"We are not in the construction and engineering business. We are in the business of making money."--Stephen Bechtel, founder of Bechtel Corp.

It makes me smile thinking about the conspiracy of the Free Market to stress business competition and lack of money for public services. The gospel of the Free Market that there is a lack of money for public services only reinforces the myth of fierce business competition. This business competition triggers further mergers and acquisitions resulting in an ever concentrated oligopolistic market where all the resources are rationalised in absence of risk and entrepreneurship. This oligopolistic market is the ultimate patriotic Free Market characterised by the presence of nofault governments and nofault corporations.

It makes me wonder as to who will be the winner in a Free Market driven by the gospel of lack of money for public services? My biased answer is: the top 1% American class; the reason being that the American economy is the biggest in the world. So, in today’s Free Market, it doesn’t matter if the United States is bankrupt or if the United States is the highest indebted nation on earth,. In fact vice-president Dick Cheney has been telling former secretary treasurer Richard O’Neill that: "Reagan proved deficits don't matter."

In the meantime, the United States maintains some 1,000 military bases abroad, just to make sure, as president Bush has stated, that "America will never seek a permission slip to defend the security of our people" and I may add, the security that America’s debt will always be paid in the form of wars’ reconstruction as presently experienced in Iraq, at American prices with American corporations.

We can only imagine the social nightmare experienced by China as its economy has been booming at an annual rate of some nine percent for the last two decades. However, we must give credit to the present peaceful trade policies of China in accordance to the ancient tributary principle of ‘give more, take less.’

Let us hope that United States becomes really a compassionate country for the benefit of the world economy and that it will not be too long before they learn that their security is tied to this peaceful principle of ‘give more, take less.’

References

Pertinent articles published in Ensign

Martin Luther King: Beyond Vietnam -- A Time to Break Silence http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkatimetobreaksilence.htm

Docena, Herbert Iraq reconstruction's bottom-line December 25, 2003 Asia Times, http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/EL25Ak05.html

Borger, Julian Why America's plutocrats gobble up $1,500 hot dogs November 5, 2003 Guardian Unlimited, http://www.doublestandards.org/borger3.html

Ivins, Molly It's about money: Follow the greenbacks to learn where seemingly haphazard Bush policy comes from January 20, 2004 Working for change, http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=16303

Goldsborough, James O. Passing the Bill to our Children January 19, 2004 San Diego Union-Tribune, http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0119-06.htm

Johnson, Chalmers America's Empire of Bases January 15, 2004 TomDispatch.com, http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0115-08.htm

Benedetto, Richard Bush: U.S. is safer, 'world is changing for the better' (pdf) January 21, 2004 USA TODAY, http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-01-20-bush-state-of-the-union_x.htm

Eric Teo Chu Cheow An ancient model for China's new power January 20, 2004 International Herald Tribune, http://www.chinastudygroup.org/index.php?type=news&id=4450