Discussion
"The US economy as a whole is sustained by lending, backed up by government, with profits accruing from production under excruciating pressure."
Our social programs have been replaced by public-private partnerships that benefit these "politically dependent firms." Bush's Prescription Drug Act didn't seek to recoup public investment in pharma research through lower prices - it offered a (further) subsidy to pharma companies in exchange for (paltry/nonexistent) price breaks.
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Obama's Affordable Care Act transferred hundreds of billions to investors in health corporations, who raised prices and increased their profits. Trump's CARES Act bailed out every corporate debtor in the country. Biden's American Rescue Plan, CHIPS Act and Inflation Reduction Act don't offer public services or transfer funds to workers - instead, they offer subsidies to the for-profit sector.
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Electorally, political capitalism is a system of "vertiginous levels of campaign expenditure and open corruption on a vast scale." It pushed workers into the arms of far-right parties, while re-organizing center-left parties as center-right parties of the lanyard class. Both parties are hamstrung because "in a persistently low- or no-growth environment...parties can no longer operate on the basis of programmes for growth."
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This is really just scraping the surface. I think it's well worth £4 to read the source document. I look forward to the further development of this theory, to its being streamlined. It's got a lot of important things to say, even if it is a little hard to metabolize at present.
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I'm on a tour with my new book, the international bestseller Enshittification!
Catch me next in #Madison, CT (MONDAY!); #Hamburg; and #Denver!
Full schedule with dates and links at:
https://pluralistic.net/tour
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