Spanish government announced today that it will keep investing millions euro into “helping” people buy cars. A fashionably progressive explanation is attached to this program: buying more cars is good for the environment. Nobody is mentioning that an already good system of public transportation could be improved with this money if the environment were really a concern.
This is exactly what I was saying the other day when I talked about the origins of the crisis. This is the bubble economy that fakes growth by enticing people to buy mountains of useless junk. And when buying slows down, governments fake buying. Then we all stare at fake reports of economic growth and feel good. There is no growth, though. These are just mountains of air being shifted around.
Clarissa's Blog 
OK, I agree with you. But what would it mean if governments (and everyone else) actually dared to take several steps ahead and explore the alternatives to bubble economy? Realistically speaking, satisfying reasonable needs of all people can be done by small percentage of population… What to do with the rest of the population? Can that be done without major overhaul of capitalist system?
I recently came across an interesting reference (in Russian):
http://domestic-lynx.livejournal.com/50493.html?style=mine
I do not agree with some accents and with SU nostalgia, but there are some interesting points…
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It’s interesting how this American ultra-right worldview spreads itself across the world. This is literally what the ultra-Right here says about the crisis. Very interesting!
It is also very curious how people fantasize about the XIXth century even though novels describing daily life 150-200 years ago abound. I can recommend Galdos’s amazing That Bringas Woman for an example of out-of-control consumption and buying junk on credit in XiXth-century Spain.
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I am not sure what ultra-right means any more. True libertarian would say that being brainwashed into excessive consumerism is one’s own problem, while the author of the referred post seems to advocate (if you also read her other posts) for government finding meaning of life for the people, SU-style, and forcing that different meaning (which is great and powerful technologically advanced state) onto people whether they want it or not…
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I meant the religious Right.
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The main dividing line between conservative and progressive economists is drawn in the place where they disagree about the reasons for the economic crisis of the 1970s. The conservative economists believe that it was caused by the stagnation in the technological progress. The technology couldn’t offer a needed burst, they say.
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Maybe this is indeed the difference between western progressive and conservative economists, but for the author of my reference knowledge / reason / technical progress are not the means for overcoming the crisis of capitalism. For her the lack of scientific / technical knowledge and reasoning abilities among the masses (which is not the same as lack of technical progress per se) is necessary condition for capitalism, as this supports “bubble economy”. She is a typical Russian “gosudarstvennik”… Do not know how to translate it best… “state fetishist”? 🙂 But I agree with her that if the general population were more educated (as well as more self-aware and more psychologically healthy), that would cause mayor crisis of the capitalist system. Except I do not care about any particular country winning this competition… I
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State fetishist is the best term I have heard in forever. 🙂
I don’t see much evidence that educated people who undergo psychoanalysis are less into shopping. 🙂 They shop for different things, but still. I mean, who do we know that’s smarter and psychologically healthier than me? OK, maybe you, but that’s kind of it. 🙂 And I shop compulsively for books. I’m out of control. I just need to have them. 🙂
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Someone has it all figured out. Just follow the money trail, like breadcrumbs, it will lead you there. 😉
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Wat, no significant technological progress since 1960?
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Well, don’t look at me, this isn’t my brilliant idea. 🙂
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Looks like they’re doing it in Thailand, too.
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Yes, because it makes sense to kill the environment into the bargain.
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