What Obama Could Learn From British Prime Minister David Cameron

Is there anyone in this world who is self-sufficient? Everyone needs someone else. If the State is not there as a last resort, then it will be the extended families like in days of yore, and of course the Corporation to whom people must beg for jobs and they can say "Be gone! Die in the street!"

The Obligation to a Job, not the Right to a Job. The Corporation's obligation is to its shareholders and shareholders only, to its bottom line, though in truth especially in the US it's a dictatorship of directors who milk it mercilessly - Republican reforms in the '90s accelerated this process. Don't you people know that the essentials of life are produced by a tiny handful of people? Don't you know that there's more than enough to go around?

Oh, but it must be the top 1% who own and control who have the right to the benefits of thousands of years of civilisation and technological innovation, mostly done by people now dead. The idea that people for whom there are no jobs at all have the right to stay alive is considered to be a horrible crime. Never mind that the owners want lots of unemployment, want a reserve army of unemployed. Former Tory Chancellor Norman Lamont himself said that unemployment is a price worth paying to kill inflation.

Economist Michael Hudson had it right when he said that if in the '40s people were told of the great technological advances, the new efficiencies, they'd conclude that most people would live lives of leisure. They wouldn't believe that the owners would take everything for themselves and that people would have to work multiple jobs and many hours of overtime without overtime pay thanks to reforms of recent years.

There is no such thing as self-sufficiency, that people depend on the State is no big crime, it's a necessity, it's an obligation of the State to its people - the fruits of progress and technology should not only be enjoyed by those who own and control. The billionaires had no problem with being bailed out with billions by that State...

If the State pulls out, that makes the workers in the private sector even more dependent on their bosses, turns them practically into their slaves, particular with no safety net and a reserve army of unemployed. Wages will plummet. Working hours will increase. That's what's been happening under the neoliberal reforms. Those lucky enough to have wealth in their families can get through troubles, those who don't have family are in serious jeopardy. By the way, these champions of meritocracy for some reason are in favour of family dynasties as if they are the will of the great dynastic founder long dead that must be fulfilled - so idiot sons must not be burdened with "death taxes" and can use their wealth and power to buy politicians, political office, and laws for themselves, as well as helpings of the public purse.

R. B. 2:26PM July 27, 2010