Summer 2014 Part 5

Conclusion


Now, it is has been over fifty years since the late President Lyndon Baines Johnson gave his “Great Society” speech on May 22, 1964. He did it in Ann Arbor, Michigan. His words and the policies of the Great Society was the peak of post-war liberal reformism. The Great Society agenda included a series of social programs. These programs were in response to some of the worst forms of social misery in post war America. The suffering was egregious. The Great Society did reduce extreme poverty in America. It expanded significantly the quality of public education, provided millions of people, and caused regulatory checks on major corporations. Medicare, Medicaid, and other programs from the Great Society provided health care to the elderly, the disabled, and the poor. The Food Stamp Act of 1964 created America’s food assistance program. Federal funding for primary and secondary education was expanded, including in poor areas. The National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities was created as a result of the Great Society too. These programs along with FDR’s New Deal reform came about via bitter struggle. Many people fought via strikes, protests, etc. to cause these laws to exist. People fought against Jim Crow racial segregation, and union exploitation. The U.S. ruling class feared social upheaval in America and Communist sympathizers in America. So, they implemented many changes. In announcing the “Great Society,” Johnson set out a half-century time-frame to judge its success. “The challenge of the next half century,” he declared, “is whether we will have the wisdom to use [America’s] wealth to enrich and elevate our national life, and to advance the quality of our American civilization.... For in your time we have the opportunity to move not only toward the rich society and the powerful society, but upward to the Great Society.” LBJ wanted to fight poverty in a capitalistic context. We see that we have made progress, but not revolutionary changes. One in five children in the US lives in poverty—the “wealthiest nation in the world” has one of the highest child poverty rates of any major capitalist country. There are dozens of counties throughout the US where a third of children do not get enough to eat. Food pantries report running out of supplies, and each year cities say they face ever-greater demand for assistance for the homeless. American capitalism has, by any measured, failed in the “challenged” outlined by Johnson 50 years ago. The Vietnam War, tax cuts to the wealthy, etc. harmed our economic situation greatly. The Vietnam War caused the West to send over 500,000 U.S. troops to come into Vietnam. There is the contradiction of Johnson’s pretensions about social reform at home and mass murder approved abroad (in the Dominican Republic, Indonesia, etc. not just Vietnam). The quagmire of Vietnam came at the peak or zenith of America’s military and economic power. Beginning in the 1960s, the United States' balance of trade declined and ultimately turned negative, as America's global competitors, including Japan and Germany, began to outstrip it. Later, both Republican and Democratic administration stripped corporate regulation and cut social programs. We know that social inequality in America is at the highest since before the Great Depression and the New Deal. Neoliberalism has replaced social liberalism today. Therefore, we should continue to fight for not only egalitarianism, but for social including economic justice.

Adam Kokesh is wrong on many levels. He is one of those radical libertarian extremists that fail to see the complexities of poverty and other socioeconomic realities. The reality is that laissez faire capitalism has not worked to institute a radical decrease in poverty. In fact, the policies of austerity, tax breaks, and tax cuts for the super wealthy have increased income inequality. Radically cutting food stamps while enriching the power of corporate interests (which is Kokesh's agenda) does nothing to assist all of the people. Obviously, the killers (who are Jerad and Amanda Miller) are murderers. Kokesh is wrong in his views on these murderers. They or the killers should not be respected at all. There is more information documenting how the founding fathers of the modern Libertarian Party are linked to the ruling class. The elite’s Mont Pelerin Society for decades have promoted neoliberalism, austerity, and other reactionary actions. The 1 percenters had used extremists as a means to advance their dynasties, steal more wealth, and control more of the people. Moreover, the famous lawyer Kohlberg was a major sponsor of Plain Talk, which merged with the Freeman; a libertarian journal still published today by the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE), itself a direct offshoot of the William Volker Fund and an active supporter of the Mont Pelerin Society. It was Miller who introduced Luhnow to Austrian economist Friedrich von Hayek and convinced him to bring Hayek to Chicago. Miller went on to oversee the activities of the Volker Fund and attended the first Mont Pelerin Society meeting. In fact, both the Volker Fund and the Rockefeller Foundation supported the Mont Pelerin gatherings for over a decade. So, the Rockefeller Foundation has funded Austrian economics and organizations in support of Austrian economics for years. This is the smoking gun that proves that the 1 percent advances deregulation, economic injustice, and the IMF for years. Importantly, the involvement of the Rockefeller dynasty in promoting Austrian economics predates the Volker Fund. Indeed, Rockefeller, who was taught by Hayek in London, “had been intermittently subsidizing Hayek since his Vienna days at Mises’ business cycle institute” according to Mirowski and Van Horn. Already in 1926, Ludwig von Mises’s first tour in the United States was paid by the Rockefeller Foundation. The National Bureau of Economic Research, which supported Mises in the 1940s, was also heavily sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation. Mises’s salary in New York was paid by Lawrence Fertig, Kohlberg’s colleague at the AJLAC, and by the Volker Fund. We don’t need the government and private interests harming the public. We need the people to control the government, so a progressive government can advance the needs and aspirations of the people. We need a level playing field, strong social safety net, an end to Empire, and a real policy of justice.



