Opinion Sur
Facing the European emergency, once again some countries turn to traditional financial and fiscal measures. Reacting to threats only with the very variables that were unable to prevent the crisis is not the most appropriate approach. The imposed measures, sustained by the hegemonic line of thought now claiming urgencies and emergencies, are not the only ones available nor the most effective: different approaches exist, approaches capable of providing another kind of solutions.
The bias stems from not fully recognizing the socioeconomic dynamic that led to the crisis; that is, the underlying logic beyond the fiscal and financial dreadful management that no doubt existed. The thing is there were- and which is even worst, there still are- other fundamental issues that led to the abyss: to begin with, the accelerated process of economic concentration in certain minority groups which has catastrophic implications for the contemporary globalized world. Huge mismatches and gaps were generated between a supply that naturally seeks to expand and a demand that, due to concentration is relatively left behind. As there is not the will nor the capacity to break the concentration pattern by increasing genuine income, countries turn to substitute solutions such as financing demand over and above the point of prudence. Hence financial bubbles and the actions of the usual greedy to speculate in horizons that kept getting loaded of risks and threats. We should also add superfluous, irresponsible consumption of those who concentrate purchasing power, the enormous environmental destruction, the oligopolistic handling of world savings, the investment funds’, pension funds’, sovereign wealth funds’ and hedge funds’ management (among others), each one focused on their own returns whichever the systemic impact of their decisions might lead to, the financial usury against the weak, the criminal ‘tax havens’, the commercial extortions of the strongest, the massive tax evasion and tax shelter of large multinational corporations using subtle under and over billing mechanisms between related companies, the control over media and ‘serious’ development agendas, among other critical factors.
In fact, it is not only about denouncing and protesting but also about understanding how things work and how can one operate on those other factors of the real world. The challenge is to transform what threatens a sustainable systemic course by substantially improving the way we function. If general well-being happens to be the goal, billionaire bailouts to restore instead of transforming the pre-crisis dynamics will wind up being futile. If, instead, it is about maintaining privilege and inequality (with the implications derived from them), those bailouts are well oriented. And what about the social cost dumped upon majorities? Well, the helmsmen of privilege say that is the cost that will be necessary to pay.
Until next month.
The editors.
