I love this poster. After watching Obama's deserved win and musing over the huge flaws emerging in American society I'm more convinced than ever that the US needs another 'little rebellion' to create a more inclusive, efficient, future-oriented society free of the hands in the till cliques who are ruining the country.
I include here the vast medical-pharmaceutical conspiracy that costs the US economy twice as much of GDP as the average for the OECD for worse than average health outcomes; the agricultural subsidy rort that shovels bucket-loads of cash into corporate farms; a legal system slanted towards enriching lawyers at everyone else's expense; a large military - industrial conspiracy; and excessively restrictive IP laws also designed to funnel bucket loads of cash to certain financial interests.
Fix those and you've (i) fixed the US budget deficit, (ii) started on the road to greater social equity on the Australian, European and East Asian models, (iii) liberated a pool of cash that could help fund the education drive necessary to propel the US dynamically towards the 2050 knowledge economy; and (iv) enriched the nation as the marginal utility of the vast wealth hoarded by the top few is virtually zero.
But guess what. Those groups with their hands in the public till tend to vote Republican, a party not of private enterprise but of financial rorts. Washington's Heritage Foundation run and Index of Global Economic Freedom. On that index only 5 nations are rated as free: Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and Switzerland in that order. The US comes in tenth; Britain fourteenth; both admittedly a long way ahead of north Korea. Worse, the GFC has meant that 'freedom' only rose in 10 of the 28 highest ranked nations over the last year - including the three at the top of the list - but went in reverse in the US and UK.
So Jefferson, whom I admire, was right again.
AS
I include here the vast medical-pharmaceutical conspiracy that costs the US economy twice as much of GDP as the average for the OECD for worse than average health outcomes; the agricultural subsidy rort that shovels bucket-loads of cash into corporate farms; a legal system slanted towards enriching lawyers at everyone else's expense; a large military - industrial conspiracy; and excessively restrictive IP laws also designed to funnel bucket loads of cash to certain financial interests.
Fix those and you've (i) fixed the US budget deficit, (ii) started on the road to greater social equity on the Australian, European and East Asian models, (iii) liberated a pool of cash that could help fund the education drive necessary to propel the US dynamically towards the 2050 knowledge economy; and (iv) enriched the nation as the marginal utility of the vast wealth hoarded by the top few is virtually zero.
But guess what. Those groups with their hands in the public till tend to vote Republican, a party not of private enterprise but of financial rorts. Washington's Heritage Foundation run and Index of Global Economic Freedom. On that index only 5 nations are rated as free: Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and Switzerland in that order. The US comes in tenth; Britain fourteenth; both admittedly a long way ahead of north Korea. Worse, the GFC has meant that 'freedom' only rose in 10 of the 28 highest ranked nations over the last year - including the three at the top of the list - but went in reverse in the US and UK.
So Jefferson, whom I admire, was right again.
AS
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