XVIII/YOUR MONEY OR YOUR LIFE!
doubt; but it has always managed to weather the storm. However,
the human cost of these crises - and of the ways in which the
capitalist system has emerged from them - is incalculable.
Capitalism may once again weather the storm. It is by no means
sure that the oppressed will be up to the task of finding a non-
capitalist solution to the crisis. Although victory is far from
guaranteed, it is imperative that the oppressed reduce the human
cost of the crisis and pursue a strategy of collective emancipation that
offers real hope for all humankind.
A WORLDWIDE FALL IN INCOME
Recent studies carried out by economists in government and UN
circles, have confirmed just how far buying power has dropped in
various parts of the world. The Clinton administration's former
Secretary of State for Labor, Robert Reich, for example, has said:
'Workers have less money to spend on goods and services [...] The
crisis is upon us'. He adds: 'The sluggishness of American income
levels is a highly sensitive matter, given the role played by household
spending in overall economic performance. [Household debt]
accounted for 60 per cent of available income at the beginning of the
1970s; it is now more than 90 percent [...] We have hit the ceiling'
(Robert Reich, 'Guerre a la spirale de la deflation', Le Monde, 21
November 1998).
The 1998 report of the United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP) gives some idea of the levels of household debt. In response
to the drop in real income, households have clearly opted to finance
a greater and greater share of their spending with debt. 'Between
1983 and 1995, as a share of available income, debt has risen from
74 to 101 per cent in the USA; from 8 5 to 113 per cent in Japan; from
58 to 70 per cent in France.' In absolute terms, US household debt
was 5.5 trillion (5,500 billion) dollars in 1997.
This phenomenon can also be found in the most 'advanced'
countries of the Third World. For example, in Brazil in 19 9 6, fully two
thirds of all families earning less than 300 dollars per month were in
debt - that is, one million of the 1.5 million families in this category.
According to the UNDP, bad cheques are a common method for
financing consumer spending in Brazil. Between 1994 and 1996,
the number of bad cheques rose six fold.