What is there about decision making in the economic world of
the United States that you do not understand? Profits are at an all time high
and wages are falling. It is savage capitalism. It is the “free enterprise
system”, which is what we in the America are so proud but it has gone mad. Obviously,
it is not a “free” enterprise system if management is unopposed. It is a plutocracy:
the result of Reaganomics, which is money flowing to the top and trickling back
down at $7.25 per hour. It is neutralization of politics through ownership of Congress.
It is unemployment. It is huge army to protect our businesses from competition.
It is the move from controlling resources to controlling marketing. Big oil
companies maintain a high profit, a profit level they set and hold steady, even
though the price of the resource (world oil prices) fluctuates. It is not “free”
it is “controlled” enterpise.
I watched a plutocrat’s view of Detroit’s problems this
morning on Morning Joe (MSNBC). It was a whitewash of the Detroit bankruptcy
proceedings—a covering with lime to hold down the smell. It reminded me of the Bain
Capital story as well as the savage capitalism following the collapse of the
Soviet Union into its component parts; government assets being wildly bought up
for pennies on the dollar. Front and center of the venture capital story featured
on the show this morning was Dan Gilbert who is chairperson of Rock Ventures
LLC but more telling he is founder and Chairman of Quicken Loan Inc. Is he a
good businessperson, yes? However, the answer to the question, “Is he a crook?”
is more difficult. Anyone who is paying for a mortgage on a house that is worth
less than it was 10 years ago would have to answer that question. His business
dealings have the smell of Bain Capital. In Spanish, there is a word ‘vantejista’,
which means advantage taker. People borrowed money they could not afford but
they did it at the request of people like Dan Gilbert. Is that just good
business?
A bankruptcy judge is preparing to strip pensions and other
benefits from city workers. Governor Snyder has enacted laws that allow him to
appoint an all-powerful city manager who can eschew elected officials and sell
off cities assets to pay creditors—a city manager and a bankruptcy judge is a
double whammy. The definition of city assets is that taxpayers paid for the
things that the judge tells the “city manger” he can sell to private individuals.
The art museum, Detroit Institute of Art, is a case in point. It has one of the
largest and most significant collections in the United States. That cost the people
of Detroit a lot of money. Thus, people who invested in the city in the past,
including houses, have lost everything or are in the process of losing everything.
It is sometimes difficult to get your mind around the idea of “ownership” when
it comes to things like water and sewer systems, streets, curbs, and sidewalks,
which cost taxpayers money just like abandon homes cost people money. Water treatment plants are not cheap; power
distribution systems are not cheap, fire stations and equipment are not cheap,
and on and on. None of these things was cheap when taxpayers built them. News
programs have routinely shown dilapidated house after dilapidated house and this
morning Mika and Joe slapped Dan Gilbert on the back for creating neat
appearing vacant lots owned by Gilbert.
Yes, we should appreciate what he is doing just as we should
appreciate what the World Bank, USAID, and International Monetary Fund did to
save small counties that were in deep finical problems but we should never
forget how these countries got into such bad shape. ‘There is a beautifully exposés
written by John Perkins and titled, Confessions
of an Economic Hit Man (2004). He argued that developing nations were
saddled with debt they could not pay; thus, crippling their economies. Their
wealth gap were widened which had the intended purpose of neutralizing them
politically (buying their politicians) and subjecting the people to the whims
of the wealthy. Once in control of the countries assets and labor, they had a
free hand to apply their version of “free enterprise”. If you think they were
gentle read Naomi Klein’s, Shock Doctrine.
Joe Scarborough showed the winners but not one picture of
the losers, the ghost of taxpayers past. I am here to tell you this is what America
has come to be. This is what Reaganomics has done to America.
I have one question, “Is Reagan still your hero?”
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