The baleful influence of the West.

Apologists for exploitation claim that the rich are richer because they are smarter. But the stupidity of the rich is everywhere visible. The greedy fools have destroyed their domestic US market. Really, how stupid can you be? How do Americans buy when they are forced by offshoring out of well paid manufacturing and software engineering jobs into being waitresses, bartenders, retail clerks and part-time Walmart workers in order that corporate bottom lines improve? . . .

The belief spread by Wall Street and “shareholder advocates” that corporations only have responsibility to their owners and managers has destroyed the American economy.

By locating production offshore, corporations have destroyed the incomes that supported the American consumer market. . . .

Americans are already dispossessed of their livelihoods and careers and their pensions are next. Wherever we look, the fate of populations under Western influence [is] the same. The Ukrainians are exploited, the Greeks, the British, the Americans.

Wherever the West has an imprint, the populations are exploited. Exploitation of the many for the few is the Hallmark of the West, a decrepit, corrupt, and collapsing entity.^[1]

Mr. Roberts' point about exploitation of the people of the West rings true. I'm not altogether comfortable with the exploitation angle or with the idea that businesses should have a social mission. Plenty of businesses do contribute to their communities. Big business is another question entirely. I still remember the Bank of America guy back during the Cold War who said they didn't give a damn about what communists do so long as they pay their bills. On the exploitation and corporate citizenship angles, however, it's instructive to ask if Western nations and big business wanted to exploit their citizens and wanted to destroy the livelihoods of their own citizens, what exactly would they do differently from what they are doing now?

Perspective is obtained.

I think Mr. Roberts' focus is a bit too narrow. For example, the stupidity of treating the economy as a cornucopia never requiring inputs or maintenance explains a lot of the recklessness we see on economic matters. A big issue ancillary to that, of course, the stupendous and reckless levels of spending and debt. Note, too, the hubris of the supposedly educated class who seem never to doubt complex systems can be "managed" in a fashion superior to the chaotic, but disciplining, free market.

Where is there any discipline in the West? One can detect the faint glimmerings of it as the central bankers frantically move funds from one account to the other, print money out of thin air, and prepare to steal money from individual bank deposits requiring them to "bail in." But that discipline is being forced on them by circumstances they refused to acknowledge. It most certainly isn't coming from within.

This list of America's ills hardly begins to describe the full nature of the disaster that our political leaders have created (with our enthusiastic support, or course):

• reckless, nation-killing spending;
• reckless military adventures abroad;
• the hollowing out of middle America;
• fanatical globalism;
• financialization;
• revolutionary overhaul of 1/7th of the economy by a law unread by the politicians who enacted it;
• debasement of the currency (in 2013 4.3% of its value in 1913);
• a corrupt Department of Justice;
• secret trade deals that compromise sovereignty;
• trade deals that favor foreigners and harm Americans;
• importation of uneducated, hostile foreigners as wage competitors and welfare parasites;
• propagation of lies about "comprehensive immigration reform," amnesty, and asylum seekers;
• "refugee" resettlements against the wishes of affected communities and away from elite areas;
• flooding white communities with the black underclass through Section 8 housing vouchers;
• debasement of citizenship;
• punishing corporate tax rates;
• punishing regulation of business and private citizens;
• attacks on the family, religion, and culture;
• evisceration of the Constitution;
• Republicans too timid to impeach a president and judges acting outside of their constitutional authority;
• and a mendacious and partisan press.

The idea that Western nations are led by an elite who beyond a shadow of a doubt have the best interests of their people at heart is just ludicrous. Unasked for and unwanted mass immigration is the most disgraceful betrayal of us all, and vile and greasy lies are broadcast to justify it.

Fabulously wealthy individuals with all the presidential hopefuls in their pockets will demand and pay for the most ridiculous campaign lies, and voters will lap up any and all mendacious campaign flummery like it's @#$#% ambrosia, of course. The widespread apathy and abdication of citizenship on the part of voters must always be kept in mind, whatever the failings of the supposed leaders.

Bottom line: Mr. Roberts' idea that exploitation (or recklessness) are the essence of Western influence is sobering and can't be discarded out of hand.

It was not always thus, I think. Anyone who remembers the 1950s and early 1960s knows what it feels like to live in a sane society. Elvis Presley's gyrations were hidden from the viewers of the Ed Sullivan Show and an energetic and wildly creative rock and roll music contained no mention of bitches, hos, and bus'in' caps in anybody.

Now, in our graceless, early 21st-century America the political lie is an art form and freaks, guttersnipes and traitors are at the pinnacle of power. Intestinal intercourse is a sacrament. And the people have been abandoned.

Notes
^[1] "Ukrainians Dispossessed, Americans are next." By Paul Craig Roberts, guest post at The Burning Platform, 6/5/15 (emphasis added). Original at Paul Craig Roberts.