Does anybody still think that the
UK austerity plan and the privatisation of everything, including the
health service, is purely a UK government plan? It is happening across
the planet, in the new era of capitalism, public is evil, private is
good. Populations will be impoverished as all wealth is syphoned up
to the privileged parasite class, at an ever increasing rate.
Greece, a country I visited
regularly over a number of years, and in my earlier visits in and
around Athens, I never saw a begger. Now it is not uncommon to see
people sleeping in doorways, including children. You will see people
rummaging through waste bins in search of something to eat or sell.
Suicides and substance abuse have rocketed in the last few years.
Spain, remember that country that
you went to on holiday, bustling streets and shops and a friendly
atmosphere? Well, regarding child poverty, Spain has now dropped to
the second worst in Europe, just above Romania.
Of course both of these
countries always had poverty, under capitalism every country has
poverty. The difference now is that it is widespread, endemic and
getting worse, not because of the lack of wealth, but because of the
ever increasing rate at which that wealth is being sucked upwards.
Even those countries that are
considered the leaders in social welfare, Sweden for example, are now
seeing their public services being gobbled up by the corporate greed
machine, to the detriment of the general population.
Two short quotes from The International Journal of Socialist Renewal:
Tonight’s public meeting is standing room only. The mood is cheerful, earnest, disciplined and, dare I say it, rather churchly. Fittingly, we begin with songs: first a hymn tune with the refrain "Everything is for sale", then a jazzier number that goes "Got any money? (Then you can buy a place in the queue)". Next there’s a short dystopian pantomime set in a hospital waiting room: the man with the private plan goes straight upstairs while the lady on the public option has to wait in line. The sheepish uninsured fellow with the broken leg is shown a price list, then the door.
Read the full article HERE:
Sweden’s welfare system is famously extensive: long parental leave, free childcare, free tertiary education, generous social security. After the economic crisis of the early 1990s successive governments have reduced entitlements and cut public spending, but what has changed the most is the incorporation of the private sector at every level of the welfare state. All public contracts are subject to competitive tendering and most new clinics and hospitals are built with private funds. Communal clinics, nursing homes and schools compete with private firms for pupils and patients. Last year the state paid almost 100 billion kronor (£11 billion) to private welfare operators, overwhelmingly to 10 large corporations all owned by private equity funds.
Bearing in mind the above facts, do you honestly believe that changing the smiling face of the Etonian millionaire, sitting on the throne at the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption, for another smiling Oxford educated suit, will make one bleeding bit of difference in the direction this country and every other country in Europe, is being driven? Will running and putting a X in a box in favour of party machine that is in the thrall of the financial mafia and the corporate world, stop the UK slide into a sweatshop economy, reverse the child poverty in Spain, reduce the deprivation and suicides in Greece, and bring back Sweden's social welfare system? Don't hold your breath.
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