Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Good Editorial by Murray Dobbin

Murray Dobbin has never been one to mince words. Here's an excellent essay about the epic failure of neoliberalism and our need for major changes starting yesterday:

"Imagine Prosperity Without Growth"

“There is no alternative.” Really? There bloody well better be or we are all doomed. “Government is the problem, not the solution?” The banks and the CEOs of the transnationals who reveled in this slogan would now disagree. And what about the cause of the evil deficits -- governments “spending like drunken sailors?” Now Bay Street believes that government isn’t nearly drunk enough. And the demand that we “run government like a business?” Just which bankrupt, crooked, reckless business would that be?

The magnitude of the moral crisis of the political right is staggering. The greed, dishonesty, hubris and psychopathic disregard for the public good renders the whole business elite utterly unfit to pronounce on anything -- not even on the economy, but certainly not democracy or how we run our collective affairs.


2 comments:

Mike said...

The essay starts off well for me, but then it reminds me how there are so many competing visions for desirable change. Dobbin places Sunday shop closings high on his list, but I'd have to say that's not important. Or not nearly as important as, say, getting people to stop thinking of long daily commutes in SUVs (cuz they leave out in the country, ya know, cuz they love nature so much, and road conditions change so much in the course of a year) as an acceptable or desirable part of North American lifestyle.

Just my ten cents.

thwap said...

I guess Dobbins's response about all the competing visions is to go for all of them together.

And getting rid of Sunday shopping is probably low on his list of priorities too.

Thanks for stopping by.