“The ideological and physical hold of American imperial power, buttressed by the utopian ideology of neoliberalism and global capitalism, is unraveling. Most, including many of those at the heart of the American empire, recognize that every promise made by the proponents of neoliberalism is a lie. Global wealth, rather than being spread equitably, as neoliberal proponents promised, has been funneled upward into the hands of a rapacious, oligarchic elite, creating vast economic inequality.
The working poor, whose unions and rights have been taken from them and whose wages have stagnated or declined over the past 40 years, have been thrust into chronic poverty and underemployment, making their lives one long, stress-ridden emergency. The middle class is evaporating. Cities that once manufactured products and offered factory jobs are boarded up-wastelands. Prisons are overflowing. Corporations have orchestrated the destruction of trade barriers, allowing them to stash $2.1 trillion in profits in overseas banks to avoid paying taxes. And the neoliberal order, despite its promise to build and spread democracy, has hollowed out democratic systems to turn them into corporate leviathans.”
Chris Hedges, The Great Unraveling
Everything in Chris’ quote is correct, but there are metro areas in this kleptocratically controlled country that are growing stronger, even as much of the US is growing weaker. Denver, Austin, San Francisco, West LA, New York City, Washington, DC, Fort Worth, Charlotte, Raleigh/Durham and Seattle are booming. Tyler Cowen sees the future like this:
“I think we’ll see a thinning out of the middle class,” he said. “We’ll see a lot of individuals rising up to much greater wealth. And we’ll also see more individuals clustering in a kind of lower-middle class existence.”
“I think what will happen is, because we measure better and more over time, people who are truly talented will become millionaires much more easily. So I think we’ll move from a country where instead of talking about the one percent, it will be the 15 percent, for instance. But there will be fewer second chances in this world, and that’s what I think will be quite difficult.”
He believes that the haves will continue to live with even more wealth, and the have nots (85% of the country), will have to learn to be satisfied with less.
Rich ,it doesn’t have to be this way.If congress would take back control of the currency , issue it as value and in limited supply we would have an economic miracle in the nation as did Germany after Hitler took control of its currency.
It All starts or ends with the currency. That’s why central bankers will start World Wars to protect their control of the money.
bb, you just hit my hot button. My biggest fear is that China, Russia and the Arab OPEC countries are going to put the hurt on the petrodollar. The new guy in Saudi Arabia, Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud , is less than thrilled with America’s fracking. He will get revenge. The day the USD is no longer the world’s reserve currency, is the day the USD crashes.
By the way, the Euro, for all practical purposes, IS the German mark, and that has made Germany the biggest powerhouse in the EU. The Germans may have lost the war in ’45, but they have been conquering Europe ever since.
Chris Hedges was invited a few years ago to deliver the commencement address at Rockford College.
He was booed off the stage.
I. Kid. You. Not.
We get the world to which our superstitious, unevolved savage neighbors consent. This is why human social experience is cyclical, and cannot be otherwise.