NON-STATE ACTORS WITH VESTED INTERESTS

"The terrorists want to destroy Pakistan, too. (NY Times 12/9/08) by Asif Ali Zardari, president of Pakistan: The Mumbai attacks were directed not only at India but also at Pakistan's new democratic government and the peace process with India that we have initiated. Supporters of authoritarianism in Pakistan and !!non-state actors with a vested interest!! in perpetuating conflict do not want change in Pakistan to take root."

This phrase, “NON-STATE ACTORS WITH VESTED INTERESTS,” with some linguistic variations, appears in many news items that indicate a desire by those actors to perpetuate existing governments and government institutions and practices, or to change the governments. Other similar phrases are used to describe people and the multifarious establishments they represent without providing sufficient information to identify them or identify how they act to achieve success in their missions.

However, they are actors with interests, and they act to protect and enhance their interests. And they act outside the exposed states and governments they influence for their benefit and for the benefit of those for whom they exert themselves, namely, power elites; wealth and the wealthy. The “actors” generally are combinations of members of power elites and their employees, the so-called “lobbyists.”

Acquiring a government contract to provide goods or services for any of the branches of government, for instance, is generally an enterprise that is rarely open to scrutiny as it might be in the open commercial markets of a country. The amount of money the government spends on everything from pencils to planes, far outstrips what is paid in the open market. Also, where in most commercial dealings, competition determines price paid, in government, competitive bidding is often so designed as to eliminate all but one bidder, the result of a non-state actor having an “in.” So a hammer that might cost $2.95 in the local hardware store, costs the government $45. And you, the taxpayer, pay for that exhorbitant discrepancy.

There are more deleterious impacts on government functioning by non-state actors than paying exorbitant prices for simple goods. Protecting the common people, the lower and middle classes, providing for the common good, providing government services (education, health care, police protection, etc,) adequately for the non-power elites, all suffer in the conflict waged by power elites for acquisition and control of the money that pours into government coffers, control of, or absence of control of, manufacturing and mining processes, and control of natural resources. The taking in taxes from the powerless to provide for the interests of the powerful, is an unfair match as much as minimum wage and occupational safety control.

Wealth is created by using the country’s natural resources and expending labor on them. Those natural resources are owned for the most part by the government and the power elites. The wealth created is shared in a grossly unequal fashion between the lower and middle classes on the one hand, and the government-protected power elites on the other.

If the government does not protect the power elites, it will be overthrown in the oligarch/dictator countries of the world or voted out of office in the democracies and semi-democracies of the world. In all cases, the non-state actors with vested interests control the “democratic” process in the democracies and the distribution of wealth in the dictatorships and oligarchies.

So, when you open your newspaper or magazine and see the phrase, “non-state actors,” you know what and who the author is writing about. And you will know that they all have “vested interests.”