If you wanted an example of how the UK is becoming more like the USA look at the roads.... the appalling state of many roads in the USA partly prompted John Kenneth Galbraith's observation some 50 years ago that the US combined public squalor with private affluence.

Given the concentration of wealth in the UK & the ever growing problem of potholes in roads, a similar observation would seem (and has seemed for some time) apposite for the UK.

#inequality #politics

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm2rm8evv7eo

Cost of fixing potholes hits £18bn, industry body estimates

Just 51% of the local road network in England and Wales is reported to be in good condition, research suggests.

BBC News
@ChrisMayLA6 Like so many politicoeconomic choices today around the world in the industrialised nations is a false economic system: Keynesian militarism.
Keynes encouraged growth through social endeavour, not the military.
The argument about 'growth' is one largely ignored in mainstream economics/politics.
https://open.substack.com/pub/savageminds/p/my-address-to-the-european-parliament?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=6gykt6
My Address to the European Parliament

How Europe Fell Into the Arms of Warmongering, and What We Must Do

Savage Minds
Clara Mattei: capitalism is not natural - it’s enforced

YouTube

@Herefordrob @ChrisMayLA6 This is a very good interview. Some takeaway ideas that resonated with me:

"If you want people to get fed, then you are a revolutionary because the logic of profit will never bring you there."

Value defined in terms of food security, not an abstraction like money.

Participatory funding decisions by local councils. The workers decide what programs their taxes fund.

Local-->National-->Global

Revolution = Change

#USpol #revolution

@JeanieBurrell

Agree completely. Change cannot come from the top down when the top has been captured by lobbyists and foreign investment.

@Herefordrob @ChrisMayLA6

@ReggieHere @JeanieBurrell @ChrisMayLA6 does anyone believe we need to "regulate better"will stop this happening again?

@Herefordrob

I think that better regulation might have prevented the situation reaching the current point, but govt has been playing catchup for a long time, and rather than addressing emerging concerns they've become mired in trying to regulate things that have already evolved into something else.

Localising power and decision-making would break the lobbyists' strangle hold on central govt and allow for new structures of control to develop.

@JeanieBurrell @ChrisMayLA6

@ReggieHere @JeanieBurrell @ChrisMayLA6
Cosmolocalism is a needed brake on the chokehold of corporate oligarchs' involvement in politics.
We need a revolutionary transformation of politicoeconomics. Starting with an individual perspective opening & curiosity. Thank you for your reply and for keeping the conversation going
@ReggieHere @JeanieBurrell @ChrisMayLA6
Without a #universaleducation, we will not achieve full human capacity, including #universalequality or #universaljustice
Paulo Freire called it "bank education." The state makes a deposit and then later makes a withdrawal, i.e. tax or canon fodder. Another domination system that needs to be replaced with partnership.
@Herefordrob @ReggieHere @JeanieBurrell @ChrisMayLA6 I remember this from my Social studies degree a real blast from the past and still relevant
@Herefordrob @ReggieHere @ChrisMayLA6 Hmmm. Might see if my library has that one.