Sunday, January 22, 2006

The cycle of economics

What is it about socialism that irks the US Govt so much ? And why does the US Govt that always calls for the support of democracy, have a problem when the popular vote is won by a leftist leaning, or socialist minded party or leader ? I guess it must because they are 'capitalist first and a democracy next'.

Back to the revolution happening in South America. It started long before the people of Venezuela elected Hugo Chavez to power. But Chavez's election and subsequent actions, have helped the revolution. But more importantly it is the long and consistent meddling with the economies by the US, that has helped the hands of the socialism to spread there. The support to military rulers during the proxy wars managed and sustained by the US and Russia during the bitter cold-war era, contributed the untold misery of the indigenous people in these countries. And the US clearly had an upper hand in this effort, thanks to the crass commercialism and consumerism that are part and parcel of capitalistic form of society. It is an important part of the selling of private enterprise, choice to the people to buy whatever they want. The bigger question though is, can they afford it ? However, the era of Regean-economics, with the theory of trickle-down economics not only impacted the US society, it had its impact on other parts of the world too.

If you observe closely, you will notice that many of the successful countries of the western world, implement a very carefull crafted socialist policy that is for the benefit of its own citizens. However, they impose conditions and restrictions on the developing countries when similar programs are supported in those countries.

In my theory, the society always has to constantly tweak its macro and micro economic functions to ensure that the society does not create huge variances in distribution of income and wealth. And so, the cycle of leaning to a socialist or capitalist structure based on needs is important. And so, this current mood of the people in South America is a reflection of this. In a decade or two, you can expect the problems of the socialist economic structure to have created problems if these Governments were not wise enough and ready to tweak their policies frequently.

In today's global atmosphere, these leaders are finding added motivation in this revolt by also directing their anger to foriegn governments, primarily the US, which is way ahead of the others in meddling with internal policies and subverting the economic structures of these countries to the benefit of the US Companies. The irony is that, the people of the US are hoodwinked to believe what is good for the US Corporations are good for the average citizens. I think people here are becoming wiser.... or are they ?

Revolution in the Andes - The Guardian

Tags: venezuela, bolivia, US, south+america, socialist, leftist, capitalism, democracy

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