“Now, comrades, what is the nature of this life of ours? Let us face it: Our lives are miserable, laborious, and short. We are born, we are given just so much food as will keep the breath in our bodies, and those of us who are capable of it are forced to work to the last atom of our strength.” —George Orwell, Animal Farm
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Capitalism Is Beyond Saving, and America Is Living Proof Jacob Bacharach TruthDig 8/31/2018
The war in Iraq didn’t fail to bring democracy to the Middle East; it smashed an intransigent sometimes-ally in the region, and deliberately weakened and destabilized a group of countries whose control of, and access to, immense oil reserves was of strategic American interest.
The “end of welfare as we know it” didn’t fail to instill in the nation’s poor a middle-class sense of responsibility; it entrenched a draconian regime of means-testing and a Kafkaesque bureaucracy for access to even meager social benefits for a rapidly shrinking middle class.
It’s not that “Capitalism isn’t working,” as Noah Smith recently argued in Bloomberg. It’s that it’s working all too well.
Read the whole article at Truthdig.
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Late Stage Capitalism thinking:
The Death of Neoliberalism Is an Opportunity to Birth a New System
Sunday, May 06, 2018 By Cliff
DuRand, Truthout | News Analysis
Truthout story
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Capitalism is killing us
Princeton economics researchers Anne
Case and Angus Deaton have documented the decline of life expectancy
for working class Americans. Their study, “Mortality and morbidity
in the 21st century,” first reported in 2015 and recently
updated, reveals a shocking reversal of earlier trends toward longer
healthier lives. The authors suggest that the increased mortality
rates, which they characterize as “deaths of despair,” are due in
part to a measurable deterioration in economic and social wellbeing.
Recent research by
The National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine reported
similar disturbing findings. They found a pervasive health
disadvantage for Americans relative to sixteen comparable high-income
or “peer” countries.
Both studies pointed
to an array of potential contributing factors. They noted economic
stresses, poor diet, substance abuse, gun violence, high infant
mortality, and less available health care.
Economist Richard
Wolff has documented the stagnation of workers’ wages throughout
the same decades represented in the previous reports. One startling
statistic he offers is most telling, American workers are laboring
20% longer hours today than in 1970 while workers in all the other
advanced industrial nations have enjoyed reduced work hours. The
Professor explains the social and economic forces which produced the
phenomenon and lays blame primarily upon unregulated capitalism and
the decline of worker union representation.
Economist Gar
Alperovitz in his book “What Then Must We Do” describes our
present condition as “stalemate, stagnation, and economic pain”
and, like Professor Wolff, argues for evolutionary redesign of our
economic system. Both advocate for greater democracy in the
workplace, specifically worker cooperatives, as the means of
providing more secure employment, greater economic security for both
worker and community, and greater social coherence.
Schoharie County is
presently developing a plan for our economic future. Fairweather
Consulting, and all our community leaders he will bring to the table
to develop an Economic Development Plan, should have our support.
And, we hope the advice of the above referenced economic experts is
considered, and incorporated, in the blueprint for our economic
future.
Capitalism
is killing us. We
must do better for our children and the generations to follow. Worker
cooperatives will prove to be a valuable strategy for achieving
economic vitality and building community wealth. Let’s
do it!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And some of us are killing ourselves
THE NATIONAL Center for Health Statistics released a study in 2016 that examined suicide trends from 1999 to 2014.
IN 2015, an estimated 44,193 people died by suicide in the U.S., with 22,018 of these deaths involving a gun. That's an average of 121 deaths by suicide every day...For every suicide, there are about 25 attempts that do not end in death.
The study showed that overall suicide rate rose by 24 percent in these 15 years, putting suicide rates at their highest in nearly 30 years. Almost every age group saw an increase except people over the age of 75, who already have some of the highest suicide rates. A substantial increase occurred among middle-aged white people.
Source: socialistworker.org
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Fallout from the so-called "Gig Economy?"
"... studies, representing more 300,000 participants, and found that greater social connection is associated with a 50 percent reduced risk of early death. ...[a] second study,... examined the role that social isolation, loneliness or living alone might have on mortality. Researchers found that all three had a significant and equal effect on the risk of premature death, one that was equal to or exceeded the effect of other well-accepted risk factors such as obesity."
The American Psychological Association, in Washington, D.C., is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States. Read the whole report here
See also the recently published book "Lost Connections" by Johann Hari.
"What really causes depression and anxiety... Johann Hari was told that problems were caused by a chemical imbalance in his brain. ...trained in the social sciences, he began to investigate whether this was true... Across the world, Hari found social scientists who were uncovering evidence that depression and anxiety are not caused by a chemical imbalance in our brains. In fact, they are largely caused by key problems with the way we live today."
Synopsis by Powells Books
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This from the Public Banking Institutes's Ellen Brown:
Financial insecurity ruins people’s lives. It wrecks families, ruins
personal relationships, destroys dreams, and demoralizes communities.
It breeds hatred, violence, and identity-based resentment. The Tavistock Institute’s April 2014 study
(a British study) on how poverty affects personal relationships is
sobering. “Poverty and economic hardship have a negative effect on
relationship quality and stability and cause a greater risk of
relationship breakdown,”
Read the whole article here
and much, much more....
