Category Archives: Plutocracy

Neoliberalism — IT’S A COOKBOOK!!!

Posted on by

“Market economics” was supposed to serve mankind. It didn’t. It really, really didn’t.

Neoliberalism – To Serve Mankind

In the early 80s people got sold on common sense kitchen-table economics. Taxes are theft. If you cut taxes government gets more money (but cutting taxes also starves the beast.) Market forces are natural law and consumers are better at making choices than government. Markets should set government policy. Government spending harms the economy. Individual choice is freedom. Big government and regulation interferes with markets. Government is the nanny state.

Reagan said, “Government isn’t the solution to our problem; government is the problem.” Thatcher said, “There is no such thing as society. … no government can do anything except through people, and people must look to themselves first.”

So we got government out of the way. We cut taxes and unleashed the corporations.

And here we are. The transfer of wealth – and power – away from the public into the hands of a very few people is nearly complete.

It’s Sinking In

“When something becomes incredibly, mind-numbingly obvious, people eventually start to see it.” – Dave Johnson

What happened to us is sinking in. As wealth (and power) concentration accelerates it has become mainstream obvious that the world was tricked. Even people like UK PM Burnham and Texas Senate candidate Talarico are using the word “neoliberal” and describing the damage done.

But now we’re in debt trap. With a few in control of the formerly-public wealth (and power) governments are rigged to “borrow” FROM the wealthy just to get by, and then pay tribute (interest) TO the wealthy for that privilege. The amounts are staggering.

IT’S A COOKBOOK!!!

In the Twilight Zone episode most of the the passengers are already in the spaceship. Mr. Chambers is still on the ramp and hears the “cookbook” warning – but it’s too late. He screams as the door closes on him.

The doors of the “end-stage capitalism” debt trap are closing on us now.

But There’s Still Time

Of course, there’s still time to get the money FROM where the money WENT. Just stop the game. Reassert power. Tax the rich. Tax back the wealth they stole from us. Before neoliberalism the top income tax rate was 90+% to prevent the very accumulation that has brought us to this point. The corporate tax was 50%. Inheritance taxes were designed to prevent dynasties from collecting vast fortunes that threatened democracy.

It’s a choice and it’s time to choose.

Everything Is Extraction Now

Posted on by

This post was first published at Government Cheese – Chronicling the collapse of democracy, because it belonged there.

Extraction

Everything is extraction now. Late-stage capitalism has turned into whatever you call the billionaires (and trillionaire) owning everything and extracting all the wealth from everywhere that’s left.

Their giant multinational monopolies buy up all the businesses. All the businesses extract all the local spending and transfer it to tax havens. The governments have to “borrow” their wealth back to keep running, then extract taxes to pay interest — to the billionaires.

The Final Extraction

There are still a few things left in the world to extract. Some people still have some equity in their homes. There are still some independent farms and businesses (in hock to the billionaires’ banks.)

The billionaires are circling the rest, though.

Until Collapse

Extraction at this extreme level has to lead to collapse.

Far too oil has been extracted, in spite of the warnings. The world has passed a 1.5C temperature increase and looks like 2C is already baked in. (Sorry for that one.) The climate is collapsing in front of our eyes.

Trump’s strategic failure in Iran will collapse the world economy.

That means the stock bubble will collapse.

The AI bubble will collapse.

The world debt bubble will collapse.

What Comes Next?

What comes after collapse? Who knows?

The billionaires will be in their bunkers, their slaves wearing shock collars to keep them in line. The rest of us will be bathing in our billionaire-funded propaganda bath… Will we still blame trans people and non-white migrants for everything? Everyone will BE migrants transitioning to starvation, so who knows?

Since no one will have any wealth left maybe the psychopaths will leave us all alone and everyone will be able to start over somehow. Who knows? (Yes, that’s a Bible reference. Leviticus 25:8-13)

Everything Is Trickle-Down Now

Posted on by

This post was first published at Government Cheese – Chronicling the collapse of democracy, because it belonged there.

“Trickle-down” thinking – the idea that “growth” is driven by the rich, not by regular people with money to spend – led to competition for the crumbs that fall off the table where the wealthy feast. Cut taxes & wages & regulations, then businesses and the wealthy will come to you. So other states/countries cut their taxes & wages & regulations even more to get them back. Soon the wealthy have everything.

Democracies Defunded

Democracies have been defunded by tax cuts and competing “trade” deals, and the .01% have literally all the wealth in the world. So the only way to keep things going is to try to get the rich to park their wealth with you in hope some of it might “trickle down.”

