It's another 4:30 wake-up for me. Still not working but trying not to go completely to seed. I got out and walked for a good two hours yesterday after watching my hockey and curling. It was a spectacular day for my sporting clubs, so I thought it'd be fitting to go out and do something, ANYTHING I could that even resembles sport in Covid Korea. Walking. That's about it right now. After getting home with some fresh veggies I made a salad. Then got an email from the job I'm hoping for, so it was a great day! I guess that's why I am up so early today. Two great days in a row is too much to hope for. But count my blessings. I'm not working so I can take a nap if I want. And I most likely will.
Waking up at 4:30 is good for one thing, however. For some reason I do some of my best thinking, and blogging, at that hour. It's often the thinking that keeps me from getting back to sleep and inspires me to drag my arse out of the warm bed and to the computer. Today it was my opinion of the current signs of the times that make me feel like we are in the midst of what I would call a second depression. Maybe a not-so-great depression or a Covid depression. I say this not only because of the struggles of some businesses and most people, but also because of the prevailing feelings and emotions that job/business losses, prolonged social distancing and being deprived of normal activities can lead to. In other words, it's not just the economy that's depressed, but a lot of people are too.
Now I'm speaking of regular business and small business, which we are constantly told, is the backbone of our economy, not the big boys. They're thriving in the Covid depression because their competition is disappearing drawing them ever-nearer to the monopolies they all crave to be.
If you continue the video from whence the above clip is derived, you'll see some scary examples of huge businesses getting bigger through consolidation, which is a euphemism for sucking up the competition. The pandemic has only accelerated this phenomenon. From 10 large airlines in 2000 to 4 today. Rental cars - three companies. Beer - 70% controlled by two companies. And you can check this all by searching on the one and only search engine that anyone really uses: Bing. Bing, the best way to Google something. I love that joke. lol
Kroger is one of the best examples of the cold-hearted capitalism that has defined the huge corporations in these times of crisis. They would rather close stores down in Seattle and California than give 2-5 dollar an hour hazard pay to their workers. They know that their workers don't have huge nest eggs they have saved for rainy days. So treat them like the livestock they are.
Maybe never before have the consumers and workers who have made EVERY rich person rich, been shown so clearly the inhumanity with which those rich people regard us. Nor have their political representatives been clearer in their support for their inhumanity.
This seems biased. The Rupublican'ts don't care a lick about the people that they claim to be about helping: the common man, which is who the Covid relief bill is going to help. Yet tax relief for the rich is as popular as ever because of this myth that has nourished the GOP lo, so many years, this statement of faith backed by not one drop, let alone a trickle of evidence that equates to the party's version of speaking in tongues. Words like Reaganomics, horse and sparrow theory, trickle down economics, the "free market," "supply-side economics" spring from idealistic memory and faith in their sources rather than contemplation and healthy skepticism, and travel directly to party phraseology with virtually no interlocutor. And if you try to introduce the facts, as the guy pictured above, Robert Reich, has repeatedly tried to do through pictures, videos, books, speeches and political advice, you will realize how deep and unassailable the faith really is. No matter how thorough or modern the study, it will be doubted.
But to remain as un-biased as I can, and so as NOT to blindly trust the source of info like the last two links I have provided for you and believe without questioning, the very thing I have criticized about the Republicans, what are the Democrats and their supporters up to? Before I get to that, it would seem if one does one's historical, economical, ethical and egalitarian studies, times were best right after the war. As the Pink Floyd song asks, "What happened to the post-war dream?"
In that song, the question, "Oh Maggie, Maggie what did we do?" is posed, but it could be "Oh Ronnie," if sung by an American, and maybe "Oh Brian," for us Canadians.
The 50's and 60's were largely liberal and largely prosperous for all three nations. We partied for two decades and if you measure on almost any scale, these were the best of times for all three countries. Then the 70's brought "stagflation" and we started wondering if we should be partying so much. And that was the opening these three needed to ooze through. Deregulation, privatization, tax reduction for the rich/tax hikes for others, reign in spending... you get the idea.
Maude Barlow, a prominent opponent of Mr. Mulroney's free-trade agenda and the conservative revolution personified by Mr. Reagan, said the benefits of those policies were not worth the price paid by the poor, the middle class and the environment.
"It was the triumvirate of Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan and Brian Mulroney that brought the neo-liberal agenda to the industrialized world," Ms. Barlow said.
"Yes, it created wealth for some companies and some individuals, but the legacy has been the creation of a permanent underclass, a greater gap between rich and poor, an assault on social security and an undermining of public health care that continues to this day."
You can read about it in the following article.
So while conservatives since the 80's have generally taken the above triumvirate's politics and skewed further right (and I DON'T mean "correct") with them, the liberal agenda has been moving to the left at about the same rate. Aside from the gap between rich and poor mentioned above, this has created the widest gap ever between political parties. To the point, illustrated best by the U.S., that there is no agreement between parties even on issues where there is philosophical equality. The Covid relief packages are a good example. I don't believe all Republicans are Krogeresque in their thinking. I know they want to help people who are suffering due to the pandemic. Well, maybe not all, but you can't tell me the whole party voted their conscience against Covid relief. They just voted against the other party.
