capitalism

It is very hard to cite a 'successful' Communist economy when every single one has been attacked militarily and undermined by US-NATO forces. Nonetheless some have survived. Most have not.

This story follows on from "The Aussie version of creation" an illustrated story which is circulating widely by email, author unknown. [If you are the author, please let candobetter.net know and they will acknowledge your work.] I copy it here to give the context in which the story of blokes arose, but I have updated the story with changes to conditions in Aussi Paradise.

France has banned fracking, but the United States is allowing lateral mining to utterly demolish democracy and people are facing destitution and starvation because of the lack of citizen rights in the United States to protect farm and town water. Here are some quotes from the film: "Using our resources against us"... "Greed and money: they're just sucking all of the water out of the ground. Why can't I have a say? Why can't these oil companies understand?"..."We've got to have some restrictions on mining... "If we run out of water, we're going to have to pump it in and it will cost more than oil. So why do you think the people of this town should be quiet about it?" In the face of a winner takes all, some farmers are caving in and trading farming in for mining and selling off their water. "... If you've got to have the oil you have to use the water. The demand is out there." Australia's government is going the same way as the United States.

Too often we fail to see the connection between the ecological destruction and cultural genocide of so-called "developing" nations and the lax immigration policies of those nations like Canada which play host to both the victims and the perpetrators of the tragedy. A look at the relationship between Sarawak's plight and the inflation of real estate values in Ontario, Canada and elsewhere should give us a better understanding of how plunder abroad promotes in-migration here. Canada, by offering an outlet to dirty money and the people who profit from it, must be seen as a willing accomplice and silent partner to a vast money-laundering operation.

Amid a European and global economic crisis, governments are still letting markets get away with little regulation, big bonuses and dubious financial instruments that are distorting financial stability for short-term gain and putting enormous pressure on people to pick up the manufactured debts. (See also "The US Dollar as a weapon: debt and devaluation," which is about a fascinating theory of this kind of economic policy in relation to US debt.)

Interesting perspective on the riots in Britain. Well commentated, with lots of useful statistics that reflect the British bias to produce a landless proletariat that gets discarded when it cannot be absorbed by industry. Says how the tax system encourages people to have children, but with fathers and mothers living separately. Final part notes how civil war in the Middle East has coincided with very high food prices and how in Britain food prices have risen to three times the level in other parts of the EU. The video identifies itself as a "True News" service.

Trapped in a morass of middle class mediocrity--- a life of long commutes, road rage, double-income stress, crippling mortgages and rents---- the average American urbanite dreams the fantasy of weekend escape. Car makers and the advertising agencies they employ are there to offer it to them. TV commercials assure us that the SUV is your ticket to the promised land, the ticket to off-road heaven, the chance to enjoy the tranquillity and space that willderness offers by trashing it. Not to worry. As the commercials show, there is plenty where that came from. The world is without limits, and you can be one of a 100 million to find a chunk of solitude just for yourself. To use and abuse.

There is no need to send out a search party for the Growth Lobby. It lives in your neighbourhood and in your home town.

See also by Tim Murray: "What is a racist?" of 3 Jan 10, "The Green Badge of Courage" of 3 Jan 10 and "It is socially responsible to be socially irresponsible" of 4 Jan 10.

Clinics in the USA are now running lotteries for free treatment because so many people cannot afford medical treatment there as unemployment rates rise. The 'most powerful nation in the world' does not have a decent health-care system.

Joe Toscano's Anarchist World this week is now downloadable at http://podcast.3cr.org.au/pod/3CRCast-2009-08-19-91890.mp3 A breath of sanity on Melbourne's trendoid congested airwaves. Anarchism is deeply conservative, as Joe says. Most people would recognise it under a new name, "Relocalisation". Critique of Royal Commission into Victorian Bushfires. Demand for inquiry into corruption in Victoria. See inside for details of Anarchist Eureka Rebellion ceremony in Ballarat and . You can also the latest of Joe Toscano's programs here if the link above is out of date.

Pornography is not just about getting naked, or having sex, or even recording, depicting or describing it. It requires an element of commerce. Lots of people think they can get rich from it, and some very big household-name corporations have diversified into this area, including GMH and the Murdoch Press. Perhaps they hope to have a pornography-led recovery from the global financial crisis? Anyway, it seems like just about everyone is involved, whether they like it or not...

Pinter won the Nobel Prize for literature in 2005. Here are some exerpts from his searing denunciation of United States realpolitik in his Nobel Prize speech. Really worth reading...

Investing in water for the suburban home-owner; turning overpopulation to profit; growing your water capital. Water and democracy. Water and suburban conflict. Plumbing negotiations.

If we want to strike a sensible balance between individual freedom, self-realisation, social cohesion, democracy and good community relations, we should be aware these noble aims can only coexist and thrive in optimal socio-environmental conditions that have stood the test of time. For too long we have worshipped the abstract world of economics rather than the concrete world of ecology that ultimately determines our real quality of life.

Sheila Newman writes that it is not so much the myth of the noble savage as the myth of the noble capitalist citizen.

It is amazing that so many of us accept that it is our lot to work for others and to pay rent. Was it always so or did this come about through sophistry?