Bill of goods

A recent headline declared “Money Replaces Iraq in Voter Concerns” (as though we were limited to one concern at a time). Given increasing signs of economic instability, and burgeoning talk of imminent recession or worse, it makes sense that pollsters and candidates would focus on families’ financial worries. Largely missing from public discourse, though, is something blatantly obvious to progressives and antiwar activists—the connections between the faltering economy and the current regime’s military misadventures.

Consider some interesting parallels. Just as “sub-prime” borrowers were sold mortgage products that eventually became too expensive for them to maintain, so the American people were sold the Iraq invasion on false pretenses, and with false impressions regarding the eventual costs. Remember the assertions by Paul Wolfowitz and others that, thanks to oil revenues, the war would “pay for itself?” And with its refusal to raise taxes to pay for its military expenditures, the Bush regime has in essence taken out an adjustable-rate mortgage, the costs of which will balloon beyond manageability in the future. Just as the greed of mortgage companies has caused a financial crisis with farther-reaching consequences than anyone could have predicted, so, thanks to the Bush regime’s eagerness to overthrow Saddam Hussein, we will be facing negative repercussions for years, if not generations, to come.

And the costs of war, of course, go far beyond the immediate financing of the war itself. The words of Dwight Eisenhower come to mind: “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.”

The American people, in short, have been sold a bill of goods. We have been swindled and cheated at nearly every turn, and the Iraq war is only one of the more blatant examples. Two new books provide further evidence that in the last generation or so, our economic and political systems have been thoroughly, systematically and purposefully redesigned to engineer enormous upward transfers of wealth and power.

Bob Sullivan’s “Gotcha Capitalism: How Hidden Fees Rip You Off Every Day and What You Can Do About It” details the hundreds of hidden costs and unnecessary fees built into banking and other economic transactions—in essence, taxes extracted without your consent by corporations. (See www.gotchacapitalism.com for more information.)

David Cay Johnston’s “Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You with the Bill)” pulls together example after example of taxpayer money being used to support the wealthy and well-connected, from stadium subsidies to tax breaks for big-box stores. Of this book, Ralph Nader says, “With clarity, conciseness, and cool, fact-saturated analysis, Mr. Johnston… sends the ultimate message to all Americans—either we demand to have a say, or we will continue to pay, pay, and pay.”

Were I one of the economic movers and shakers in this country, I would pay heed to the rising tide of discontent among Americans. As workers, consumers and citizens alike, the present system has been doing us a great disservice. Either it gets fixed, or we will need to replace it.