Growth

Today President Obama announced he is renominating Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke to a second term due to his efforts to work against the ongoing US and global recession. Of key note to Ben's ideological perspective is his recent economic prescription for the US. Essentially he said that currently the US economy is in its best state for a return to "growth" and that the next year looks good.

Now let us ponder the term and use of the word growth here and ask a few more questions. How is a lack of jobs and a continuously higher unemployment rates good for the economy? Something to note is Ben is really speaking to the top tiered class in the US, the one that succeeds or fails with a fluctuating stock market. So what about the 80-90% of the rest of us? Inequalities still beaming, does it matter? Who matters more to President Obama and good old Ben? Do they care about low-income people? What about the middle class? It's been said that the way to understand the difference amongst classes (loosely and generally I might add) is low-income folks struggle daily to make ends meet, middle-class folks own homes but otherwise may find affinity with low-income people, or rather strive to reach for the elite class that has investments tied to other larger financial markets (hedge funds, stocks, bonds, etc.)

Growth is only "good" for a small segment of the population that strives for private wealth. As capitalism has shown us, a system built on those premises will not can not support a total society of the planet. Growth and the mentality that growth is inevitable and necessary in order to have a "healthy" economy are fallacies in that growth continues to consume the Earth and all its resources as well as those who come in the way of rising to a higher class status. This status is of course socially constructed in the sense that without the Earth and its resources no life would exist. Yet as Obama continues the war in Afghanistan and the GDP rises as it is directly tied to military activity, people are dying and the yearning for more growth is extended.

Put simply, until the mindset that growth is not good is shared, until every person is afforded health care and education and the barriers to equality are lessened, Ben and Barrack will not be working for the public good, for peace, for justice or sustainability, because an economy that continues in the trend the US has had only benefits the "lucky" few that get all the benefits while everyone else faces all the burdens.

The mindset that growth is good MUST come to an end!