Friday, January 17, 2014

"A PARCEL OF ROGUES"

One thing that strikes me today is that we have forgotten that banks and multinational companies are only afraid of one thing, like elephants and mice, and that is, funnily enough - politics. If a government decides - as Venezuela, Argentina, Bolivia and Iceland, to name a few- to restrain their power, expel them or nationalize them, they can do absolutely NOTHING about it. Sure, they can go cry to the IMF or the WTO, but that's about it. What's more, the "advice" they give to governments, through "think tanks," organizations and other channels always prove disastrous. Always. If anyone can name one good piece of advice we have had from the IMF in the least ten years, I will buy him/her coffee at Starbucks. All the relatively better decisions have always been taken by governments, generally AGAINST the IMF's advice. Politics are the only solution out of the crisis, and by politics I mean long term politics, supported by truly democratic and efficient systems. Oh. Yes. Hmmmm. But our systems... ? Yes, exactly. And that's why we have to come up with new (or old ideas) for a future strong representative democracy (As long as we will need one - as an anarchist I, of course, hope for a better solution one day, but that's another story, probably for another century). So, anyway, here a few ideas I have come up with, that could help:
-Lobbying should be absolutely forbidden and punishable by imprisonment.
-Politicians can only be elected once and for only one charge or mandate.
-Political parties' finances shall be public, as politicians' personal wealth.
-Each media can only have one owner.
-Banks should be strictly divided between savings and investment.
-Small share-holders should have priority of reimbursement in case of a bank's crash.
-Banks should be obliged to have their customers sign a contract in which they accept or do not accept that their deposit can be used by the bank for other investments. If they do accept, then they automatically become shareholders, and accept the risk of losing their money.If they don't accept, they will be on the top list for reimbursement in case of crash.
-A national bank should be created, and available to all citizens and businesses, offering limited loans.
That's my start. Now let's hear yours. The "parcel of rogues" betraying our votes and economy have absolutely nothing to offer us, either now and tomorrow. I am sure we have. 


4 comments:

  1. I'm with you Seb, although I have my doubts as to the value of democracy because it has (a) become meaningless, and (b) in its present form will always become corrupted. If we had an absolute form of democracy where where individuals were not only empowered to vote but were required to vote on every important decision taken by governments, rather than just electing a party to do whatever they like for a fixed number of years, then democracy might have a chance.
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    -Lobbying should be absolutely forbidden and punishable by imprisonment. YES

    -Politicians can only be elected once and for only one charge or mandate. YES

    -Political parties' finances shall be public, as politicians' personal wealth. YES---and parties should be banned from accepting donations from businesses, lobby groups, trade unions, political organizations and the like. . . and maximum donations from individuals should be set at a very modest annual level. Most party funding should come from taxation and perhaps be paid according to how well electors think the policies of individual parties are to benefit the whole of society. If a party is elected and fails to deliver on its publically declared policies then taxpayer funding for that party would be withdrawn.

    -Each media can only have one owner. HMMM! Maybe instead each owner can have only one media, instead of being permitted to own multiple newspapers and tv stations.

    -Banks should be strictly divided between savings and investment. YES

    -Small share-holders should have priority of reimbursement in case of a bank's crash. YES

    -Banks should be obliged to have their customers sign a contract in which they accept or do not accept that their deposit can be used by the bank for other investments. If they do accept, then they automatically become shareholders, and accept the risk of losing their money.If they don't accept, they will be on the top list for reimbursement in case of crash. YES

    -A national bank should be created, and available to all citizens and businesses, offering limited loans. YES-----but. . . such a bank should operate as a social bank, not a business following the same bad practices as other banks; senior officers should be elected by voters and not be appointed by politicians.

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  2. Agree to all criticisms here - this is avery imperfect proposal (a "modest" one on all counts) - and in my French version, I did actually say what you're saying about the media. Forgot to edit the English version... My bad.

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  3. These are sound proposals. That you're not calling for heads to literally roll shows restraint and fairness which I'm not sure is entirely deserved, but. . .

    I agree that we should not waste time pretending that the banking industry is going to disappear somehow (short of a disastrous calamity, but we'd rather not go there). Best we can hope for is to rein it in. A strict division between savings and investment can be reached by the immediate reenacting of the Glass-Steagall Act. Then, a global progressive tax on wealth. It wouldn't even have to be so high. Maybe as small as 1% on any assets above one million dollars. Genuine non-profits would be exempted. Next, a tax on all financial transactions. On the transfer of stocks, bonds, those damned derivatives--all of it. A small amount. I've seen 0.3 per $100 floated. The support for this here in the States is widespread.

    Truth is, I don't really see this thing being reformed. I think we're at the point now where targeted strikes are required, in terms of economics. We need to organize. If we can figure out how to shut this thing down for limited periods of time, in a structured way, we will get its attention and we will be heard louder than any trip to a voting booth. Let's demand the impossible!

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  4. Thanks for your input, KJ - and yes, I agree with you, except on the "Impossible." We are already living in the "impossible" - the return of a ruthless Victorian imperialistic ruling class without any morals whatsoever - so we have to demand a simple thing: fairness, respect and equity. Small words, but yes, a huge project indeed...

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