Chomsky on Trump
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Originally posted by jean View PostIt's a mistake to think in terms of 'the economy' as one and indivisible; these trade deals favour big corporations alone, which do not comprise the entirety of a country's economy.
Trump's slogan is 'not free trade but fair trade'. But opinions may vary on that - fair to whom? Do you think a bilateral deal between the US and the UK somehow won't favour the big corporations? Or are we looking for 100 trade deals with economies similar to ours?It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.
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Originally posted by french frank View PostIndeed, but the deals aren't brokered between the corporations, but between governments. And the bigger the 'economy' - like the the US's - the stronger the hand. In USA v UK it's a question of who calls the shots. Where are the priorities? There is a bigger = better equation.
Why the governments don't notice this is a mystery. It almost makes you believe that previously left-leaning parties like the Democrats (and of course New Labour) are totally in the grip of neoliberalism.
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Originally posted by jean View PostIt's the corporations who call the shots. Always.
Why the governments don't notice this is a mystery. It almost makes you believe that previously left-leaning parties like the Democrats (and of course New Labour) are totally in the grip of neoliberalism.
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Given that our elected governments have such a restricted margin of manoeuvre in the larger context of the much more powerful global corporations who can effectively call the weather on so many areas of life - well, I don't know what the answer is. I suspect the only answer that seriously addresses this would be so painful to so many people that it would only be called in in extremis. Meanwhile we are left with the husk of a system, which so many people still seem to think is actually in a position to solve the problems which they face.
Yep, I'm pretty gloomy. At my age, I expect my cohort will be all right. I am much less sanguine of the fate awaiting the next generation.
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Originally posted by jean View PostIt's the corporations who call the shots. Always.
Why the governments don't notice this is a mystery. It almost makes you believe that previously left-leaning parties like the Democrats (and of course New Labour) are totally in the grip of neoliberalism.It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.
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Originally posted by french frank View PostOf course it is. But that's the point. It still means that the bigger the 'economy' the bigger their clout. What makes you think governments 'don't notice it'?
If they'd noticed, those politicians who were not in the pay of the international corporations would have attempted to exert some control over the process.Last edited by jean; 22-11-16, 14:57.
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Originally posted by jean View PostBecause actually they have no clout at all, whatever their size.
Originally posted by jean View PostIf they'd noticed, those politicians who were not in the pay of the international corporations would have attempted to exert some control over the process.It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.
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Originally posted by french frank View PostThe 'clout' big corporations have is that they offer large numbers of jobs,
They outsource production to wherever labour is cheapest, and there's not a thing governments can do to stop them.
Hence much of the helpless rage that has fuelled the Trump phenomenon.
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Originally posted by Beef Oven! View PostThey do both. Bring lots of jobs and outsource. Big corporations provide jobs all over the globe.
Like Blair, for instance.
None of this is a mystery at all. The corporations and banks worked it out many decades ago.I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.
I am not a number, I am a free man.
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Originally posted by french frank View Post! Not legally.
Not a question of 'noticing'. The 'clout' big corporations have is that they offer large numbers of jobs, and serious money to the exchequer. What more clout do you need?
But nationalisation can only be a pro-tem gap solution for trading purposes - beyond which we really will have to get back to a more realistic re-alignment of money to its true value, a kind of enlarged Letts system of alternative currency - which would (maybe will) happen were the economy to collapse, if only for survival's sake, rather than a money supply which tries to keep up but ultimately is used to control inflation and bank rates. And I have yet to come across any cogent way such a realignment of money to value could be brought about, short of the bourgeoisie just taking all their money out of the country. But then the government would just order the printing of more of it...
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