We, the People, call Robert McChesney and John Nichols to testify on “The Fight Against a Jobless Economy and a Citizenless Democracy.”
McChesney & Nichols: “We’re back to the Gilded Age..to a future of plutocrats and peasants…a time of power inequality..Every decisions that matters about our lives is being made by a corporate CEO or a campaign donor or a programmer or a hacker or someone else we have never met. We “choose” politicians by rote after elections..crude in their messaging..vapid in their content..The politicians rubber stamps for the trade deals, tax rates..deregulations demanded by an enriched and empowered one-tenth of one percent.”
McChesney & Nichols: Kodak, with 145,000 employees is replaced by Instagram with 13 – as a part of Facebook with 10,082 employees so any wealth created doesn’t “trickle down.”
McChesney & Nichols: A 2015 report by strategic consulting firm, Cornerstone Capital Group, warned: “it’s not clear that cost inflation can be consistently offset by raising menu prices, so companies are considering new strategies to protect margins…automation is currently complementing labor, particularly in the ordering process. Should wage pressure intensify..the focus will likely shift and companies will look to replace labor.”
McChesney & Nichols: January, 2014, Google chairman Eric Schmidt at Davos World Economic Forum: due to rapid advances in technology, including Google projects, countless middle-class jobs seemingly beyond reach of computers and automation would be at risk in the near future; there was nothing on the horizon about new jobs for them. This would be the “defining” issue of the next 20-30 years.
McChesney & Nichols: “..the United States is not a democracy, if..we mean a government of the people, by the people, for the people. That is the Big Lie of..official discourse..it is a “citizenless” democracy. The only voice that matters..is that of the wealthy few from whom creative destruction is a business practice..”
“The two great and existential threats to human existence – militarism and environmental catastrophe – proceed largely unchecked by public policy..because very powerful interests see demilitarization and shifting away from fossil fuels as existential threats to their present lucrative positions.”
McChesney & Nichols:”The American news media is in freefall collapse..What coverage remains of politics and elections tends to be superficial..spoonfeeds the public what elites are saying.. If elites are in agreement on an issue, or do not wish to talk about it, it almost never appears as a significant story. Nowhere..more true than on economic issues, where corporate power and capitalism are off-limits..”
McChesney & Nichols: “Democratic Infrastructure..The right to vote means little without: – the infrastructure of effective elections [one person-one vote] and competitive races; the rule of law; stringent limits on money in politics; limits on power of judiciary to act in arbitrary and unaccountable manner; the effective ability to launch new parties or associations; free trade unions with effective collective bargaining; open, transparent governance; a credible, independent, uncensored free press/news media; universal free schools with civic education; a basic level of economic and social security, only limited by overall productive capacity; an environment that can sustain and nurture life.”…ground rules and institutions that empower the weakest to be political equals of the wealthiest; “breakers” to prevent existence of democratic enemies: corruption, private monopolistic control over the economy; significant economic inequality; government secrecy and surveillance; government propaganda; militarism.
McChesney & Nichols: A 2013 Associated Press study found 4 of 5 American adults “struggle with joblessness, near-poverty or reliance on welfare for at least parts of lives, a sign of deteriorating economic security and an elusive American dream.”
McChesney & Nichols: “[The] “race to the bottom;” since Congress approved NAFTA, “Each of the FTAs has made it easier for multinational corporations to move jobs to countries with lower wages, fewer union protections, weaker environmental regulations and lousier records of defending human rights. The result is a hollowing out of American manufacturing ..”
McChesney & Nichols: “The biggest sellout is of democracy itself…When a trade agreement..includes [Investor-State Dispute Settlement mechanisms..multinational corporations..[gain]..a new avenue for challenging government laws and regulations in the United States…U.S. investors abroad and foreign investors in the United can collect damages from..their host governments by virtue of..judgments of arbitration panels that are entirely outside of the legal structure of the respective countries..”
McChesny & Nichols: “In 1946..Congressman Wright Patman…requested the Legislative Reference Service of the Library of Congress to make a detailed analysis of the historical record of fascism…The 206-page report concluded by characterizing fascism as a system that “favors big business, strengthens the position of heavy industries, retains enough of the profit system to permit the elite to build up personal fortunes…facilitates cartelization, and spends huge sums for military purposes.” Moreover, “free collective bargaining and self-government by labor organizations is abolished.”
McChesney & Nichols: “..the 1980 platform of the Libertarian Party, which featured billionaire David Koch as its vice-presidential candidate..called for, among other things”
-Repeal of all campaign finance laws and unlimited corporate and individual donations
-Abolition of Medicare, Medicaid, the Postal Service, and Social Security
-Abolition of the Environmental Protection Agency, and an end to most consumer regulation
-Privatization of the water system, railroads, public roads, and the highway system
-Abolish all income and capitals-gains taxation
-End all government funding and operation of public schools
-Abolish all social-welfare programs
-Make labor unions “voluntary” for employees, and collective bargaining possible only if employers agree; prohibit
the government from enforcing collective bargaining rights
-Repeal of antitrust laws and any government efforts to break up monopolies, as well as abolition of the Federal
Trade Commission
“This was Milton Friedman’s vision of a “free” society with no democratic infrastructure..a society where most citizens get nothing of value from government..are told they can never get anything of value from government..”
McChesney & Nichols: “..beginning in the 1980s, for the first time in U.S, history, the federal government began to systematically “privatize” public services and “outsource” to private firms what had traditionally been government activities. States and local governments have followed..The purported reason for privatization and outsourcing was to bring market efficiency to the public sector…Research suggests ..politics and greed had..most to do with what ..government privatized, and efficiency claims were rarely realized and often flat wrong. Instead, this became a cash cow for large corporations and wealthy investors and has fanned..flames of corruption.
McChesney & Nichols: “..corruption surrounding privatization and outsourcing is only the beginning of..damage it does to..democratic infrastructure. By removing..government from important functions, it lessens..ability of..citizenry to play a role in the economy and it locks in business domination. Privatization and outsourcing lessens ..ability of government to solve social problems and therefore generates cynicism toward it..to top it off, evidence suggests privatization has contributed to the rapid escalation of economic inequality.”
[note, the above content was from McChesney & Nichols” book, “People Get Ready.” YOU, are, agin and always on this site, encouraged to YOUR own REAL. RESEARCH. from UNSPUN. official data from the Census Bureau, IRS, CBO, GAO. Ask YOURSELF. the one BIG QUESTION: why is life in America in 2024 struggling to obtain the STATISTICAL middle class golden age of 1947-73??????? The partial answer: greed – by guess who: the rich and corporations!!!!!!!!!!!]
With Justice For All 