The growing social
and economic instability in Western Europe as exemplified by the turmoil in
Greece and Spain and that is likely to spread to Italy as well as the severe
economic dislocation of millions of American citizens is indicative of a
deep-seated malaise that haunts the very nature of the economic paradigm that
lies at the heart of modern capitalist-based economies. There are a number of seminal issues that lie
at the core of the problem.
Economic success has
become intimately linked with the continual expansion of global markets on a
planet possessing finite resources; this dependence flies in the face of
reality. It is not difficult to predict
the inevitable future outcome of such a strategy – eventually human societies
will devolve into the brutal economics based on scarcity. This is a prospect we should not wish on
future generations.
The underlying
motivating force for participation in economic life has been stripped of its
humanity. This has been particularly
evident in the unscrupulous and cavalier machinations of the financial sector
that has effectively impoverished so many of the world’s people and at the same
time rewarded the very few who have risked the livelihoods of the many to
enrich only themselves. The blatant fact
that these individuals have walked away unscathed is a demonstration of the
inherent corruption of the system.
Furthermore, in the
United States, politics has become inextricably tied to wealth. The Supreme Court has sanctioned this
relationship by establishing that corporations are people and that money in the
form of political contributions is equivalent to free speech. These are by no means accidental legal
pronouncements, for they represent a strategy of retrenchment in order to
solidify and codify the ascendant position of the affluent class. This effort has been breathtakingly
successful.
This kind of
reassertion of the inherent power of wealth is now being acted out in Europe as
well. This tendency has unfortunate
repercussions for future generations, for the economic model upon which the
system rests is bound to implode. An
economic system in which human compassion and the central concern for the
well-being of all members of society are purged from consideration is bankrupt
by nature. It will necessarily lead to
an amplification of a two-tier system in which only a very small minority of
individuals exerts inordinate and extreme economic power over everyone else –
this is a new version of the blighted model that dominated societies at the
beginnings of the industrial age. In the
so-called democracies, it is allegedly the will of the people that determined
future policy. If that relationship is
real then it would be unfortunate, indeed, if the collective voice of the
people echoes the will of the powerful and fails to question of the validity of
the harsh and unforgiving economic realities as determined by fiat.
