Below is a video interview of political columnist Harold Meyerson. He addresses a topic that should be front page news everywhere, but isn't. He talks of America's dysfunctional corporate model and its negative impact on the economy.
In my view, and it is a subject I want to discuss more later, Meyerson correctly describes the US economic model as an obsession about the microeconomic needs and interests of corporations and shareholders, and not to the needs of communities, workers, or the broader interests of the nation.
Note Meyerson's references to Germany, which has a huge trade surplus, based on manufactures, and substantially higher wages and benefits than in America. Though he did not say it, Germany's per capita exports are about four times higher than America's. This in an a country where union membership is much higher and manufacturers are not given free rein to offshore production to cheap labor havens. This is a recipe for disaster, according to the Neo-Cons, Neo-Liberals, Wall Street, the right wing, virtually all Republicans, ideologues, and the endless stream of bloviating media shills.
I give them credit; they know how to protect their interests and get voters to care more about somebody's home makeover, scary brown people, or Wiener's wiener.
It's a shame, really. Our politicians fight fiercely to protect US corporate interests, the corporate model, and the overclass that feeds off it. They talk to us of liberty, freedom to choose, and the horrors of industrial policy and government interference, even as they bail out Wall Street and subsidize Big Oil.
In return, their pockets are filled with cash to buy the next election.
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