Network Schools – Wayne Gerseny to https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/04/03/magazine/thomas-piketty-interview u w B l.html?h I’ll smid=url-share the Is for

John Buell leaves it to the reader to connect the dots… but here’s what McConnell and the GOP want to see happen:

• The federal government doesn’t bail out the states
• States are forced to go through bankruptcy proceedings, a process that is not clearly defined on a national or, in some cases, even a state level.
• State and local government functions that are now manned by union employees and therefore provide a decent wages, hours, working conditions, and benefits are eliminated and provided instead by private corporations who use the same employment strategies as Amazon and Walmart to milk profits.
• The quality of life and quality of products deteriorates over time.

This is the world the GOP wants… and as Mr Buell points out they will see the American public on their “dream” through the “…moralistic reference to the profligacy of state governments” and the politics of resentment that accompany it.

Mr. Buell ends his essay with a different vision:

A robust safety net, debt relief, extended unemployment compensation, universal healthcare, assistance to routine state expenditures could spare us the most extreme possibilities. A more ambitious response would be a guarantee of a living wage job, to limit private capital’s inordinate control of the workplace and the job market and public banking to limit the power of the private banking community’s undemocratic Federal Reserve.

If no action is taken at the federal level before the end of November, expect the politics of division and resentment to play out at the state and local levels across the country as states and municipalities struggle to balance their budgets….

Source: Is Mitch McConnell Blocking State Aid to Enrich Vulture Funds and Bolster Corporate Control of the Economy?