Inherency- obama has already Solved 3 Harms- other things cause homelessness 5
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AT- Action is keyTurn- Our alternative leads to better action- View power relations leads to constant action to fight the root causes of oppression instead of focusing on the results of systemic problems DONEGAN 2006 – PHD STUDENT DEPT ANTHROPOLIGY SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL STUDIES GOVERNMENTAL REGIONALISM, MILLENNIUM, VOL 35 NO 23 The typical reproach to Foucault’s conception of power as immanent to all types of relationships is that such a conception prevents us from ever being able to step outside a conflict, whether it be epistemic or political, in order to resolve it. Of course it is the case that ‘to make truth-claims is to try to strengthen some epistemic alignments, and to challenge, undermine, or evade others’.148 To criticise power is to attempt to resist or evade it; it is also to take a stance, a position. Foucault’s critics ask: how is it possible to take a stance without some outside, neutral position from which to make a decision about which side to adopt, about which side is ‘right’? According to Foucault, neither side is right. But [m]y point is not that everything is bad, but that everything is dangerous, which is not exactly the same as bad. If everything is dangerous, then we always have something to do. So my position leads not to apathy but to a hyper- and pessimistic activism. I think that the ethico-political choice we have to make every day is to determine which is the main danger.149 Is there any reason why a neoliberal, neo-medieval world order of multiple levels of governance need be ‘worse’ than the present world order? This is the wrong question. The question to ask is: how are things developing, how are social relations changing, and who will be hit hardest, and who will benefit most? These are the questions we need to be asking, as analysts. A governmentality perspective can contribute to our ability to respond to this task. Mitchell Dean has emphasised that the study of governmentality as an empirical phenomenon ‘does not amount to a study of politics or power relations in general; it is a study only of the attempts to (more or less) rationally affect the conduct of others and ourselves’.150 In this sense, the picture of power relations that governmentality scholarship can offer is therefore partial and incomplete. But to the extent that the particular power relations it portrays are both hard to see and increasingly significant, the governmentality framework offers something useful to the analyst of power in the contemporary global social order. It may seem that post-structuralist theorists are constantly engaged in a game of ‘catch-up’,151 unpacking and teasing out how those with power do what they do, always after the event. But the conclusion to be drawn should not focus on the fact that the deconstructive practice is always post- and thus ‘too late’, in vain, without hope; rather it should focus on the fact that in order for those in power to do what they do the use of such material and discursive practices is necessary – which suggests, as Foucault points out, that their hold on power is far more fragile, that the relationships of power they impose are far closer to relationships of confrontation, than they would like us to believe. Thus the deconstructive practice is not essentially negative, pessimistic, and nihilistic. In seeking not simply to understand what or why any particular action was undertaken in the past, but also to use that understanding when engaging with political practice in the present, it is hopeful, optimistic, and pro-active. Alternative- reject their Otherizing discourseALT – REJECT OTHERIZING DISCOURSE LISTER 2004 – PROF LOUGHBOROUGH U POVERTY, PAGE This discussion of the 'p' words and of the 'underclass* label raises a number of issues. One is the responsibility of those who research and write about poverty to use language that is respectful and icss distancing' (O'Connor, 2001: 293). Another is the paradoxical way in which the 'p' words can simultaneously represent both a stigmatizing classification and a moral and political challenge (see Introduction). The relative weight of the two shifts according to the political and economic climate. Yet, whether 'victims or villains' (Becker, 1997), 'the poor' tend to be constructed as Other, cither responsible for their own fate or passive objects of concern, without agency. They arc targets of, at best, 'the non-poor's' pity or indifference and, at worst, their fear, contempt or hostility, to be 'helped or punished, ignored or studied' but rarely treated as equal fellow citizens with rights (Katz, 1989: 236). Spending DA shellA. Uniquness- Economy is stabilizing and inflation is controlled Bloomberg 6/16/09 [Courtney Schlisserman, “U.S. Will Exit Recession in Third Quarter, Bankers Group Says,” http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aJ2GkizZfPbQ] The U.S. economy will emerge from the recession during the third quarter even as unemployment and federal deficits remain high, according to a survey by the American Bankers Association. “While we are certainly looking ahead toward growth, growth in our estimation is not enough to put the economy on a quick path toward economic health and normalcy,” Bruce Kasman, chairman of the ABA’s Economic Advisory Committee and chief economist for JPMorgan Chase & Co. in New York, said in a press conference today. The group forecast gross domestic product will rise at a 0.5 percent annual pace in the third quarter and at a 1.8 percent rate the final three months of the year. The unemployment rate will peak at 10 percent in the first quarter of 2010, a 26-year high. The ABA committee also forecast the Fed will hold interest rates at the current zero to 0.25 percent range, the lowest ever, until the third quarter of 2010. Central bank policy makers are scheduled to meet again next week. “Core inflation is moving down,” Kasman said, referring to prices excluding food