Please consider reading The Deficit Myth by Stephanie Kelton! It’s enjoyable and eye-opening.
Have you ever wondered exactly why the US federal government supposedly has huge, terrible deficits, so they cannot fund healthcare, education and infrastructure, and then suddenly the US finds enough money to bail out Wall Street banks, wage wars and foreign interference, ramp up nuclear weaponry, and reduce taxes on corporations and the wealthy? Well, it turns out the US government cannot “run out of money.” Read The Deficit Myth and learn about the possibility of a “people’s economy.” Surprisingly to me, it’s so good I can read it as my bedtime reading!
Click this link for a Let’s Talk It Over panel that includes Stephanie Kelton, along with Naomi Klein (The Shock Doctrine), and Yanis Varoufakis, former Finance Minister of Greece.
Another book to read — or 15-minute TED talk to watch — is by Rutger Bregman, a young Dutch historian. I loved his book Utopia for Realists, in which he focused on Universal Basic Income (UBI), open borders, and a 15-hour workweek, with unexpected examples from around the world including the good old USA. His latest book Humankind has research showing that humans are kind; we are not as “bad” as the “divide and conquerors” would like us to believe.
All of this is important so that we know we have what it takes — money and kindness — to do what we can to create a better world.
Speaking of a better world, please remember to pretty much disbelieve whatever you hear about the US-sanctioned nations of Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela — click the country name for information or actions you can take that will make a difference for their people. The misinformation is true whether the news is from CNN, FOX or PBS, from the The New York Times or The Washington Post, or from some very progressive outlets that are sadly more oriented toward critique and cynicism than they are toward solidarity and support of the many efforts — imperfect of course — that have as their goal a better life and environment for ordinary folks around the world. More detail is found in prior blogs Seven Tips: How to Tell when it’s a Lie and Ten Things for US to Understand about Latin America.
Another world is possible.