The Predator State --JK Galbraith (Mother Jones article)

OpEdNews.com

Original Content at http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_andrew_b_061010_the_predator_state.htm
review of article in May/June 2006 Issue
Mother Jones http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/2006/05/predator_state.html



"Today the signature of modern American capitalism is neither benign competition, nor class struggle, nor an inclusive middle-class utopia. Instead, predation has become the dominant feature-a system wherein the rich have come to feast on the decaying systems built for the middle class. The predatory class is not the whole of the wealth; it may be opposed by many others of similar wealth. But it is the defining feature, the leading force. And its agents are in full control of the government under which we live.

"Our rulers deliver favors to their clients. These range from the Native American casino operators, to Appalachian coal companies, to Saipan sweatshop operators, to the would-be oil field operators of Iraq. They include the misanthropes who led the campaign to abolish the estate tax; Charles Schwab, who suggested the dividend tax cut of 2003; the "Benedict Arnold" companies who move their taxable income offshore; and the financial institutions behind last year's bankruptcy bill. Everywhere you look, public decisions yield gains to specific private entities.

"For in a predatory regime, nothing is done for public reasons. Indeed, the men in charge do not recognize that "public purposes" exist. They have friends, and enemies, and as for the rest-we're the prey...

"The predatory model can...help us understand why many rich people have come to hate the Bush administration. For predation is the enemy of honest business. In a world where the winners are all connected, it's not only the prey who lose out. It's everyone who hasn't licked the appropriate boots. ..

"In a predatory economy, the rules imagined by the law and economics crowd don't apply. There's no market discipline. Predators compete not by following the rulers but by breaking them... A predatory economy is criminogenic: It fosters and rewards criminal behavior.."

*************

Galbraith's portrayal of "the predator state" --a virtual band of plundering thieves-- helps to bring into focus the way the table has been slanted in America, thus leading all the chips to roll in that unjust direction --in which a gang of the richest get richer, the rest get fleeced, and the weave of the social fabric gets ripped apart-- depicted in the brushstrokes of Sam's handful of facts.



Authors Website: http://nonesoblind.org/

Authors Bio: Andrew Bard Schmookler's website www.nonesoblind.org is devoted to understanding the roots of America's present moral crisis and the means by which the urgent challenge of this dangerous moment can be met. Dr. Schmookler is also the author of such books as The Parable of the Tribes: The Problem of Power in Social Evolution (SUNY Press) and Debating the Good Society: A Quest to Bridge America's Moral Divide (M.I.T. Press). He also conducts regular talk-radio conversations in both red and blue states.

middle class. I'd say we're screwed!

well enough educated to know what "predator" means, or what "state" means in this context.

Sorry to be so pessimistic. Thanks for posting this interesting article.