22 Feb 2015 @ 04:43, by Carl Karasti
The economy of the United States is still in shambles. Our financial industry is teetering on failure, yet it runs the country and, to a great extent, the world. Our society is shaky, with strong divisions. Good, well-paying jobs are too few and there is little job security. Income disparity and wealth disparity have increased dramatically. Health care is still far from what it should be. Our government, for all practical purposes, has become an oligarchy.
Things have been better in the past. Does this mean we should revert to the way we've done things at some time in the past, or does it mean that we should take some lessons from the past and move forward by establishing new priorities and redesigning our systems to hopefully work better?
That some things seem to have worked better for us in the past does not mean they worked as well as they could or should have. Also, the troubles we now find ourselves floundering in grew out of our past so, if we try to recreate our seemingly more successful past, we will likely also be recreating the seeds of future trouble, if not for us, then perhaps for the children of our great grandchildren.
Perhaps we need to do some major rethinking and restructuring in order to not only improving things for us so we can thrive, but to also establish a foundation upon which future generations can thrive.
Here is a link to a YouTube video of a lecture by Dr. Richard Wolff who provides some historical context and analysis and then suggests some ways to think about changes we need to make to help assure a better life for us and for future generations. It's almost two hours long, counting the Q&A at the end, but it's well worth investing the time to watch, listen and contemplate for the sake of our future.
The Game Is Rigged
Spoiler Alert: The following comments revel, in summary, some of what is suggested in the lecture.
We need to revamp our tax structure to make it much more progressive. We need to democratize our economic system, including our financial industry and businesses, because capitalism has not worked and will not work. We also need to rebuild, upgrade and replace our national infrastructure, particularly our transportation and communication systems. We need to greatly improve our health care system. We need to greatly improve our educational system. We need to rethink and improve our agricultural and food production system.
If you read these suggestions before watching the lecture, you may have some immediate serious questions and perhaps strong objections to some of these suggestions. If that is the case, please invest a couple hours of your time in watching the video to learn much more than a quick and dirty summary can possibly provide.
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