Moody Monday: economy edition

[mellowtigger]

As an appropriate sign of the times, a news story about people now unable to afford shopping at Walmart is paywalled behind a news site that costs $415/year. I didn't subscribe.  People can't afford such costs.  I'm doing better at this moment, but I've been there.  I expect that Biden won't help.

In the continuing hypocrisy of privatizing the profits but socializing the costs, the fossil fuel industry got $5.9 trillion in subsidies globally in 2020.  The pharmaceutical industry continues to overcharge on products we paid them to develop.  Considering how well it works for the gun lobby to pay politicians to create market demand for their product, what does it mean to pandemic healthcare policy?  Turn everyone into a pharmaceutical consumer thanks to persistent infection and long term disability?  Good plan.

In the continuing greed-is-good tragedy, 60 Minutes broadcast a story about essential life-supporting products being intentionally kept in short supply to prop up their prices.  Seriously.  Mother Jones created a whole series of reporting on how USA wealth is being looted by vulture capitalism. You can scroll down and just read the titles to learn how bad it is.

In the continuing growth-until-collapse cycle, wealth consolidation by the already wealthy keeps rising in low income neighborhoods even though mass theft and infrastructure cannibalization continues.  Nobody at the helm is paying attention.  Or worse, they're making the wrong decisions.  And that's without even mentioning gas prices.

If you have the hours to spare, I recommend watching the entire Wealth & Poverty playlist of the class lectures of professor Robert Reich. If you have less time, then I recommend the single lecture, "The Future of Inequality (& You?)." I've embedded it below.  Separately, I also recommend his short video, "This One Thing Is Making Your Life More Expensive".

Watch on YouTube

I've been advocating for a different kind of economy for a long time, at least since Occupy, and I vote that way too. You know how I feel about worshiping wealth.  I want a new way forward.

Now, time to go outside and do a bit of gardening.