and fuel. “This in our mind keeps the Fed on hold at least a year here.” The group forecast the economy will start having “above- trend” economic growth in the third quarter of next year, which will be among the impetuses that will get the Fed to “begin the process, not an aggressive process” of raising rates, Kasman said. The Fed will raise benchmark borrowing cost between banks to 0.5 percent in the July through September 2010 period, and by an additional half point in the last three months of the year. Fisher on Inflation Richard Fisher, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, yesterday dismissed concern that the central bank’s record purchases of assets will cause inflation to soar. Fisher, who describes himself as among the most aggressive inflation fighters on the Federal Open Market Committee, said it’s inappropriate to be overly concerned on price pressures now because of the amount of “slack” in the economy. B. link- Increasing social services causes rampant inflation Sennholz 9 [Hans F., heads the Department of Economics at Grove City College and is a noted writer and lecturer on monetary and economic principles and practices, April 19, “Your Financial Future - Gold and Silver Bullion,” http://www.rapidtrends.com/the-causes-of-inflation/] Even the noblest politicians and civil servants can no longer be expected to resist the public clamor for social benefits and welfare. The political pressure that is brought to bear on democratic governments is rooted in the popular ideology of government welfare and economic redistribution. It inevitably leads to a large number of spending programs that place heavy burdens on the public treasury. By popular demand, weak administrations seeking to prolong their power embark upon massive spending and inflating in order to build a “new society” or provide a “better deal.” The people are convinced that government spending can give them full employment, prosperity, and economic growth. When the results fall far short of expectations, new programs are demanded and more government spending is initiated. When social and economic conditions grow even worse, the disappointments breed more radicalism, cynicism, nihilism, and above all, bitter social and economic conflict. And all along, the enormous increase in government spending causes an enormous increase of taxes, chronic budget deficits and rampant inflation.5 The “redistributive” aspirations of the voting public often induce their political representatives in Congress to authorize and appropriate even more money than the President requests. Such programs as social security, medicare, antipoverty, housing, economic development, aid to education, environmental improvement, and pay increases for civil servants are so popular that few politicians dare to oppose them. The government influences personal incomes by virtually every budget decision that is made. Certainly its grants, subsidies, and contributions to private individuals and organizations aim to improve the material incomes of the beneficiaries. The loans and advances to private individuals and organizations have the same objective. Our foreign aid program is redistributive in character as it reduces American incomes in order to improve the material condition of foreign recipients. The agricultural programs, veteran’s benefits, health, labor and welfare expenditures, housing and community development, Federal expenditures on education, and last, but not least, the social insurance and medicare programs directly affect the incomes of both beneficiaries and taxpayers. As the benefits generally are not based on tax payment, but rather on considerations of social welfare, these programs constitute redistribution on a nationwide scale. Foreign aid programs have extended the principle of redistribution to many parts of the world. Whenever government expenditures exceed tax collections and the government deficit is covered by currency and credit expansion, we suffer inflation and its effects. The monetary unit is bound to depreciate and goods prices must rise. Large increases in the quantity of money also induce people to reduce their savings and cash-holdings which, in the terminology of mathematical economists, increases money “velocity” and reduces money value even further. It is futile to call these people “irresponsible” as long as the government continues to increase the money stock. C. Impacts- Now is key—that collapses the economy Robbins 5/19/09 [Ron Robbins, MBA is the founder and analyst of Investing for the Soul and maintains the blog, Enlightened Economics, “Interest Rate Manipulation and Loose Money Promote Economic Collapse,” http://monetarycurrent.com/commentaries/53-philosophy/691-interest-rate-manipulation-and-loose-money-promote-economic-collapse.html] Economies with excessively loose monetary policies and who force interest rates to ultra low levels for extended periods of time eventually succumb to a massive top-heavy debt structure which at some point 'topples over.' These countries then suffer either a deflationary debt implosion/depression in which much of the debt is liquidated, or the country's central bank instigates a huge inflationary push to reduce the value of all credit market debt in the country by vastly increasing the amount of currency and the expansion of its money supply. A big inflationary push frequently leads to a lack of confidence in the country's currency and hence the possibility of 'hyper-inflation' occurring as everyone unloads the country's currency for real goods or other currencies. Argentina earlier this decade and Zimbabwe recently, are examples of central bank sponsored inflation that led to no confidence in their currencies, resulting in hyper-inflation. The inflationary approach is what appears to be favoured by the American, Japanese and British central banks. From an Enlightened Economics perspective, the actions of manipulating down interest rates and the over printing of money by central banks fall under a terrible fallacy: the belief that we can resolve our short-term economic problems by going more into debt and not concern ourselves with the long-term consequences. A global consciousness has to arise which understands that manipulating markets, most especially interest rates and money supply, leads to highly unstable economies which in time either implode or explode! 