The political barriers to getting humane economic policy through Government House or Senate or Wall Street or whatever it's called in your country appear to be formidable. In confronting this reality, Mike Norman may have come up with a winning strategy when he notes that Americans have no problem with a single payer in the case of defense, so why not health care? At the very least, this observation could have legs with the bloodthirstier electorates of the world. The applications seem endless.
All we need do is recast each policy area in militaristic or violent terms and classify them as defense. For instance, education could be the 'Battle for Brains'; protecting the environment, 'Disappearing Pollution'; full-employment policy, 'Sabotaging Unemployment'; and basic income, 'Waterboarding Wage Slavery'....Heteconomist
A Peace Strategy for Warmongers
Peter Cooper
4 comments:
Nice shout out, thanks!
The interstate highway system was built for military reasons. It's all how it's framed as Lakoff says.
It's not such a new idea. Remember the Sputnik? In the late 1950's it spawned a generation of education spending that was tied to the idea of "national defense" which would never have been politically feasible otherwise.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Defense_Education_Act
Right about Sputnik. It was a huge wake up call.
"China" should be quite sufficient now. When China becomes the world's largest economy in the near future, it's in second place now, Americans will likely freak en masse and get serious out 'competing."
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