How to remedy America’s ills

The United States is a country of undoubted and extensive strengths – technological, economic and cultural; However, his government is profoundly failing its citizens and the world. Donald Trump’s victory is easy to understand: it was a vote against the the state in which. Whether Trump can remedy, or even attempt to remedy, the country’s true ills remains to be seen.

The electorate’s rejection of the state in which It’s overwhelming. A national NBC poll in September 2024 concluded that 65 percent of Americans believe the country has taken the wrong course, while only 25 percent said it is the right course. In March 2024, according to Gallup, only 33 percent of Americans approved of Joe Biden’s management of foreign policy.

At the center of the American crisis is a political system that does not represent the true interests of the average voter. The political system was hijacked decades ago by the owners of money, especially when the Supreme Court opened the floodgates to unlimited campaign contributions. Two groups have taken over Congress and the White House: the super-rich donors and the single-issue lobbyists.

Many (though not all) of the super-rich donors seek special favors from the political system, favors that will now be done by Congress, the White House, and regulatory agencies with managers appointed by the new administration. Many donors are also pushing for new corporate income and capital gains tax cuts, regardless of their impact on the federal deficit, which currently represents 7 percent of GDP, and even though pre-tax national income has fallen sharply. from labor income to capital income.

Many corporate donors, I would add, are frankly on the side of peace and cooperation with China, as is very reasonable for both business and humanity.

Single-issue lobbyists are the second group that has captured power. Among these lobbyists are the military-industrial complex, Wall Street, oil corporations, the firearms industry, pharmaceutical and food corporations, and the lobby Zionist. American politics is well organized to serve these special interests. One hundred million dollars in campaign donations by a group of lobbyists can earn $100 billion in federal appropriations and/or tax cuts.

These special interest lobbyists do not depend on or care much about public opinion. Opinion polls show the public wants gun control, lower drug prices, an end to Wall Street bailouts, renewable energy, and peace in Ukraine and the Middle East. It doesn’t matter. Lobbyists ensure that Congress and the White House provide easy access to guns and assault weapons, skyrocketing drug prices, pampering of Wall Street, new drilling for oil and gas, arms purchases for Ukraine, and wars in support for Israel.

The two most dangerous lobbyists are the military industrial complex and the lobby Zionist (as detailed in a brilliant new book by historian Ilan Pappé). The military industrial complex has led the United States into disastrous wars, covert regime change operations, illegal and destabilizing economic sanctions color revolutions in the countries of the former Soviet orbit (led by the National Foundation for Democracy).

He lobby Zionism has been at least as damaging, and perhaps more so. He lobby Zionism has fueled the United States’ series of wars in the Middle East, including in Iraq, Syria, Libya and Sudan.

While the US plutocracy has provided wars of choice for the military industrial group and Israel, and tax benefits for the rich, it has offered no real solutions for American workers. During the post-1980 period, automation hit industrial workers hard, and the working class as a whole found itself in lower-paying jobs. Meanwhile, capital gains soared: the global stock market valuation rose from the equivalent of 55 percent of GDP to 200 percent today. Additionally, rising health care and tuition costs further squeezed the working class.

Trump’s voter base is the working class, but his donor base is the super-rich and the lobbyists. So what will happen now?

Trump’s alleged response is a trade war with China and the deportation of undocumented foreign workers, combined with more tax cuts for the rich. However, these policies will not achieve the results promised to workers. Factory jobs will not return in large quantities from China, because they never went to China in large quantities. Nor will deportations do much to raise the living standards of average Americans.

This does not mean that there are no real solutions. Four key policies are hiding in plain sight.

The first is to confront the military industrial complex. Trump can end the war in Ukraine by telling President Vladimir Putin and the world that NATO will never expand into Ukraine. He can end the risk of war with China by making clear that the United States will not defend Taiwan if it tries to separate from China.

The second is to face the lobby Zionist telling Netanyahu that the United States will no longer fight Israel’s wars and that Israel must accept a Palestinian state that lives in peace alongside it. It is the only possible path to peace.

The third is to close the budget deficit, partly by cutting wasteful spending – especially on wars, hundreds of useless military bases abroad, and the stratospheric prices the government pays for drugs and health care – and partly by raising government revenues. government.

The fourth is an innovation policy (i.e. industrial policy) for the common good. The goal of this policy should be to ensure that new and emerging AI and digital technologies serve the common good, including the poor, the working class and the physical environment.

All of these four steps are within Trump’s reach and would justify his electoral victory. I’m not holding my breath waiting for Trump to adopt them. American politics has been too rotten for too long for there to be much optimism; However, all four steps are feasible, and all would be of great benefit not only to the business leaders who supported Trump’s campaign, but to the tens of millions of angry workers whose votes put Trump back in the White House.

* Professor and director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University and president of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. www.jeffsachs.org

Originally published in New World Economy

Translation: Jorge Anaya