Surviving Capitalism (Not) : 2016 Theme #4: The End-Game of Debt-Fueled “Growth”

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

Friday, January 8, 2016

2016 Theme #4: The End-Game of Debt-Fueled “Growth”

Click here to access article by Charles Hugh Smith from Washington's Blog.

The goal of borrowing and blowing trillions was to re-invigorate “growth”— any kind of “growth,” no matter how wasteful, unproductive or even counter-productive it might be: wars, nation-building, ghost cities, needless MRIs, useless college diplomas, bridge to nowhere–anything the borrowed money was squandered on counts as “growth” in the Keynesian status quo.

He continues on with charts to show that this growth is debt-fueled and the economic returns are minuscule. Indications of this are the current phenomenon of everyone having a debt-score, debt burdened consumers, sovereign debts, and wars. The debt is owned by the "One Percent" of the capitalist world who are launching wars as a desperate means of having their debts repaid by conquered territories, control of resources, cheap labor, and consumer markets.