"Let capitalism function as a responsibly-regulated system..."
And how does the government pay for universal tax-payer funded
healthcare and universal tax-payer funded education? You might say it
is only a utopian dream, that it is naïve to ask for the government of
the United States of America to provide free comprehensive healthcare
and education for all of its citizens. I say that it was not dreaming
to expect Barack Obama to become president, and it is not dreaming to
expect the United States of America to behave like a modern, civilised
democracy. Where does the money come from? For one thing, it comes
from not bailing out the privileged few who have, through willful
mismanagement of their financial institutions and through corporate
piracy, raped and pillaged the nation's economy and robbed the U.S.
tax-payer blind with the encouragement of the government officials
whose campaigns they continue to fund. It does not come from
continuing to make a lucrative business of war-profiteering and
military-backed corporate imperialism, from perpetual armed corporate
robbery around the world, largely funded by U.S. taxpayers of today
and tomorrow.
Barack Obama received considerably more campaign funding from "Wall
Street" than John McCain did. Does this mean that he will
automatically bail out the rich who continue to steal from the hardly-
as-rich vast majority of U.S. citizens and their children? Ask him. If
he tells you that it is just too complex an issue, that bailing out
these for-profit failed capitalistic institutions and corporations is
a necessary stop-gap measure to save the economy, I would venture to
say that the answer is "yes". I would venture to say that he is as
bought-and-paid-for as George W. Bush, Bill "Nafta" Clinton, and every
other president in memory. Sadly, this would mean that "Change", that
word Mr. Obama so eloquently used - if often vaguely - as a
rhetorical cudgel to win the presidency and a chance to really make a
difference, is worth nothing more than a handful of pennies to the
economic future of the average citizen and to the hope of a socially-
responsible democracy. If the answer is "yes", then those who have
stolen Big will be richly rewarded and the profitable (for the
privileged, amoral few) military-industrial empire will thrive and
prosper as the noble dream of a just society suffers ever greater set-
backs. Let capitalism function as a responsibly-regulated system, not
as a costly welfare safety-net for billionaires and their capitalist
enterprises. We have a dream. It need not be further compromised by
the next U.S. administration. Sometimes the picture is quite clear.
Take a stand.
Viggo Mortensen
www://percevalpress.com
(thanks to nverland and others for alerting me to this one, as i forget to go to PP sometimes)
The People Speak
"Democracy is in dissent. Democracy is in resistance. Democracy doesn't come from the top: It comes from the bottom." ~~ Howard Zinn
Please. I know it can come off as ranting. I don't think it is. I think it's an impassioned plea for each of us to own our citizenship, to own the commonwealth that is ours by virtue of our labor, by virtue of our participation, however indirect it may seem to be, in the governance of and economy of our country.
I know it would be a long project, re-making the way we take care of our health as individuals and as a society. I am well aware of the limitations of "Universal health coverage" in Canada, in the UK, in the Scandinavian countries, and I can imagine as well limitations and risks of universal tax-payer funded education. But I like to think these are public conversations, conversations in the national interest as well as in the personal, and I hope that as I pursue my part in it my President-Elect, soon to be President, will be at least willing to listen while I speak.
healthcare and universal tax-payer funded education? You might say it
is only a utopian dream, that it is naïve to ask for the government of
the United States of America to provide free comprehensive healthcare
and education for all of its citizens. I say that it was not dreaming
to expect Barack Obama to become president, and it is not dreaming to
expect the United States of America to behave like a modern, civilised
democracy. Where does the money come from? For one thing, it comes
from not bailing out the privileged few who have, through willful
mismanagement of their financial institutions and through corporate
piracy, raped and pillaged the nation's economy and robbed the U.S.
tax-payer blind with the encouragement of the government officials
whose campaigns they continue to fund. It does not come from
continuing to make a lucrative business of war-profiteering and
military-backed corporate imperialism, from perpetual armed corporate
robbery around the world, largely funded by U.S. taxpayers of today
and tomorrow.
Barack Obama received considerably more campaign funding from "Wall
Street" than John McCain did. Does this mean that he will
automatically bail out the rich who continue to steal from the hardly-
as-rich vast majority of U.S. citizens and their children? Ask him. If
he tells you that it is just too complex an issue, that bailing out
these for-profit failed capitalistic institutions and corporations is
a necessary stop-gap measure to save the economy, I would venture to
say that the answer is "yes". I would venture to say that he is as
bought-and-paid-for as George W. Bush, Bill "Nafta" Clinton, and every
other president in memory. Sadly, this would mean that "Change", that
word Mr. Obama so eloquently used - if often vaguely - as a
rhetorical cudgel to win the presidency and a chance to really make a
difference, is worth nothing more than a handful of pennies to the
economic future of the average citizen and to the hope of a socially-
responsible democracy. If the answer is "yes", then those who have
stolen Big will be richly rewarded and the profitable (for the
privileged, amoral few) military-industrial empire will thrive and
prosper as the noble dream of a just society suffers ever greater set-
backs. Let capitalism function as a responsibly-regulated system, not
as a costly welfare safety-net for billionaires and their capitalist
enterprises. We have a dream. It need not be further compromised by
the next U.S. administration. Sometimes the picture is quite clear.
Take a stand.
Viggo Mortensen
www://percevalpress.com
(thanks to nverland and others for alerting me to this one, as i forget to go to PP sometimes)
The People Speak
Click to view"Democracy is in dissent. Democracy is in resistance. Democracy doesn't come from the top: It comes from the bottom." ~~ Howard Zinn
Please. I know it can come off as ranting. I don't think it is. I think it's an impassioned plea for each of us to own our citizenship, to own the commonwealth that is ours by virtue of our labor, by virtue of our participation, however indirect it may seem to be, in the governance of and economy of our country.
I know it would be a long project, re-making the way we take care of our health as individuals and as a society. I am well aware of the limitations of "Universal health coverage" in Canada, in the UK, in the Scandinavian countries, and I can imagine as well limitations and risks of universal tax-payer funded education. But I like to think these are public conversations, conversations in the national interest as well as in the personal, and I hope that as I pursue my part in it my President-Elect, soon to be President, will be at least willing to listen while I speak.