The Criminal Nature of Austerity

 

Guest post by Steven Miller

(This is the last of three guest posts laying out the real story about the role of Wall Street banksters in the recent bankruptcy of Stockton California . In this post Miller lays out the extra-legal, criminal nature of government austerity measures.)

If the Oakland Tribune or any other newspaper were really representing the public interest they would spread the word that the people of this country are paying the Banksters twice. The government Bail Out to the banks was at least $16 trillion. This was free money at a dollar-for-dollar rate, unheard of in the history of finance. This money could have and should have been used to pay off all outstanding debts from personal debts to student debts, mortgage debts and city debts. After all, if you owe someone money, and then pay him off, you don’t have to keep on paying. Isn’t that how things work?

So why should we pay them a second time? This open collusion by the government to guarantee bank profits at the expense of everything else in America is the 21st Century expression of how Mussolini famously defined fascism – the merger of the corporations and the state.

The economist Michael Hudson describes it this way:

“Today’s economic warfare is not the kind waged a century ago between labor and its industrial employers. Finance has moved to capture the economy at large, industry and mining, public infrastructure (via privatization) and now even the educational system. (At over $1 trillion, U.S. student loan debt came to exceed credit-card debt in 2012.) The weapon in this financial warfare is no larger military force. The tactic is to load economies (governments, companies and families) with debt, siphon off their income as debt service and then foreclose when debtors lack the means to pay. Indebting government gives creditors a lever to pry away land, public infrastructure and other property in the public domain. Indebting companies enables creditors to seize employee pension savings.”  (10)

The Politics of Austerity

Austerity is implemented across the world in various forms, but mostly this is accomplished through extra-legal measures. Leaders of the G20 countries, the biggest national economies, met in Toronto to decide how to address the economic Melt Down. Surrounded by the army to hold off the protestors, these leaders “agreed” to implement Austerity across the board. There was no treaty. No legislation was proposed. No plebiscite was held to find out the will of the people. Austerity was simply imposed.

The same extra-legal process occurred earlier this year with the so-called $90 billion Sequester that permanently cuts social programs for millions of people in the US. A bi-partisan Congress that is supposedly broken and not capable of functioning passed the Sequester more rapidly than any legislation since the Bail Out. While the process was disguised with a few hearings, and did end with legislation, the process occurred completely outside of the legally established fact finding process. No one was legally sworn in to hold them accountable for their testimony and bogus inflammatory statements.

Two years ago Michigan passed Public Act 4 – the Emergency Manager bill. This law empowered the governor, at his own personal discretion, to seize any city or municipal government and appoint a financial manager – either a person or a corporation! – with total power to break contracts and sell off public land, parks, buildings, etc to private corporations. In the 2012 election, the people of Michigan voted for a constitutional amendment to void the act.

Two weeks later, the law was simply re-established in a slightly different form by the governor. (11) Then the governor seized the city of Detroit, depriving them of the civil right to vote. These maneuvers completely void the democratic process and confirm the old saying that law is simply the will of the 1%, written down. It is possible that California will see similar propositions proposed in the 2014 election.

This combination of legal and extra-legal maneuvers, the merging of corporations and the state, demonstrate what political power really is. The Banksters work at it 24/7 and impose it upon the rest of us. We are not going to reverse this class political power by voting every 4 years, or by trying to convince bought-off legislators to see things our way for once. It is time to learn from the masters. The 99%’s struggle for political power must consider how to impose the will of the people, every day and every way, and force government officials to be truly accountable or pay the price.

Notes

10)  Michael Hudson. “The Finance Industry Has Pried into Every Sector of the Economy, and Has Ended Up Running the Whole Show”. December 31, 2012

11)   Rally, Comrades, March-April, 2013. www.rallycomrades.org

photo credit: London Permaculture via photopin cc

Originally posted at Daily Censored

Steven Miller has taught science for 25 years in Oakland’s Flatland high schools. He has been actively engaged in public school reform since the early 1990s. When the state seized control of Oakland public schools in 2003, they immediately implemented policies of corporatization and privatization that are advocated by the Broad Institute. Since that time Steve has written extensively against the privatization of public education, water and other public resources. You can email him at nondog2@hotmail.com