Thursday, August 2, 2018

The way

Doug Henwood's twitter (which is fabulous, I keep reading) quotes Anne Boyer tweeted last year that the way to reduce both sexual harassment & partner violence is to make sure everyone has food, shelter, healthcare, and what they need to survive not contingent on employment or romantic partnership.

Wow.  And just about everything else bad, I think, and yet it's so simple.

And not that expensive, I think, compared with other things we could probably live without, like full spectrum military dominance.

But, it's just at odds with that large goal of capitalism, to get human labor power as cheaply as possible.

And the solution to capitalism's declining demand problem (as capitalist societies get more unequal, spending drops, ultimately in a self-perpetuating cycle causing collapse unless stopped, usually by government fiat), as determined by mid 1940's planners, was not a citizen utopia, with permanent public sector development for free institutions of all kinds: education, healthcare, entertainment, electrification, communication, etc.  That would compete with private industry, it was said.  (Well, actually, it should eliminate near "private industry" in some areas, but so what...if everybody gets high quality free education, why need there be a private industry for most people?  Etc.)  Instead, and this is well documented, the US Planners from the start (before Soviet 'provocation', which could be interpreted as western provocation) decided on endless war.

Now we've gotten so "used" to endless military spending, it would indeed be a challenge to wind down to a society directed to human needs rather than imperial ambition.  I suggest a corresponding ramp up in public Free Renewable Energy systems, and we need about that scale, just to keep from downward economic spiral.

Few understand we "must" spend staggering amounts...just to keep the capitalism going.  But there's no reason why it has to be on making craters and dead bodies, and in pursuit of global ecocide.

We need to make these changes, I hope that's understood.  Ultimately to the simple result of everything needed for life be free.  (That is my goal, a better one than UBI, I feel, for many reasons.)

The goal is simple, but the journey is challenging.

When the growth era ends, the result is communism or total destruction.

It's simple to see and say that, less simple to lead the way.  To communism.


No comments:

Post a Comment