The Cavalry Isn’t Coming - CommonDreams.org

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Donny Fix April 16th, 2008 10:31 pm
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While I agree with a lot of the reforms Ted Rall lays out, we need to look at this problem from a deeper level, and change around the argument a bit.

The US is a relatively small percentage of humanity consuming a majority of its raw resources and labor. We live in a consumer society full of bigger, better, best, first, I win. captn72 had it right- it’s a con game, and the goal is to make us afraid of the evil of recession.

Recession just means people have slowed their buying- a good thing for those who believe that over consumerism is killing the planet- I sure do!

Yet, when people slow their buying, maybe even try to live within their means, it is seen as a detriment to economics.

And it is, to the economics that matter to rich people. If the price of things go down to them because fewer people are buying, it cuts in to profits. But you will not find poor people compaining about lower prices.

Cutting back on overconsumerism will cause economic dislocations. If we truly want to lower our ecological footprint, it may well mean the loss of thousands of job catagories in finance, mining, nuclear, weapons, energy, auto and other dirty industry.

This should be embraced ad a goal, not feared.

There will be good jobs developing in mass transportation sector, renewable energy, environmental conservation and restoration, and the service sector, but overall, we should be considering how we will transition to a world less identified by competition in the market place- the Bohemian Club view- and more identified with making sure the non-workers of the world have enough to get by on before anybody gets richer.

Certain of our commons: housing, education, health care, food, water should be available and affordable to all, even if we need to make them off limits to profit motive.

Good jobs and a rising middle class will get us only so far. In the end, I believe we need to look after the most needy, first, even if the least needy (i.e. oil companies and munitions manufacturers making record profits) need to be assessed more to help out.


The Cavalry Isn’t Coming - CommonDreams.org