The lies of free market democracy

[tabatha]

On May 15, 2011, young people occupied the squares of the cities in Spain. They called themselves Los Indignados - "the indignant". I met them in Madrid where I was attending the meeting of the scientific committee that advises the Spanish prime minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.

Their declaration states: "Who are we? We are the people; we have come here freely as volunteers. Why are we here? We are here because we want a new society that gives more priority to life than to economic interest."

In the US, the ongoing "Occupy movement" commonly cries: "We are the 99 per cent". This people's protest, inspired by the Arab Spring, is directed against the unequal distribution of wealth; the "99 per cent" here refers to "the difference in wealth between the top one per cent and all the remaining citizens".

The fact that they were supported by actions around the world when they were to be evicted from Wall Street on October 14 shows that, everywhere, people are fed up with the current system. They are fed up with the power of corporations. They are fed up with the destruction of democracy and peoples' rights. They refuse to give their consent to the bailouts of banks by squeezing people of their lives and livelihoods. The contest, as "the 99 per cent" describe it, is between life and economic interests, between people and corporations, between democracy and economic dictatorship.

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2011/11/20111112135744718390.html

[handmade34]

1. of some relevance

article in Rolling Stone

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/how-the-gop-became-the-party-of-the-rich-20111109

"...The staggering economic inequality that has led Americans across the country to take to the streets in protest is no accident. It has been fueled to a large extent by the GOP's all-out war on behalf of the rich. Since Republicans rededicated themselves to slashing taxes for the wealthy in 1997, the average annual income of the 400 richest Americans has more than tripled, to $345 million – while their share of the tax burden has plunged by 40 percent. Today, a billionaire in the top 400 pays less than 17 percent of his income in taxes – five percentage points less than a bus driver earning $26,000 a year. "Most Americans got none of the growth of the preceding dozen years," says Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel Prize-winning economist. "All the gains went to the top percentage points...."

[tabatha]

2. I first heard about libertarianism and free markets

many, many years ago. The person from whom I heard it seems to have since sold his soul to the free market, because he now spouts godawful stuff --- and seems to have a religious fervor about it. So much so, that a reversal in the country were he preaches free market doctrine, of free market ideology, has reduced his efforts to almost pitiful.

The free market practitioners in the US are behaving like dictators - it is the free market or nothing - forget democracy and the view of over 50% of the people. I really hope Norquist gets his comeuppance one of these days. I wonder if his autocracy is to compensate for his small stature. Karl Rove is also a dictator - fighting against free and fair elections. And all of the other moneyed Koch-roaches.