At what point does a profit a corporation makes become greed?
Let's talk about immigration. One of the main draws for illegal immigrants is our welfare state that in our great wisdom we decided to bestow on these illegals. most of these folks would never be able to make a go of it here if it were not for the free handouts such as schooling, welfare, medical assitance and so forth. This also allows the illegals to underbid the citizens for the available jobs especially since many illegals are still paid under the table and so do not even pay income taxes, SS or medicare. This has caused on increase in unemployment among our lower paid citizens..
If the illegals are coming here for welfare then how do they increase unemployment? Stop reading right wing spin and dig into real issues with real facts. There are real immigration issues but coming here for free medical care (that we don't give Americans) is ludicrous.
I am not saying that come specifically for the benefits. They come here for the jobs first and formost. But these other benefits do figure into the economic equation when analyzing whether they can really make a go of it here or not. If you were a poor mexican with little or no education do you think you could make it here on $6/hr? it is pretty hard if you got hurt or sick or got in an accident. Faced with that kind of risk i don't think as many would come if not for the apparent safety net of our generous welfare state. Iean it just common sense.
Allow me to give you some statistics. The truth of the matter is that illegals are not a drain on our welfare rolls or our social security entitlement program. I know people like to believe that if all illegal immigrants disappeared from the U.S. tomorrow, America would be better off. That is simply not true. Rather than focus your Ire at Carlos, the busboy at the Denny's, I suggest you look at all the corporate types who exported a lot of the good manufacturing jobs overseas. They're the ones you need to get angry about.
Oh yeah here is the link to some stats.
http://www
You send to the lulac site? not exactly an unbiased site on this issue.
Not sure where you live but in LA emergency rooms are closing left and right due to the influx of illegal immigrants the use the facilities because they know they cannot be turned away. They cannot pay the high costs of emergency room care and so the hospital picks up the tab. Indowntown LA there is really no way to dump the cost on others so they simply close.
I realize not all illegals use a lot of social services. But those with kids put them in our public schools where they often get free lunches and other free services in addition to the classroom instruction.
I have seen some studies that directly contridict the lulac data. It is getting late and really do not want to pull it up now. perhaps tomorrow.
Wow, have you ever thought to forage beyond the pablum that is fed to you through right-wing radio? How can you substantiate the claim that welfare programs are drawing illegals into the country? Why is it that conservatives trumpet the forces of the marketplace until it fails to suit their argument?
If market forces are truly at work here, then illegals are migrating to this country because the work here is better than at home (partially a by-product of bad trade agreements), and there is an unquenchable appetite in this country for extremely cheap labor. Let's face it, these illegals provide outsourced labor for jobs that can't leave the country.
The United States would be smart to allow almost all of these people into the country on short-term work permits. That would keep wages above the table, guarantee that the taxes currently being paid to illegals would actually benefit them (or be forfeited by consent), and calm the border hysteria that seems to be gripping the right-wing. At the same time, maybe we could get another bump in the minimum wage. That is the way you use the market, not fight it.
I would be for open boarders (really, open labor markets) if not for existence of the welfare state that skews the market pricng for labor coming here from other countries to the detriment tax paying citizens
I have stated before that we need to get out of the Mideast and invade Mexico. Make it a state or territory and take over their economy. They have a lot of oil there and the wonderful tourist trade vacation spots! "We would be welcomed with flowers"..
Win win situation. Amen
Silly, uneducated,Kool-Aid drinking little Bladernr1001,
The prime enticement for illegal immigration are the
American BUSINESS PEOPLE (from mom & pops right up to Walmart),
who can be relied on to HIRE THEM.
Maricopa county in Arizona is finally cracking down
on the BUSINESS end of the undocumented immigration problem, and they are getting results.
(check The Google--It's on the internets)
Also, our Corporatist trade pacts (NAFTA/CAFTA, etc etc) "prime the pump" by
driving people north (as NAFTA did with millions of Mexican farmers who had to abandon their land
after being destroyed by cheap American farm imports).
What is it with you righties--Allergic to Truth?
Education--Try it sometime.
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