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Vol. 74/No. 49      December 27, 2010

 
Gov’t ‘stimulus’ is for the wealthy
(editorial)
 
There is no doubt capitalists are concerned about the state of the economy. Their worries, however, have nothing to do with how high levels of unemployment affect working people, with how workers are increasingly being forced to labor under deteriorating conditions on the job, or with how the rising costs of food and fuel are lowering the standard of living of working-class families. All of their solutions exacerbate our problems.

The government has been moving from one “stimulus” scheme to the next trying to shore up the capitalists’ declining profit system. The latest tax-cut package includes an extension of unemployment benefits for some workers who have been without a job between 26 and 99 weeks, in the midst of a bill that is a boon for the wealthiest corporations and individuals.

Democrats and Republicans are concerned about the U.S. budget deficit, which is growing in part due to these “stimulus” measures. The capitalists depend on their government to keep the system functioning. But with their profit margins under pressure, they don’t want more of the surplus value they extract from workers going to finance the state than the rulers consider necessary. Whether through taxes or otherwise.

What concerns working people is not their deficit per se, but how they intend to balance it: freezing wages, cutting social programs, and putting more workers out on the streets. At the same time the bosses and their government clamp down on workers, they urge us to get deeper into debt—spend and borrow—to prop up what is increasingly a teetering house of cards.

Economic devastation and wars are what working people can look forward to under capitalism in the coming decades. The necessity and possibility of working people taking power to end these horrors will be discussed at an upcoming public meeting in New York January 15 on “What Kind of Socialism for the 21st Century? The Long, Hard Battles Ahead.” (See announcement on front page.)
 
 
Related articles:
U.S. ‘stimulus’ measures have little impact on crisis  
 
 
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