A NEW ECONOMIC BILL OF RIGHTS
Magdoff, Harry
A New Economic Bill of Rights BY HARRY MAGDOFF Most of us have been sold a bill of goods on what ails the United States. We've been told that reforms for the sake of human needs are impractical,...
...The deficits and related problems are symptoms, not causes, of our troubled economy...
...In reality, however, the conventional diagnosis has the cart before the horse...
...Lacking sufficient profit opportunities in productive activities, money capital shifted to financial sectors, producing a spiral of debt, speculation, and inflation of capital assets...
...There are few physical obstacles to a drastic change in priorities in favor of meeting the needs of the people...
...Not even the technical revolution in electronics was able to pull manufacturing production and investment out of its rut...
...hegemony is no longer undisputed, the attempt to retain a high degree of dominance in military and international economic affairs contributes to the economic tensions associated with deficits, high interest rates, and misdirection of resources...
...This country has idle and wasted labor power, a surplus of food, raw material sources, unused manufacturing and construction capacity, and the ability to produce still more machinery and equipment to erect homes, expand manufacturing capacity, repair the infrastructure, and clean up environmental hazards...
...the right of every family to a decent home...
...Harry Magdoff is co-editor of Monthly Review and co-author (with Paul Sweezy) of "Stagnation and the Financial Explosion...
...Nor will attempts to reduce the budget and trade deficits, even if successful, overcome stagnation and help the economy escape the perils lurking in the financial superstructure...
...But such intervention, whether in the form of deregulation or rescue money, only creates new strains and sources of future crises...
...Not a bad start for a people's progressive program...
...The deficits in the Federal budget and foreign trade are supposed to be twin evils that have crippled the economy...
...Simply put, the economy has run out of steam...
...In such periods, a substantial redistribution of income and wealth is required to alleviate hunger, unemployment, homeless-ness, and inadequate medical care...
...the right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation...
...We've been told that reforms for the sake of human needs are impractical, if not impossible...
...the right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health...
...So long as the capitalist economy experiences growth in industry and construction, labor unions and mass struggle can wrest some advantages from the surplus being generated...
...At heart, there is a fundamental conflict between the status quo sustained by the power structure and the provision of decent living conditions and a healthy environment for the people as a whole...
...Even if some of the symptoms could be alleviated, the disease would linger on...
...the right to a good education...
...What the American people need is to reach for a moral equivalent to war—for example, a foreign policy that removes our bases and military forces from the rest of the world and works for peace within the confines of the United Nations, and a domestic policy inspired by social justice...
...A major shift in income and wealth would provide the wherewithal for expanded consumer and government expenditures...
...Then more than ever, especially vigorous mass struggle is called for, since the goals of the struggle have to be much more radical...
...The stimuli that powered the post-World War II boom were self-limiting...
...After World War II, the United States assumed hegemonic control of the world imperialist system, shaping the international financial system and spreading its military might over the globe...
...But in periods of long-run stagnation, the ruling class uses its power to recapture concessions made earlier and to shift income and wealth from the lower to the upper classes...
...In fact, the remedies proposed by the conventional wisdom would make things worse for the vast majority...
...The disease is a long-lasting stagnation, one that we have been suffering from for more than two decades...
...And although U.S...
...the right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living...
...This type of financial explosion generates strains that require government intervention to forestall disaster...
...In Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1944 State of the Union message to Congress, he called for an Economic Bill of Rights...
...As the rate of growth slowed down, unemployment and poverty grew...
...As war needs became the top priority, the economy not only overcame the preceding ten years of stagnation but also accomplished unheard of production feats...
...Our experience during World War II demonstrates what the economy can accomplish when it is not hampered by the rule of the profit motive and the market...
...This Bill of Rights was to include "the right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the Nation...
...Tinkering with the money supply, interest rates, and other devices favored by economic orthodoxy will not get us out of the mess we are in...
...The main question is whether government policy is to be aimed at social justice, in defense of the poor and oppressed, or at protection of the business system in its present form...
...their impact petered out long ago...
...America's foreign policies only exacerbate the problem...
...In the absence of the kinds of economic stimuli that underpin booms, the economy has sunk into a morass of stagnation...
...In light of these perceptions, accepted wisdom touts such remedies as greater competitiveness in industry, higher labor productivity, reduced consumption, cuts in welfare spending, and a tax system that favors the rich...
Vol. 54 • November 1990 • No. 11
