Over on Truthdig, Chris Hedges offers the gloomy prediction that the economic woes have only just begun unless Americans stand up for themselves to the capitalist regime that is enriching itself through corporate swindling. I urge you to go and read the article at http://www.truthdig.com/... and then follow me over the fold.
I hope that this article sparks some thought among those who've read it. Key to this argument is a harsh critique of President Obama's hand in the current state of affairs.
The Obama administration, rather than chart a new course, is intent on re-inflating the bubble. The trillions of dollars of government funds being spent to sustain these corrupt corporations could have renovated our economy. We could have saved tens of millions of Americans from poverty. The government could have, as consumer activist Ralph Nader has pointed out, started 10 new banks with $35 billion each and a 10-to-1 leverage to open credit markets. Vast, unimaginable sums are being placed into these dirty corporate hands without oversight. And they will use this money as they always have—to enrich themselves at our expense.
I feel like this sort of critique is being held at arms length, eyes averted by most of the folks at dKos. Hedges gives compelling arguments that there is reason to believe that this bailout is not a solution, and by the time that we are forced to realize it, it will be too late. He concludes his article saying:
The bullet to our head, inevitable if we do not radically alter course, will be sudden. We have been borrowing at the rate of more than $2 billion a day over the last 10 years, and at some point it has to stop. The moment China, the oil-rich states and other international investors stop buying treasury bonds the dollar will become junk. Inflation will rocket upward. We will become Weimar Germany. A furious and sustained backlash by a betrayed and angry populace, one unprepared intellectually and psychologically for collapse, will sweep aside the Democrats and most of the Republicans. A cabal of proto-fascist misfits, from Christian demagogues to simpletons like Sarah Palin to loudmouth talk show hosts, who we naively dismiss as buffoons, will find a following with promises of revenge and moral renewal. The elites, the ones with their Harvard Business School degrees and expensive vocabularies, will retreat into their sheltered enclaves of privilege and comfort. We will be left bereft and abandoned outside the gates.
So, maybe I've been missing the call to arms on this progressive site, but I wonder if we all haven't been a bit to proud of ourselves for our work electing Obama, and need to get back to the work. We must be a vigilant watchdog against oppressive corporatist interests, and be sounding the call to rise up and force these entities to behave.
What do you think?