2018 Thanksgiving Newsletter
In the United States, the fourth Thursday in November is designated as
Thanksgiving Day, a national holiday. Days of thanksgiving were
variously celebrated in the colonies from very early times, but the
national holiday we celebrate today was proclaimed in1863, in the midst
of the Civil War, by President Abraham Lincoln. It is fitting that we
take time to remember the many blessings that each of us enjoys, even in
the most dire circumstances.
What we consistently fail to do is to recognize the misery that our
actions may be causing for others. While individually, the way we live
our lives may be exemplary, our collective circumstances often derive
from less than benevolent actions take on our behalf by political and
economic leaders. One need not look very deeply to see the absurdity of
the present world order that is based on perpetual war and struggles for
dominance among national and supra-national elites. When one considers
the marvelous technological advances and the vast amounts of material
wealth that humans have been able to produce, it is clear that no one in
this world should need to live in squalor. Yet, vast numbers of our
brothers and sisters around the world lack the barest necessities to
live a dignified life, much less the resources needed to realize their
full potential. Still others are being terrorized, bombed, detained and
persecuted through no fault of their own.
The hard question for me is, “How am I complicit in all of this, and what can I do about it?”
While driving in my car I often have the radio tuned to the local NPR
station. A couple days ago I happened to hear an episode (Ep. 356) of
the popular
Freakonomics program, this one titled,
America’s Hidden Duopoly.
The discussion was about the American two party political system, which
is in essence a duopoly of political power. Many Americans have long
lamented the fact that they are often required to make a choice between
“the lesser of two evils.” Third parties come and go by none has ever
gained enough support to offer anything but “a wasted vote.”
Is there some other way in which the problem can be addressed? One
initiative mentioned in the interview that seems to hold some promise is
Unite America. Their motto is
Country Over Party
and their focus is on “building a movement to elect common-sense,
independent candidates to office who can represent We, the People – not
the party bosses or special interests.” The way they propose to achieve
that is through their “Fulcrum Strategy,” that is “focused on electing
independent candidates to narrowly divided legislatures, like the US
Senate, where they can deny both parties an outright majority and use
their enormous leverage to forge common ground solutions.” The argue
that it would take only 4 or 5 independent Senators to swing the balance
of power.
Hmmm, that itself is a tall order, but it just might work. Another initiative that looks promising is
World Beyond War.
______________
David Brooks is a familiar figure on the PBS News Hour, where he has for
years been providing political commentary alongside Mark Shields. I
can’t say that I’ve been all that impressed with him, but after a friend
referred me to a presentation he gave at the 2018 Pacific Summit
earlier this year I came away with a different opinion. I find Brooks
much more impressive and insightful as a social philosopher and
historian. He articulately and entertainingly provides an assessment of
our present sociopolitical predicament. I recommend that you can view
that presentation on
YouTube.
Still, I have a little different take on the situation, something that
no one else seems to be seeing. Arnold Toynbee is quoted as having said,
"Civilizations start to decay when they lose their moral fiber and the
cultural elite turns parasitic." That is the situation we find ourselves
in today.
Our political leadership has let us down. When the
power elite works to dominate and exploit us, when they can no longer be
trusted to tell us the truth, when they fail to act on behalf of peace
and the common good, what is there but to revert to tribal identities
and find common cause with those whom we know and trust? While
pundits and politicos decry the rise of “populism,” I see it as a
natural response to the failure of the power elite. Populist actions are
not always tainted by racism, sexism, and scapegoating. We need to
rebuild society from the bottom up, starting with the people around us,
then branching out to form alliances and coalitions. But if we are to
end up with something better than what we wish to replace, our actions
need to be open-hearted and beneficent. With good will toward all,
perhaps it is possible to have a populist revolution that is peaceful
and advances the causes of social justice, economic equity, individual
liberty and human unity.
______________
The American Economy Is Rigged
In a recent article,
Joseph E. Stiglitz,
former chief economist of the World Bank, argues that the American
economy is rigged and outlines a few things that we can do about it.
Stiglitz begins his article by saying:
“Americans are used to thinking that their nation is special. In many
ways, it is: the U.S. has by far the most Nobel Prize winners, the
largest defense expenditures (almost equal to the next 10 or so
countries put together) and the most billionaires (twice as many as
China, the closest competitor). But some examples of American
Exceptionalism should not make us proud. By most accounts, the U.S. has
the highest level of economic inequality among developed countries. It
has the world's greatest per capita health expenditures yet the lowest
life expectancy among comparable countries. It is also one of a few
developed countries jostling for the dubious distinction of having the
lowest measures of equality of opportunity.”
He then explains how economic inequality and political inequality are
mutually reinforcing, each growing in response to growth in the other.
When the super-rich are able to make the rules, they can rig the game to
become ever richer. He concedes that “There is no magic bullet to
remedy a problem as deep-rooted as America's inequality. Its origins are
largely political, so it is hard to imagine meaningful change without a
concerted effort to take money out of politics.”
Stiglitz outlines a number of measures that could achieve that but all
of them require legislative action. That seems like a “catch 22.” If the
political machinery is so thoroughly in the hands of the economic and
political elite, how is it possible to use the political process to
change the status quo? I have long argued that, in view of that
political reality, the only viable strategy is to design and deploy
innovative monetary and financial systems that enable us reclaim “the
credit commons.” By decentralizing the control of credit, it is possible
to reduce our dependence upon bank borrowing and political forms of
money. This is not so far-fetched as it might first appear. For details
of how it can be, and is being done, see my article,
Confronting the power elite.
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