This article points out how the Democrats are more "progressive" than ever. They're also becoming more popular than ever. This trend has come about in the last 30 years. During that time some politicians tried to foster some compromise between parties by appointing members from opposing parties to political positions, but the compromise has disappeared with the middle class. Economic, and emotional conditions are approaching the desperation of the 1930's and, hopefully without a world war, similar steps to bail our countries out of this dizzying tailspin need to be taken. We're starting to see signs of that. At least in the U.S. But Canada will hopefully follow their lead.
Opening borders, taxing the rich and reparation payments to descendants of slaves are three examples of policies that are being suggested by the left trending liberals. They mention Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, but I'd include AOC and maybe Kamala Harris as well. Very popular ideas like a 15 dollar minimum wage, universal health care, restoration of environmental protection, racial equality, (which was NOT part of the New Deal as you can read in the article below) job creation through government infrastructure projects and a national switch away from fossil fuels to cleaner energy in the Green New Deal... HEY! Have you heard the words, "New Deal" before? That's how FDR helped bail the US out of the Great Depression. He didn't save America single handedly. In fact I've read he didn't even really WANT to do the things he did. He was basically forced to do it by the people who were threatening an all-out general strike.
Ever heard of the Winnipeg General Strike? Of course you haven't! Most Canadians haven't. The Little Guy only has power for short periods of time followed by much longer periods of powerlessness. So the media, most of which are controlled by the BIG Guy, makes it so battles won by the vanquished are harder to hear about. They don't want us to know how much power we have.
Do you recall back to the beginning of the Covid layoffs and the first government relief packages, the cries of the conservatives and big business that their workers will become lazy and never want to work again? This is their greatest fear! As I've said before, we, the workers, have the employers by the balls, (remember the elephant tied to a tiny spike in the ground?) we just need to get pissed off enough to exercise our power and they're fucked! Well, we also need an economic situation, an EXTREME economic situation, in which money doesn't have total control over government, which allows radical change that actually HELPS the working classes to be implemented. They had both during the Great Depression, and we have both today. This article explains it more thoroughly, but this, I think, is what I just said: "There are special circumstances, however, when capital’s leverage over government is weakened. One of them is during deep economic crises: The threat of disinvestment by big business is no longer an effective weapon—there is already very low investment. It is in these situations when, according to Block, government officials have more leeway to effect extraordinary transformations of social policies in favor of the working class, assuming these officials are under the unbearable pressure of mass mobilizations and unruly unions. Such a concession becomes a major win for the working class. At the same time, the outcome has the effect of legitimizing the state in the eyes of the working masses, granting rights to a new section of workers and incorporating them into the state through institutional channels, effectively containing what used to be a rebellious movement."
I am on the side of Block in the above debate, but regardless of why FDR did what he did, the situation is similar today, in my opinion, and policies that help the working class are finally going to be passed again! I don't know that Biden really wanted to do much of what we have already seen happening, or wants to do what likely will continue during his term as president, I think he knows he HAS to. And, as I have blogged of, and as the previous quote states, the legitimization of politics is also at stake. The situation with Covid social distancing, job loss, economic upheaval, etc. is ripe for revolution. I think I'd prefer the revolution, but short of that, I think the new New Deal wave that has started, might be fun to ride for a while. Politicians are singing for their suppers, trying to keep their careers and the bogus, antiquated, crooked system that creates them. It's unfortunate that it takes disastrous consequences like stock market crashes and global pandemics for us to see politicians doing what they are supposed to do, but it's just further evidence of the futility of our political systems. Having said that, I think we are in for one of those short periods during which some good stuff happens for the REAL people of our countries. I hope it lasts for longer than I think it will... however,
"...even if AOC and Sanders (and now many other Democrats) push hard for these proposals, none of them will be delivered unless there is sweeping labor unrest and a credible threat to the system itself. Socialists and revolutionaries will play the lead role. The increasing number of strikes seems to be pointing to a new wave of labor unrest. The many decades of capitalist offensive with little or no response from organized labor have reduced workers’ rights to bare bones. Deprived of a public health care option and lacking childcare or paid sick leave, American workers are subordinated to market forces to the extreme: Imagine a cliff and a multitude being pushed by a behemoth, which is capital. It is no wonder that workers are standing up now. The level of contradictions in U.S. society has reached such a high level that the explosion this time will be big. Socialists of all stripes will play a leading role in it, and the political decisions we make today will shape our prospects for years to come.
The lessons from the New Deal are that environmental activists pushing for a Green New Deal and, in particular, labor organizers fighting for some sort of new workers’ bill of rights can’t rely on smart politicians. Only an independent workers’ mass movement will be able to force these kinds of concessions from the ruling class. The owners of capital won’t sacrifice a cent of their profits until they face the economic disruption that mass workers’ collective action can cause, and until they are legitimately scared of the threat of a working class that rises and reclaims what is theirs: the goods, the riches, the world."
No comments:
Post a Comment