The indispensable opponent (tags)
The West's hostility towards China has increased since China's engine began to stutter. At the same time, the US government is pumping massive amounts of money into the economy and has thus been able to prevent an impending recession for the time being, but is far from regaining its former role as a global engine of growth.
Too big to fail, too weak to lead (tags)
Through the World Bank and IMF, they were able to push through privatization and the dismantling of social benefits and trade union rights in the over-indebted countries of the South. They also pursued this policy domestically, while corporations and the upper income brackets were spoiled with tax gifts. There were also massive arms orders.
The 1960s, when incomes rose for almost all workers, ended with a massive wave of strikes. Since the 1980s, the incomes of most Americans have fallen, working hours have risen massively, and job security has become a foreign word. But strikes have been extremely rare.
In the 1960s, JKGalbraith warned of two worlds: private affluence and public squalor. Now after the neoliberal counter-offensive, more than half of US states struggle with deficits. Without the social contract, we become wolves to each other.
Visions of Class, Visions Beyond Class (tags)
Ingo Schmidt is a Canadian journalist who writes for www.socialistproject.ca.