So you set up a tax-dodging haven to “compete’ with other tax-dodging havens. You will make THEM poor so you can get the few crumbs that fall off the table.

If You Tax Them They’ll Leave

Be warned, “If you tax them they’ll leave.” If they leave the crumbs won’t trickle down! Please give us a few crumbs, sir!!!!

Everything is “trickle down” now! Everyone is betting everything on hope “they” will “invest” some of the wealth they took and you’ll be able to have some infrastructure or education or healthcare… (Of course, “they” will be getting their “return” for that. So even more gets drained away. But that’s tomorrow and you are desperate today.)

Now It’s Turkey

Now Turkey is offering special tax dodging “incentives” to “compete” to get those with vast “undeclared” wealth to bring it there because, “Dubai and Abu Dhabi, recent magnets for international wealth, have been tested by the US war in Iran and localized attacks, shaking their status as regional safe havens.”

Turkey seeks to capitalise on strategic location to attract the rich from London & Dubai
Ankara recently announced it’s ushering in a range of tax incentives for monied expats and investors abroad.

“… Turkey is seeking to capitalize on its strategic location to attract more rich residents as instability hits rival wealth hubs from London to Dubai.

The country recently announced it’s ushering in a range of tax incentives for monied expats and investors abroad, ranging from minimal inheritance tax, the chance for 20 years of overseas income free from local levies and an amnesty program to bring in undeclared assets held overseas.

[. . .] The new policies arrive at a sensitive time for some rival finance centers. Dubai and Abu Dhabi, recent magnets for international wealth, have been tested by the US war in Iran and localized attacks, shaking their status as regional safe havens.”

Just read the rest. It’s disgusting. This has been going on so long that even imagining democracy and the idea that the public can be in charge of things is gone.

Most Voters Too Young To Remember

Posted on by

This post first appeared at Government Cheese – Chronicling the collapse of democracy.

I was thinking about how most voters out there have no memory of all kinds of things people who are older remember.

Tax Cuts Will Pay For Themselves

They don’t remember Reagan promising that tax cuts for the rich will cause them to invest in the economy and bring all kinds of great things that meant the tax cuts “will pay for themselves.” They didn’t watch the resulting shift from government taxing the rich and doing things for people, into “borrowing” FROM the rich, doing nothing for the people, and paying massive amounts of interest TO the rich. AND the resulting massive inequality. They don’t remember that there weren’t billionaires. Now it’s billionaires with all the money vs people in food lines, etc.

Deregulating Corporations Will Unleash Growth And Bring Prices Down

They don’t remember Reagan promising that deregulation of corporations will “unleash” growth, causing them to provide more great things so we would all be so much better off. Now they pollute at will and scam everyone. They don’t remember the promise that getting rid of antitrust regulations would force prices down and make everything better. They didn’t watch as merger after merger transformed the economy into a few giant monopolies that charge whatever they want and make you pay monthly to use products you already paid for.

Elections Were Competitive

They don’t remember competitive elections before campaign finance was undone. Regular people could run for office. Now a few oligarchs decide elections with “dark money” so no one knows who pays for the ads and bots and propaganda.

They don’t remember the Democratic Party standing up and fighting for working people.

Before The Propaganda

They don’t remember that TV news used to have rules about serving the public interest. They don’t remember that commercials were not allowed to lie. They don’t remember when the benefits of belonging to unions was allowed to be discussed on the air. They don’t remember that “markets are better at making decisions than government (i.e. “democracy”)” was laughed at. They don’t remember that there was a fight to allow non-whites to vote. They don’t remember that women couldn’t get bank accounts or credit cards without their husband’s permission. They don’t remember that government existed to make people’s lives better.

There are all kinds of things they know nothing about…

For a lot of them ALL they are old enough to remember is Trump coming down an escalator and saying immigrants are all criminals who rape and murder, etc…

The Old Enemies Of Peace – Welcome Their Hatred

Posted on by

This post first appeared at Imagine Democracy – Imagining government of the people, by the people and for the people.

In 1932 FDR campaigned asking for help so he could win and “restore America to its own people.” After taking office his administration began working to help the population start to recover from the ravages of depression caused by unregulated banks and stock market speculation. Campaigning for reelection in 1936 he delivered his final campaign speech at Madison Square Garden. He talked about the changes his government had made, and the struggle that lay ahead to continue with that struggle. He described the struggle he and the public faced, saying,

We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace—business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering.

