Surviving Capitalism (Not) : The Austerity Swindle: Debt and Deficit as Shock Therapy

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Saturday, November 2, 2013

The Austerity Swindle: Debt and Deficit as Shock Therapy

Click here to access article by Ismael Hossein-Zadeh from CounterPunch. (Note: You will need to scroll down past the donor pitch to access the article.)

The author contributes to the decoding of one of the games that the ruling class likes to play through their government--austerity or else! It seems so appropriate at this time of year to reference spooks and hobgoblins to scare the bejesus out of the populace so that they will take their awful tasting austerity medicine, so that they will accept the heretofore unacceptable cuts to programs fought for as far back as the 1930s by working people on the streets all across the US.

“Wherever we look, there are hobgoblins. The latest is … DEFAULT. Oooooo.

Apparently the threats of international terror and China rising aren’t enough to keep us alarmed and eager for the tether. These things do tend to wear thin with time. But good old default can be taken off the shelf every now and then. It works like a charm every time.

No, no, not default! Anything but default!”