Hey, whaddayaknow? Those financial wizards at AIG have asked for MORE money so they do things like blow a third of a million dollars on yet ANOTHER weekend resort getaway for their bigwigs. That’s almost a buck and a half for every American who filed for unemployment in October. And now we have to bail out the auto industry for their inability to adapt to economic reality, too! They’re TOO BIG TO FAIL!!
Sheesh.
Well, if there’s anyone left who wants to quibble with my motto, “Capitalism Destroys Everything”, I’ll pause for a show of hands.
Thought so.
Here’s an article from a website that focuses on issues related to “Peak Oil” called Energy Bulletin from a fellow named Jerry Silberman. He says our present economic crisis may well be “The Last Recession” ever, because capitalism has blown itself out for good. A quick pull quote:
One thing that may make this transition easier is that, whether we like it or not, this is the final recession of this system. Along with the peak of oil production, now visible in our rear view mirror, capitalist expansion is done. The slope down will not be uniform, there will be upticks along the way, and regional variations, but the peak is past. There is only one way to go, and it’s down.
Now, say what you will about the Peak Oil gloom-and-doomsayers, but he makes several very good points about diminishing resources across the board (not just petroleum) as disincentives to invest, causing a spiral effect. But his second point is that even though the model of ever-more-profitable-at-any-cost capitalism has reached its conclusion, it may be possible to use this opportunity for a model of sustainability, where growth is not always the most desirable outcome:
Shift our values to a sustainable model, where growth is not a primary goal or an unqualified good. Let’s make our “investment” decisions based on what will be sufficient to meet our human needs for physical security, social justice, and cultural enrichment. Central to this model is the determination that all our strategies, and the goals we seek, must be within the limits of our resources such that projected over the uncountable generations, they must not deprive us of the ability to sufficiently meet our basic human needs. As outlined above, the principles and practices of capitalism cannot deliver this kind of model.
All the bullshit from the Republicans about Barack Obama being a “socialist” or a “Marxist” notwithstanding, Obama does have the opportunity to sow some of the seeds that need to be planted now to make this transition out of mass capitalism manageable, and his stated intentions with regard to energy policy and national infrastructure are on the right track, but throwing trillions of dollars at industries that have destroyed themselves with absolutely no guarantee that said bailouts will have any positive effect except to allow big executive bonuses and spa weekends is getting off on the wrong foot.
