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A review by axmed
The Myth and Propaganda of Black Buying Power by Jared A. Ball
funny
informative
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
But no group has the myth of buying power so heavily promoted to it and from within its own business class making the concept so much more damaging to their political consciousness than Black America. Beyond promoting the mythology alone the propaganda contained encourages an almost unquestioned belief in the ability of capitalism, and the White supremacy around which it is organized, to produce positive results for the whole. When this inevitably does not occur, the myth is there to step in and assure that any failure to materially advance is evidence of an inherent flaw with any given individual or the entire community. Then, of course, the myth of Black buying power is re-introduced into nearly every facet of Black political thought inhibiting tactical platforms from developing in as many organizational spaces.
The popular position taken associated with buying power or a larger belief that capitalism can be adjusted favorably to work for more or all is that Black people have made the historical mistake of putting too much emphasis on politics and not on economics. If, the argument goes, more time were spent developing Black wealth like “Jews, or the Asians running the corner stores and hair care businesses” in “our communities,” then Black people would come up as those groups have. What these perspectives generally miss is that whatever advances these and other communities have made are: (a) not erasing class divisions within any of those communities or their originating countries, and (b) whatever anyone has ever done to improve their economic position has required public policy or government support. Poor people, Black, White, etc., cannot close any societal gaps, economic, or otherwise, without political movements which assume political power and redirect public policy to work for more if not all. Those who benefit most from the economy understand this point well and have developed policies and regulations assuring wealth we all help generate is transferred ever upward.As an example, recently authors Lindsey and Teles (2019) have described ours as a “captured economy” or one with public policy suffering already from “regulatory capture.” By this they mean simply that the wealthiest have taken nearly full control of the apparatus of government and have set public policy to their exclusive benefit. While promoting another powerful myth of desiring “small government,” the elite continue to use government in a big way to enact policy which protects their interests. What goods go to market, and at what prices, or at what rates were those goods taxed, or subsidized, what laws regulate banks (or do not), or determine their function, the value of the money in our accounts, who can buy what land and do what with it, what wars are fought to protect which business interests, and who are allowed to privatize publicly funded research turning it into military defense or pharmaceuticals for sale on a global market, and then who gets what share of those generated profits, all is determined by policy. And for a few it is working well.
The popular position taken associated with buying power or a larger belief that capitalism can be adjusted favorably to work for more or all is that Black people have made the historical mistake of putting too much emphasis on politics and not on economics. If, the argument goes, more time were spent developing Black wealth like “Jews, or the Asians running the corner stores and hair care businesses” in “our communities,” then Black people would come up as those groups have. What these perspectives generally miss is that whatever advances these and other communities have made are: (a) not erasing class divisions within any of those communities or their originating countries, and (b) whatever anyone has ever done to improve their economic position has required public policy or government support. Poor people, Black, White, etc., cannot close any societal gaps, economic, or otherwise, without political movements which assume political power and redirect public policy to work for more if not all. Those who benefit most from the economy understand this point well and have developed policies and regulations assuring wealth we all help generate is transferred ever upward.As an example, recently authors Lindsey and Teles (2019) have described ours as a “captured economy” or one with public policy suffering already from “regulatory capture.” By this they mean simply that the wealthiest have taken nearly full control of the apparatus of government and have set public policy to their exclusive benefit. While promoting another powerful myth of desiring “small government,” the elite continue to use government in a big way to enact policy which protects their interests. What goods go to market, and at what prices, or at what rates were those goods taxed, or subsidized, what laws regulate banks (or do not), or determine their function, the value of the money in our accounts, who can buy what land and do what with it, what wars are fought to protect which business interests, and who are allowed to privatize publicly funded research turning it into military defense or pharmaceuticals for sale on a global market, and then who gets what share of those generated profits, all is determined by policy. And for a few it is working well.