the system is broken. a lot broken.
Posted by howard in nyc
10/8/2011
17:05
if you need a simple, focused message, you're welcome.
this simple, focused message that the folks downtown at Occupy Wall Street offer to the nation is clear and obvious. except to the people who will not, or can not, accept either the message, or the reality.
and Occupy Wall Street is a success. a smashing success. after only three weeks. sure, the success may be temporary. but they are Winning-Duh!
the fact that the system is broken is now part of the conversation. it was not a month ago. now it is, on the tee vee, in the new york times, even occasionally on the murdoch (including the occupied wall street journal; while the street proper is still safe from the mobs, for the moment they got into dey heads.)
on the demand front, another way of looking at it i read earlier in the week. when there is a single injustice--we'll have a single demand. when there is a simple, uncomplicated injustice, we'll have a simple, uncomplicated demand.
see me; hear me; even mace me and arrest me; those are the demands of the day. and the success--being seen, being heard. that only took a matter of days. well done, OWS.
like i said, it may be temporary. very likely, it will be dust and memories by winter. temporary success is not failure. from small things mama, big things one day come.
enough about the messengers. let me hammer the message yet again.
the system is broken. a lot broken. to the point of failure. requiring massive overhaul, including replacement or rebuilding of many key components. possibly requiring junking and replacement, which becomes more likely the longer the crippled system is driven w/o the necessary overhaul.
the political component of the system has failed; it no longer performs its democratic function. Obama and his administration has functioned 100% in the best interests of the banks, the lobbyists, the huge corporations. not one single action, regarding war, economy, health care policy, has failed to supply those interests with everything they demand, at the expense of the population at large.
we have three years of historic record to serve as proof of this claim.
the party or individual identity of the president has ceased to matter. red/blue, democrat/republican makes zero difference in the day to day and year to year policies and actions of the federal government.
the finance industry component of the system has failed. despite being given every support and every dollar they demanded after their failure was obvious to the world in 2008, they again are on the brink of an extinction event. they cannot even maintain their stock prices, as boa, morgan and goldman shares tumble over the past year.
the larger economic component of the system has failed. in our system, economic prosperity requires growth. growth used to come from savings and investment; those inputs were replaced by debt. debt (and credit) is by definition based on confidence--a reasonable expectation that the debt will be repaid.
when debt grows beyond a certain point, the confidence fails, and debt growth stops. and economic growth, and prosperity, stops.
the problem appears to be how to replace/restore debt growth. the problem in actuality is too much debt. adding more debt only breaks the system more, compounds the failure.
all the efforts to feed the failed system serves only to foster more failure. more "stimulus" only stimulates 1) more money in the pockets of the rich, the corporate and banking heads; 2) more jobs to china and higher unemployment here; 3) more debt that will never be repaid. (paraphrased/stolen from Jessé at his blog today, Jessé's Cafe Américain
simple, really. the system, that we have all participated in and enjoyed our entire lives is broken. really really badly broken. no republican or democratic president or group of congressmen is going to fix it. because all they will do is a tune up--change the oil, new spark plugs, maybe wheels and a coat of paint. that is all they know how to do.
the bad news--that is the good news. that only a small percentage of americans are willing or able to accept the fact that the system is severely crippled is grim. but OWS has chipped away at that, if only for a short while.
the really bad news--we are not gonna overhaul and repair the system until it seizes up. not until a catastrophic full-stop failure. despite the opportunities, the multiple clear warnings, the wake up calls. it looks like we may be blessed with yet another opportunity, to watch it happen in europe, with maybe time to avoid it here. (i doubt it; i think when europe blows, we will have about three minutes before the first bank failure here, then its party on garth.)
i try my best not to fall in love with and commit to my forecasts and predictions (i don't limit that to women.) most of the time, i don't even like my predictions. including these two today. that Occupy Wall Street will fade away; either by co-option by the entrenched left or the labor movement or the Democratic Party; or alternatively in a spasm of violent suppression, orchestrated or not. and that america will not wake up to the severity of the failures of politics, finance and economy and demand overhaul until after the broken system is totaled.
as usual, i hope i'm wrong.
