http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2016/05/432417.shtml
This reading sample of “A History of the US” is translated from the German. The Works Progress Administration created 651K miles of highway, 124K bridges, 8K parks and 125K public buildings including 41K schools. In the US of Amnesia, corporate subsidies are called public necessities and public welfare unnecessary. Orwell warned us of this inversion of language. The state should represent the public interest and yet has become the errand boy of the banks (Bill Moyers).
According to the conservative ideology, corporations are the “suffering servants” and regulations are interferences. The market is sacrosanct and self-healing and market failure and state failure are repressed. Problems are psychologized – poor motivation – and system criticism and alternatives are made taboo.
“When the state trusts citizens, citizens trust the state,” said Justin Trudeau, the new Canadian Prime Minister. Vancouver BC has 26 community centers, some with swimming pools that take your breath away. Cassarole meals are $3.50. Community centers have a cushioning and multiplying effect and can be surrogate counseling and classroom opportunities.
Creating a non-profit or cooperative sector for housing is vital since the market makes housing a speculative bubble and fails to satisfy the social and human needs of low income people. Reducing working hours is vital to assure everyone of the right to work. Otherwise work becomes a paper chase on the way to resume heaven.
Socialism or barbarism is the alternative. If we cannot learn from O Canada and see our endogenous contradictions, we will forever live under an elite democracy and celebrity culture – confusing the steak with the sizzle and the image with the reality (see Plato’s Allegory of the Cave). Thanks for your passion and light! Go Bernie, the Jewish prophet is way ahead of the money collector!
