Day 137: Greece: The Birth and Death of Democracy

Today I watched an interesting documentary, called ‘Catastroika’ [see bottom for embedded video].

It was made in response to the financial crisis which has been taking place in Greece, and investigates the effects of Privatization.

It walks you through several countries, starting with Russia after the collapse of the Soviets – which had been used as a ‘neo-liberal laboratory’, where liberalists wanted to test mass privatization. It takes a look at France, where in Paris where big companies (along with EU authorities) wanted to privatize the water – were successful in this until the new mayorship took it back. During the time that the water was privatized, the quality of service went down while the consumers experienced massive price increases (260%) – without any form of justification (economic or technological), it was just a price rise thus, in the name of profit.

When the total privatization in Paris failed, the big guys turned their focus to Italy.

Here, again, the point of privatization was pushed. A referendum was held (a referendum is a vote by the public where they indicate their stance towards a particular policy issue – everyone has to vote and the results are binding, this is the best method currently to find out what public opinion is on a particular point) – and it turned out that 97% of the people, were against privatisation of the water.

When it was inquired whether the water was going to be privatised, the government said it couldn’t – as per the referendum.

So you’d think “Game Over” right? Nope – they simply put people in place like some executive guy or ex-banker (can’t remember the specifics, you’ll just have to watch the documentary lol), who then completes the point, against popular vote.

Where does this leave democracy? I mean, that was like a completely unconstitutional move.

Another example that is walked through, was the privatization of the Railways in England, and yes you can guess it: catastrophic. And even though the past, as the UKs history with the privatization with the Railways was disastrous, the point was still pushed within Greece.

This time, instead of putting people in place to just ‘make it happen’ – another approach was taken: media manipulation. Within the media, the public railway system was severely slandered and degraded, over and over – so that the public would agree, that maybe privatization could be an answer.

This documentary is very interesting to watch. Often, when there is talk about ‘virtual democracies’ – where ‘everything on the outside looks like it’s democratic’ but on the inside the very opposite happens – everyone’s attention goes to Third World countries elsewhere, like Africa – “out there” and criticise the people’s conduct their for their failure of democratic consolidation.

In the meanwhile, corruption and anti-democratic actions are taken the whole time, in the West, in Europe, in Greece: the very cradle of democracy.

It definitely proves one point: democracy is dead.

Private interests as the big multinational companies have taken precedence of what the majority of the people want – and it’s happening everywhere, all the time. (Little in between rant: It's funny because, in economics, the point of 'the private must be protected from the public' is emphasised ALL THE TIME, where if you allow the public to take over, they will infringe on YOUR freedoms, and you will not be able to 'realise yourself' and 'pursue your own personal good as you see fit'. I mean, that's just so much BULLSHIT -- and just plain propaganda to justify where the corporate world can take over and make insane profits at the expense of the majority, in the name of "Freedom" and "Self-Realization" -- because somehow, if that gets taken away it also imposes SERIOUS problems on your own personal freedom -- I mean, Really???)

Several economists were interviewed (some professors at universities such as London), and states that private enterprises do not necessarily do better than public ones – and that they can perform at the same level. Liberal economics would NOT agree with this, so it’s cool that this is coming to the fore.

Just in Greece with the financial crisis going on now for 2 years, the suicide rate has gone up by 20%.
The situation we’re in, worldwide – is seriously fucked up.

Though, it is not too late. The documentary also points out, that most of these problems are Political in nature, and that thus through participating within Politics, we can reverse this type of destructive policies which serve no-one but the few at the top of the private companies.

This is a crucial point, because the whole thing of ‘Let’s revolt’ and ‘Let’s demonstrate’ like the Occupy movement, are really pointless. You have to change the system, from the inside out, through popular support – not by attacking it.

Investigate Equal Money – we can change this.

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Day 135: 6 Billion wasted on US Elections

http://americablog.com/2012/11/2012-election-spending-topped-6-billion.html

The 2012 elections in the US reached 6 billion dollars, which is the highest amount ever. Most of this money goes to media and communication. And also consider -- that voter turnout was only around 50%. That's a lot of money, to convince only half the population.

If we look back at Day 17: Starvation is Murder, where we had a look at priority spending in the world and looked at how much money would be needed to achieve universal access to basic social services in developing countries -- we can see that this 6 Billion could have covered basic education for all.

What about, instead of spending all this money on campaigning, which is basically advertising -- you go and spend money and so something real like provide all developing countries with basic access to education -- that would be real nice campaigning stunt.

What does this tell us about Human Nature?

In economics we have thing called 'opportunity cost' which was also discussed in Day 46: The Economic Problem:

"Within that, opportunity cost specifically, refers to the next best alternative one forgoes for the option which was chosen. So if you have $50 and you want both a jacket and a shirt – and you decide to spend the money towards the jacket – the opportunity cost is the shirt as the next best thing you could have gotten. A cost for economists is what you had to ‘give up’ to ‘get it’. "

This tells us something about our values, and what we are willing to forgo in order to get what we want. This is just one example of how we are willing to invest massive amounts into an election -- but will not use this same money towards creating a world that is Better for All.


