Crossposted from Left Toon Lane & My Left Wing
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Where is what Wikipedia has to say on fascism:
Fascism is associated by many scholars with one or more of the following characteristics: a very high degree of nationalism, economic corporatism, a powerful, dictatorial leader who portrays the nation, state or collective as superior to the individuals or groups composing it.
First off, our government has sold us off to the highest corporate bidder. No longer are the needs of We The People met, but the needs of the Corporation are set higher than the individual.
Big Oil has attacked democracy by price gouging, the insistence of gross over consumption and lobbying to prevent alternative fuels from coming to market. Why bring about a hydrogen economy – a renewable resource, when over $90 trillion in fossil fuel is still in the ground?
Profit Over People should be the official tag line for the healthcare industry. Most drugs today are either wholly funded or partially funded by the US taxpayers, yet these medical discoveries and patents are not considered owned by We The People, nor does the US Treasury see any windfall from these outrageous profits from medical and pharmaceutical research. If the taxpayers finance the development, the drugs should be generic – right off the bat.
The military industrial complex is one of the worst. HALF of our non-discretionary budget goes to funding war and the preparation of war. Instead of using that money to buy off a dictator a week or bring peace via diplomatic channels, we build new nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction that we block other countries from NOT developing. If we used half of our defense budget to buy off dictators, would could wipe out war on this planet in just a few months. That is how Bill Clinton controlled North Korea – the good old fashion bribe.
God love him.
And we should be effin’ glad we’re NOT getting all the government we’re paying for….
This is so TRUE. Most real Research & Development in pharmaceuticals is funded by NIH and other federal government agencies (sometimes also known as “earmarks”). Despite the protests of Big Pharma, most of THEIR research is retro-analyzing their competitors’ formulas. Investors and stockholders take a dim view of spending their dividends on research that might not ever prove profitable… that’s what government grants are for.
But if the government is funding the research, they ought to be able to put conditions on the Pharma company to market the results — that allow a reasonable return in addition to the grant funding, but keeps the prices of final, approved drugs affordable, and put limits on patent rights for projects the government originally funded. Sounds like a no-brainer to me — and if the big Pharma companies don’t like that deal, I’m sure there are plenty of smaller, hungry biotech research labs that could put that government grant money to good use. Isn’t that what the free market is about…?
I just caught a bit of Lewis Lapham on c-span’s book tv this morning and they showed a marvelous clip from his documentary The American Ruling Class. I think this movie has been out for awhile, but this is the first I’ve heard of it. I’m going to try and rent it this afternoon. Apparently, Lapham takes a young recent Yale graduate who is considering a job in the finance industry through the paces of learning what the US is really all about. Here’s a clip from youtube where Barbara Ehrenreich remakes her role in “Nickled and Dimed.”
(warning: the musical number at the end is a little cheesy – but wtf – go with it and its kinda funny)