officially

they tell us that we are now "officially" in a recession. who gives a fuck what the so called experts say? for the guy sleeping on the street, for the young mother looking for a way to afford childcare, for the senior citizen going without heat in order to have enough money to pay for their medicine, for the millions starving and dying of preventable diseases throughout the world, the economy has long been in crisis mode. why do we need these talking heads to verify something that could be proven by any five minute walk through every city neighborhood in this country? and it ain't new. our economy is in crisis whether it is doing well or not. recession or not, there is no will for, or interest in, dealing with systemic poverty. therefore, as far as i'm concerned, we are always in crisis.

and what of the accepted waste inherent within our capitalist order? on the bus home today, i saw three young girls, obviously together and friendly to each other. instead of talking, they each pulled out a device that appeared to be one of those phone-ipod-internet providers. the girls were on a city bus, and appeared to be coming from a city school. how much do these devices cost? what is the monthly bill? who is paying for them? how many people have them, and what is the collective cost of them? now, if the country was impoverished, the poor would not be able to afford such items. there is money; that we have. but we don't have any sense. of course, such wasteful spending on the part of the working class doesn't let the system (ie, the rich and powerful) off the hook for poisoning the earth, for failing to provide universal health care, for committing war crimes, and much more. but the fact remains that we are an incredibly wasteful population. at some level, we have been brainwashed to confuse consumer choice with freedom and democracy. and on a deeper level, our economic system stresses the necessity of producing consumer items of dubious import, as opposed to producing things such as housing. just imagine the money that is wasted within the service economy. millions of people got up early on "black friday" and spent quite a bit of money. it is my guess that enough money was spent on that day to house many of our homeless. it is my guess that enough money was spent on that day to feed all the people who celebrated thanksgiving at a homeless shelter for quite a long while. they tell us that spending is good for the economy, but aren't the people who are wasting their money also a part of the economy? is the decision to line up outside a walmart and spend millions of dollars there (and to stampede workers in the process) instead of supporting local businesses good for the economy? it certainly isn't good for those who own and operate a local business, many of which are being destroyed by the walmarts among us. wouldn't it have been better for the millions of our mindless consumers to give their money to the homeless, or to donate their excess clothes, or to help organizations that are fighting for the poor around the world? imagine if every cent that was spent on black friday was instead donated to doctors without borders, or to paul farmer's organization in haiti, or to meca, (the middle east children's alliance) or to iraq veterans against the war, or to even create organizations that would act to oppose the policies of war and corporate domination supported by our two party system? i would imagine a viable third party could have been created with the money spent on black friday. and what are we waiting in line for? plasma tv's? a hulk dvd for 9 bucks? for this we need to break down doors and wait in crowds of thousands? what is wrong with the tv's we already have?

as our corporations continue to create false needs amongst the people, they tell us that we are in a recession. when people hear this, they are less likely to spend, a logical reaction to the news (and for many, the reality) of a struggling economy. but then, they tell us that the economy is built around robust consumer spending! well, i suppose the well being of walmart is based on people going to their stores, but people going to their stores doesn't mean that "the economy" is performing well. it just means it's performing well for walmart. our standards of success should not be those of business. i don't care if aig goes under. fuck aig! and freddie mac too! i prefer bernie mac, and i didn't even think he was that great. to me, a strong economy would be one that fed people, educated people, gave people health care, housed people, and provided people with quality cultural outlets. i don't give a shit about the deficit, and balancing the budget, and inflation, or whether we are in a recession, or the stock market. a good economy would improve the lives of the masses by providing them with the essentials of life. an economy driven by war and corporate domination can not do this, even when it is successful.

especially when it's successful.