[Marxism] Re.: FT booms against Argentina

[Chris Brady <cdbrady@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I appreciate the notice from Nestor and the provision by Marvin from the
Financial Times.

I was impressed by the FT's insinuation that Argentine debtors simply
sling "personal
insults" when asked by their creditors to pay up.  Having grown up in
Toronto in a bourgeois WASPish social environment, I recognize veiled
racism when I see it, even when cloaked in typical Canadian
understatement.  Perhaps my sensitivities have been stoked by recently
seeing ?The Bronze Screen: 100 Years of the Latino Image in American
Cinema? (see: http://www.bronzescreen.com ).

The Canadian capitalist class has gotten away scot-free for way too
long.  Canadians generally have reservations about the giant to the
immediate south, and can be quite critical of US imperialism, but they
typically fail to recognize that their own G-7 economy behaves exactly
as a Marxist would expect of a G-7 economy in the international
scramble.  Now this reactionary spew from the FT, a long-established
voice of the Old Boy (UCC) establishment, underscores the association of
guilt (the Guilty-Seven) to which they all belong: capitalist monsters.

The FT's suggestion that Argentina should "allow utility prices to rise"
as one of several ways to pay off the debt certainly must appeal to
some.  I am sure those some few live outside Argentina, perhaps in the
tony neighborhoods of Point Grey, Forest Hill, or Mount Royal.  Or if
Argentine they're so wealthy that a tripling of water, electricity,
sewage rates, etc., and gas, would pass unnoticed.

"Allow utility prices to rise."  What a terrific idea!  Why hasn't this
been thought of before?  I hear a giant sucking sound.

Then the Financial Times rambles on about some "moral hazard" --as if
capitalism was pure and divine and not born dripping with gore and
filth. It goes on to take another swipe at Latin's putative passion over
reason with its jab about Argentine "foot-stamping defiance" as if the
swarthy little scamps had snarfed down all the pastries on the shelf and
now were flying into petulant tantrums over paying the price.

And it continues to bemuse us that bourgeois "moralists" continue to
prescribe "painful but necessary reform" for the masses in
super-exploited economies-- oh, no, sorry: everywhere now (eg.
California, Oregon, Ontario, etc.), but NEVER EVER suggest that we TAX
THE RICH.  You will never hear these respectable paragons of virtue
suggest Argentines take back the money that swindling banks stole from
the people through the connivance of military gangster bosses who
ordered assassins in green Ford Falcons to torture and slaughter
thousands of young men and women with the solid support and
encouragement from governments in the home lands of those same banks.
No.  Their solution is to tax the people more through raising their fees
for necessities?  What is this, a "double dip"?  It is no less.

AND THEN the FT has audacity to accuse Argentina of "blackmail", by
gawd.  The extortionist accuses the victim of resistance.  Yo ho ho.
What a bunch of swindlers.  I can't call them pirates becasue it would
do an injustice to piracy.  When is the rest of the Hemisphere going to
take Fidel's advice and stiff them?  JUST SAY NO!


_______________________________________________
Marxism mailing list
Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism