"Restoring the American economy is not going to be a matter of simply jump-starting consumer spending, or even business investment. It's going to take a long, hard, focused effort to move away from a parasitic consumer economy in which profits are largely made through speculation, and towards a real economy that actually makes things that people both here and around the world need.
The sooner this truth is recognized, the more resources the government will still have left to put into the kind of investments that can help make that happen -- things such as job creation, income supports, home refinancings, and medical system reform that could help Americans get back on their feet. Of course, it would also be necessary to end the wars overseas and to dramatically slash military spending.
When former companies such as Citicorp and AIG are history, and when former Lehman Brothers, Citibank, and AIG managers, as well as most of the Pentagon Brass, are out working at civilian conservation corps camps helping to restore watersheds or replant forests, we will know the government finally "got" it."
DAVE LINDORFF is a Philadelphia-based journalist. His latest work is "The Case for Impeachment" (St. Martin's Press, 2006). His work is available at www.thiscantbehappening.net.
to read Dave Lindorff's article published in: Buzz Flash, March 5, 2009, visit
http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/lindorff/209