The Super Committee deal is headed towards failure. What's next? Where does it go from here? On the next Your Call, we'll have a conversation about the 12 member Super Committee's failure to agree on at least 1.2 trillion dollars in deficit-reduction, triggering automatic cuts beginning in January 2013, including military spending. Why was the Super committee created? Join us live at 10 or send an email to feedback@yourcallradio.org. What is in store for the future of US economy? It's Your Call with Rose Aguilar and you.
Guests:
Christian Weller is an Associate Professor at the Department of Public Policy and Public Affairs, University of Massachusetts, Boston, and Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress
Arthur Delaney is a reporter for the Huffington Post based in Washington D.C.
Click to Listen: What's in store for the future of the US economy?
Hi Rose et al,
ReplyDeletethanks for the show... I am sorry to have entered it so late and so out of left field... that said, I appreciate that you squeezed me in, even if I ended up sounding nutty... finally we really do have to question the whole edifice of banking and finance, and not just accept their existence and hope we can modify it through consumer choices... we can't.
Doug Henwood's point "it's still money" is to emphasize that even when you do move to a local bank or credit union, they have to "move" your money into investments, and those have to produce profits or they are being irresponsible in fiduciary terms. All the wealth we create together as a society is left in the hands of private bankers or credit union managers, who are given the responsibility for making the profound decisions that affect everyone and everything: what should be supported? What should social resources be dedicated to? What will prosper and thrive and what will starve? Under the current logic, which no bank or credit union can really challenge, the uninsured millions go without health care, the planet continues to be destroyed at a breathtaking pace, and basic human services from childcare and senior care to education and transportation are all supposed to "pay for themselves." To get social investment from a banking system (even a credit union-backed one) they have to be able to profit and pay back the loans with interest! Same for art, history, music, literature... without profits, or at least the likelihood of such, no investment, no matter how honest or innovative or local or friendly or well-meaning...
that's the core of the problem! There is no fixing this through moving our money or electing new politicians or buying the right products... we have to reinvent a democratic culture, a democratic life, that encompasses everything and ends our compartmentalized lives as "consumers," "workers," "students," etc. The Occupy movement, while still very nascent and not-ready-for-prime-time in terms of this deep transformation of everyday life, is at least pointing in the right direction...
thanks!
--cc