Ted Trainer: The Way It Could Be.
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In addition the rich countries have a long record of support for many dictatorial and brutal regimes. They have enabled and actually engaged in terrorism, they have invaded and attacked and killed thousands of innocent people, in order to ensure that regimes and regions keep to the sorts of policies that suit the rich countries. This intervention used to be described as countering "communist subversion" but is now more likely to be described as "humanitarian intervention" and as countering terrorism. (For extensive documentation on the existence and maintenance of the empire see Note 3.)
Rich world "living standards" could not be as high as they are if the global economy did not function in the ways outlined above. There is no possibility of satisfactory Third World development until the rich countries stop hogging far more than their fair share of the world’s resources, until development and distribution begin to be determined by need and not by market forces and profit, and therefore until we develop a very different global economic system.
Market relations destroy social relations
In the richest countries we are seeing increasing social breakdown, stress and depression, drug abuse, suicide, litigation, decay of communities and rural decline. Attitudes to the poor, homeless and unemployed are hardening. Each of us must focus on competing to succeed as a self-interested aggressive entrepreneur, and we must not expect much assistance from the state, for instance in old age. Public institutions like museums and even universities are expected to operate like corporations that must sell to customers and make a profit. These phenomena involve a disturbing loss of social cohesion.
These are consequences of the neo-liberal agenda with its increasing insistence on market forces. The more attention individuals give to pursuing economic goals within the market the more that the values and concerns that are crucial for a good society will be driven out. (See Note 4.) There cannot be a satisfactory society unless people put considerable value on things like the public good, the welfare of all, social justice and the experience of less fortunate people. However in a market situation you have to be concerned only with your own advantage; i.e., with self interest. There is no incentive to think and behave cooperatively or to focus on what is good for society. The more we commercialise things, the more space buying and selling take up in our lives, the more we have to deal in a market place to get what we want, then the less attention we will give to social values, such as concern for the welfare of others or for the public good.
It has become a divided, winner-take-all society, with many now classified as "excluded". The rich, including the upper-middle class which does the top managerial and legal work for the corporations, and the professionals, are rapidly increasing their wealth and have no interest in calling for change. Inequality and polarisation are accelerating. The state has ceased to be concerned with redistribution of wealth. The greed evident in bank fees, corporate executive salaries, legal and professional fees, cheap sell-offs of public assets, etc does not evoke significant resistance.
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