They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob.

Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me—and I welcome their hatred.

The old enemies of peace are back. Business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism and war profiteering.

Let’s welcome their hatred and send them off.

Corruption Leads To Corruption Leads To Today

Posted on by

This post first appeared at Government Cheese – Chronicling the collapse of democracy.

Some time back I listened to Ezra Klein interviewing journalist Anand Giridharadas, The Infrastructure of Jeffrey Epstein’s Power, discussing how the networks Epstein set up worked. It was just so enlightening and I’m still thinking about it, seeing it everywhere…

Of course there were the people, like Trump, who were part of raping young girls, attending the parties, etc.

There were the people who did not engage in the worst but benefitted from the connections Epstein offered. They knew about the worst because he had already been convicted the first time, but they benefitted from the connections and that was what mattered to them.

Earlier than that there were people who saw it happening, knew about the girls and the parties and just thought boys will be boys and laughed. That’s what women and girls were for! It’s just the way it is.

There were lots of people who participated in letting Epstein off that first time. There was the entire crowd at the DOJ who stepped in and took over the prosecution and let him off easy and ordered everyone to keep quiet about it! There were the people who saw this happening and said nothing. This was how things were done and that’s the way it is and if you want your career you’ll keep your mouth shut. And so they kept their mouths shut.

An Entire System Of Corruption

After all, everyone knew that corporate executives and the very wealthy and certain politicians and powerful people like them were above the law. That’s the way it is and if you want to keep your career you’ll sign the NDA and keep your mouth shut.

This was just one part of an entire system of corruption and acceptance of and expectation of corruption built up over the years and it was of a part with the entire system of letting fraudsters and money-launderers and corporate criminals and an entire class of predators get away with harvesting the public for profit. No prosecutions of executives for anything, ever. Polluters. Tax dodgers. Bank executives who crashed the economy with fraud. “Lobbyists” who exist just to pay off politicians. Government regulators who keep their mouths shut and don’t make waves or rock the boat, then leave government and are given lucrative jobs or contracts or “speaking fees” thanking them for their service to the system of corruption.

And a corrupt Supreme Court that has now legalized that system of bribery. Every day that all just got worse and worse until we have what we have now – a King and his family and the fascists around them raking in billions and billions.

The Dirty Hippies Who Refused To Participate In The Corrupt System

What stood out to me was there also were people who were repelled by it and wanted nothing to do with it and refused to benefit from the connections, favors & gifts and other things Epstein was dangling. They told associates to keep away from him and keep him away from anything they had to do with. Those are the ones the Trump admin is going after now because of that, prosecuting, etc. They are the “dirty hippies” who protest and show up at marches. They are the people who try to protect their neighbors from being taken away by masked thugs in unmarked vans.

So I recommend listening to:
The Infrastructure of Jeffrey Epstein’s Power
The journalist Anand Giridharadas examines the power and influence that Jeffrey Epstein brokered and that the latest batch of Epstein files puts on display.

Who Will Stand With Us?

Posted on by

For No Kings Day. (Lyrics below video.)

Throughout centuries in every country
We’ve faced the wrath and felt the pain
Of the tyrant’s sword or the henchman’s boot
For another rich man’s gain
In the endless quest for wealth and power
They stomp us down with great disdain
Beneath the false god’s banner
In the name of all that’s vain

Through crime and crusade
Our labor, it’s been stolen
We’ve been robbed of our freedom
We’ve been held down and beholden
To the bosses and bankers
Who never gave their share
Of any blood
Of any sweat
Of any tears

Who’ll stand with us?
Don’t tell us everything is fine
Who’ll stand with us?
Because this treatment is a crime
The working people fuel the engine
While you yank the chain
We fight the wars and build buildings
For someone else’s gain

So tell me
Who will stand with us?
And as time rolls on
Not a single thing has changed
The wealth gap’s only grown
As we all point the blame
We’re at the throats of one another
Though we share a single fate
And the golden few laugh on and on
As we all take the bait

Through crime and crusade
Our labor, it’s been stolen
We’ve been robbed of our freedom
We’ve been held down and beholden
To the bosses and bankers
Who never gave their share
Of any blood
Of any sweat
Of any tears

Who’ll stand with us?
Don’t tell us everything is fine
Who’ll stand with us?
Because this treatment is a crime
The working people fuel the engine
While you yank the chain
We fight the wars and build buildings
For someone else’s gain

So tell me
Who will stand with us?
Through crime and crusade
Our labor, it’s been stolen
We’ve been robbed of our freedom
We’ve been held down and beholden
Who’ll stand with us?
Don’t tell us everything is fine
Who’ll stand with us?
Because this treatment is a crime
The working people fuel the engine
While you yank the chain
We fight the wars and build buildings
For someone else’s gains
So tell me
Who will stand with us?
So tell me
Who will stand with us?

