Progressives think long term. Establishments never change anything unless they are compelled to by the general population. If the current generation of young people are exposed now to a critique of right-wing propaganda and capitalist myths, then in ten or twenty years time the Tories and the corporate media will implement much of the current progressive agenda on our behalf – just as Cameron recently legalised same-sex marriage on our behalf. We do not care which wing of the establishment implements the reforms so long as they are eventually implemented. Improvements in social justice take time and it is a long hard struggle, but progress occurs when the general population understands how they are being manipulated and exploited by the elites.
Since the financial crash the establishment in Europe has been lying to its population about the need for “austerity”. The main social democratic parties in Europe lost their credibility when they bought into that lie. The public senses they are being lied to when they are told that there is “no money” for social services, welfare, wage increases or public investment. When the banks needed countless billions to be bailed out the money miraculously appeared out of nowhere. People saw that and they remember it. There was simply no question of there being “no money” for the plutocrats when they needed a bail out. The central banks of all the most developed countries have been creating trillions of dollars, yen, sterling and euros out of thin air over the last few years and giving it to banks in the form of “quantitative easing”. The wealth of the richest few percent has increased dramatically – no shortage of money for them. But when it comes to essential social services we are told that there is “no money”. People are not stupid enough to believe this any more. That’s why they are increasingly voting for anti-establishment politicians. If the establishment insists on sticking with its lie that “austerity” is necessary because there is supposedly “no money” then this phenomenon is going to keep getting worse.
For all of these reasons the election of Corbyn is a good thing, regardless of whether or not he ever becomes prime minister. Watch the establishment and corporate media howl about what a disaster this is. Listen to them blame the people for losing their minds. Hear them try to spread fear and loathing. The establishment cannot understand how people could be so detached from reality. The people will be sorry they have done this! But who is really detached from reality here, the establishment or the people?
In fact, wiser members of the establishment understand the problem and know what needs to be done. Here is Philp Stephens, sober commentator for the Financial Times: “Those puzzled by the rise of Jeremy Corbyn should recall what did not happen after the crash of 2008. The global economic crisis might have recast liberal capitalism. Instead, the financial elites got off more or less scot-free and the political establishment instead prescribed indefinite austerity for the masses. It is scarcely surprising that populists of right and left are now rewriting the rules of politics. Blame the bankers ... The brand of unbridled capitalism that hands all the gains of open markets and economic integration to the top 1 per cent, while piling austerity and insecurity on to the rest, is politically unsustainable.”
Here is Paul Krugman, chief economics commentator of the world’s most important newspaper and Nobel prize winning economist: “The Corbyn upset isn’t about a sudden left turn on the part of Labour supporters. It’s mainly about the strange, sad moral and intellectual collapse of Labour moderates.”
Here is rightwing investment commentator Anatole Kaletsky explaining why the basic theory behind Corbynomics is a good idea: “Corbyn is right to maintain that the Bank could create more money out of thin air and channel it into the economy more effectively and equitably than it has through its misguided policy of what might be called ‘conventional’ Quantitative Easing (QE) ... A weekly income boost of £20 for every citizen, or £80 for a typical family, would have worked very quickly to stimulate economic activity or inflation—more so than indirect distribution of money through bond markets and wealth effects. That, incidentally, was one of the few points of agreement between Milton Friedman and John Maynard Keynes in their analysis of economic depressions. Both argued persuasively that universal distributions of “free” paper money was a sure-fire weapon against depression, with the sole difference that Friedman proposed dropping money from helicopters, while Keynes was more Puritanical, suggesting money could be buried in disused coal-mines so that people would have to do hard work to dig it up.”
Here is moderate German economist Wolfgang Munchau in the Financial Times advocating that the European Central Bank adopt a version of Corbynomics: he muses about “a helicopter money drop — the one monetary policy yet untried. If the ECB gave every citizen in the eurozone a cheque for €5,000, it would have expanded its balance sheet by about €1.5tn. If that does not take care of the inflation problem, send another cheque.”
And here is Martin Wolf, chief economics commentator of the Financial Times, arguing that more equal wealth distribution increases productivity: “Europeans are aware that the economies of the highly redistributive Scandinavian countries have outperformed the less redistributive countries in the south. Moreover, these high-tax countries are also not suffering fiscal crises. Again, anybody who understands a little about development knows that the far more equal east Asian countries – notably, Japan and South Korea – vastly outperformed the far less equal countries of Latin America after the second world war. The Asians invested far more successfully in education and, in this and other ways, brought the population inside their dynamic modern economies. Less inequality is likely to make economies work better by increasing the ability of the entire population to participate in a productive way”
So ignore the scaremongering drivel being churned out by most of the corporate media and learn to love Corbynomics - it's the future folks!
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