Surviving Capitalism (Not) : The destruction of Jamaica’s economy through austerity

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

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

The destruction of Jamaica’s economy through austerity

Click here to access article by Pete Dolack from Systemic Disorder.

Dolack reports on another national disaster caused by capitalist rule. The increasing frequency of sovereign debt crises is a consequence of the capitalist dynamic which results in ever more concentration of wealth in the hands of fewer people. Because of our finite planet the wealth hoarders can no longer tap into the development of new lands and markets to keep their cancer-like growth machine going, they are putting entire nations into debt to serve their insatiable appetites for more wealth.

A small country immiserates itself under orders of international lenders; unemployment and poverty rise, the debt burden increases and investment is starved in favor of paying interest on loans. If this sounds familiar, it is, but the country here is Jamaica.

So disastrous has austerity been for Jamaica that its per capita gross domestic product is lower than it was 20 years ago, the worst performance of any country in the Western Hemisphere.