American Media Asymmetry

Posted on by

There are things the American public just can’t be told. Here are a few examples.

Universal healthcare, like Medicare-for-All, would dramatically reduce American healthcare costs.

Cutting government spending usually just shifts costs onto the public or other government departments, and almost always increases those costs well beyond what was being spent before the cuts.

Immigrants are good for the economy — and also are human beings.

Taxing the rich to get money FROM the rich would mean the govt stops “borrowing” from the rich and forever after paying interest TO the rich. (It could also begin to address the problem of inequality if taxation levels are high enough.)

Renewables like wind and solar reduce energy costs while oil companies create life-threatening pollution and receive massive subsidies.

Joining a labor union brings tremendous benefits to workers. It increases their pay and benefits. It helps prevent mistreatment on the job.

These are just a few of the things you don’t hear in American “news” outlets.

American Manufacturing Was Sold Off For Profit

Posted on by

China didn’t “take” America’s manufacturing jobs, greedy American investors and executives sold America’s farm and ate the seed corn. Same in the UK.

Paul Waldman writes about woodworking tools, in A Trump Tariff Case Study: Can the U.S. Again Be the Power Tool King? at The New Republic.

My DeWalt 20-volt cordless drill/driver combo set is a beaut—powerful, smooth, comfortable in the hand, and not too expensive; I got it on sale for about a hundred bucks. It’s also a tribute to the wonders of the transnational supply chain, its components traversing the earth before they came together and found their way to my door. The drill and driver were made in Mexico, but their batteries were made in China, as were the battery charger and the handy tote bag that came with it. DeWalt, a brand familiar to every woodworker and DIY enthusiast, is a division of Stanley Black & Decker, a global conglomerate headquartered in Connecticut that owns brands including Craftsman, Porter-Cable, Bostitch, and many others.

He writes about how tools once made in the US by American companies are now made elsewhere by international companies, why this is, and what it might take to bring the factories back. He nails it, just spot-on: Manufacturing ecosystems, the cost of bringing it back, the jobs that were good in the past. “(M)any started as American companies but are now part of multinational corporations.” “Unfortunately, there are serious impediments to achieving reindustrialization on a large scale, and Trump’s policies are just about the worst way to go about it.” “We could rebuild those manufacturing ecosystems in the U.S., but we can’t just wish it into existence.” “In fact, this entire debate seems animated by a vision of a bygone time.”

Yep, he nails it. And, as we all know, it’s not just woodworking tools. It’s the same story for … everything.

Same In The UK

It’s the same here in the UK as well. Jaguar/Land Rover are now owned by an Indian company. Trains, water, Royal Mail, British Petroleum (BP), British Telecom (BT) and many other iconic, privatized “British” brands are no longer British-owned. All were sold off to international “investor” conglomerates so a few already-wealthy people could get even more wealthy, under an economic “ideology” (free markets) that was really just a cover story for selling the farm and eating the seed corn. And the public, struggling to get by, now flails around hoping Trump (and here, the Trumpy Reform party) will make good on his promise to “fix it.”

China Did Not “Take” Those Industries

“China” (generic term for “somewhere else”) didn’t “take” those industries. American and British “investors” and executives did that – literally sold out their countries – enabled by US/UK governments run by politicians elected with money that those executives and “investors” took out of their companies to buy the politicians, so they could personally obtain great wealth. They did it because they wanted cheap labor and a way around the pollution and worker safety rules that democracies insist on.

“China” understood what they were seeing and planned and executed a strategy to build their industrial base – as a country. They set up manufacturing zones and put in place everything needed — from local financing, to a modern power grid, to roads, to training centers, to supply chains, to places for workers to come live. Everything.

It was a “public/private partnership” between American executives and the Chinese government. Those exectives also took that ecosystem apart in the US, piece by piece, and it can’t easily be put back together. They sent away the “institutional memory” and “ecosystem” of supply chains and training centers… much like how the Trumpers are now doing the same to the US government itself.