2. That collapses hegemony and causes nuclear war Friedberg & Schoenfeld 8 [Aaron Friedberg is a professor of politics and international relations at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School. Gabriel Schoenfeld, senior editor of Commentary, is a visiting scholar at the Witherspoon Institute in Princeton, N.J., “The Dangers of a Diminished America,” Wall Street Journal, Ocbtober 21, 2008, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122455074012352571.html] With the global financial system in serious trouble, is America's geostrategic dominance likely to diminish? If so, what would that mean? One immediate implication of the crisis that began on Wall Street and spread across the world is that the primary instruments of U.S. foreign policy will be crimped. The next president will face an entirely new and adverse fiscal position. Estimates of this year's federal budget deficit already show that it has jumped $237 billion from last year, to $407 billion. With families and businesses hurting, there will be calls for various and expensive domestic relief programs. In the face of this onrushing river of red ink, both Barack Obama and John McCain have been reluctant to lay out what portions of their programmatic wish list they might defer or delete. Only Joe Biden has suggested a possible reduction -- foreign aid. This would be one of the few popular cuts, but in budgetary terms it is a mere grain of sand. Still, Sen. Biden's comment hints at where we may be headed: toward a major reduction in America's world role, and perhaps even a new era of financially-induced isolationism. Pressures to cut defense spending, and to dodge the cost of waging two wars, already intense before this crisis, are likely to mount. Despite the success of the surge, the war in Iraq remains deeply unpopular. Precipitous withdrawal -- attractive to a sizable swath of the electorate before the financial implosion -- might well become even more popular with annual war bills running in the hundreds of billions. Protectionist sentiments are sure to grow stronger as jobs disappear in the coming slowdown. Even before our current woes, calls to save jobs by restricting imports had begun to gather support among many Democrats and some Republicans. In a prolonged recession, gale-force winds of protectionism will blow. Then there are the dolorous consequences of a potential collapse of the world's financial architecture. For decades now, Americans have enjoyed the advantages of being at the center of that system. The worldwide use of the dollar, and the stability of our economy, among other things, made it easier for us to run huge budget deficits, as we counted on foreigners to pick up the tab by buying dollar-denominated assets as a safe haven. Will this be possible in the future? Meanwhile, traditional foreign-policy challenges are multiplying. The threat from al Qaeda and Islamic terrorist affiliates has not been extinguished. Iran and North Korea are continuing on their bellicose paths, while Pakistan and Afghanistan are progressing smartly down the road to chaos. Russia's new militancy and China's seemingly relentless rise also give cause for concern. If America now tries to pull back from the world stage, it will leave a dangerous power vacuum. The stabilizing effects of our presence in Asia, our continuing commitment to Europe, and our position as defender of last resort for Middle East energy sources and supply lines could all be placed at risk. In such a scenario there are shades of the 1930s, when global trade and finance ground nearly to a halt, the peaceful democracies failed to cooperate, and aggressive powers led by the remorseless fanatics who rose up on the crest of economic disaster exploited their divisions. Today we run the risk that rogue states may choose to become ever more reckless with their nuclear toys, just at our moment of maximum vulnerability. The aftershocks of the financial crisis will almost certainly rock our principal strategic competitors even harder than they will rock us. The dramatic free fall of the Russian stock market has demonstrated the fragility of a state whose economic performance hinges on high oil prices, now driven down by the global slowdown. China is perhaps even more fragile, its economic growth depending heavily on foreign investment and access to foreign markets. Both will now be constricted, inflicting economic pain and perhaps even sparking unrest in a country where political legitimacy rests on progress in the long march to prosperity. None of this is good news if the authoritarian leaders of these countries seek to divert attention from internal travails with external adventures. As for our democratic friends, the present crisis comes when many European nations are struggling to deal with decades of anemic growth, sclerotic governance and an impending demographic crisis. Despite its past dynamism, Japan faces similar challenges. India is still in the early stages of its emergence as a world economic and geopolitical power. What does this all mean? There is no substitute for America on the world stage. The choice we have before us is between the potentially disastrous effects of disengagement and the stiff price tag of continued American leadership. Directory: file -> view view -> Western Europe after wwii view -> Author study: paul fleischman view -> Qpa1 7ela study Guide view -> Arctic Oil/Gas Neg view -> November 1970 Approximately 150,000-500,000 deaths Bhola Cyclone Bangladesh view -> Grade Level: 6 Unit of Study: Caribbean glce view -> Citation: Duffield, Katy view -> Table of Contents Lesson # view -> Chinese Wind Energy Disad Download 350.73 Kb. Share with your friends:
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