Just finished Joe Stiglitz's "The Price of Inequality" , and it may be my last economic read after having read 100's of them over the years.. While Joe's book speaks the truth the following dawned on me..
All the theories, all the graphs, all the learned men who talk truth to the subject miss the one big glaring truth "NOTHING WILL BE DONE IF IT REQUIRES A POLITICAL MOVE TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM"
As long as corporations control the purse strings and politicians depend on their money to win re-election nothing will change , nothing.. Too think a politician will vote against his wallet is wrong thinking.. They won't.
The Tea Party showed what big money can do with a really shitty idea.. and have grid locked congress with their nonsense.. and they dare not stray from the Tea Bag trail or they will get beat in their next primary.. by the big money of course..
Even with democrats in control they feel they have to cave into the nut jobs on every issue.. The big test is coming up.. The debt limit and the sequester of funds , the right is threatening a shut down, the left is saying go ahead, will they flinch, the bet is they will. I believe they will put SS and Medicare/Medicaid on the table and we will loose again..
Watch the negotiations that are about to take place , see if you see any of the solutions I have laid out on this blog many times in the past.. Just one simple adjustment to allow Medicare D to negotiate for drug prices will cut more budget than any plan presently laid out by either side.. Politically impossible as Medicare for all is. And anybody who thinks you can cut a 100 billion or two from the military budget , hasn't looked at their spending in the last 30 years..
So you now see the cause of my depression. Shit won't happen because politicians are constipated by their steady diet of big money.. I wish I could come up with a new EXlax that would solve the problem.. I have one but nobody like it.. just look at past blogs to see it..
So cheer me up if you can,, I am desperate to renew my faith in the American people, people who now seem incapable of action.. of any kind..
No problem with the drug costs. Just put the Canadian address for cheap drugs on the Medicare drug forms. The only cost to the US Govt is the printing of the forms and who knows maybe the Canadians will set up an internet site where people can order on-line or print out their own.
ReplyDeleteAnd unless the law is changed to prohibit corporation political donations, nothing will change. Of course, mandatory shorter campaign times would definately help everyone.
Cheer you up?!?
ReplyDeleteNot likely. The US no longer has a fiscal policy, except for slashing vital programs for the old and infirm. The levers of political control have been handed to the Fed, from whence all policy emerges.
It's a banker's coup, but you already knew that.
It's not going to be easy to turn this thing around. Given the lack of organization and solidarity, I expect the world will probably tip into Mad Max-type anarchy in no more than a few decades.
Sorry to be so glum. I'm a little short on silver linings at this point.
I feel your frustration. you read people like Stiglitz, or on the web people llke Mike Whitney and Dean Baker, and it's very clear what's wrong. You can read an econ 101 textbook and see very clear what's wrong. Yet every day, on TV, in mainstream newspapers, on the net (with few exceptions) it's always the same dogma, over and over. There is no discussion of the austerity measures that are being imposed on us in the msm, not even on Rachel Maddow. I think the upside is, there are other topics out there besides economics to download on the old Kindle!
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