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, February 26, 2011

The elite dilemma

by Jim O’Reilly from his blog, Comments on Global Political Economy.

It is becoming clear that the contradictions inherent in capitalism are reaching a dead-end, and this reality is slowly becoming obvious to everyone. 

This blogger, a retiree from a career in banking and finance, explains:
Infrastructure spending is the only prescription offered by the lords of the system.  That it’s grossly inadequate to the scale of the problem is clear.  Zuckerman says it will create hundreds of thousands of jobs, but just a few paragraphs earlier he documented that we have tens of millions suffering from inadequate employment and the condition is worsening.  Further, he proposes that the infrastructure spending be financed by the workers themselves through tolls while providing his class of wealth “a minimum calculated rate of return”.  The arrogance is staggering!
As the incessant growth--and only growth that creates profits for a few--required by this system comes up against environmental resource limits, climate instability, and environmental degradation, it is becoming imperative for the rest of us to fight for a change of systems. Contrary to what they would have you believe, there are alternatives.