This is an excellent example of middle class type of criticism of the Obama administration that I referred to in my recent post. Yes, it does reveal to us some important aspects of the existing capitalist system, but it also avoids questioning the system itself and one of the basic flaws of the system--class war that is widening the gap between the capitalist rich and everyone else. Instead, he initially points his finger at the "Obama team" and then mentions bankers and accountants, but mostly seems to suggest that "everybody" is in on it. Somehow there is fraud everywhere and no one or no thing is to blame. Thus, there apparently is nothing to be done. (To be fair, I haven't read much of his other works. I'm just basing my comments on this article.)
Everybody knows this now and everybody is trying desperately to work around it, led by the Federal Reserve. Trust is gone and credit is going and debt is sitting between a rock and a hard place with its grubby hands pressed together, praying that it will be forgiven, forgotten, or overlooked a little while longer.Kunstler is a peak oil advocate who sees that diminishing fossil fuels will require us to live in more fossil free societies by arguing that 'there is no other alternative energy source on the horizon that can replace relatively cheap oil. He therefore envisions a "low energy" world that will be radically different from today's.' (I agree, but strangely I find no evidence that he is concerned about the other threat coming from global warming which I think will affect us earlier.)
He doesn't see that development of capitalism has inevitably resulted in a few winners among vast numbers of losers. To keep the system going requires ever more lending from the first group to the second which, of course, cannot go on forever. But, he doesn't see this as an inevitable consequence of a flaw in the system. He does see that, as a consequence, capitalists must now engage in all kinds of fraudulent activities to accumulate more wealth. To this he just throws up his hands and implies that everyone is doing it--apparently it's just human nature to be wicked or that people aren't as smart as he is by choosing to live more simply. People following his advice might end up feeling morally and intellectually superior, but they would change nothing.
