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Tuesday, May 23, 2006 |
It is amazing how in this global economy we are led to believe that less is more. Cuts in public spending, health care, social spending, are justified as improvements.
Guardian: "NHS hospitals in England have jettisoned nearly a third of their beds in the past 20 years and patients would benefit if they got rid of even more, the leader of the health service's managers said last night.
But Karen Jennings, head of health at the public sector union Unison, said beds were often lost due to cost-cutting by hospitals built under the private finance initiative."
One thing, those who die because there is no bed for them, can't complain afterwards.
AlterNet: "In an excerpt from his book Hostile Takeover, Sirota reveals how the same politicians who preach about the 'culture of life' are too addicted to health industry cash to care about people who can't afford to see a doctor."
AlterNet: "Private prison companies are salivating after the billions in public money that will be spent on new superjails to hold immigrants for trial or deportation."
Corporations thrive on death and disaster. Privatized police thrive on criminality. Getting tough on immigration is just one side of the coin; the other is exploitation of immigrants which only increases because of the 'illegality' of immigrants. Illegal aliens are not paid the regular wages.
America is turning into a police state: "The Supreme Court reaffirmed Monday that police can enter homes in emergencies without knocking or announcing their presence."
And you're lucky if you are not innocently labelled as criminal. In the US thousands are not allowed to vote because they were wrongly registered as criminal. There are no guarantees for proper conduct of officials any longer.
What we are experiencing is a hostile takeover of society by neocon thugs. The conservatives have accused governments of being nanny states when they provide equal opportunity for all. What they want is a nanny state for the benefit of the neocon only. (See also Aaron Swartz.)
The Conservative Nanny State (free download): "The reality is that conservatives have been quite actively using the power of the government to shape market outcomes in ways that redistribute income upward. However, conservatives have been clever enough to not own up to their role in this process, pretending all along that everything is just the natural working of the market. And, progressives have been foolish enough to go along with this view.
Conservatives want to use the government to distribute income upward to higher paid workers, business owners, and investors. They support the establishment of rules and structures that have this effect. First and foremost, conservatives support nanny state policies that have the effect of increasing the supply of less-skilled workers (thereby lowering their wages), while at the same time restricting the supply of more highly educated professional employees (thereby raising their wages).
One key economic fact that the nanny state conservatives understand very well, and that confuses many progressives, is that one person's income is a cost
to another person. Nanny state conservatives clearly recognize that when they make the wages of autoworkers and nannies lower, they make themselves richer, because the goods and services produced by autoworkers and nannies will cost less."
A neocon economy is a parasitic economy that thrives on war (Halliburton is doing very well, contrary to the plight of veterans) and catastrophe (a shortage of oil jacks up the oil prices and stocks). Prisons have become an industry. The poor pay the tax relief for the rich. The rich profit from the low wages of workers. With their lobbies the neocons have taken over the governments. Governments are seen as the means to fleece the poor and middle incomes and siphon everything off to the rich. The American citizen pays with his taxes for the wars of the neocons, who then profit from these same wars, first by destroying everything (the military industry) and then by 'reconstructing'.
A parasitic economy is bound to fail because it is based on greed.
12:18:37 PM 
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EUObserver: "The Bush administration is planning to build an anti-missile defence system in central Europe to stop a ballistic missile threat from Iran, revisiting the late president Ronald Reagan's vision of space-based warfare.
Poland and the Czech Republic have been singled out as possible sites for the missile interceptors, with strongly pro-US Poland already expressing a will to sign a contract with Washington."
Of course, this system has nothing to do with a threat from Iran. First, there is no threat from Iran yet and second, it would be placed close to Russia. The Bush administration simply continues the Cold War. Moreover, if those European countries would sign contracts with the US they would breach the European alliance. The US is seeking to gain more power in Europe.
NYTimes: "Iran does not have intercontinental-range missiles and has yet to conduct a flight test of a multistage rocket. There has been concern that Iran might develop the technology it needs to build such a weapon in the guise of a civilian space program. But some experts say it is a long way from developing such a system."
11:20:17 AM
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