AUSTIN
-- If you had done a poll in November 2000, or in November 2004, I don't
think you would have gotten out of single digits with this proposition:
"George W. Bush wants to radically revise American law, including
complete repeal of the New Deal, and take us back to the economic legal
system that prevailed at the turn of the 19th century -- Robber Barons
Redux."
During the past five years, both media and political circles have devoted
an enormous amount of attention to social issues and culture wars -- rise
of the Christian Right, anti-abortion groups, our debates over moral decline
and moral relativism, prayer in the schools, school vouchers, displaying
the Ten Commandments, sex and violence in entertainment, bias in the news
media, gay marriage and all the rest of it. I sometimes think all of it
amounts to a bunch of people saying, "The world would be a much better
place if everybody else thought exactly the same way I do." Reminds
me of Dr. Henry Higgins in his famous philosophical disquisition, "Why
Can't A Woman Be More Like A Man?" Higgins finally discovers the
ultimate problem: "Why can't a woman be more like ME?"
Then, of necessity, we have spent huge amounts of time on Sept. 11, terrorism,
Iraq, and related and ancillary problems. It is not necessary to review
the bidding here, but Iraq is becoming as divisive and unpopular as the
Vietnam War.
While we have been absorbed in the silly circus of cultural issues and
the and riveting questions of the war, we've also been getting our pockets
picked. Big time. I am impressed that cartoonist Lloyd Dangle in the strip
"Troubletown" managed to get the whole problem into 12 panels,
each announcing some piece of economic news accompanied by an American
saying, essentially, "What, me worry?" The U.S. is over $7 trillion
in debt (no problem); China buys $1 billion worth of U.S. treasury bills
a day (thanks for floating us); Americans love the prices at Wal-Mart
(made in China, cute!); the Chinese save 50 percent of their domestic
product; the average American has $9,000 on his credit cards; our economy
is fueled by a fragile housing bubble; the minimum wage is $5.15 per hour
… ; taxpayers who earn over $1 million saved $30K under Bush tax
cuts; the war in Iraq costs $9 billion a month; by 2040, our kids will
be unable to do more than pay the interest on the national debt …
; bankruptcy reform makes it impossible to escape your debts; in Darfur
[Sudan], people earn $1.25 a day.
For those who prefer to get their economic news from a more respectable
source than a cartoon, I recommend Bill Greider's op-ed article in the
July 18 New York Times, "America's Truth Deficit." He begins
with the startling thesis that we face structural economic problems as
serious as those that destroyed the late Soviet Union and that, like the
USSR before its breakup, our leaders cannot talk about these problems
honestly. "[Our] weakening position in the global trading system
is obvious and ominous, yet leaders in politics, business, finance and
the news media are not willing to discuss candidly what is happening and
why. Instead they recycle the usual bromides about the benefits of free
trade and assurances that everything will work out for the best."
It is a curious thing that as the disadvantages and, indeed, perils of
globalization become clearer and the subject of ever-more worried books
by respected economists, the mainstream media keep treating the whole
problem as though it were about a bunch of protesters in turtle costumes
at the G8 summit. If it were not for Lou Dobbs on CNN, one would never
even hear it mentioned on television.
Forget what the Supreme Court thinks about teaching creationism in the
schools: Think about what it will contribute to the spiraling disasters
of globalization by dismantling the entire economic regulatory system
built up over the past 100 years. As Greider notes, "Washington defines
'national interest' primarily in terms of advancing the global reach of
our multinational enterprises." Problem is, our multinational corporations
increasingly work against the interests of Americans themselves. In addition
to outsourcing jobs, the companies locate sham headquarters in off-shore
tax havens to avoid paying taxes. The only restraints we have ever had
on multinational corporations are government regulation and the right
to sue the bastards for the various kinds of harm they cause. It is precisely
those two forms of control that are being not just undermined but tossed
out entirely by an increasingly activist right-wing judiciary.
Recommended reading: Greider's "One World, Ready Or Not"; David
Korten's "When Corporations Rule the World"; and Paul Krugman's
"The Great Unraveling."