Economics is often called the 'science of scarcity' -- and likes to emphasise the problem of having limited resources to achieve certain things. Yet, we are living in a world where we care fuck-all about scarcity and being able to do 'only so much' -- instead of doing something real, like making sure that everyone has universal access to basic requirements -- some parts of the population hog up all the resources at the expense of many. If scarcity is such a problem, then why are we not acting according to this problem -- and use our resources effectively and responsibly?

How many more natural disasters do we need to experience? How many more disturbing news stories to we have to read EVERY DAY? Before we realise that ENOUGH is ENOUGH.

If you agree that enough is enough -- check out www.EqualMoney.org, and inform yourself on how we can make this world a better place for all.

Related articles

• Day 134: Worldwide FOOD SCAM Exposed!
• Day 177 - Addicted to buying Random Crap.
• Day 199 - Christianity shows the way to money.
• Day 178 - The salesman in my head, Buying Crap Part 2
• Day 179 - The Salesmen in my Head Part 3

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Day 24: Who put the G8 in Charge of the World?

"The G8, is made up of the seven most powerful economies of the world, (United States, Japan, Germany, France, UK, Canada, Italy) and Russia.

Together they form a very powerful and influential (though informal) group of nations. For example, they accounting for almost 50% of the votes at the IMF and World Bank."

Shah, A. 2008. G8 Summits: Empty promises each year, June 2010. http://www.globalissues.org/article/720/g8-summits-empty-promises-each-year

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to question why the G8 is in charge of running the world.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise that any form of democracy on a national level is meaningless if the global economy is mostly influenced by a group of nations that no-one elected to be in power and who can thus simply manipulate the global economy to suit their own interests.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to question why the 8 most powerful nations hold annual summits where they discuss their plans for the world and how they wish to attain their goals, wherein the public is never involved or asked to vote on these goals and implementation methods.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to question the concentration of power over the world's resources in 8 countries who are already the most wealthy of the world - therefore ensuring that power and wealth will always be on the side of the rich while effectively suppressing the poor.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise that the simple fact that the G8 prescribe structural adjustments that the poor must undergo in order to transform their economies and political structures without even consulting or discussing anyhting with these poor nations - show how the G8 do not hold their interests at heart in any way whatsoever, but merely interfere and dominate because they can.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to live in a world where the most powerful decisions are being made in a way where I have absolutely no day - where I can not directly vote and where there isn't even a form of representation applied.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise that actual democracy - where the people decide and rule - can never exist unless it is applied on all levels - local, national and global.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to simply submit to the G8 because it has the most power by virtue of its combined economic, military, and diplomatic capabilities - showing that each one lives in fear and is dominated by the few.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise that democracy can never exist without real equality, because in an unequal world, the most powerful and wealthy individuals and agents will simply take control and side-step the entire democratic system - because they can.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise that equality is a prerequisite for real democracy.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise that currently - no matter how many so-called democratic nations there are - the world is ruled by money votes and not by the principle of one man, one vote - where the rich and powerful will always be able to push through policies that are to their own advantage, without consideration for who pays the price.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise that a political democracy is impossible if the economy is inherently non-democratic, because the economy always yields to the most wealthy and those who run the economy, automatically run the political scene - and thus, every aspect of human life.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise that the only way to democratise our economy is through implementing an Equal Money System where each one unconditionally receives the means necessary to live an equally dignified life - and thus each one has equal economic, and consequently, equal political power.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise that an economic system that is non-democratic in its very nature will never be able to ensure a worls where all of humanity, let alone all living beings, equally benefits from participation in this economy.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise that any attempt to improve the current state of the world through political processes is a ridiculous waste of time if the issue of equal economic power is not addressed first.

I commit myself to expose the true nature of our world and who runs the show and how, despite beautiful talks of freedom and democracy by political leaders - those principles are not applied in any way that really matters.

I commit myself to educate people in the importance of equal economic power in order to really be able to live together peacefully and in consideration of each one so as to ensure a world where everyone is better off all of the time.

I commit myself to investigate the powers that run and control the world and question their legitimacy instead of merely accepting that what is, is and that there's probably a good reason for it or that there is probably no other way.

I commit myself to the effective and acual equalising of all human beings on Earth through ensuring equal economic power for each within an Equal Money System so that decision-making can be done on an actual democratic basis.

I commit myself to scrutinsing every aspect of our world and how it currently operates to assess in common sense whether what is currently existing is really in the best interest of all or merely in the interest of the few that dominate the masses.

I commit myself to educate people on what it is that we are accepting and allowing to exist in and as this world so that each one is able to take responsibility and actively engage and participate in redesigning it in a way that supports all living creatures to live a life worth living.

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