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TOTAL MOBILIZATION NOW!
During its history, the United States of America has been confronted with a myriad of crises. Hundreds of proclamations and executive directives have been declared for the purpose of dealing with the most important affairs of the nation. Wars and economic panics have been major phenomena which have required national emergency measures of the highest possible priority. While the nation has experienced financial and economic setbacks of nationwide proportion, especially during 1857, 1875 and 1893, these periods of economic difficulties did not provide the necessary precedent for the strategy or guidelines to deal with the plunge of the Great Depression of the 1929,and the years following up to World War II.
The United States of America was not prepared to meet the economic crash or emergency that occurred in 1929. Nor did the leadership of the nation recognize the ramifications of the event or the extent of the damage done, and continued to be done during the depression. While the political and financial interests indulged in the luxury of proclaiming all kinds of expediencies and palliatives in an attempt to stem the deluge, the Great Depression continued to paralyze and demoralize the nation shattering the entire social structure. It created an emergency unlike any exigency in the history of the nation, leaving a scar upon the nation and the North American people that will never be forgotten.
At the time of the Great Depression of the 1930's, the United States of America had the greatest array of technology in the world, the industrial capacity and know-how, the potential to produce and distribute to the North American people what would have amounted to one of the highest standards of living in the world. Instead of mobilizing all the resources of the nation to meet the economic crisis, the leadership during that time acquiesced for the continuation of the status quo of laissez-faire and business-as-usual, the very method of operation that was responsible for the economic collapse in the first place.
Experiments of all kinds were undertaken, even the destruction of food and farm products, while millions of North Americans were starving in the midst of plenty. One can only conclude that under the present mode of operation the production and distribution of goods and services, and the operation of the social and industrial complex, and the general welfare are incidental in the process.
The Great Depression continued up to World War II, covering the entire economic spectrum of the social and industrial structure of the country. While there was no physical reason why the social and technological mechanism of the United States of America could not be coordinated and restructured to meet the emergency of the depression, the government and the leadership of the nation never proposed the implementation of a comprehensive program or plan to eradicate the problem, or to prevent such a crisis from ever happening again. Had it not been for the emergence of World War II, the history of the United States of America would have been entirely different because the pressure of events would have forced the country to adopt a new approach which would solve the emergency of the Great Depression.
When the United States of America went into World War II, there were still millions of North Americans unemployed and the economy in a state of disarray. To meet the emergency or the war, about fifteen million North Americans were conscripted into the armed services during the course of the war, while some sixty four million North American workers were mobilized into war production or employed in civilian or consumer goods and services. In spite of the fact that many commercial and industrial corporations were reluctant to convert to wartime production until guarantees were forthcoming from the government, the nation was able to mobilize its technology, equipment and plants, agriculture, its natural and human resources to meet the needs of the armed services and to provide for the civilian population on a scale that was unprecedented in the history of the nation.
Had the United States of America and Canada adopted a policy of total war, of services from all and profits to none, or taken the profits out of war for the duration, the efficiency in the production and distribution of war material and civilian goods and services would have been increased many fold. Through quality control the production of shoddy and defective war material would have been eliminated along with those obsolete designs of airplanes, tanks, guns and ammunition which were responsible for the death of many North American youths during the conduct of the war. The mobilization of the nation's industry and resources would have minimized the waste of the nation's critical and irreplaceable resources, during the war. Also the national morale and the unity of purpose would have reached a much higher level, and the defeat of the armed might of world fascism would have taken less time with a minimum loss of lives.
Since the end of World War II, the political government of the United States of America has pursued a policy that has had a devastating effect on the nation. The financial and military-industrial conglomerates have used the cold war as a pretext to create and perpetuate huge defense expenditures. The policy of worldwide economic expansion and military containment has resulted in an enormous drain of the nation's critical and irreplaceable resources, and put the social and technological infrastructure in a vulnerable position. While such a policy has been profitable to the military-industrial complex and to the financial-corporate multinationals, the non-productive pursuits of producing and selling arms, the dumping of surplus abroad, providing billions of dollars in military and economic aid to many nations of the world has caused irreparable damage to the resource base of the nation. The cost of leasing and maintaining hundreds of military bases throughout the world has become a costly and impossible mission. The wars in Korea and Vietnam and now in Arabia plus the intervention by the United States of America in many areas around the globe, has, and continues to place undue hardships on the nation which has resource deficiencies, in need of critical minerals and oil reserve that are necessary for the operation of its high-energy and industrial complex.
How much longer can this extravagant use of and the exporting of this nation's resource reserves continue? All of the geological estimates are somewhat negative sounding and seem to hovering around the year 2030. If the United States of America had mobilized its natural and human resources during all this time for the rebuilding and redesign of the social and technological structure, the nation and the North American people would now be enjoying an era of economic stability and peace with the world.
