The Democracy Disease - distribution of everything but votes is unequal

(c) by Mark Dempsey

From Arnaud Bertrand: "[W]hen Trump undoubtedly attempted to showcase America's might, he's only achieved a brilliant demonstration of its impotence and, by contrast, highlighted China's diplomatic and economic adeptness. Basically, we're in a new world where America simply cannot bully its way around anymore: when they do so, they end up hurting themselves first and foremost." 

In a classic demonstration of how mob rule overtakes reason, President Trump blames immigrants and trade partners for the economic policy failures for the last two generations (at least). Industrial policy in particular and distribution of the benefits of the global trade architecture--including the US-dominated IMF and World Bank--were created as part of the US' post-WWII neocolonial empire.

The premise that poor countries somehow have cheated Americans with unequal terms of trade and debt bondage under which they have labored primarily for the benefit of elites and US multinational corporations is ridiculous scapegoating, not an accurate assessment of a problem.

Nevertheless, Trump voters often understand this very well and have voted for Trump not because he's going to  fix this system, but because he's promised to destroy it, and that destruction is well underway. Some disagree, citing Trump's appeal to racism and xenophobia, but even if those were real considerations the anti-system candidates' appeal--including Bernie Sanders'--would be a significant contributor to a Trump election victory

The voting public understands that the American economy is rigged to serve the rich, and tariffs won't change that, but they may destroy that postwar American empire. The plutocrats might wake up to the destruction they've wrought, or they may suffer as the aristocrats did during the French revolution, either way, Trump is in the driver's seat now.

Those non-aristocrats who have suffered because the system is rigged have decided they would rather destroy it, even if it means they themselves will suffer too. His voters have not mistaken Trump for a competent administrator. On the contrary he's the anti-Obama. He's sabotaging trade deals, not making them. He's tearing the bureaucracy apart, not employing it for public purpose. 

A recent instance of Trump sabotage means health care, and particularly mental health care has been gutted.  This makes sense. The revenge of the Trump voters impoverished by a rigged economy is that the inmates are now running the asylum. The politics of threats, extortion and fear has been turned loose on the population at large. 

So yes, Trump is terrible, but he's the symptom. This outcome is the consequence of the PMC refusing to address genuine problems, particularly the distribution of the fruits of America's computer-enhanced productivity. Wages have stagnated despite rising worker productivity.

Another example of badly distributed resources: the US has more vacant homes than its homeless population. The deregulated, neoliberal "pure" capitalism promoted for more than 40 years now has given us the beggar-on-every-corner economy in which the billionaires gained enormous wealth, and everyone else has been crushed.

Investigative reporter David Cay Johnstone reports that real median income for the bottom 90% has increased $59 since 1972. If that were an inch on a bar graph, the bar for the top 10% would be 141 feet high. The bar for the top 0.1% would be five miles high. Saying this is unsustainable is an understatement. 

Trump voters understand this, and have their vengeance: a fundamental rebalancing of power between China, the rest of the world, and the US, and an end to the era of US economic, military and political dominance. Perhaps predictably, there are few signs of repentance from the Democrats who helped set this up.