G 2.0

As I write, the G-20 is gathering in Pittsburgh, ostensibly to discuss what measures they can all agree on that will prevent another global financial meltdown from happening (i.e. at least the kind that threatens the G 20). Money and power will be well-represented, and as much as the gathering is described as an expanded club of economic powers, there is one global economic power that is not on the guest list. Which one? To borrow a time-worn phrase, the workers of the world - all those folks in all those countries who make the whole thing run; workers that are paid, underpaid, and unpaid.... everyone from the office drone to the subsistence farmer to the domestic slave-spouse. The folks that carry all those wealthy people on their shoulders - they will be severely underrepresented in Pittsburgh, and with good reason. If they start informing global economic policy, well then.... that would be a different game altogether.

You'll see some of these non-participants out on the streets, carrying signs. But the vast, vast majority won't come anywhere near the place. Frankly, nearly all of them are too busy making ends meet to do a road trip, even if to confront the sprawling international power-elite that immiserates them. Let's face it - life is exhausting, especially for the poor, the overworked, the sat-upon, spat-upon. Many of them lined up for the 9/12 march on Washington a couple of weeks ago, goaded by cheap-seat demagogues like Glenn Beck to rally against even the vague hope of a slightly more equitable order. You have to ask yourself, why would anyone who has a lousy job with no benefits stand in a crowd that's shouting down universal health coverage? I could see them complaining about the way it's configured (a half-assed, public-private "solution"), but when the poor march against social democracy in any shape or form - even their own medicare benefits! - you know they've been hoodwinked. Whatever protocol emerges from the G-20 summit, it is unlikely to bring greater security to the un-rich because they are so disconnected from one another by circumstance, by distance, by distrust, and by cynicism born of generations of hard living.

It's hard to imagine world political leaders - let alone the obscenely overpaid heads of global financial institutions - having any grasp of what it's like to scrape by. I've had more than one taste of it, though always with a kind of familial safety net (crucial difference). Still, making the bills on $500 a month or less tends to focus the mind a bit, even if you've got generous kin who invite you over for dinner on the weekends. You're always gambling on nothing going wrong, and something always does. If the car breaks down, you're basically fucked - better luck next month. I had one credit card that kept me rolling for a few years - that was my rainy day, in essence. And I had no kids (cats, though). Can't imagine what people do with dependents in a situation like that. What energy is left for organizing? I'm always amazed by the poor in countries like Haiti, where people have organized and faced down very powerful forces, decade after decade, setback after setback... and yet still they link arms and try again.

I think of those folks when I hear our leaders lecturing the third world on their behavior, and I am ashamed, frankly. We should follow the "global south's" example and learn to fight for our own interests, even if it seems hopeless sometimes. Call it G 2.0 - the other globalization.

luv u,

jp