As has been the case, the present foreign policy of the United States of America seems to have been created and promoted to divert the attention of the North American people away from the real social issues and the inability of the money system to solve the nation's domestic problems. The problems of the United States of America are here and now on this Continent of North America; it is here in our own backyard, not thousands of miles around the globe. It is time to realize that a strong and viable domestic economy is the best policy for the national interest and the security of the nation. Without it, there is nothing that is worth defending or can be defended. , It is ironic that the United States of America has, and continues to, spend trillions of dollars on the implements of war, military, and foreign aid, but cannot spend or commit its resources to put its own house in order when our own survival is at stake.
What are the changes and conditions within the countries of North America that make it imperative to implement a program that can rise to the present emergency now upon our nations? More than anything else, the North American people must recognize that our nations have gone through a rapid transformation. In a relatively short time, the United States of America and Canada have transformed from an agrarian, into an urbanized-industrial society. The impact of technology and the accelerated use of inanimate energy has brought with it a phenomenal growth and change within the social and economic structure. But despite the technological revolution, the method of operation and the social and economic control has remained the same. Without a viable objective and a planned direction compatible with the use of this technology and the environment, our society has become highly vulnerable from within.
With only about six per cent of the world's population, the United States of America consumes about one-third, or the highest percentage of natural resources of any nation in the world. Needless to say, the United States of America has the most inefficient and wasteful operation in the world. At the present rate of economic expansion and growth, along with the increasing rate of population growth via immigration, both Canada and the United States of America would need the largest share of the world's output of irreplaceable and renewable resources to maintain its present industrial and social operation, and any growth and consumption. For a system that is predicated on growth and expansion for its very existence, the future of that system and our nations are fraught with difficulties. It is impossible for any industrial society to expand at a compound rate for any period of time without there being irreparable damage to the social and industrial structure, and to the resource base of that nation and the world. In a high-energy and technological civilization as exists here the North American people and the governments of its nations can no longer ignore the fact that the laws of thermodynamics are universal irrespective of ideology or form of government. This interdependent society with its billions of horsepower of prime movers has now reached the point where it cannot continue to waste its remaining exhaustible resources for the sake of profit and the perpetuation of an anachronism. This is the dilemma the North American people must come to grips with before it is too late.
After years of
neglect and decay,
the infrastructure of Canada, the United States of America, and Mexico
are in chaotic states.
May 3, 2007 addenda: A commuter crisis in California this morning. A bridge where three freeways converge collapsed.
The public works and services that are essential to the operation of our interdependent technological society is rapidly becoming inoperative and on the verge of collapse as the recent disaster in New Orleans showed. The highways, bridges, streets, buses, subway cars, locks, and waterways, or to put it in blunt terms, the entire transportation system faces disaster. The water systems of the nation have become so polluted that they cannot meet the minimum standards for potable water. Most of the sewage disposal plants are not adequate to meet the present capacity of waste, and any increase in the effluent will create a calamity of epidemic proportions a fact ignored by those who formulate immigration policies. The toxic waste dumps and ponds runneth over, affecting the health of every North American.
While the gross national product has gone up sixty-two per cent, total spending to repair and replace the deteriorating infrastructure, measured in constant 1972 dollars, has declined nineteen per cent since 1965. To restore our nations critical physical infrastructures would have cost $909.9 billion in 1981 now it is estimated that to just, cope with the serious aspect of the nation's infrastructure crisis, it would take approximately $2.5 trillion. The cities, counties and states are not in any financial position to meet the magnitude of the problem of refurbishing and rebuilding the infrastructure of the United States of America. Federal aid to state and local governments has been drastically cut which adds to an ever deteriorating situation. With the financial state of the nation at the highest debt and deficits in it's history, a nation living on borrowed time from the mere creation of debt, the outlook is rather bleak that our North American infrastructure, which is vital to our survival, will ever be rebuilt within the framework of the present system. The physical infrastructure, and its essentiality in the operation of our high energy and interdependent society, is now on the edge of the abyss. It is only by the mobilization of all resources of the Continent, and placing the highest possible priority on the reconstruction and redesign of the social and technological infrastructure, that the United States of America, Canada and Mexico can prevent an irreversible disaster.
Our nations are also in the midst of what could develop into an explosive situation. The economy is having a devastating effect on millions of North Americans in all walks of life. In the land of plenty, thirty five million North Americans are attempting to exist at or below the poverty level, in hunger and without a place to live. They are finding the cost of health and medical care far beyond their reach. In this land of the free and the home of the brave, the United States of America is the only industrial nation without a comprehensive medical program. Without any meaningful or fundamental change in the social and economic structure, there has been an acceleration of the suicide rate, divorces, increased drug dependency, complete family dislocation and a breakdown in the social structure of society. Billions of dollars and resources are being spent on the symptoms of the problem but very little is being done to prevent or to eliminate the environment or the conditions that caused the problems.
2007 addendum: Some facts and
figures on child poverty in Canada.
The Stated national average of children living in poverty is greater
than one in ten;
in some provinces it is one in four. b) There are 3,986,316
Canadian children ages 5 to 14.
