This crisis has been a real eye opener, hasn’t it, in that it made visible how much of the world economy was based on credit driven overconsumption, both on a consumer level as in the more rarified air of Wall Street. Ever since “communism” was “defeated” we’ve forgotten how wasteful capitalism is. we’ve been conned into believing there was no alternative, that we could not control its destructive tendencies and at best we could hope to only migitate some of its worst excesses, but that ultimately we were locked in a race to the bottom that would however somehow bring us untold riches someday, if we followed the rules of the free market. The fall of the Berlin Wall spelled the death knell for the perverted version of “communism” practised in the USSR, could this recession bring the same for thriumphant capitalism?
Because one thing is certain. We do have the resources, the abibilty and the ingenuity to make everybody in the world rich without destroying the planet and without engaging in the dance of mutal assured destruction that is free market capitalism. But it would mean the end of the priviledged classes and they’ve never given up their power without struggle. One good suggestion to start the struggle comes from Ian Welsh, on how to stop the obscene bonuses and salaries managers and CEOS have awarded themselves over the years:
The simplest thing is to just count all income equally, tax it all at the same rate, don’t allow deductions beyond a certain level (50K or so) and tax all income above, say 1 million at 90%, 95% for all income above 5 million. Don’t allow too much income deferral and there you go. Slap on some “in kind” rules for corporations (yes, if your corporation pays for your car, that’s salary) and while there will always be loopholes, you’ll still rein in the worst excesses.
This of course presupposes a government anywhere in the western world on the side of the workers, rather than the rich, which might be a problem…