Opinion Editorials, May 2014

 
Should it come as a surprise that China is about to take from America the baton as the world’s number one economy in 2014… a baton America took away from the Brits well over a century ago?  Should Prometheus act surprised after willingly giving life to mankind?  Neither Titan Prometheus nor Americans should be surprised… for China’s fast and furious economic ascent has to be in great part attributed to the Promethean great effort of American capitalism under the guise of globalization.   
 
Sooner or later it had to happen: the realization that implications from globalization transcend the economic sphere, eventually taking over and changing the social-DNA makeup of our society.  And we are going through that painful transformation here in the United States of America now… even if the overwhelming share of the population stays blind to that fact; proceeding like somnambulistic dummies controlled by an entrenched and institutionalized cadre of Washington thugs populating the halls of the Capitol, the Pentagon and the White House.  [I prefer to let the Supreme Court remain “in hiding,” at least for now.] 
 
A harsh statement to make perhaps, but not unmerited after the American collective will has surrendered without a fight – even the semblance of a light scrimmage – to the will of a merciless capitalist elite.   Elite that is herding 80 percent of the population to the final trail with a clear destination: the economic slaughterhouse for the middle class.
 
Here we are on this May 1st which still commands worldwide respect for the celebration of the producers of wealth in society, International Workers’ Day, or May Day, being reminded of our roots, and the struggle by labor to free itself from the brutal yoke of industrial enslavement… even if only a minute number of Americans has a clue as to what the Haymarket affair in Chicago was almost thirteen decades ago.  But as things so drastically change with time, leave it to predatory capitalism to make sure things remain the same when it comes to the indentured status of the working class.
 
And the brutal yoke of industrial enslavement prevailing in 1886-America has been replaced with the yoke of globalization… a yoke placed on many among us without any recourse by those holding the strings of wealth, and their lackeys in politics.
 
It is a moral slippery slope that we walk on when we place geographical, ethnic or other barriers in how the distribution of productive wealth is made.  And so, the capitalist elite has smugly confronted the situation of Americans losing US living-wage jobs by a higher call to universal compassion and the right of other non-American producers to compete for such jobs.  Overall, corporate leaders tell us, globalization is not about just shifting the labor component to where the most advantageous economic cost is found; it is, they claim, the gain overall created by the synergy which is created in free trade around the globe.
 
But the synergy in question has proven to be asymptomatic for the most part, while the loss of decent-pay jobs, and the dignity which accompanies them, has permeated the core of American society for over two decades, as President William Jefferson Clinton became capitalism’s champion of free trade, while proving to be chief hangman for labor.   His political palavering, however, is helping him relegate that ugly, treacherous behavior to the future annals of history; while now he is amassing enormous wealth he feels he deserves as one of the key figures in the New World Order.  [No, I don’t delve in conspiracy theories… but what better character than Bill Clinton as a candidate for leadership in a NWO… if such existed?]
 
No merit should be taken away from the economic success attained by the industrious Chinese people.  However, Americans should also remember the contribution they were forced to make by a capitalist elite, and its captive politicians, as they jointly failed to properly plan for the impact of such labor upheaval in a highly developed industrial society such as the United States.
 
Government statistics are continuously being used to mislead what the economic truth is in America, from the level of unemployment, to the type of jobs (and remuneration) being created.  The state of labor in America could not be more dismal on this May Day (International Workers’ Day)… but then again, May Day is a Socialist date of the Second International. Labor Day in Capitalist America doesn’t come until harvest is over… and people thank their lucky star for the abundant life they experience living in the world’s number one economy.  Oops!  Will we ever admit to saying the world’s number two economy?  And by then, assuming it takes a couple of decades, will India relinquish its position as number three and exchange it for number two?

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