Sources:
http://www.pnas.org/content/112/49/15078
R. Wolff "Capitalism Hits the Fan" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcA1v2n7WW4
R. Wolff "Capitalism Hits the Fan" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcA1v2n7WW4
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And some of us are killing ourselves
THE NATIONAL Center for Health Statistics released a study in 2016 that examined suicide trends from 1999 to 2014.
IN 2015, an estimated 44,193 people died by suicide in the U.S., with 22,018 of these deaths involving a gun. That's an average of 121 deaths by suicide every day...For every suicide, there are about 25 attempts that do not end in death.
The study showed that overall suicide rate rose by 24 percent in these 15 years, putting suicide rates at their highest in nearly 30 years. Almost every age group saw an increase except people over the age of 75, who already have some of the highest suicide rates. A substantial increase occurred among middle-aged white people.
Source: socialistworker.org
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fallout from the so-called "Gig Economy?"
So Lonely I Could Die
Social isolation, loneliness could be greater threat to public health than obesity, researchers say | Julianne Holt-Lunstad"... studies, representing more 300,000 participants, and found that greater social connection is associated with a 50 percent reduced risk of early death. ...[a] second study,... examined the role that social isolation, loneliness or living alone might have on mortality. Researchers found that all three had a significant and equal effect on the risk of premature death, one that was equal to or exceeded the effect of other well-accepted risk factors such as obesity."
The American Psychological Association, in Washington, D.C., is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States. Read the whole report here
See also the recently published book "Lost Connections" by Johann Hari.
"What really causes depression and anxiety... Johann Hari was told that problems were caused by a chemical imbalance in his brain. ...trained in the social sciences, he began to investigate whether this was true... Across the world, Hari found social scientists who were uncovering evidence that depression and anxiety are not caused by a chemical imbalance in our brains. In fact, they are largely caused by key problems with the way we live today."
Synopsis by Powells Books
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This from the Public Banking Institutes's Ellen Brown:
Financial Insecurity Ruins Our Lives:
Read the whole article here
and much, much more....
Note: A search for Failure of Capitalism produces
About 52,700,000 results (0.52 seconds)
Unless it Changes, Capitalism will Starve Humanity by 2050
Forbes.com | Feb 9, 2016
About 52,700,000 results (0.52 seconds)
Unless it Changes, Capitalism will Starve Humanity by 2050
Forbes.com | Feb 9, 2016
Capitalism
has generated massive wealth for some, but it's devastated the planet
and has failed to improve human well-being at scale. • Species are
going extinct at a rate 1,000 times faster than that of the natural
rate over the previous 65 million years...
May
11, 2016 - America's economic problems go far beyond rich bankers,
too-big-to-fail financial institutions, hedge-fund billionaires,
offshore tax avoidance or any particular outrage of the moment. In
fact, each of these is symptomatic of a more nefarious condition...
May
10, 2017 - The capitalist model embraced by countries around the
world is failing to serve humanity in many areas. That was the
message of DeepMind cofounder Mustafa Suleyman this week — the
highly educated entrepreneur who sold his artificial intelligence
(AI) startup to Google for £400 million in 2014.
No
Wonder Millennials Hate Capitalism - NYT
Dec
4, 2017 - For older Americans, the collapse of Communism made it seem
as though there was no possible alternative to capitalism. But given
the increasingly oligarchic nature of our economy, it's not
surprising that for many young people, capitalism looks like the god
that failed...
Mar
11, 2018 - The great lesson of the last century is very simple: first
extreme socialism failed, and the Soviet empire fell. Now extreme
capitalism is failing, and America is falling. Two mighty kingdoms —
one single lesson: yesterday's extremes have both failed...
Jan
16, 2018 - Homi Kharas explains how 2018 offers an opportunity to
address some of the built-in flaws of capitalism if, policymakers are
willing to take on the challenge.
Dec
9, 2016 - Greater stress and anxiety resulting from economic
insecurity may be at least partly to blame for the U.S. death rate
that the government has increased for the first time in a decade,
says an expert on poverty and inequality.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
On
Economic Violence
Why
Are Mass Killings So Common In The US?
Eric
London, Popular Resistance 2.26.18
The
statistics on deaths in the United States are staggering.
“Since
2000, there have been 270,000 murders in the US, 600,000 drug
overdoses (200,000 involving opioids), 650,000 suicides (130,000 by
veterans), and 85,000 workplace deaths. An estimated 700,000 people
have died prematurely during this period due to lack of health care.
Police killed over 12,000 people from 2000 to 2014, and up to 27,000
immigrants have died attempting to cross the US-Mexico border since
1998. The government has executed roughly 850 prisoners since 2000.
Over 2.2 million adults are currently incarcerated in jails and
prisons, with another 4.7 million on probation or parole.”
That
equals over 2.3 million deaths in the last 17 years, over 140,000
avoidable deaths each year. At the root of these deaths is economic
violence that devastates communities in the US and other countries.
Economic
violence perpetrated in the US feeds the war machine. Military
spending now consumes 57% of federal discretionary spending, leaving
only 43% to meet basic needs such as education, housing,
transportation and energy.
Eric
London is a DC-based strategist at TSD Communications. His stints in
government and politics include senior positions with House
Democratic leadership and in the Clinton Administration. London’s
current specialty is advising not-for-profit, corporate, and campaign
clients on crisis and public affairs communications.
Read
more at: Popular
Resistance
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