The pressure of the system, and the high cost of living, that has been brought on from years of inflation and other economic factors, has created a precarious situation for millions of North Americans. Personal bankruptcies are increasing at an alarming rate. The North American dream of a home has been shattered as delinquencies and foreclosures become more frequent, and the possibility of millions of North Americans finding themselves in a position where they will never be able to qualify to buy a home. This system has never provided jobs for millions of North Americans, and now, with high unemployment, millions of North Americans who have become unemployed must accept the fact that they will never be hired back to their old jobs or even obtain any meaningful employment, cast aside after giving the best years of their life to the North American way of life and to capitalism. Millions of North Americans have become disillusioned with the idea that 'free enterprise' is the best of all possible worlds.
The nation has reached the point where the disparity between social change and social lag is at an apex. The use of expediencies, or the band-aid approach, to solve the social and economic problems of this continental area are inadequate, passé in this age of technology - No longer can our nations neglect the growing decay of our social environmental and industrial structure, and continue to allow the present method of operation to bleed the country of its remaining natural resources for the mere sake of maximizing profits, the creation of debt, and to increase good will among off Continent preferred trading partners.
The country could learn a lesson from the recent blackout that jeopardized forty per cent of the eastern part of the United States of America and the third and fourth largest provinces of Canada by the most widespread electrical failure in North American history. Another lesson to be learned from the mentioned blackout is the fact that it takes competent scientific personnel to understand a technological mechanism of a magnitude so essential to our survival. Ohms law is no respecter of persons nor does it owe an allegiance to any political or financial edict. Before conditions become intolerable, and before there is a breakdown in the social and technological complex, it becomes the responsibility and the obligation of the government and the North American people to rise to the urgency of the problem. A major breakdown in the technological and service infrastructure of our highly interdependent society could result in panic and chaos. There is only enough food and food products on the shelves of the stores of the nation to supply the North American people for a limited number of days. The specter: failure of a high energy conversion social system will be horrid in it's suddenness and terrifying in it's consequences due to the integration of all of it's component parts! In about four days the cities will have no food available, in less than two weeks the cities will have no potable water. Some 90% of our fellows live in cities.
Because of the gravity of internal events and the need for an orderly transition, the governments of the United States of America and Canada could declare a national emergency, and through a constitutional process adopt a program of Total Mobilization for the specific purpose of meeting this emergency. Through the program of Total Mobilization, the entire resources of the United States of America, Canada, and Mexico would be integrated and coordinated for the purpose of operating the social, environmental and industrial structure in the most constructive, responsible and efficient manner. To carry out the scale of the problem, this emergency and transitional program would require the mobilization of all men and women, machines, material and money of these three countries with national services from all and profits to none. One of the most important priorities of the program of Total Mobilization would be to put the general welfare of the nations and all North Americans ahead of everything else, to prevent any person or vested interest from gaining profit or economic advantage during the emergency. One of the purposes behind the program of Total Mobilization will be to bring the end of the present cyclical economy with its boom and bust, its inflections and oscillations, crisis and chaos, and replace it with a harmonious economic operation that will produce and distribute goods and services on the basis of what is essential to the physical requirements of the nation's social and technological mechanism. Through a transition or conversion program the nation could mobilize its resources and technology to build and reconstruct the social, environmental and industrial complex into a viable entity.
Emphasis would be directed toward the most efficient utilization of the irreplaceable and renewable resource of the continental area, on conservation and environmental considerations, and the quality of life rather than growth and expansion with its waste and obsolescence for the mere sake of maximizing profits and paying off debts. Considering that fifty per cent of all research and development expenditures of the government goes into a non-productive pursuit of 'defense,' most of this cost and resources could be allocated toward the large transitional projects such as a comprehensive energy program, the housing and health of the nation, a crash program to rebuild and repair the nations infrastructure a safe, rapid efficient transportation system, et cetera. It is a fact that the military industrial complex employs more scientists, engineers and technicians than any other industry in the United States of North America they could be easily transferred into those fields where their expertise would have the greatest beneficial effect upon the operation of the industrial and social complex. To prevent the future decline and deterioration of the social industrial structure of the country the government of the United States of America could proceed with a plan to update and modernize the entire technological and industrial structure. For the first time in the history of the United States of America , the resources and the technology could be used to eliminate poverty and provide a high standard of living for every, North American.
A program of Total Mobilization would be the fastest and best way to put our house in order, and it would provide the mechanism to avert a breakdown in the social and technological infrastructure of our North American nations. In our interdependent and high energy society, the internal and physical events of today makes it imperative that the United States of America, Canada, and Mexico take purposeful and bold measures to rebuild the infrastructure of our nations or face the disastrous consequences in the not too distant future. For the North American nations to get into a position where we cannot operate our technological and environmental complexes would be the greatest tragedy in the history of the Continent. If our nations can declare a state of emergency and mobilize all of our resources for war, there is no reason why our nations cannot mobilize all of our resources for this worthwhile cause and for peace! The adoption of the Total Mobilization program now will prepare the North American people for an exigency of today and in the future.
A democratic method of total mobilization
A less than democratic method of total mobilization
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