by Ian Welsh
Part of it is the risk of real war, but most of it is that the Ukraine is yet another country being destroyed.
Even if it had been kept together, even if the Russians had taken the Maidan coup sitting down, the coup signaled the Ukraine’s destruction, because it meant that IMF austerity, meaning slashing pensions 50%, increasing gas prices by 50%, selling off the industries worth selling and the agricultural land which is the most valuable thing the Ukraine has, would occur.
Massive debt would be piled onto Ukraine, at
higher rates than Russia was offering, and the economy would be looted. After the financial crisis,
..to a lesser or greater degree.
Even core economies like Britain and the US, while not technically in recession, are gripped by what is a long Depression, with real standards of living for median individuals dropping, health metrics dropping and employment and wages never recovering to pre-crisis levels.
To be sure, some have been destroyed militarily, some by internal political strife and others by austerity but the collapse or decline is clear in all cases.
The so-called Arab Spring was to a large extent caused by the financial crisis and the soaring food prices which came in its wake.
Though not as bad, the austerity driven destruction of countries has been even more common.
Austerity is crazy, it says "take on vastly more debt and cut spending", but what happens is that the economy contracts due to the reduced spending, so that the debt becomes even more injurious, and the country then has to borrow even more money.
Greece is more in debt, with a smaller economy,
than when the Troika started "helping" them.
The correct thing to do, of course, was to force financial elites to take their losses, toss those who had engaged in fraud in jail (which is to say almost all of the executive class), and bail out ordinary workers.
The ONLY country to do this
was Iceland.
Understand this: if you are not a member of the oligarchy, the financial elite, or a senior member of the security state, your well-being is of little interest to our Lords and Masters.
Oh, they might prefer that you don’t die, or go
hungry (they might not), but if your well-being conflicts with the desires
of the oligarchy, as it did during the bailouts, they will not hesitate to
cut you dead.
This is not hyperbole, it is an exact
description of how those who live in non-core countries have been treated,
repeatedly.
Are you willing to do anything, absolutely anything, to stay on the inside?
If you are, and you can claw your way over the
bodies of the others competing for the shrinking spots, well, you may live a
good life as a retainer. Otherwise one day you too will be surplus to needs.
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