US economic system, failing model: Analyst

Press TV has conducted an interview with Don De Bar, journalist and political activist in New York, the issue of growing US poverty and income disparity under failed policies of President Barack Obama and the signs of how US officials will respond as the situation gets worse.

The following is an approximate transcript of the interview.

Press TV: Looking at these figures right now it really does seem extremely far away from the picture painted of the American dream. It is sort of a verdict on the American capitalist system now isn’t it?

De Bar: Yes. You know, it’s important to keep in mind first of all that the American economic system has done everything to replicate itself around the world since it was founded in the 18th century as a matter of fact.

But certainly since World War II was over beginning with the Cold War and the roll back against the socialist bloc, the intensification of the accumulation of colonies from the old colonial countries and the installment of US-type economies in Europe after the war and in Japan and elsewhere in Asia after the war.

So, this model that is failing is one that is brought by American power to the four corners of the planet and now we’re seeing how it develops. Not just those numbers – All the key numbers.

Food programs are showing that food banks are stretched to the max – there is more demand than there ever has been there. Hunger and poverty among children is at record levels in fact grew by 25 percent between 2006 and 2011 and it’s still growing even more intensively.

Almost every marker of poverty is on the increase and as well the gap in income and the gap in wealth between the top and the bottom are the sharpest in the United States than they’ve ever been anywhere in the entire history of planet earth.

Press TV: How worried do you think American officials are about this income disparity that we’re seeing in the US? Do you think we will see more of a concerted effort on the parts of US officials to bring about a more fairer system?

De Bar: No. To the contrary they’re taking every step possible to suppress the inevitable dissent. Generally you have social unrest when you have declining material fulfillment – needs fulfillment, against the high expectations.

And the people in this country have been raised for generation to expect that their children will be better off than they are and that has reversed in the last couple of generations most sharply with the generation coming to market now and it looks worse going forward.

So, you can expect that there will be a replay of things like the Occupy movement and a variety of other social movements that have existed in the United States to deal with this, but the instrumentalities of suppressing have become incredibly intensified in the last ten years.

The Snowden revelations for example are just one of many similar programs that have been installed to suppress dissent in the United States, which they expect.