>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 07/19/01 08:57PM >>>
I agree that this is extremely important. "Extremely" is not sufficiently
superlative. It is a matter of life or death on an unimaginable scale. If
not now, then 10 years from now or 20. What difference does it make? Getting
growth back on track is rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic after it has
struck (the rapidly melting?) iceberg. *Talking about getting growth back on
track* is talking about rearranging deck chairs.
Talking in the abstract about socialism and hegemony and the dollar while
the recession runs its course is like talking about not-rearranging the deck
chairs. How many times does the shit have to hit the fan before the
fan-gazers notice there are feces all over their faces?
What is necessary is a transitional strategy that can buffer some of the
worst dislocations of the recession-cum-implosion while resisting the
imperative of "restarting growth." Difficult to sell to the mainstream? You
bet. Finessing my own particular policy preference -- which I'm sure most on
this list know by now -- what is necessary is the delinking of the
necessities of life from the vagaries of the market.
((((((((
CB: As the beginning of a transitional strategy program howabout:
1) 30 hour work week , no cut in pay ( if I understand your position from all these
years).
2) Constitutional ( or Canadian basic law) amendment for a right to a decent job or
decent income
?
(((((((
There are various ways
to approach this but they all entail some kind of direct political guarantee
not indirect interventions that are "intended" to achieve "the same"
objectives through the medium of growth.
As we have had most graphically demonstrated over the past two decades,
economic growth is not a means to enable the nations to afford better
housing, social programs and a more equitable distribution of income.
Economic growth is an ideological program offered as a substitute for
democracy, equality and social justice.
FUCK GROWTH.
Tom Walker
Bowen Island, BC
604 947 2213
