Mother empire has lost its mojo. Its decisions less likely to end in a positive ROI, its once-confident stride into other peoples’ countries meeting more resistance and its shrill declarations that the “American Way” is the only way unheeded by most of the world. An empire in distress, a shell of its former self, a pitifully reduced figure kept relevant by the killing power of its trillion-dollar military. Overseas the “sorrows of empire” [The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy and the End of the Republic, 2005 book by Chalmers Johnson] have produced an unsurprising result. The self-proclaimed global hegemon has got itself in a terrible jam. Eschewing diplomacy for war and violent overthrows of democratically elected governments has led to proxy wars in Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Laos, Cambodia, Nicaragua, Syria and currently Ukraine all of which ended or are about to end in dismal failures. The CIA assassinations of leaders of government that won’t play ball with U.S. and its oligarchs (aka rich campaign donors of the administration in power) have produced chaos and ruined nations, but little else. Ask Patrice Lumumba or Muammar Gaddafi. Oh that’s right, you can’t. They were murdered by the CIA. In Lumumba’s case, the CIA installed a character named Mobuto whose despotic rule lasted over thirty years with plenty of support from the U.S. and its western vassal nations.
The problems of empire are even more devastating at home. In the US economic inequality is out of control. As of 2022, 735 billionaires possessed more wealth than the bottom 50% of U.S. households [Snopes]. It gets worse. The 3 million people who make up the wealthiest 1% of Americans are collectively worth more than the 291 million that make up the bottom 90%. [Money Watch]. Grim economic statistics are not surprising considering that the US political system has been handed over to the highest bidder resulting in a gigantic transfer of wealth upwards. Adding more fuel to the economic firestorm destroying the lives and prospects of millions are the machinations of a U.S. finance system that enriches elites and pauperizes average Americans.
Systemic problems that the Congress and the President have the power to solve go unsolved. Take the child poverty rate. The expanded child tax credit (CTC) which sent millions of poor families up to $300/child/month was part of the American Rescue Plan passed during the Covid crisis. Childhood poverty dropped to a record-breaking low of 5.1% in 2021. For the richest country in the world still too many hungry children, but it was a start. But the billionaires, aka rich campaign donors, were unhappy. Members of Congress concerned about their job security got the message. Declaring the pandemic crisis over, Congress and the White House in full retreat refused to consider an extension. One senator, a democrat (Joe Manchin), insisted that parents used the money to buy drugs. The results were disastrous. In 2022 after the CTC expired, childhood poverty more than doubled to 12.4%. In the richest country in the world, more than nine million children went to bed hungry. “The increase [in childhood poverty] followed two years of historically large declines in poverty, driven primarily by safety net programs that were created or expanded during the pandemic. Those included a series of direct payments to households in 2020 and 2021, enhanced unemployment and nutrition benefits, increased rental assistance and an expanded child tax credit, which briefly provided a guaranteed income to families with children.” [The New York Times, 3/12/2023]. Like most problems affecting the lives of poor Americans, the richest country in the world could solve it. According to the Economic Policy Institute, all it takes is “…Expansions of our generally stingy welfare state [which] could essentially eliminate poverty completely.”
The entire government is captured by industrial titans — big pharma, big energy, big ag, big tech and of course big military, aka MIC. Ever hear of regulators being paid by the industry they’re supposed to be regulating? The U.S. is drowning in it. The poster child for corporate capture is the FDA (Food and Drug Administration). In 1992, Congress, a willing dupe of big pharma, one of its major campaign donors, passed the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDFUA) under which drug manufacturers pay “user fees” to get their drugs approved. The result: on average 69% of drug applications are approved in the U.S. before receiving approval in any other country. A clear conflict of interest. Sometimes this cosy relationship can produce chilling results. In 1999, the FDA approved Vioxx, an anti-inflammatory arthritis remedy. Problem was that Vioxx was a killer. One of the FDA’s own scientists, Dr. David Graham, estimated that Vioxx had been associated with more than 27,000 heart attacks or deaths linked to cardiac problems. Vioxx was recalled in 2004. Not before the drug company Merck pulled in $3.5 billion from sales to an estimated twenty million American patients.
Is it any wonder that horrific examples like Vioxx dot the landscape in American medicine? The FDA which receives 56% of its funding, $3.416 billion in 2022, from big pharma [British Medical Journal] knows where its bread is buttered. Certainly not safeguarding the health and welfare of ordinary Americans. Are U.S. regulators on the take? Consider. Between 2006-2019, nine of ten (90%) of ex-FDA commissioners have gone to work at big pharma, including Scott Gottlieb, FDA commissioner from 2017 to 2019, who became a Pfizer board member with a $365,000 stipend. That’s the same Pfizer that became a $100 billion company in 2022. Forty percent of those revenues were sales from the COVID vaccine.
Surveying the damage caused by the chummy relationship between the drug industry and its government partner – ahem – regulator, the British Medical Journal accused the FDA of being “a prime example of institutional corruption. It is no longer possible for doctors and patients to receive unbiased, rigorous evaluations from drug regulators.”
To that we can add that misuse of prescription drugs are the third leading cause of death in the U.S.
There’s lots more to weep and wail about like the six million Americans who have lost their Medicaid coverage over the last few months when President Biden pulled the plug on the pandemic-era freeze allowing millions to keep their Medicaid coverage and millions more to enroll. Eventually fifteen million Americans — including many children may be without health insurance.
Is this how empires die? At home and abroad the US has painted itself into a corner with no end in sight. Involved in a proxy war targeting Russia, eager to move on to its next calamity — a proxy war in which Taiwan, with U.S. backing will challenge China. What could possibly go wrong? Things look equally gloomy at home. Economic inequality is a fact of life for millions. 57% of all American adults have less than $1,000 saved for emergencies, half have zero retirement, and one-third of Americans 35-55 have zero emergency savings. Roads, bridges, and other infrastructure in the U.S. are on their last legs with no political will to pony up the billions to fix them. Is this the end of the road? Not if the American people get out of their stupor and demand restitution, redress, and transformation. A presidential year is the perfect time to start.
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