Quote:
Originally Posted by roachboy
you know, there's a side of what you're saying that seems to me obviously the case, pan: class distinctions are getting wider. the reason for that is the absence of state action, however. under the reagan administration, the united states saw the largest transfer of wealth into the top 5% and away from everyone else that has yet been recorded. the stratification of classes in the united states is by far the worst in the industrialized world. but the reason for that is that the united states is by far the least social democratic of the industrialized countries--the most conservative, the most phobic about the state as a mechanism to redistribute wealth and maintain a politically viable class structure.
this seems a matter of historical fact, so is not really movable. the interpretations of why this is the case are variable (as interpretations are, after all) but the fact of the matter isn't.
it's a consistent tic of yours (and you are far from alone in it)...so i don't get where it comes from.
it runs toward the idea you seem to have that capitalism on its own distributes income in a flat manner that's somehow distorted by the action of the state through taxes. that's upside down.
it also runs toward the idea that somehow or another the state is **Responsible** for the reorganization of capitalist production that's happened over the past 30 years and which is, at bottom, the explanation for structural unemployment---which might well be what we're looking at across this transition period, a massive expansion of structural unemployment. but the fact is that the government deregulated industry, created tax incentives and otherwise collaborated with the vaporization of american jobs--this under both republican and democratic forms of neoliberalism--but it was capitalist firms that did the actual reorganizing.
but this is all obvious.
where does the idea come from that the state is driving all these problems, pan?\
like i said, i think it's empirically not the case.
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I don't think capitalism is this great economic thing. I believe we do need to some degree government involvement BUT the ways government has involved itself are far more damaging and going in the wrong directions.
I believe in tariffs. Call it protectionism or what have you, but EVERY OTHER COUNTRY has far higher tariffs than we do. Some countries have tariffs on our goods so high we can't compete and our market is losing steam because of this. We need new markets but we are tariffed out of them. Yet, we'll import goods cheaper and in some cases foreign governmentally subsidized so that they are far cheaper than our goods.
What do we do? We don't go to government to increase tariffs or to find ways to prevent this..... NO we blame the workers and tell them they make too much so we outsource and lower wages (but increase exponentially executive pay) and government sits and allows this to happen.
Capitalism unchecked and unregulated (or under regulated) creates NOTHING but greed and widening gaps in classes so that class warfare is constantly prevalent. Government is happy with this scenario because they get more power over people's lives and become more corrupt and it continues to spiral out of control.
People say well we need to educate better to compete. But then school levies come up and people can't afford the property taxes, government continues to cut education spending (which should be #1 priority AFTER military) and colleges continue to increase tuition and spend on new buildings, stadiums, etc not on educating or helping people afford them. Case in point, Obama states he's increasing Pell Grants.... Ohio Colleges raise tuition 5-10%. That pretty much will eat away any gain. Yet, with the increase of tuition comes the increase in University president pay and so on. Then they talk about the need to cut staff.
That is a microcosm of what corporate America has become with government allowing capitalism free reign. Which again allows government to become more corrupt and lead us down the wrong path.
So no, I see government can and IS the solution, just our leaders continue to do the wrong things.