Economics 101 and the bullshit of the austerity: the only people who have benefitted from austerity are the 1 percent by having their jobs safe, their investments continued growing and their taxes were kept low. Do you really think this is the way to keep the economy growing? If yes, you’d be wrong. The longer the austerity last, the less money there is in the pockets of the 99 percent who are most likely to spend the money.
There are other players in the game of economics, which is just like the game of Monopoly? The game does not get started until all the players have money, but as the game goes on someone will end up with all the money, the 1 percent. Then the game is over, just like an economy that becomes stagnant.
To start a new game you must do what? Yes, put the money back in the hands of the players. One way we should have done this was to take advantage of a once in a generation opportunity to repair roads, bridges, air ports, water lines, electrical grids, gas piping and the internet. The government could have done this by borrowing when money was cheap. This is what we should have done, but the public was fed bullshit by the GOP that we needed to tighten our belts just like our households had to do. This is like apples and oranges. The belt tightening only works if the household has a job and the only way for there to be jobs is if the economy is working and money is flowing. That’s what makes it work.
At this time, the 1 percent feels good about their position, but if you are watching the Stock Market and the reports of some of the corporations, like Wal-Mart or Macy’s, there seems to be a leak in the dike of the 1 percent so the free ride the 1 percent has been enjoying on the austerity wagon might be over, and just maybe they’ll be smart enough to hope for this as well.
There is still time for a large stimulus, which could even save the 1 percent, but if we don’t do something this time 100 percent will go down. Remember, it is all a game of Monopoly and to play everyone has to have money to play because we’ve become a consumption economy now.
The survival of American democracy requires the existence of a flourishing union work force. In a survey, 68 percent of Americans approve of labor unions. So, as an old sheet metal organizer, I say we need to go all out in organizing while the soldering iron is hot, to use a sheet metal workers tool. We should organize all workers no matter where or what kind of work they do. All workers have the right to belong to a union and all should support each other. If you, in your work place, do not know how to form a union, then do what Napoleon’s military adopted adage, ‘Jump into the battle and then figure it out.’ One of the best ways to organize is worker to worker and plan it out over a meal or coffee and talk to other union workers to see what would work best for you and also what unions are winning at this time. Just go for it. When things are in disarray, like the shit show in Washington, D.C., they might not even know what you are doing until it is too late for them to push back aga...
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