Krugman: Shock Doctrine, USA

[mod mom]

Shock Doctrine, U.S.A.
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: February 24, 2011

Here’s a thought: maybe Madison, Wis., isn’t Cairo after all. Maybe it’s Baghdad — specifically, Baghdad in 2003, when the Bush administration put Iraq under the rule of officials chosen for loyalty and political reliability rather than experience and competence.


As many readers may recall, the results were spectacular — in a bad way. Instead of focusing on the urgent problems of a shattered economy and society, which would soon descend into a murderous civil war, those Bush appointees were obsessed with imposing a conservative ideological vision. Indeed, with looters still prowling the streets of Baghdad, L. Paul Bremer, the American viceroy, told a Washington Post reporter that one of his top priorities was to “corporatize and privatize state-owned enterprises” — Mr. Bremer’s words, not the reporter’s — and to “wean people from the idea the state supports everything.”

The story of the privatization-obsessed Coalition Provisional Authority was the centerpiece of Naomi Klein’s best-selling book “The Shock Doctrine,” which argued that it was part of a broader pattern. From Chile in the 1970s onward, she suggested, right-wing ideologues have exploited crises to push through an agenda that has nothing to do with resolving those crises, and everything to do with imposing their vision of a harsher, more unequal, less democratic society.


-snip

What’s happening in Wisconsin is, instead, a power grab — an attempt to exploit the fiscal crisis to destroy the last major counterweight to the political power of corporations and the wealthy. And the power grab goes beyond union-busting. The bill in question is 144 pages long, and there are some extraordinary things hidden deep inside.

-snip


http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/25/opinion/25krugman.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Worth a full read!

[joeybee12]

1. he nails it...knr

[emulatorloo]

17. Yep, excellent analogy n/t

[RamboLiberal]

21. +1000

[polichick]

2. Ya know, if our prez would ever listen to people like Krugman and Reich...

...instead of corporate hacks, we really would have change we could believe it.

[glinda]

4. Maybe we should not count on Obama. We must do it ourselves.

[deutsey]

6. That's it.

:thumbsup:

[polichick]

12. I guess we'll have to fire the guy we hired to work for us. nt

[deutsey]

14. Or get out there, organize, and agitate in a way that will get him to do the job WE hired him to do?

:shrug:

[glinda]

18. Yes. But I think it is beyond that. I think that there should be thousands in the streets and the

villains put on a private plane and sent out to another Country. Everything they own should be confiscated. Everything. They are guilty or worse than treason. They have destroyed our Constitution which is the glue that has held this Country together. They have total disregard for the planet and the safety of the people and environment. They are murderers while keeping their hands directly off the weapons.

[deutsey]

19. Very little argument from me.

:hi:

[polichick]

7. Unfortunately, we don't have the power he does...

But sure, we have to do what we can.

[BonnieJW]

13. That's exactly what's happening -

people have stopped waiting for Obama and ARE doing it themselves. People have to go into the streets; it's going to happen more and more as people find themselves with nothing left to lose. And if Obama decides to jump on that bandwagon after all the work has been done, I think there will be many who will boot him off. Too little, too late.

[bdamomma]

16. exactly.

[mod mom]

5. He has decided to turn his back on their wisdom.

:mad:

[polichick]

11. Really, willfully and stupidly. nt

[glinda]

3. K & R n/t

[SpiralHawk]

8. The k and the r

Shock Doctrine (R) against America

[sarcasmo]

9. Krugman is spot on again. Union crushing then privatization. Greed is disgusting.

[highplainsdem]

10. K&R

[socialist_n_TN]

15. I'm glad to see some people in the media are

seeing this for what it is (disaster capitalism which is actually just capitalism, but that's another OP), even if they're just the usual media suspects. The more people that find Naomi Klein's book, the better.

"The Shock Doctrine-The Rise of Disaster Capitalism" is the best political book I've read in at least 25 years, maybe ever. EVERYBODY in the country should read it. Kudoes to Krugman for bringing it out into the MSM.

[truebrit71]

20. Sonofabitch...no wonder he jumped when he got a phone call from "Mr Koch"....

:grr:

[TheUnspeakable]

22. k&r

[snot]

23. K&R'd

(I hope this was obvious to everyone here.)

[Overseas]

24. K&R! //nt

[Major Hogwash]

25. I had never heard of it before this month.

Now I know what the hell they are doing.
All by design.

Damn, I feel stupid sometimes.

[TheUnspeakable]

26. Link to the movie "The Shock Doctrine"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x555961