In Michael Parenti’s speech “The Threat of US Imperialism” he focuses on the items that the government opposes. The main idea that I pick up was how invested he says the government is in budgeting and controlling pay for workers. By opposing every hour decrease for the workers from 12 to 10 to 8 there has always been opposition because the large companies want to force as many people to work for as little as they can so they can stuff their pockets. He states that the companies goal is “to pay you (the worker) as little as possible so that I (owners) can make as large a profit as possible. But, hope that other capitalists will pay their workers enough to buy the goods and services of my workers”. I think that the changes in the workforce put the most readily available and relatable experience for most people. By using the term imperialism (meaning a policy of extending a country’s power and influence) it can become a very strong topic. By using the nation’s doctrine to help influence and control the workers to work for less and for longer. It can create a very upsetting society that will feel based on oppressing the lower class so that those who are more fortunate can continue to prosper undeterred. Since most people at some point in their life had a high school job or a job straight out of school so they could make ends meet it can seem almost like being taken advantage of. Where your opinions may not matter and your person is disposable since it is an easily replaceable position. It can also spread outside of the nation of origin such as people in lesser developed nation’s working for hardly livable wages because the companies who hire them know that they can get away with it. This may be due to the other countries not having enough jobs or having a lower standard of living that US-based companies can take advantage of to increase their profits for their own gain at the expense of the struggling nation’s population.
Along with this, there are others, like Manfred Max-Neef, that believe that this corporate greed for higher profits can be doing actual harm to the nation. In his interview he sees humans, as a race, to know a whole lot but understand very little. In his view as an economist he knows all about poverty, he can make all the models and graphs he wants. But he says that he didn’t understand what it meant to be a man standing in the slums, standing in mud, with 5 children, a wife, and a grandmother to have to provide for. He was able to know what poverty was, what the economy was doing, and how it would change over time. However, he was never able to understand what it would be like to actually live in poverty, to have to work 14, 15, 16 hour days just to provide enough food for a family. He follows this up by bringing up his idea that the US is an “underdeveloping nation”. Originally, there was developed, underdeveloped, and developing as terms for the growth of a nation. He now believes that the US has created a new category, underdeveloping. This new category where the 1% keep doing better and better while the other 99% are continuing to decline. The fact that there are people living in cars, parked in front of places that used to be their home, thousands of people. There are millions who have lost everything but the people that brought about the whole problem are doing extremely well. Thinking that it sucks to be them, but then also think to themselves ‘I’m fine, no problem, it doesn’t affect me’. When asked about how he would fix this issue. He has no idea. Stating that it can end in riots, a self-destructive economy, or wars. In my reading for this week, this was the most depressing and revealing view of the current state of the US. This view coming from someone from Chile. Someone who can look on the outside and see the whole picture as the rest of the world see it. Someone who sees what is supposed to be the most powerful nation in the world crumble beneath it’s own greed and stupidity.
Sustainable Communites 