Let us first look at the United States

Yes, the United States has been experiencing dramatic economic growth for nine years, according to the Gross Domestic Product. However, we must ask ourselves, what is the social value of this economic activity. And what are the true indicators of a healthy and sustainable economy?

The Prison Industry

For example, the US prison industry is one of the fastest growing sectors of the US economy. In 1985, there were about 500,000 persons in jails or prisons. Today there are 2 million persons crowded into US jails and prisons. This is the second highest incarceration rate in the world. 3 million more are on probation or parole. These 5 million persons are disproportionately people of color. To accommodate this growing population, more and more prisons and jails are being built. Many are being run by for-profit corporations, that is, they are being privatized. Common sense tells us that these companies make more money if they have more prisoners stay in prison for longer periods. Citizens in small cities and towns, who before the globalised economy made their living working on family farms or in manufacturing enterprises, are now competing with citizens in other cities and towns to have prisons built in their locale. This prison industry is a big part of the US economic expansion that we hear so much about. It is really a form of social control under the name of the war on drugs.

The War on Drugs

While I’m on the subject, allow me to say that “war on drugs” is being used as propaganda to further corporate interests in other countries such as Colombia. President Clinton said this in a polite manner on May 2, 2000 when he spoke to the Council of the Americas. In an attempt to get support for his $1.7 Billion military aid package for the Colombian government, President Clinton said: “We need all your help. We have to win in Colombia. We have to win the fight for the free trade area in the Americas. We have to prove that freedom and free markets go hand in hand.”

Military Spending

This brings us to US military spending which is another part of the Gross Domestic Product, but once again this is not and indicator of a healthy and sustainable economy. In Fiscal Year 2001, the US will spend $305 Billion on the military. Over the next five years (Fiscal Years 2001-2005), the US will spend a total of $1.6 Trillion for the military. That’s one-thousand, six-hundred-billion dollars. In addition, the US sold or gave grants of weapons to other countries totaling $190 Billion between 1993-1997. These weapons went especially to the countries of the Middle East but almost every country on earth is included in the list. Amnesty International reports that many of these weapons are used by the governments of those countries to violate the human rights of their citizens.

Labor and Unemployment

Let us look at the way in which labor statistics misrepresent the benefits of US economic growth. Just last week, the US government reported an unemployment rate of 3.9%, a 30-year low, and that the economy added 340,000 new jobs in March. In fact, US corporations say they are forced to hire skilled workers from other countries. What the US government fails to report is that great numbers of persons in the US have stopped looking for work and that many workers are under employed. Many of the 2 million persons who are homeless in the US are working but do not earn enough to pay for housing. If you are lucky enough to have an education in computers and business skills, you can participate in the growing economy. If you are not lucky, you have to work two or three jobs, at places like McDonalds, to earn enough to support your family. Adjusted for inflation, workers are earning less today than they did 30 years ago. This following fact is almost unbelievable. The corporation Wal-Mart is the largest retailer in the US. It’s total sales of $137 Billion dollars was greater than the Gross Domestic Product of 155 countries. Yet, with all this wealth, one-half of Wal-Mart’s employees earn such a low salary that they qualify for US federal assistance. With a Gross Domestic Product of $8 Trillion, the US still has 35 million persons living in poverty, 9 million going hungry (1/3 of whom are children), 40 million without health insurance and 35 million person who are illiterate. Yes, we are on a race to the bottom driven by the search for profit at all costs, the growing concentration of wealth and the total disregard for the well being of the planet.

World Trade Organization

Another example of the effects in the US of the neo-liberal, corporate driven economy can be seen in the decisions of the World Trade Organization. Just a few years ago, the World Trade Organization ruled that the US must accept Venezuelan oil, even though accepting this oil forced the US to violate its own environmental laws. Activists in the US fought for years against corporate interests to have environmental standards and now they are being swept away. Yes, we realize that this decision might seem good for Venezuela, but it is really good for corporate interests because environmental standards are being driven lower and lower. In effect, the World Trade Organization, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have become the government.

Disparity of wealth

Let me cite one last example of the neo-liberal pressure to harm the common good, even in the US. In 1976, the wealthiest one-percent of US citizens owned 19% of all private wealth in the US. Today, this one-percent (that is, 2.7 million persons) owns over 40% of all wealth. Their share of US wealth is greater than the total wealth of the bottom 92% of the US population (that is 227 million persons). In 1977, the richest 1% of Americans earned as much after taxes as the poorest 49 million Americans. Today, the richest 1% of Americans earn as much after taxes as the poorest 100 million Americans.

Summary

In this milieu, each person is seen as just another commodity to increase efficiency and profit. If a person cannot adjust to this new model, they are considered a burden to society and discarded. This is most evident among the African, Latino and Indigenous American communities. The result is poverty, cuts in social programs and decreased taxes in favor of corporate and upper class interests. This leads to crime, drug and alcohol abuse and domestic violence. However, government programs for corporations and the wealthy were estimated at $250 Billion a few years ago, for example, research grants, infrastructure improvements, tax abatements, etc.