Beyond Neoliberalism

Last week I stepped back into a past life and attended the opening of the “Beyond Neoliberalism” conference (https://beyond-neoliberalism.org/) because it was literally right down the street here in Cambridge UK. Oddly America-centric (and attended by lots of Americans I used to know) it began with a rousing 2.5 hour panel discussion (mostly Americans) on Industrial Policy under Biden. They said a lot of the things you nailed down in your piece.

Biden tried with his IRA to the extent the “system” would let him. Obama tried in tiny ways with his Smart Manufacturing “hub” concept, setting up labs – like a sensor testing lab in Lorain, Ohio around community colleges that would train people to work in the labs, etc. Same with a 3-D printing hub in Youngstown.

They tried. They failed. Now the US has Trump and likely soon the UK will have Farage.

Where Did Everyone’s Money Go? (Hint: We Know)

Posted on by

At the very end of the 1970s the US economy changed. An economic ideology called “neoliberalism” took hold. That was the idea that markets are a better way to decide things, not voters. The idea that “taxes on the rich hurt the economy” was blasted everywhere. Business does things more efficiently than government. Etc. (Tell me if you haven’t heard these things.)

So big changes were made in the way the US economy worked. Taxes on the rich and corporations were dramatically slashed. Companies were “unleashed” through deregulation. Unions were broken. Pensions disappeared. Etc.

Results appeared quickly. All of a suddent the gains from the economy stopped being shared, and increasingly went to the top few. Over the years I have posted versions of this chart:

Where The Money Went

A study from the Rand Corporation (a research organization) shows were the gains from the economy – as shown in that chart above – went. Rand’s Trends in Income From 1975 to 2018 concludes that around $79 TRILLION that would have gone to working people instead went to the top 1%. That was 2018, seven years ago. Worse now.

China Didn’t Take American Jobs

Posted on by

Trump says other countries took advantage of the US. He says they “took” manufacturing and jobs from the US. This is just not what happened.

American Companies Did This

American democracy gave workers good wages and protections. It passed laws restricting the ability of companies to pollute.

“Investors” and executives running Amereican companies wanted more money. They wanted bigger profits, and saw America’s unions and resulting good wages and benefits as obstacles to greater profits – for themselves. They saw democracy’s protections and regulations and pollution controls as obstacles to greater profits – for themselves.

American investors and exeucites found a way around the borders of American democracy. The companies moved manufacturing to lowest-common-denominator places: lowest wages, minimal protection of workers, low regulation, allowing pollution etc. American companies did this, not evil foreign plots to take American jobs and companies.

The weaknesses of American democracy allowed American companies to move jobs out of the US. Those companies used this as a lever to force wages, taxes and regulations down INSIDE the US. This is a lot of what led to the inequality the US has now.

And they used the great profits to buy politicians who moved American democracy out of their way.

Foreigners didn’t do this to the US, American companies were allowed to do this.

THAT is what needs fixing. The weakness of American democracy, allowing government to be controlled by wealthy interests did this. The only way to undo this is to fully restore American democracy.

Healthcare CEO Killed

Posted on by

United Healthcare apparently was the worst of the insurance companies for profiting from systematically denying claims. You pay an insurance company to cover you if you get sick, then when you get sick they refuse to cover you. As Bernie said about Wall Street, the business model is fraud. Except Wall Street takes away your house and life savings. Health insurance companies take away your health and sometimes your life.

These companies continue to be allowed, even encouraged to operate this way. Everyone knows this is because they pay politicians to do nothing that might keep the profits rolling in. Everyone knows this.

Top executives who pay politicians have impunity. Everyone saw this with Wall Street, when not one Wall Street executive was prosecuted after financial fraud caused the 2008 crash. (The ‘W’ administration got more than 2600 convictions of bankers for the S&L Crisis and 1706 bankers went to prison.)

Even when government is obviously and visibly absolutely corrupted, and refuses to prosecute the most horrific, egregious crimes, giving citizens no justice and no recourse, it remains wrong to “take the law into your own hands.” 

Even when the entire system is corrupted and everyone sees executives enriching themselves at the expense of the public and the planet, and “public servants” refusing to do anything about it and then when they leave “public services” they get lavishly compensated “jobs” or “consulting fees” “speaking fees” or “book advances” or other methods of payoff, it still is wrong to “take the law into your own hands.”

HOWEVER,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

PS Trump SAID he was that, but he ain’t that.