Trying to prevent an economic recession/depression from the top-down is like trying to push string: The more you push, the more slack develops – but nothing moves along.
Corporations will keep hoarding their capital & won’t hire employees or invest in the REAL economy. 1/4
Corporations won’t spend one additional penny on hiring workers or additional capacity unless that penny returns more pennies. And that doesn’t happen unless consumers have money to spend on the goods & services they need. 2/4
Top-down bailouts, like what we’ve seen over the past few months, never work. Never have & never will.
They only function to further redistribute more wealth to the already wealthy, which is exactly what we’ve seen over the past few months. 3/4
As the financial markets, large corporations & the 1% receive trillions in handouts, the REAL economy - the economy that affects you & I - is headed for a train wreck. 4/4
Leftists want a fair, democratic & sustainable economy.
Capitalism inherently & systematically delivers the opposite.
If your long-term vision doesn’t include replacing capitalism with something better, either you’re not a leftist or you don’t understand capitalism. 1/9
Wages are our claim to our share of our collective economic efforts.
A good economy would provide equitable wages rewarding us for effort, sacrifice or duration of work.
I’m super excited to announce some HUGE professional news:
I have joined the Biden/Harris administration as Director of the Radical Left Agenda and will be leading the transition to a Radical Left Economy.
Let’s get to work! 1/33
I’m kidding, of course, because the Biden/Harris administration is not remotely radical left.
But since so many seem confused on what a Radical Left economic agenda might actually look like here’s exactly what I would do if I were to lead such an effort 2/33
The first flaw of capitalism is that it is inherently anti-democratic.
Workplaces make decisions that affect workers, communities & even the entire planet. But capitalist workplaces are top-down enterprises where only a tiny handful have all the say. 3/33
How might the Left overcome self-defeating infighting & endless strategy disputes and instead start building the type of solidarity necessary to win a radically better world?
Left Solidarity in a Hostile World 1/30
There is little disagreement on both the importance & urgency of the systemic changes we desperately need.
Pervasive institutional racism systematically under-develops & under-nurtures communities of color. From systemic underfunding of schools to environmental racism, from economic injustice to the racist criminal “justice” system. 3/30
The current split we’re seeing in the Republican Party is not a sudden split of ‘consciousness’ or ‘doing what’s right’, but rather a split between two factions of their billionaire donors: Langone et al. vs. Mercers et al. 1/14
Policy-wise, these two groups agree on nearly everything, but there is a rift in strategy. One group funds & supports conspiracy theories, right-wing & white-supremacist extremist groups, etc.
They do so for two primary reasons: 2/14
First, people’s lives are in turmoil. Millions are food and housing insecure. Capitalist alienation & atomization is rampant. Our political system represents corporate interests & the 1% - leaving crumbs for everyone else. People are hurting. 3/14
After 4 years of a belligerent racist, sexist, authoritarian President - supported by millions, what lessons can we on the Left draw?
And how do we continue to organize for the radical transformations we seek within a society so deeply entrenched in racism & sexism? 1/18
First, it’s incredible how so many people’s entire narrative of this country completely changes based on if enough voter suppression or ballot purging changes the result of an election between two people who are both ‘widely disliked.’
It's worth examining.. 2/18
Trump would never have been elected president in 2016 if the GOP had not gotten away with purging so many Black & Brown voters. 3/18