It's the Economy, Stupid!

[ProudDad]

There are TWO "economies" operating on Earth.

There is the economy of goods and services exchange, the REAL Economy.

Then there is the phony "economy" of the banksters and "financial managers". Both wings of the Corporate War Party are in hock up to their eyeballs to the latter...

As Paul Krugman also said, it would have been a good, useful and cleansing thing if the latter economy of the confidence tricksters had been allowed to fail. I don't blame the tea party folk for being pissed about that -- I am too... If those banksters and fraudsters had "failed" it would have had NO impact on the Real Economy...Just as bailing them out and "making them whole again" in their huge profits has had NO impact on the Real Economy...

As for stimulus, if Obama had followed the example of FDR and made sure that most of the relief went directly to the suffering (or at least that most of the relief SEEMED to go to those most in need) and then used his golden toungue and the bully pulpit to demonstrate understanding of the average person's real grievances, he may have been rewarded with an increased majority in both Houses as FDR was in 1934.

(But maybe not; today we live in the post "Citizen's United" world :shrug: and because of Dem cowardice and blue-dog treason when they had the chance to pass a Sunshine Law right after "Citizen's United" )...

But, he would have had a better chance if he had proposed and the Dems passed direct relief to the Real Economy of goods and services exchange instead of the phony "economy" of the money lenders and philistines.

---------------------------------

But more importantly, we must all realize that we are moving through an unprecedented historical period in human evolution on this planet. For the first time in human history, just within my lifetime, we have exceeded the carrying capacity of the Earth to sustain the population and renew itself. In fact, we are overdrawing our resource account by 50%; like a starving person, we have quit living off our fat and are consuming our muscle.

That's what makes this "economic" crash so special. We are at the end of the Petroleum Age instead of the beginning of the peak. We have destroyed great swaths of our natural bank account by polluting our fresh water supplies, polluting our air, destroying our topsoil and degrading the food chain by our acts of pollution and over utilization for short-term profit.

This is all NEW, NEW, NEW! This has NEVER happened before during the 200,000 year history of human communities on Earth.

In fact, this is new in the 4.5 billion year history of the Earth! There has never before been a species on Earth that could destroy her as a viable habitat, until now.

And the same blind, short-term thinking that humans in the aggregate seem incapable of overcoming will probably do us in.

So, build lifeboats, try to survive the Long Emergency each in your own way but, for Dog's sake, don't expect the incredibly exploitative "economy" of the 1950-1960s and the mythical "middle class" of that time to EVER "come back".

In that direction lies madness...and planetary death...

[truedelphi]

1. Yes,The Tea Party has some very good understanding of what is wrong

In this nation. But do they understand how to go about fixing it?

And they echo Krugman when they say: "The Bailout for the Upper Circle of Bankers and Financial Con men was wrong."

They go on to say: "This nation needs jobs. If we have nuke energy, the plants and all its materials should be made here." "If we go the route of clean energy, the components for the Natural Gas pipeline, and the solar panels and the wind turbines need to be made here."

Every time I watch C Span, some Republican Rep is talking about the need for jobs. And every State Department Democratic Party-affiliated intern is saying things like: "We have to make the public realize it is a new economy."

The problem with the Tea Baggers is that after they put forth the intelligent person's Talking Points one and two, they then announce "The way to solve these problems is to extend the Bush tax cuts and get rid of entitlements like Social Security!"

[Democrats_win]

2. Yeah, the new economy talk isn't quite right.

If we are in a new economy, why are we still building roads and houses? Why are (were) they actually dominating the economy? Oil and coal power plants are also big. It's true and it's not true. Farmers aren't getting rich especially those in the third world. We're being sold a bill of goods that is partly true but mostly wrong. You'd be better off becoming a plumber than a physicist. Truth.

In fact times are tough all over. But lookey here: those damn banksters and one percenters are making a killing. People need to get organized for a FAIR economy. Forget this "new economy" stuff. Reform the economy. And stop letting the GOP throw our economy in the trash.

[truedelphi]

3. A most pertinent piece to the puzzle lies in understanding all the Big Acronym

Agencies. The G 20 (formerly G 8) The WTO, the IMF, and World Bank.

These agencies have had as their mission the systematic wipeout of The United States for at least twenty five years. Did you know that for the first time ever in our history as a nation, we became an importer of major food crops? (Just several years back.) And in our new Bailout approach to the economy, the farmer has once again been left out in the cold.

A very good way to get a crash course in all this is to listen to the brilliant Lori Wallach. She was a classmate of Barack Obama's when in law school.

Iowa Public TV has been carrying her lecture on video. Some time when you can, you can watch it here:


http://www.iptv.org/video/detail.cfm/3135/ittv_20081220_155

[ProudDad]

5. We are not in a "new economy"

We are at the end-stages of a failed experiment in a rapacious "capitalist industrial growth" economy...

The Real Economy I'm talking about is a steady state economy that is sized to the need and the only need is to effectively exchange real goods and services.

We are in a NEW AGE. It's the first time that one group of (rather dumb) animals on Earth has the ability to destroy it for all...

[truedelphi]

8. Oops, I didn't mean to indicate I didn't get what you were saying.

I agree that there is the need to express a "new economy" as one of services etc.

But I was quoting the words of several young and very enthusiastic interns or whatever on C Span who were saying that "It is a 'new economy.' And Americans will not be seeing any manufacturing jobs returning. However, if they lower their expectations a bit and accept that, perhaps the government could step forward and begin to have a Peace Corps style network of jobs, so they could be of service in Africa."

Their "new economy" isn't the one you mean. Or that I mean. But I was quoting them because their vision of the future is rather harsh -well, look, we of the Upper Elite have gone to the trouble to see to it that the World Bank, IMF, WTO, et al have put into play key pieces of legal code that the USA must follow, and thus the jobs here have been outsourced, and as a result, they are not coming back, and Americans better get used to it."

It is easy for these young women to say this - they look to be the offspring of Very Rich parents, and having gone to Harvard or some other Ivy League school in order to get to speak on C Span at some symposium - they can be down right cheerful about the fact that "jobs are not coming back."

While the Republicans are saying an hour later on C SPan that the jobs will come back if we vote for the Republicans. now I don't believe the Republicans about what they will do - but my problem is that at this stage of the game that has been played, I don't believe very many at all. And two of the people that I did believe, Grayson and Feingold, were just "retired" from office.

[uponit7771]

4. Like in Iowa?! Come on people, dems had a HORRIBLE message and lost in part cause of it

[ProudDad]

6. Did you read the OP? Doesn't sound like it...

:shrug:

[sarcasmo]

7. The return of the Serfs and Robber Barron economy.

[ProudDad]

9. Return? Hmmm, when did it ever leave? (n/t)