One of the Best Gifts Ever!

I am always so impressed by many of our young people. Two great examples are my son and nephew. My son built me the greatest computer and has tried to turn me into a geek. My father in 1990 started me on the way. But my son, who is a genius, has really dragged me into cyberspace. He was instrumental in my starting this blog. I can’t thank him enough.

Likewise, my nephew, who was also instrumental in my starting this blog, gave me one of the greatest gifts ever this holiday. He gave me “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man,” by John Perkins. I can not recommend this book strongly enough. It is the personal story of a man who confesses to being part of the problem. He ties together world history, current events, and corporatocracy using his personal story.

He doesn’t describe the corporatization of our government and other governments as a conspiracy, but merely the natural evolution of the oligarchy and a way of life. He starts out positing that greed and self service are merely a part of the human experience of those in power and those who desire power, and or the good life.

Then he takes a personal detour and suggests an alternative and confesses. I think that he is right. I am an optimist and a cup half-full person. So, I am always so disappointed by my fellow human beings, and myself, when we do something that is self-serving and detrimental to the larger picture, and our fellow humans and the world at large.

This book put into perspective for me why I felt that the current administration has so blatantly employed policies and made it clear that they plan to turn the U.S.A. into a “Third World Country” or an LDC. Though he doesn’t say as much there are hints and it hit me square in the forehead. This is happening because it has worked so well for the oligarchy in the past. Why not try it here as well? How else can you explain the tax cuts for the extraordinarily wealthy and the corporate class, the benefit cuts to the middle-class, the working-poor and the poor, and the widening income gap? The need for the huge deficits become even clearer.

It makes it clear why the administration will continue to have only US companies allowed to do business in Iraq. It makes it clear the logic of having Paul Wolfowitz as the head of the World Bank. It makes it clear why the World Bank was in the Ukraine and touting the newly elected head of the government long before the “Revolution.”

This book makes the “New Empire” and imperialism clear.

Read it and decide if you want to continue to be “Part of the Problem.”

Mr. Perkins by connecting the dots has challenged us all.