by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
This is indeed a rather valid question and one that we should be asking again and again, demanding an answer from our “leaders”.
Time and again the talk is about the need for economic growth and they have even, during the Great Recession, been on about how we have to spend our way out of the downturn. This approach did not work during the Depression of he 1930s and does not work now either.
My problem also is and was with the powers-that-be basically equating those amongst us that were putting thrift before spending with terrorists.
Where have we come to in this world when those that save and advocate to live a more simple and thrifty life are, by the governments, put on the same level as terrorists who want to destroy life for their beliefs.
The economy and economic growth are being mumbled like a magic mantra all the time and we are being told that only an economy that is constantly growing is going to be good for us.
Good for us? Don't be daft! Good for who? Good for the CEOs of corporations and banks, that's who. But not for those of us of working- and middle class. Let's not allow ourselves to be bamboozled here by the powers-that-be for that is what they want to achieve.
The only ones that gain from economic growth are, mostly, the banks and multinational corporations that can undercut any local producer, getting their products made in China for a pittance and then selling them at fairly high prices, compared to production costs, to us.
They keep telling us, I know, that without economic growth there will be no jobs and that also means in public service as, so they say, a lack of economic growth also means a lack of income to the public purse and hence services will have to be cut and jobs. Really?
Were our countries not as indebted to banks and certain people we would not be in such a situation.
Let's cut our military involvement in foreign fields, such as Iraq and Afghanistan, and look at the military, including navy and coast guard as a means not of defending “our” interests somewhere else but just at home. Our borders – maritime, air and terrestrial, and that's it, and we would not have to sorry about expenditure too much.
That, however, would very much upset the military-industrial complex, the very same that back an awful lot of politicians with lots of money.
It was Abraham Lincoln, I believe, who said that America should never, ever be indebted as it would then be controlled by another power and this is so very true. The power America is controlled by is Wall Street and those that run those banks.
Bad news, and the same is true for the United Kingdom and, more than likely, many other countries.
We must get back to sensible ways and to a sensible economy; one that is not governed my GDP and inflation but one that produces enough for everyone to have enough including the producers and their staff.
Surplus production, as so much of it is, and the factored in obsolescence not long after the warranty expires, is something that we must get away from. We must look back into the past, past the mid-nineteenth century, too find answers for a brighter future for humankind and the Planet.
© 2010
