How can you see the light at the end of the tunnel from the bottom of the hole you're in?

I sometimes fluctuate between being a social democrat and a socialist. I guess it's because on a good day I can live with and even see the value of a capitalist system. On a bad day, however, all I can see is the damage and injustice and hypocrisy of our international monetary system. All I can see some days is the brutal effects on the many by the pursuit of profit by the few.
Today is one of those days.

The link is to a New York Times story about the tent cities cropping up in every U.S. state as the depression (for that is what these people are experiencing) bites in the American heartland. This is one of just many stories you'll find if you search the interweb. The stories tell of the struggles of ordinary Americans dispossessed by an economic system (and a society for that matter) that is premised on the idea of the pursuit of happiness through profit and faux meritocracy in lieu of any sense of collective responsibility for the well being of our fellow citizens.

It makes my blood boil to see these people abandoned by their country. Just as it makes my blood boil when I hear that the NZ government caved in when it decided against including pay cuts for executives in the 9 day fortnight policy. Just as it makes my blood boil when I see the same government giving billions of dollars to polluters while denying young New Zealanders the sort of support they really need right now. Just as my blood hits 100 degrees when I see the number of (unreported) lockouts going on in this country as business sees the opportunities offered by a Tory government.

The young unemployed in New Zealand, the locked out workers and the people forced to live in tents in the USA do not see an end to the recession. If and when the world pulls itself out of this self inflicted malaise these people will still be struggling. If they ever "recover" at all it will take years to get back some sort of balance and security. The backward step they have been forced to take will limit their options for the rest of their lives. It is all very well for executives earning half a million dollars a year to talk of an end to this recession - they don't have to start from scratch again. They don't have to drag themselves out of the hole in which this disaster has left them. The highly paid executive isn't in the hole because their workers have taken the hit for them. While the guy they laid off is living in a tent the executive can still afford to run his boat on the weekend.

One of the most galling things for me is to see the almost complete lack of analyses in the New Zealand media. We don't see these stories on New Zealand TV. Why not? Because they ran out of time after the story about Paris Hilton's fallout with her new "friend". We don't see this article in our Sunday paper because they ran out of space after the two page puff piece on the cigarette industry. We don't see this in our daily or hear it on our local radio station because they can't be seen by their advertisers being "negative". You won't see this on TVNZ's morning programme because Paul Henry is too busy interviewing psychics or the guy who thinks he's found and alien skull.

We don't see these stories in New Zealand's media because the deregulated media is the mouth piece for the capitalist system.

That's why today I am a socialist.