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You are here: Home / Blog / America isn’t broke just yet

America isn’t broke just yet

By Erik Curren | November 10, 2011

Peak oil, which will bring the end of economic growth, may bankrupt the United States sooner than anybody thinks. But in the meantime, when our problems are more about finance than energy, there still seems to be plenty of money to go around if you can get your hands on it.

Rich people have always been first at the line for government handouts, but ever since Ronald Reagan, America’s top 1% has developed grabbiness into a fine art, pulling down tax rates for themselves through capital gains and inheritance while dinging the rest of us through rising income tax. And all the while, they’ve grabbed subsidies for industries that they run like Big Oil and defense, while leaving little money left to cover the services all Americans rely on like education and roads and rail.

Annie Leonard, who did “The Story of Stuff,” makes this crystal clear in her latest video animation, “The Story of Broke.”

Someday, the end of growth will put an end to many government services. But that day hasn’t yet arrived. So don’t let the rich bamboozle you into accepting unfair cuts on the middle class after the 1% crashed our economy. Instead, insist on fairness now, so that when contraction hits our economy in a big way, the principle of fairness will be firmly established.

— Erik Curren, Transition Voice

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Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Annie Leonard, economic growth, Great Recession, Story of Stuff

About Erik Curren

Erik Curren is the publisher of Transition Voice and the author of four books on Buddhism and solar power. His most recent title, Abolish Oil Now! Abolitionists Beat Slavery and Can Beat Climate Change, was published in October 2021.

Comments

  1. Auntiegrav says

    November 10, 2011 at 9:36 am

    We don’t need anarchists. We have economists to bring down the government.

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    • Erik Curren says

      November 10, 2011 at 11:35 am

      Yes, I think Milton Friedman has done more damage to the US economy than Mikhail Bakunin could ever have.

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