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, July 22, 2011

Obama's Budget Betrayal - Questions and Answers

Click here to access article by Michael Collins from his blog, The Money Party.

The author does a very good job of revealing what the current theatrical production in Washington is all about:
The drama by no-drama Obama and the shrill voices on the right in are in complete alignment with the very big money interests.  Those interests can force cuts in Social Security and Medicare (already begun with cuts to the employee payroll rax).  They can protect the Bush administration's tax breaks, a major factor in the deficit.  They can sneak in all sorts of legislative and regulatory changes while the focus is on this false drama.  This is a time honored technique.
Some people prefer to use other terms for the ruling capitalist class. This author uses "the money party" to describe them. Others use terms such as "the powers that be", "the ruling elite", "the owning class", etc. But, they are all talking about essentially the same phenomenon: the class of people whose membership is made up of people who, under the rules of capitalism, have been allowed to "own" most of the economy that has been created by many generations of working people. This class of people create nothing. They only play the capitalist game with their money to make more money.