MORE WAR!

Can we make a relationship between the followings: incessant increase in federal deficit since the beginning of this century, war, austerity measures, obliteration of the first amendment, conglomeration of media. In addition, we can compare it with ethnic events of the past few days such as the murder of innocent people in Afghanistan on a rampage and “Old West” style gun slinging of a vigilante ending by killing a black man “who looked suspicious” and killing of an Arab immigrant with a racial note?



 In order to find a relationship between all of these events, we may start by looking at some statistics. In 1944, the tax bracket for the rich was 94%. A tax bracket is applied to high incomes when earnings reach a certain level, which will follow. The percentage applied to high income tax bracket has gradually been reduced to 91% in 1963, 70% in 1980, 50% in 1986, 40% in 1993, 35% in 2003, which remains the same to this date. Note that in 1988 it was lowered to 28% by the first Bush, and it was increased to top at 40% during Clinton years, but it was pushed back down again during the second Bush years to its current rate. Annual income to put one in that tax bracket has constantly increased from $30,950 in 1998 to today’s figure of $336,550. This explains why there is a deficit. Austerity measures are adopted to balance the budget. Therefore, the lower income population starts filling the gap created by the tax reductions for the wealthy, and by losing their benefits. For instance, an austerity measure forced the government in California to cut down the budget for schools, in addition to reducing or eliminating many government programs, from health to housing to education to assisted living. Of course the state could increase the tax to the rich or reduce benefits to corporations instead. But the state government decided to adopt federal government’s procedure of protecting the rich and powerful. As a result, those who have lost their benefits due to austerity measures fill up the streets in protest. Since they are a nuisance to the rich, police is sent to crush their demonstration, costing the nation the loss of its first amendment. The media may portray police brutality and show demonstrations, as it is supposed to. Therefore, government (government of the rich) steps in again and makes it possible for the media to be purchased in hostile take overs and owned by a few as a conglomerate. The government who has all media and police power at its disposal creates a condition in the society to distract those suffering from the economic condition, and making them think that the enemy is among themselves. One technique that has always worked in this situation is dispersal of racism. The propaganda machine works in a sublime state by making Arabs look like cockroaches, Muslims like nomads, immigrants as job thieves, and minorities as subhuman. The system itself is not racist and can accept a black man as the president, as long as he is supporting and promoting the system, controlled by the rich. The system requires submission of all nations, and the “military-industrial complex” makes sure that those who do not, are forced to submit by creating and escalating a war in their lands.

When the government is not functioning properly, poverty and sickness and crime are not responsibilities of the government and the society, but the responsibility of the poor and the sick and the criminal. The disparity between the poor and the rich widens, those who cannot afford are denied of healthcare, and law expands to categorize many activities as crime which in turn creates more prisoners who become commodities in private prison system. Justice becomes a tool in the hands of the rich and powerful by increasing the punishment for the least advantaged and locking up more people. A rich banker who steals millions of dollars from struggling people receives a punishment that, at its best, would be returning some of the stolen money back to, not the victims, but the government. The same rich and powerful can buy drugs for entertainment and use it in leisure, while the drug dealer may serve several years in prison if caught. Crimes of white and blue collar do not receive the same punishment. Video cameras are installed in every corner to watch any wrong doing, while more of the people’s demands are categorized as crimes by the lawmakers and crimes receive sever punishments. Driving becomes a luxury that only the rich can afford, as the amount of citation for moving violations is raised. Law is now in the hand of the rich and the powerful in order to subjugate the majority. They make every attempt to change laws of other lands for cheap labor and cheap raw material and to broaden their markets, through puppet governments, austerity measures, military coup (as in Maldives) or war.

Any union or trade group or party among the labor is crushed violently while capitalists have their own unions in the form of Rotary, Lions, Kiwanis, Freemason and other clubs and associations, in addition to religious establishments, to decide who should control three branches of the government. It is clear that the three branches of the US government follow the same order. The rich distributes governments’ positions among themselves in what is called “the ruling class”. Class society has always been undermined by the media, and they consider “class” as something of the past imperialists and royalties. However, economical and racial segregation is evident in every metropolitan area in the country. It is not such a cast system that no one would be able to break the cast. In fact, members of the ruling class attract the most brilliant and educated people to take a part in their act of suppressing the masses. Religion, color, creed, are not important when one is a member of their class. But they use these very divisive tools in order to brain wash the public in meeting their ends. White and black and yellow and red are the colors created to make one feel superior to other, while the rich and the powerful exploit them all. It is astonishing how many people in the US believe that their government is for them. They compete with each other, build hatred towards other cultures and races and religions, while the ruling class has no problem selecting an African American, a Catholic or Mormon or Jew, a farm owner or a factory owner as a president, as long as the person pursues their goal and acts as they wish. Taxes are imposed to majority of people in order to support tax breaks and subsidies granted to nuclear power companies, to arm manufacturers, and to aid dictators around the world. When the dictator is no longer meeting their objectives, he is ousted, assassinated or deposed. There are many examples; shah of Iran, Marcus of Philippines, Noriega of Panama, Saddam Hussein, Mubarak, Bin-Ali of Tunisia, Ali Abdulah Saleh of Yemen, and the list continues. Of course, if the dictator fights back his country will be attacked, such as in Iraq.

Small and one person owned businesses that were passed on from fathers to sons (or daughters in some cases) are replaced with shopping malls and mega stores. The entrepreneur’s goal was to sell as much commodities that would earn him enough to buy other commodities, just to sustain his and his family’s daily lives. A corporation, a shopping mall, a mega store and other businesses that hire others to sell their labor in order to maintain their daily lives, pursue the goal of accumulating capital. Capital is in different shapes and forms, but the most liquid form of it is money. When Chinese invented money, it was supposed to be a go-between or a tool of exchange of commodities. Today, money is the goal and accumulating it is the struggle of most people. Survival of every business depends on the amount of money it accumulates. The first task of every manager is to have an eye on the bottom line to make sure that the net worth of the organization is increasing every year. However, this was not the aim and goal of people and businesses in the past. Money was only an exchange instrument and most of the people did not desire to accumulate it. As the society changes its social structure from self-sustaining to transacting with other societies, needs of the society changes and it becomes more dependent on other societies. Money changes its character from being only a tool, to a commodity. People who lived in a closed society become estranged from each other. At the latest stage, people become commodities for physicians, hospitals, factories, and even prisons. They can also be recruited as soldiers to invade other lands, and as a tool of the government, enrich the already wealthy. It has been experienced that in an economic downturn, war can be blissful, as Khomeini used to say that war was a god blessing! However, considering number of wars created in every part of the globe, it may not be a blessing any longer, and more wars cannot heal the economy, but starting a very dangerous condition for the world.