From my Twitter account:
Econocide is, I think, an appropriate term for this government’s economic policy. It is the pursuit of a policy of economic destruction, of jobs, of companies, of whole sectors, of wellbeing and even of life itself. How else to describe what this government is choosing to do?
— Richard Murphy (@RichardJMurphy) September 27, 2020
Is that fair?
I have taken the idea from ecocide which is defined as ‘destruction of the natural environment, especially when deliberate.'
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“Econocide” seems a reasonable word to propose given we now live very much in a monetary economy and not in a feudal or hunter-gatherer one. What the majority of voters don’t understand, however, is not that a monetary economy needs financing but how this should be successfully done. Very obviously they have learnt no lessons from the crises of the Great Depression, Great Recession, two World Wars and now Covid-19 that there needs to be a “Financier of Last Resort” to keep their monetary economy show on the road and this can only be government!
Precisely
Through the crockery up in the air and see which pieces survive. No thought of human misery and lives. I hate these bastards.
I’d define Econocide as imagination stymied by fear.
The fear is that the Government will owe monies that are too big to pay back. It is based on the orthodoxy of ignorance.
Ignorance of the sovereign aspects/power of money .
Ignorance of the value of tax.
Ignorance of the needs of the real people in their care.
Because the stupid politicians in the system do not understand their own powers as a Government (lets face it why would they – they all come form the City of London that is the biggest debt machine in the country’s history). They are all in Government and politics to further the aims of markets – not Governments or democracy.
They therefore lack the intellectual tools to deal with the virus.
If this was a traditional war, oh, they’d find the money alright.
But they do not see it that way. One of the reasons why is that many of them are very comfortable – they don’t actually need their Government job. They have no idea about the lives of the people they rule.
Econocide is created by ignorance – that is how I would define it.
The other thing that makes it possible is emotions (of which fear is just one) – we are more emotional these days than rational I think as identity politics is a massive distraction from issues that are collectively more significant.
I’ve been looking into the possible reversal of Roe v Wade in the US – a case that made abortion possible in America. The Evangelicals are making huge strides for example in getting that over-turned – it is their biggest focus.
Yet you’d think that real Christians would be more interested in the plight of the poor and the rampant inequality in their country. Well they are not. They can live with Republicans and Trump just to stop abortion. They want to save the lives of unborn children but do not seem to think about the poverty and unfairness the saved children will be born into or resultant suffering!!
Likewise for Covid-19 and the economy. Everyone knows what is needed deep down – money. But we are so over-burdened with lies about money and who has the power and who doesn’t that those who need to cannot see beyond the bounds of their limited rationality. These lies work when all is well. They now don’t work at all when faced with the pandemic.
I’m not sure if this is deliberate – the lying that creates the myths seen as knowledge is deliberate – but the omissions – the lack of action as a result of being taken in by them – is day by day taking on the persona of major human tragedy in this country.
I have no idea what will happen next. Sooner or later a certain group of people will have had enough. I just hope that it is the progressives that take action.
Not sure if it is deliberate, but this blogpost appears to have no title, which might make it difficult to reach from the main page (I clicked on the link to the comments).
It was a mistake
Corrected now
I have had other things to think about
Funeral planning now largely done, I think