Runaway capitalists are the real threat

President Trump is to be commended for being our first president in generations to finally stand up to China, whose national government has been cheating and stealing from America for decades.

It is, however, still quite troubling to see the oligarchic-type direction in which we are heading.

The 1920s America was a time of unmanaged capitalism. Wall Street ran amok, tax cuts for the wealthy, deregulation, deficit spending ... . When the economy crashed, which it will inevitably do under those conditions, the depression was so deep that people were not willing to gloss over the failure of laissez-faire capitalism with ideological spin. Instead, they were open to a new manner of society.

This is when FDR was elected, and he ushered in the New Deal focusing on strengthening the wealth and influence of the middle class. Unemployment insurance, banking regulations, labor-friendly policies, minimum wage, Social Security, Medicare, and much more sprang from this movement. We enjoyed what economists call the Golden Age of American Economics (1948-73).

This age saw the government investing in worker training, education, infrastructure. The government was an advocate for the people, not a tool of the rich and corporate. But, unfortunately, the big-moneyed, hardcore capitalists were organizing their return.

Their break came in the mid-1970s. Many negative societal developments had occurred or were occurring that weakened the managed-capitalism model that works so well.

Watergate and Vietnam shook people’s confidence in the federal government. But the main development was the surge in globalization with its multinational corporations, international trade agreements, foreign competition, automation, domination by Wall Street, outsourcing, and the overall resurgence of laissez-faire (unregulated) capitalism.

Capitalizing on this, Ronald Reagan was elected president in 1980 with the ideology that “government is not the solution; government is the problem.” CEOs and Wall Street bankers have increasingly run roughshod over local laws, the middle class, wages, and democracy ever since.

This is the real threat to the American people.

Laissez-faire capitalism, complete with free trade and an out of control financial industry, is a false god that steamrolled over the globe. Even in highly progressive societies, such as Denmark and France, the middle and lower economic classes have had to somewhat yield to the power of the world oligarchs.

But why, in America, have the impacts of globalization often been more severe on the people and more detrimental to democracy? And why haven’t we used our vast wealth to build a measurably higher quality of life such as in Norway or Australia?

There are several American conditions that have drawn people into conservative politics. These conditions involve our high immigration rate, gun passion, religion/abortion politics, greater individualism, right-wing media, and race.

Part of the liberal governance of the 1960s was the Civil Rights and Voting Rights acts. These laws, along with other governmental support of minorities, left many whites concerned and others seething. In society, considerations of race trump considerations of class. Millions of white Americans, who would have supported labor movements and social liberalization, such as in Europe, have instead been caught up in the conservative politics of race.

Unfortunately, people don’t usually get a more egalitarian, worker-friendly, integrated, and nurturing society by voting in a conservative manner. Yet, cross-cultural comparisons show that these traits are what produce healthier societies with happier people.

The bottom line is that tens of millions of Americans vote for politicians, and more often than not for business-embracing conservatives, who do the bidding of elites and corporations instead of the people. This is leading us too far to the right. Donald Trump has the traits of a neo-fascist. He’s creating a Supreme Court that will decide corporate interests over your own.

Most people don’t realize that unmanaged capitalism is actually contradictory to the long-term maintenance of democracy. For many high-rolling conservatives, their endgame is not just the budget-ruining tax cuts and deregulation we have seen. Instead it’s to declare a budgetary emergency (created by their own tax policies) and then start repealing Social Security, Medicare, etc., leaving us increasingly with a damaged and divided society ruled by a minority.

This story was originally published September 27, 2018 at 1:23 PM.