August 20, 2007


IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY

THE ARROGANCE OF CAPITALISM

When you get down to the bottom line and cast away all the propaganda, capitalism is really about exploiting other people. Every step of the way someone benefits a little more--or a lot more--than the person at the beginning of the process. The person who performs the labor for wages doesn't get the value for the labor because the boss gets the margin, or profit. The lender who doles out the cash gets not only the original amount back, but a handsome profit in the interest and fees that go with the deal. The system can work just like planes, trains, and automobiles can work with proper maintenance. But let the maintenance or regulation be stripped away from capitalism and you have catastrophe We're seeing that now in the sub-prime mortgage business. We're seeing that in the outsourcing of jobs from the United States, leaving only low-paying service jobs here. Barbara Ehrenreich has a commentary at www.thenation.com:

Somewhere in the Hamptons a high-roller is cursing his cleaning lady and shaking his fists at the lawn guys. The American poor, who are usually tactful enough to remain invisible to the multi-millionaire class, suddenly leaped onto the scene and started smashing the global financial system. Incredibly enough, this may be the first case in history in which the downtrodden manage to bring down an unfair economic system without going to the trouble of a revolution.

First they stopped paying their mortgages, a move in which they were joined by many financially stretched middle class folks, though the poor definitely led the way. All right, these were trick mortgages, many of them designed to be unaffordable within two years of signing the contract. There were "NINJA" loans, for example, awarded to people with "no income, no job or assets." Conservative columnist Niall Fergusen laments the low levels of "economic literacy" that allowed people to be exploited by sub-prime loans. Why didn't these low-income folks get lawyers to go over the fine print? And don't they have personal financial advisors anyway?