This is a standard rebuttal of any criticism of our capitalist plutocratic system as Russel Brand is finding out in the UK. It is no good goes the argument just pointing out the defects to be valid you must have the solution.
There are simple solutions but heaven forbid they are tried again even though the worked before since they threaten the very foundations upon which the elite have returned to being a highly protected species. In fact so protected by the system they have become they are now the aggressors in moving us ever deeper into their neo-feudalist dystopia.
Neo feudalism
The phenomenon of corporations taking control of cultures and indiviuals through money, policies, practices, and gatekeeping in general to the point that they control many aspects of everyday private life.
We have all seen the fusion of the right and left sides of the aisle to such an extent that it matters little who really is speaking but matters a great deal who is footing the bill. Democracy has almost become a joke where the only access to power is via the monetary approval of those who pay the most, small donators can be safely ignored.
One of the few major power bases outside of the business elite were the trade unions, now a mere penumbra of their former selves, bashed into near obsolescence by continual and unremitting propaganda.
Individual democracies became hollow shells as corporations became truly global powers; having to offer monetary incentives to even have a chance of pleasing them enough for them to remain in the country that provided for their success. Cheap labor was treated as an economic positive rather than as economic imperialism. If our own people need more we will find those that have nothing and make their lives better so the argument goes; since our people have become lazy takers. The proposition that there are jobs that any of us would not do is fallacious it's just that undocumented disenfranchised workers are cheaper still. Just another lie to feed the ravening beast.
The economy is global, we must compete goes the meme, only because we made it so the reply. The rules were made up under the misleading headline of "free trade" which totally ignored the economic variances in the countries concerned by these business pacts. The only motivator for these pacts was profit and has absolutely nothing to do with making lives better, as soon as one set of workers becomes too expensive to tolerate they move on and roost in cheaper climes.
When the whole system became unstable due the excesses of the borrow to buy society came to an unsteady head those that paid for it were the least able to do so, cuts in the social safety net were fair game and Austerity the new nirvana. One can see little austerity affecting the elite. The banks were bailed out and have expanded by 30% since the crash, well at least we now know who was stimulated and who profited. Tax avoidance by corporations and individuals able to afford to do so has become a revered pastime, the lower the tax paid the better the player.
Our highest court has done everything in its power to accelerate this concentration of power it the fewest hands, constitution be damned, it's a buyers market.
The greatest challenge we all face is climate change but how often do we hear we must first save the economy before we can do anything. The promise of jobs as a result of this refusal to act is the carrot, how hollow is that promise. Build the pipeline is the cry, yet the true cost of the use of such vile and polluting primary energy ignored.
My objection to the Affordable Care Act [and yes, it is one of the only pieces of legislation that actually helps] is that it is a two edged sword. It's a capitalist for profit solution to a social need locking in a permanent customer base. I can however see social security going the same way, releasing vast amounts of money to further concentrate the wealth.
We have redistributed the wealth before to pay for economic collapse and wars in the past, now those solutions are not only sneered at but engender some sort of panic among the people that would not be affected in the first place. That has been some wonderful marketing by the elite and their mouthpieces. the privately own media organs. The fact that they own the political system goes without saying.
The Estate tax became the death tax and it hardly was a burden to even those tiny few that had to pay.
Unearned income has become some form of investing in the fabric of our nation rather than just being a lazy way to accumulate wealth, and to keep that wealth where it belongs. Taxing it at 50% is heresy so I am lead to believe. Investing in the market is more playing the market and even the hint of a tiny tiny tax on trades is the word of the devil.
The tax code has become a joke, if you pay it you are one of the poor folks. Talking progressive taxation is heathen commie talk. Hence we pay it and the extraordinarily wealthy laugh at us, and then turn around and try to buy yet more influence.
It times of crisis past we knew what had to be done, tax, invest in infrastructure and devise real systems to protect the weakest.
The solution we are told now is to disinvest in the people, find the cheapest labor to produce our goods and hand it to the rich who will provide for our well being. Trickle down bullshit in short.
The complaint is not that there are no solutions, it is that those solutions have been so successfully perjured as to be the very cause of our problems today and must be further eroded still.
You must be bored of me but now, so I'll stop for the time being.