New possibilities, new alternatives ...

I left a a comment over at FDL on an article, and video, by Gar Alperovitz: "Movements, History, & Economic Transformation, Part 4: New possibilities, new alternatives"

My particular comment, praising the video, is here:

11,000 worker-owned companies!! Exactly, that is hopeful. Actual ownership of industry is directly linked to political power. Economics, politics and culture are all hand-in-hand and move together.

While some clamor for freedom from corporate ruled politics, they still advocate for “jobs”–not seeming concerned that they clamor for corporate jobs, which increase corporate profit, which increase corporate political strength.

While advocating for worker-owned businesses, advocating for community businesses, is actual advocating for worker political strength, for community political strength.

Excellent video.

The REAL Reason Why the U.S. and Europe Are Back at the Brink

I just read:
Recovery Lost: Why the U.S. and Europe Are Back at the Brink
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/08/recovery-lost-why-the-us-and-europe-are-back-at-the-brink

Normally I would agree with the young author. But nowadays I see that he has been brainwashed by the neo-cons and the BS about "an ownership" society. Owning a house isn't the American dream. Running your own business, contributing to your community, is.

"...and a culture of risk and entrepreneurship."

That is not true. Americans have been trained to be good little zombies. The children file through metal detectors and into school. The populace are trained to "get a good job" where they work day and night to make a profit for the oligarchy, for their wealthy masters.

"This has wiped out the most important source of net worth to most middle income families." And that's part of the problem, part of the brainwashing. Buy another shiny bauble, you brain dead consumers, because Lennar and DH Horton and Toll Brothers need more profits. And you can pay with your wages from Raytheon, or Wal-Mart, or whichever corporation pays you subsistence wages.

Yes,shop at and work your days away at Wal-Mart and help the wealthy oligarchs, the Walton family, destroy your brave neighbors who attempted to run a clothing store, or a hardware store. Work to destroy any local business that reinvested in your own community. Make sure they know that individual entrepreneurship will be punished.

In other words, the demise of the American economy is because of the demise of American individualism, the demise of American entrepreneurship. The demise of the American economy is because of the demise of individualism and of community--now Americans are trained, and have accepted, that their sole purpose is to work to make a profit for the multinational corporation. Buy a car, a house, an iPod, and do not expect any equity in the actual business you spend all day building.

Are Americans Stupid or Self-destructive?

This whole "debt-ceiling debate" is rather disgusting to me as very few actually talk about reality…

People seem extremely fond of analogizing the US economy with a household's budget, or running a business. That analogy is non-sensical for many reasons, as outlined in this nice little article: The Federal Budget is NOT like a Household Budget: Here’s Why.

But just for fun, let's look at the US economic situation through that analogy, let's look at the US as a business.

Suppose you, along with your brother, inherit a piece of land with a small building on it that has a stove, a sink and a refrigerator inside. And you and your brother agree to open a burger stand. You have very little money so you suggest getting a loan, and manage to convince your brother to go along. So the business takes out a 5 year loan for $1000 and you and your brother buy some meat and potatoes and start selling burgers and fries.

The burgers are good and people start buying them. Your place is very small so you can only seat one person at a time and therefor sell a lot less burgers than you could, as you see people walk on by when they see there is no room in your stand.

Now, for some reason your brother is very upset about the debt the business has incurred. He insists that you spend all the cash the business has, barely $1000, to pay off the debt. You urge that the business take another loan and expand one wall so that there can be more seats.

You explain to your brother that if you pay of the debt with your cash that would basically put you both out of business, since you could not then buy supplies. You explain that not using the loan would be foolish, would create wasted capacity. You insist that the way forward is to expand and sell more burgers and make more profit.

Your brother is a hard core conservative though and continues to argue that the business should stop expending money on expenses like buying supplies or electricity, and that the only way to save the business is to pay down the debt now.

So you offer a compromise that you buy less supplies and less electricity. Of course, you can only open for an hour a day and sell very few hamburgers, and the business now barely makes a profit and you worry that it may not even be possible to pay off the loan as the business continues to shrink ...