by Craig Rhodes

"In truth, the “free market” means nothing to the men who run the system. It’s just a public relations scam designed to dupe investors into plunking their money into a system that’s rigged for the carnivores at the top of the economic food-chain. "

Mike Whitney

Today’s editorial entitled, "Solutions", in the Paducah Sun is a recipe for economic disaster if followed. To summarize, it advocates more of the same as a solution for the ravages brought onto our nation by conservative “free market” economics. It is tantamount to pouring gasoline on the fire.

Based on both recent and past history of conservative “free market” economics, the term should be revised to “Disaster Economics” as described in Naomi Klein’s recent book “The Shock Doctrine”.

We’ve heard it all before, less government regulation, tax breaks for the upper classes, scapegoating of liberals, and demonizing of anyone especially Democrats, offering viable solutions. And to add insult to injury the editorialist misspelled Obama’s name.

The Paxton Media Monopoly through their mouthpiece the Paducah Sun, are part of the problem not a part of the solution. What they are promoting is the very economic system Charles Dickens railed against in his many novels including “A Christmas Carol”. Merry Christmas suckers!

At this late date, we have numerous examples of the failure of unregulated free market economics. Whether it be privatized health insurance that denies benefits to improve their bottom line, an unregulated cable industry that gouges their customers, e coli in our meat, lead in children’s toys, Enron, Savings & Loan scandal, the Tobacco Industry, technetium in our aquifers, mercury in our water, corporate welfare, coal miners dying underground, the list goes on and on.

And now with the subprime mortgage crises exasperating the current recession and threatening to drag us into a depression, the conservative ideologues at the Paducah Sun offers as a solution, more of the same. They believe the government has no place in the solution because it “overreacts”. This totally ignores history.

Recessions have been a recurring feature of the American economy for centuries, even during the era of laissez-faire, when government left the economy almost entirely alone. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, eight American recessions worsened into depressions. It wasn’t until the advent of Keynesian policies that depressions were completely eliminated from our economy for over six decades.

Now that the free market, as defined by Milton Freidman and the Chicago School of Economics, has taken control of our government we find ourselves having to relive the past. How do you condemn today's government without condemning the corporate free market that controls it?

Just a cursory exam of what the “free market” has done to third world economies should be a warning to even the brain dead. No wonder that throughout Latin America this conservative ideology is being rejected for a more humane economic system. Nor is the U.S. immune to its ravages as evidenced by both recent and past history.

And to accuse Democrats of “class envy” is nothing more than a red herring designed to hide the fact that class warfare is actually being waged against the middle and lower classes of our society by the oligarchs for whom the Paducah Sun advocates even more tax breaks. Tax breaks for the wealthy while at same time they also promote an eternal war, which is unprecedented in itself.

Anyone paying attention knows that there has been a dramatic shift of wealth to the upper 10% of our nation due to the class warfare being waged against the rest of us. And it’s not due to the competence of the CEO class, as implied by the editorial, evidenced by compensation packages in the hundreds of millions for CEO’s leaving bankrupted companies behind them. Nor is it being reinvested in our economy as the editorial would have us believe, but instead is invested overseas. Ever hear of outsourcing? The fact that the Paxton Media Monopoly favors this redistribution of wealth into the hands of a few speaks volumes.

The economic system of disaster economics advocated by the Paxton Media Monopoly is, at its core, immoral. And herein is the immorality. If e coli is found in the meat supply of a meat market, the “free market” will self regulate when consumers stop buying the meat. So what if dozens of children lay sick and dying in the meantime? If a Ford Pinto explodes without warning, consumers will stop buying them thus the free market will self regulate. So what if dozens of owners of the Pinto burn alive in the meantime? If consumers discover lead in children’s toys they will stop buying them…so what if hundreds if not thousands of infants and children are poisoned in the meantime? The unregulated "free market" will self correct the subprime mortgage mess. So what if over 2 million homeowners have lost their homes so far?

The Paducah Sun’s advocacy of disaster capitalism is in keeping with their mean-spirited conservative ideology in that it is not designed for humanity and is consequently, inhumane. It has been around forever in many forms whether it be trickle down economics, voodoo economics, laissez faire economics, and now "free market" economics. The disastrous results have always been the same.

Unfortunately every few generations or so Americans have to relearn the lesson of past mistakes brought on by the failure of conservative ideology with its attendant disaster economics.