Learning lessons from the past is key to creating a better future for humanity. The Haitian Revolution is now over 210 years old. That doesn’t mean that we ignore the lessons from that powerful, inspiring Revolution. Therefore, we should learn about the strengths and weaknesses of the New Deal as a means to create economic justice for our people (not reactionary economic ideas embraced by elitists). Any legitimate job created is valuable regardless if it is a government job or a private sector job. Just because there is less government jobs in comparison to private jobs, doesn’t mean that any government job is evil or a sin. Things can change. The future could witness an upsurge of public workers. Public workers are diverse. They deal with construction, environmental infrastructure, and other occupations (not just department work). There are people of many backgrounds (racial, ideological, gender, or otherwise) that want a comprehensive, national jobs plan. The issue is that reactionaries hate this and are in opposition to this. I understand many things. I understand that Reaganomics failed. I understand that from 1945 to 1975 (with more taxation on the wealthy and huge investments) caused the highest GDP growth in American history (possibly in world history along with the poverty rate cut in half). So, we know the truth. In the 1920s, fully half of all Americans could not make ends meet. Roosevelt's New Deal programs had reduced poverty to about 20 percent in the 50s. Johnson's Great Society reduced this to 11.1 percent by 1973. If such real policies can work in Finland, Norway, Sweden, etc. then such policies can work in America. Some talk about fantasy. 100 years ago, folks called Social Security as a fantasy. Also, 100 years ago, folks considered a Voting Rights Act including other potent civil rights legislation fantasies. Yet, when Brothers and Sisters struggle and fight (for cooperation and for the general welfare of humanity), then things demonized as fantasies can be changed into authentic realities. I will never love an economic philosophy that was involved in enslaving my race at all. That is purely the point. An end to imperialist wars, an end to QE, an end to record bailouts, an increased taxation to the super rich, an end to the War on Drugs with alternatives, and real investments are needed to create a better reality for the human race. Governments have created jobs for thousands of years. Also, many government jobs do deal with construction, science (NASA, etc.), transportation (i.e. Amtrak), infrastructure (i.e. the Postal Service), etc. So, folks are in error to assume that the government can't create a single job. That is a lie. Folks can have a Yawn since they want to ignore history. See, a wicked economic system put our ancestors in chains (It has also ruined environmental locations, harmed workers’ rights so much that workers fought back, and increased economic inequality). Dr. King, Malcolm X, Fred Hampton, and our other heroes outlined great critiques of that economic system too. I have their quotations. The skeptics can ignore that all they want, but that is history. Wall Street has harmed Main Street in many ways too. The Great Recession taught us all that austerity, sequester, Reaganomics, record income inequality, and other evils are detriments to the progress of society. Also, I never discounted the value of private jobs at all. I just mention that neoliberalism is immoral. All people have the right to your views and I have the right to mine. Many black people have trouble in economic mobility, because of many of the conditions of poverty not because of laziness. Dr. King was right to call the ghetto a domestic colony. Black people have the right to move from it or to transform the ghetto where slums are replaced with affordable, decent housing. Great schools and great jobs can never come unless there is a combined effort of public and private resources. History shows us this. Privatization including corporate greed (that is antithetical to human need) have caused mismanagement and corruption too. Poverty rates have declined worldwide via a comprehensive effort among private power, public power (among all levels of government), and dedicated individuals.

By Timothy