Solidarity is not a value. Two different worlds are emerging in which the wealthy and powerful in the US are united more and more with their counterparts in other parts of the globe.

Yes, the US economy is booming, at least for now, but at extreme costs.

Signs of Hope

Let me say, there are signs of hope. More and more persons are learning this lesson about globalization under the control of multi-national. Over the last six months, tens of thousands of students, members of labor unions and environmental groups have joined forces to challenge the instruments of global capital: the World Trade Organization, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

In December 1999 in Seattle, dozens of unions, over 700 non-governmental organizations and persons from over 100 countries united to stop the World Trade Organization from reaching its corporate driven goals. The actions of these 50,000 persons gave new life to a broad-based movement within the US for global change, and they brought the decisions of this secretive organization into public consciousness. As a result, a month ago similar demonstrations took place in Washington DC, the US capital, during the combined meeting of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Again, on May 1, International Workers Day, again there were similar demonstrations in cities across the US and in other countries. Contrary to media coverage, the activists are committed to non-violent struggle but the police are using tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets, false arrests and, in general, violate constitutional law.

There is also a growing movement on colleges and universities against sweat shop in the US and other countries. A recent study reported that over 50% of college and university students have been politically active. Last year, at a US Army base in the state of Georgia, ten thousand persons protested the notorious School of the Americas which trains soldiers from Latin American and Caribbean countries to control and kill their own people in the interests of global capital. Over 4,400 persons violated US law by processing onto the base. The vast majority of these persons were religious sisters, brothers, priests and young adults. In addition, there is a growing internet-based network to educate and link these disparate elements.

Canada

Now let us briefly look at Canada. While I am not as knowledgeable about Canada, I have learned that Canada is experiencing many of the same changes as the US.

Over the past 30 years, Canada has used its tax system and public spending programs to transfer wealth more equitably across social classes than was done in the US. This has been accomplished especially through wide based access to education and medical care.

However, the drive for lower taxes and less government has undercut this achievement. As government decreases its contribution to health and education, there is a corresponding increase in the costs to individual families. This is not surprising, given that previously free or low-cost services are in many cases now supplied by private, for-profit institutions, or by quasi-public ones that have been forced to adopt a fee-for-service as a condition of continued survival. This insidious form of privatization denies service to some and increases inequality for all.

If present trends continue, by 2001 federal program spending will have fallen to 12% of gross domestic product - its lowest level in fifty years. Even now, total public-sector program spending by all levels of government is 2 percentage points below the level of spending in the mid-1970s, based upon the Gross Domestic Product. This is because public sector program spending was cut so sharply between 1992 and 1998.

In this critical juncture in Canada’s history, public policy is being shaped in the context of a wide chorus of proposals for further income-tax cuts, and an ongoing drive to dismantle and privatize public services. These tax cuts, which are being proposed by the business lobby, would disproportionately favor those 10% of Canadians with the highest income. It is important to remember that this wealthy class has already received a disproportionate share of the benefits of the economic recovery. Those clamoring for the privatizing of public services proclaim dogmatically that the public good will always be served better when wealth is spent by individuals directly, rather than by their governments.

However, most citizens of Canada believe that governments have the responsibility of providing public goods such as health care, education, social security, public safety, and public infrastructure for the benefit of all. Most citizens consider access to education and health care to be their key to social equality and personal security. Evidence shows that federal government services and programs must play a major role in bringing about a thriving and sustainable economy.

More Signs of Hope

Again, on a hopeful note, the anti-sweat shop movement I mentioned in my reflections on US activism is also very popular in Canada. At Toronto University, for example, students had a sit-in which lasted several weeks to pressure the university to stop buying clothing made in sweat shops for sale on campus. Such activism is growing in other sectors.

Conclusion

What we need are indicators, on a national and global scale, that account for the well being of all citizens and the earth. The present economic indicators promote inequality and the destruction of sustainable human community.

“. . . in 1991 the Gross National Product was turned into the Gross Domestic Product - a quiet change that had very large implications.

Under the old measure, the Gross National Product, the earnings of a multinational firm were attributed to the country where the firm was owned and where the profits would eventually return. Under the Gross Domestic Product, however, the profits are attributed to the country where the factory or mine is located, even though they won’t stay there This accounting shift has turned many struggling nations into statistical boomtowns, while aiding the push for a global economy. Conveniently, it has hidden a basic fact: the nations of the North are walking off with the South’s resources and calling it a gain for the South.”

Some statistics

World Population: 6 billion persons

Population

USA: 265 Million, 5% of the world

Canada: 29 million, 0.5% of the world

Gross Domestic Product

USA: $7.8 Trillion, 1/4 of world

Canada: $611 Billion, 9th in the world

Gross Domestic Product per Capita

USA: $29,000, 7th in the world

Canada: $20,000, 17th in the world

Budget Surplus

USA: $2 Trillion 2001-2005

Canada: $100 Billion in 1999

Further Statistics in the USA

Poverty 35 Million, 13% of the population

Homeless 2 million per year, 22% veterans

Hunger 9 million, 33% children

No health insurance 40 million, 40% above mid-1970s

Small Christian Comm’s. 45,000