January 7, 2013 |
History is littered with the corpses of those who thought they could
conquer the world, or at least the “known” or “important” world,
through force of arms. Many come immediately to mind: Alexander the
Great; Caesar; Hitler; the Celts, Ottomans, and Catholics; various
European, Asian, and American empires from the 17th Century Dutch to the
18th Century French, to the 19th Century British and the 20th Century
Soviets and Americans. Others, like the Aztecs, are less well known to
westerners, Europeans, and Asians, but no less ambitious.
All
used some variation on war, the force of military power, to accomplish
their goal. All won, over the short-term, and then collapsed over the
long term (making the relatively safe assumption that the American
Empire is in the process of collapse right now).
So, who’s next?
While
the rising economies of the world, like the BRIC (Brazil, Russia,
India, China) nations, all have the potential, particularly the Chinese,
all also are pretty focused on regionalism. But there is one group
that has declared war on us - all of us, all over the world - and
already won some significant victories. And that’s the creditor class,
what economist Henry George called the “rentiers,” and we generally
today refer to as “the billionaires.”
The top story on the Sunday, January 6 2013 online edition of the
Financial Times,
was headlined, “Banks win more flexible Basel rules” by Brooke
Masters. The lead paragraph noted that “International banks received a
new year fillip” or gift, when the new regulations out of the Basel bank
regulators meeting “announced that the first ever global liquidity
standards would be less onerous than expected and not be fully enforced
until 2019, four years later than expected.” Perhaps the single most
relevant sentence in the article started: “The results are largely good
news for bank profits…”
We have become, in the United States, and
increasingly all over the world, a society with only two classes: Those
who own, and those who owe.
The owners (or “Takers”) own vast
wealth, and loan it out at interest to everybody from students to
governments. They’re continually receiving that interest back in ways
that are either tax-free or taxed at very low levels. (Here in the US
we call it “capital gains,” “Interest,” “dividends,” and “carried
interest.” While a working person will pay as much as 39% in federal
income taxes, the federal income tax to the Mitt Romneys, Paris Hiltons,
and Lloyd Blankfeins of the world is now capped at 20%. As Leona
Helmsley famously said, “Only little people pay taxes.”)
The
owe-ers - the indebted - find themselves trapped on a lifelong treadmill
paying interest and fees to the Takers. The owe-ers are also mostly
the workers, the people who make things (from manufactured goods to
hamburgers), and so are rightly called the “Makers.”
For a brief
period of American history, the rapaciousness and greed of the Takers
was kept in check by the Makers - mostly through the actions of their
unions and elected officials like FDR, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy,
Johnson, Nixon, Ford, and Carter. Glass-Steagal prevented banksters
from gambling with your savings account or pension. The Sherman
Anti-Trust Act and its heirs prevented the big fish from swallowing all
the medium-sized and smaller fish, so cities and malls were filled with
locally-owned businesses. Social and economic mobility were higher in
the United States than in most other countries of the world.
But
with the election of Ronald Reagan, the Takers - whose favorite way of
taking is through putting the Makers into debt - won a huge victory.
They killed or weakened democratic institutions, like unions and
politicians not dependent on them. They moved the Middle Class from
prosperity into, first, credit card debt, then into second-mortgage
debt, and finally into student loan debt. And then, in the final Coup
de grâce, they made the formerly democratic governments of Western
Europe and the United States indebted to them.
They knew from the
beginning it was war. But a softer and more silent form of war than
the world was used to. Not since the ascendency of the British East
India Company in the 1700s had the world seen an economic, rather than
sovereign, force so dominate the world.
And now they’re in the
final stages of their war. Having taken most all the resources of the
West’s Middle Classes and thrown them and their children into debt
bondage, they’ve moved onto taking over entire nations.
This is
what Republicans mean when they talk about “making government smaller”
here in the United States, or “the austerity agenda” in Europe, Canada,
and Australia. It’s all the same thing - transfer even more wealth and
political power from those in debt (be they individuals, cities, states,
or nations) to those who made the loans. From the middle-class Makers
to the billionaire Takers.
And God forbid a politician should
stand up to the Takers. From Republicans refusing to raise taxes on
billionaires, to international banking institutions leading the charge,
via their captive governments, on
“renegade” states like Bolivia.
Longer
work weeks in France. Indexing the Inheritance Tax to inflation in the
United States, but not the minimum wage. Cutting Greeks off their
national health-care system after a year of unemployment. Slashing
government support to schools, police, and health-care in Canada. Banks
committing crimes and getting slap-on-the-wrist fines. Fossil Fuel
corporations, the world’s most profitable, not only getting taxpayer
subsidies but never, ever paying for the cancers, pollution, and global
warming they cause. The list goes on and on.
It’s war. Rob,
plunder, and pillage. Take what little is left from those with a
little, and give it all to those who have a lot. Turn the Makers into
slaves, while the Takers get an Inheritance Tax cut so their
great-grandchildren can live the lives of the landed gentry.
When
Ronald Reagan came into office, America was one of the most socially-
and economically- mobile nations in the developed world. Today it is
among the least.
Democracy is being replaced by plutocracy.
Modern oligarchs are richer than the kings of old. And, still not
content, they’re amping up the war with a coming July 4th attempt to
amend the US Constitution so the wealthy need never again fear tax
increases. It’s being
led by the Goldwater Institute with its “Compact For America.”
Look
out. We’re moving from trench warfare to aerial bombardment. And when
they’re done, Western Democracies will look far more like Italy in the
1930s…
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