America Needs The Canadian Cure

It may seem impertinent that modest Canadians can be so bold as to make suggestions on how the mightest of empires can heal itself. But the empire is in crisis and this is a good time to reaffirm our much vaunted friendship and lend a helping hand.

Furthermore, having a say in this matter is now an entitlement. America is of course the singular global hegemonic superpower, now crippled, and we have all suffered setbacks accordingly and therefore become stakeholders in its recovery.  As its fortunes decline so too do ours along with many other countries around the world. The so called domino effect has new meaning.

This crisis must be addressed in the most astute and forthright manner as not only does it diminish our collective fortunes it limits our ability and distracts us from addressing urgent issues such as global warming. We gain nothing from denial as there has already been an epidemic of that- after the hubris, humility must follow.

As the freshly minted Obama administration reveals itself to an anxious world a key unanswered question is whether it is going to continue to be the belligerent unilateralist hell-bent on global domination or is it going to be a more conciliatory multilateralist to friend and foe alike?

Conversely, it also remains to be seen whether America’s key allies are going to insist on a more conciliatory multilateralism emanating from Washington or are we going to continue to be poodled by American foreign policy and indifferent to the horrendous damage the US has done to the global economy.

The roots of the present economic crisis go back to the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union and America’s reaction to it. America’s ultra right drew conclusions from the collapse of the Soviet Union and they were 100% wrong.

First of all, they concluded that the collapse of the SU was an affirmation of the capitalist system and proceeded to advocate a doctrinaire pure capitalism where privatization, deregulation and market driven forces would reign supreme. Stripped of the niceties they wanted a return to the robber baron capitalism of the late 19^th century. They got it, and now we see the bitter harvest.

Secondly, a claque of Washington neo-conservatives saw the collapse of the SU as opportunity to pursue Pax Americana- global domination. This plan was conceived as the PNAC- Project for the New American Century, aka Full Spectrum Dominance.  Unfortunately for these nefarious souls they had to wait out the Clinton years before they could initiate their plan and they needed a “New Pearl Harbor” to justify their agenda. This of course came in the form of 9/11, and needless to say, it was mere coincidence this happened in a timely manner at the very beginning of the Bush administration.

These witless neocons did not allow for the fact that their global ambitions would come with a hefty price tag and it was left to the wicked Osama Bin laden to lure them into a war in Afghanistan and by their further stupefying brilliance an illicit war in Iraq that would cost the American treasury a trillion dollars and the cash register is still rolling over at an alarming rate.

Where the collapse of the Soviet Union proffered on America a golden opportunity to harvest a huge peace dividend  it chose instead to squander that opportunity on a disastrous shift to doctrinaire capitalism and unrealistic ambitions of empire-All the while ignoring the fact that one reason the Soviet Union collapsed was excessive military spending.

This was truly a triumph of ideology over common sense.

Neither capitalism nor communism is viable in its doctrinaire form.  Historians have suggested another reason the SU collapsed was the refusal to allow free enterprise as a component part of their economy. Now, the US shuns allowing dreaded socialism to be any part of its economy when in fact it would be its salvation. Western European countries and Canada have solved this dilemma by practicing what are known as mixed economies – a combination of public and private ownership; but of course with the scourge of the neoliberal free market economy the balance has shifted  heavily in favor of privatization and cancerous deregulation.

When former president Bush had to sign on to bail out the banks he lamented that this was “un-American.” Socialism/nationalization is not the American way.  Bush needs to be reminded that the notorious Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were at one time government agencies and doing their job very effectively. It was only after they were privatized and deregulated they exploded in glorious bankruptcy and the government had to impose conservatorship on them- in other words- bail them out and take over management.

One has to wonder where US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has been for the last several months. The shit has hit the fan. He is sprayed with it.  Yet he has lost his sense of smell and still maintains a blind allegiance to the privatized deregulated economy. Geithner is a retread from the Clinton administration and having him as Treasury Secretary is like giving the fox the keys to the hen house a second time. He is an economic disaster looking for another place to happen.

