Monday, January 4, 2010

Peace is Profitable


Some people say that the US government, corrupted as it is by global corporate agendas, secretly wants to prop up the Khamenei regime because the US somehow profits from Iran being a fascist rentier state that can't produce all its own needs and has to sell oil to buy imports.  I disagree.  Just because some corporations may currently be profiting off that situation, that doesn't mean it's the most profitable arrangement.  Corporations are always on the lookout for ways to improve the market.

Surely the entire US business community recognizes that right now America could really use a new, rich friend suddenly in the market for high-quality upscale consumer goods and fashions!  When the mullahs and IRGC stop skimming off the top of the Iranian economy and forbidding people to buy the products they really want, I bet average Iranians would be happy to take up some of the slack in the American economy that our own hardships are causing.  New customers means more profits and more jobs, so Americans can get back on their feet.

But the profits don't stop there; a US business relationship with Free Iran wold have sustainable long-term benefits for both countries.  Iran is a gorgeous place that would be an ideal tourist destination for everyone from nature-lovers and students of art and history, to those who just love to shop and have fun.  There are traditional Iranian craftspeople who hand-make unique items of art that can't be replicated anywhere else, and Americans will always want to come watch the artisans work and buy the finished products.  It's an outsourcing-proof industry built into the Iranian economy, and all that's required is national friendship for it to reach its full potential.

At the same time, American heavy industry can provide the technical skills and raw materials to help Iran get up to speed with a 21st Century infrastructure, so that the benefits of education and  a modern standard of living can be extended to all Iranians, while providing good manufacturing jobs for hard-working Americans.  After the recent stock market fiasco, it's clear to all but a few that the idea of endless profits derived simply from trading pieces of paper back and forth was a ridiculous pipe dream, and America needs to get back to its roots as an industrial powerhouse with high-paying jobs for skilled industrial workers.

It is true that there is one group that profits from continuing enmity between Iran and the USA: the military-industrial complex.  However, all the other industries, which form the backbone of American prosperity, flourish under peace and wither under war, and although the M/I complex has managed to gain a strong foothold in American policy, I have confidence that when all the other corporate interests find their own profits in these desperate times so clearly lie in the other direction, they will collectively overwhelm the voices of their warmongering colleagues and insist on fostering peace with Iran and support for the Iranian people's movement toward openness and democracy.

3 comments:

  1. but isn't what your suggesting exactly what Iran has been trying to avoid, that is the influence of America. Exporting our fashions, foods and entertainment means more to them then just the acceptance of American products it is the acceptance of the American way of life. And it goes without saying the American way of life is corrupt, evil and wrong and would surely be the downfall of all that is moral and right.

    I agree that there is probably financial benefit to both sides, but I don't see how they can overcome the fundemental mistrust, and in some cases, outright hatred of the American system. Doesn't your suggestion play right into the propaganda that Americans are corrupting the Iranan people with their own agenda? To me it seems it is not as simple as just accepting some goods for trade -- it is an effort to change the embedded mistrust of a system that unfortunately does seem full of greed, immorality, crime and corruption. Yes, yes, 'I' know what is in Iran is no better, but how can one see this from the inside through a deeply ingrained upbringing of isolationism and a religion whose basic teachings require the rejection of western morals?

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  2. The bottom line is that Iran is a free country where people can walk the streets any time of the day or night in peace and safety. The same obviously cannot be said for the violent freemason horror world called the United States. Why do you want to make Iran over in the image of this God-forsaken murder pit called the USA? Do you just like to see dead innocent people or something?

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