Part One:
WHY DO WE PRESERVE CAPITALISM?
We speak with Richard D. Wolff, Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and now a visiting professor at The New School in NYC.
We discuss his article in Salon: “How Fascism has Converged with Capitalism to Redefine Government.” The tendency of capitalism is toward instability, inequality, and fascism. The periodic crises of capitalism — recessions every 4-7 years putting many people out of work and creating widespread suffering and desperation — are a huge price that our people pay for maintaining capitalism. But when crises of capitalism coincide with other devastating crises, such as the coronavirus pandemic, the combination could shake capitalism to the breaking point.
Wolff’s study of economic history reminds us that the Bubonic Plague was a major factor in ending the system of feudalism. Woodrow Wilson tried to downplay the Spanish flu epidemic during World War I because we were in a war to “save democracy.” And FDR saved capitalism from the Great Depression with his New Deal.
But the coronavirus pandemic is impossible to ignore (although Trump does his best to pretend it doesn’t exist). Perhaps we don’t have to contort ourselves to look for solutions to these crises only if they also preserve the capitalist system.
Wolff reminds us that Donald Trump is not the reason why COVID-19 is ravaging America. Capitalism is the reason. Trump is just a symptom. Wolff explains this further in his new book “The Sickness is the System,” which explores capitalism’s flaws.
Part Two:
TRUMP IS DESTROYING THE CIVIL SERVICE SYSTEM FOR FEDERAL EMPLOYEES. THIS WILL GRAVELY HARM OUR COUNTRY.
We speak with Donald F. Kettl, Professor in the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, University of Texas at Austin, about Trump’s latest effort to destroy the US Civil Service system. Kettl explains the history of why this is so important.
For nearly 100 years after our country’s founding, federal government jobs were filled through a “spoils system” whereby political leaders could simply fill jobs with their cronies who had worked on their campaigns. When the country realized that this system led to corruption instead of competence, it was replaced with a merit-based system. The current form of civil service employment has ensured that complex federal jobs have been filled with people who have the training and expertise to perform their tasks, and to do so in the nation’s interest rather than based on their loyalty to a particular president or official.
Trump recently announced an Executive Order that will essentially end that system, stripping job protection for most government workers and allowing the president to fire them for no reason. Then he can fill their agency jobs with loyalists who will support his political and ideological preferences rather than research true facts, engage in objective scientific analysis, or report a range of policy options to address the issues confronting the country.
An employee like Dr. Fauci could be fired for speaking the unbiased truth instead of simply attesting to the president’s wish list. And Fauci could be replaced by a puppet who will pretend to scientifically legitimize false claims that would help the president win reelection.
If Trump’s new Executive Order is implemented, it will not only deprive Americans of competent public servants. It will also remove the public’s ability to trust that our government is acting in all of our best interest, whether the government is urging us to accept a particular (possibly untested) vaccine, or the administration is assuring us that we don’t have to make any sacrifices in order to fight climate change.