Americans would be well served if they could enlist the likes of economist Paul Krugman as Treasury Secretary. The Noble Prize winning economist is easily one of the country’s most talented economists, relatively free of ideology and an economic realist-and America needs economic realists these days!  

Krugman has been a long time advocate for a Canadian style universal Medicare system for his country. Krugman, unlike most US politicians, is no doubt deeply embarrassed that his fellow Americans pay three times the per capita rate for a hodgepodge privatized medical care system Britons and Canadians pay for universal care.  Almost 50 million Americans have no coverage at all. Unexpected medical expenses are one of the leading causes of personal bankruptcy in his country. Paying employee medical benefits is one of the reasons Ford, Chrysler, and GM are bankrupt. These same benefits could be delivered with much greater effectiveness through a universal plan.

 Private medical coverage in the US is skewed towards corporate profits rather than patient needs. Patients are too often stuck with expedient treatment rather than the most appropriate treatment.

For too many Americans “universal” and “government run” are dreaded socialist terms. Universal Medicare though is no more than a very large group insurance plan. Basic to any group insurance plan is the more participants the more cost effective the plan- and who can argue with cost effectiveness? - Only America’s private corporate insurers who would see their profiteering come to an end.

As to “government run” the private sector is now in utter disgrace. The claim that it can run businesses better than the government has been shattered.  The economic landscape is littered with examples of how through privatization and deregulation service depreciates and costs escalate; to say nothing of wanton corruption.

It is an historical maxim that a country that destroys its middle class destroys itself.  The destruction of the American middle class has been ongoing for several decades as the country is de-industrialized, wages stagnate and fall, social security benefits have been capped.

One only has to look at the April edition of Harper’s Magazine to read two more pitiful accounts of how America’s middle class struggles to survive. In Thomas Geoghegan’s article Infinite Debt he describes how Americans have taken on huge consumer debt at “unlimited interest rates” to keep themselves afloat. In his article Usury Country, Daniel Brook describes how wage earning Americans have become enslaved to payday loans at ludicrous interest rates as a means to survive the utter lack of decent paying jobs.   

It is a brutal irony that both Bush and Obama encourage Americans to spend, spend, spend to stimulate the economy when the debt ridden middle class has been ruthlessly abandoned and impoverished by government neglect.

It is goes without saying that America’s daunting military prowess has come at the expense of a neglected and decaying social structure. Now to make matters worse the country’s middle class has been further taxed by horrendous trillion dollar bailouts to save an utterly corrupt and despotic financial sector. It turns out the “best and brightest” are really the stupidest and greediest.

If America’s first black president can trim the excesses of the military industrial complex and reform a dysfunctional financial sector he will be a Lincoln and Roosevelt all rolled into one. Unfortunately, his reform agenda is already in trouble because of obstruction from the usual parasitic corporate lobbyists, the demented Republican Party and even his fellow Democrats.

The crash of 2008 has been many things to many people but it was first and foremost a revelation. It revealed how deeply the American middle class has been betrayed by the oligarchy- the collusion between politicians and financiers that has destroyed the economy.

When Medicare came to Canada it was not without controversy or confrontation. Doctors went on strike and the private sector screamed blue murder. The end result though is that Canada has one of the world’s best and most efficient Medicare systems in the world..

Obama has made vague promises about improving his country’s Medicare system. Now he must make a resolute commitment to go the whole distance and commit to a time table to establish universal Medicare for Americans. Obama must be as ruthless in establishing Medicare as his predecessor was in gutting the country’s constitution.  In a time of massive betrayal, promiscuous bailouts and grotesque inequity universal Medicare would go a long way to “bailing out” America’s middle class, be a bargain at any price,  and be appropriate reparations for the betrayal of their of  financial and political elites.

The world needs America, but an America where common sense can triumph over despotic ideology.

Robert Billyard 2009©  

Next: Smashing the Oligarchy