[Peace-discuss] The money was there all along

[John W.]

The only flaw in Chris Floyd's argument is a lethal one.  With our ongoing
trade deficit, we'd have to BORROW the money for better schools,
infrastructure, health care, etc., just as we've had to BORROW it for the
war in Iraq and for the Wall Street sellout...errr, bailout.  We'd have to
live even further beyond our means, and leave it to our children and
grandchildren to pay it back somehow.

Chris Floyd seems to think this was money that was just lying around.  He
sounds for all the world like Tim Johnson the time I got into an argument
with him at Steak and Shake.  "We can do it ALL!" Tim shouted.  "I've seen
the figures and I KNOW!"

John Wason


On Wed, Oct 15, 2008 at 9:12 PM, C. G. Estabrook <galliher at uiuc.edu> wrote:

[From the excellent Chris Floyd, a text that might make up one side of a
> Main Event flyer.  --CGE]
>
>
> *The money was there all along.*
>
> Money to build and generously equip thousands and thousands of new schools,
> with
> well-paid, exquisitely trained teachers, small teacher-pupil ratios, a full
> range of enriching and inspiring programs.
>
> Money to revitalize the nation's crumbling inner cities, making them safe
> and
> vibrant places for businesses and families and communities to grow.
>
> Money to provide decent, affordable and accessible health care to every
> citizen,
> to provide dignity and comfort to the elderly, and protection and humane
> treatment for the mentally ill.
>
> Money to provide affordable higher education to everyone who wanted it and
> could
> qualify for it. Money to help establish and sustain local businesses and
> family
> farms, centered in and on the local community, driven by the needs and
> knowledge
> of the people in the area, and not by the dictates of distant corporations.
>
> Money to strengthen crumbling infrastructure, to repair bridges, shore up
> levies, maintain roads and electric grids and sewage systems.
>
> Money for affordable, workable public transport systems, for the pursuit of
> alternative sources of energy, for sustainable, sensible development, for
> environmental restoration.
>
> Money to support free inquiry in science, technology, health and other
> areas --
> research unfettered from the war machine and the drive for corporate
> profit, and
> instead devoted to the betterment of human life.
>
> Money to support culture, learning, continuing education, libraries,
> theater,
> music and the endless manifestations of the human quest to gain more
> meaning,
> more understanding, more enlightenment, a deeper, spiritually richer life.
>
> The money for all of this -- and much, much more -- was there, all along.
> When
> they said we couldn't have these things, they were lying -- or else
> allowing
> themselves to be profitably duped by the high priests of the market cult.
> When
> they wanted a trillion dollars -- or three trillion dollars -- to wage a
> war of
> aggression in Iraq, they found it. Now, when they want trillions of dollars
> to
> save the speculators, fraudsters and profiteers of greed in the global
> market,
> they suddenly have it.
>
> Who then can believe that these governments could not have found the money
> for
> good schools, health care, and all the rest, that they could not have
> enhanced
> the well-being and livelihood of millions of ordinary citizens, and helped
> create a more just and equitable and stable world -- if they had wanted to?
>
> <http://www.counterpunch.org/floyd10132008.html>
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