Who is to blame?
When things go badly and when we get hurt we want someone to blame.
This economy thing (I know, what economy?) is really starting to hurt everybody (or at least to really scare everybody). So we want to blame somebody. I want to blame somebody. So who do we blame? Wall Street, Banks, Fat Cats, who?
Wall Street? Well they have been greedy bastards, and they have made tons of money collecting fees as the market went up and down. So we can criticize Wall Street for being greedy bastards. But that has been Wall Street’s job description, at least during my life time. Wall Street is set up as a capitalist playing field and they have been playing the game.
Banks? Traditionally banks make money slowly and conservatively by collecting more money than they loan out. Recently they got the rules changed and gave into pressure to make fast money. They should have known better, but they have been playing by the new rules.
Yeah, the fat cats on Wall Street and in the Banks are greedy capitalist bastards who should be watched very, very carefully. But the guys who set the rules and enforce the rules are just as much to blame and maybe more to blame. Greedy people are out there. It is the rules and the umpires that are supposed to keep the players as close to honest as possible.
Over the last several decades the people in charge of the rules have bent over backwards to change rules the players don’t like. That is called deregulation. And they have looked the other way and refused to enforce the few rules that are still officially on the books. That is called dereliction of duty. You can’t have a safe or clean game if the umpires are dirty or just not there. And the umpires have been predominately Republican appointees during my lifetime. So they are to blame, probably more so than the Wall Street players and Banking manipulators and the Real Estate speculators. They should be taken to task. They should be held responsible. And the last thing we ought to do is hire another batch of the same people who have done such a miserable job and let the system get so out of control so that they can keep this cycle of dishonesty going.
But that doesn’t mean you and I are off the hook. We had responsibilities too. We were supposed to be informed and active citizens. We were supposed to monitor the actions of our representatives and make sure that they were enforcing the rules and protecting the country and its citizens. So I think we get some of the blame here too. We hired (or at least rubber stamped) these people. We have not clearly articulated our goals, desires, and standards for participation in our economy and our society. We have not told the politicians NO. They have not told the corporate capitalists NO. And now we all get to pay the price.
So let’s take a deep breath. Admit that it took years to get things into this state. And get ready to spend years getting out of this mess. I need to live on what I make. You need to live on what you make. And we need representatives that will make government, Wall Street, the Banks, and businesses large and small live within their means. We need rules that are fair. Rules that will keep greed in check. Rules that will protect the most valuable assets and aspirations of this nation. The “Free Market” is a failure, a twentieth century concept that never worked as advertised, a social experiment of huge scope and frighteningly huge consequence that produced a very few winners and made most of us and our natural environment losers. So how about an organized and regulated market where everyone knows the rules and knows they will be penalized for breaking those rules instead? What if we quit voting against our own self interests? What if we admitted how undemocratic corporate structures are? What if we enacted rules that held people and the environment to be more valuable than capital? What if…?
When things go badly and when we get hurt we want someone to blame.
This economy thing (I know, what economy?) is really starting to hurt everybody (or at least to really scare everybody). So we want to blame somebody. I want to blame somebody. So who do we blame? Wall Street, Banks, Fat Cats, who?
Wall Street? Well they have been greedy bastards, and they have made tons of money collecting fees as the market went up and down. So we can criticize Wall Street for being greedy bastards. But that has been Wall Street’s job description, at least during my life time. Wall Street is set up as a capitalist playing field and they have been playing the game.
Banks? Traditionally banks make money slowly and conservatively by collecting more money than they loan out. Recently they got the rules changed and gave into pressure to make fast money. They should have known better, but they have been playing by the new rules.
Yeah, the fat cats on Wall Street and in the Banks are greedy capitalist bastards who should be watched very, very carefully. But the guys who set the rules and enforce the rules are just as much to blame and maybe more to blame. Greedy people are out there. It is the rules and the umpires that are supposed to keep the players as close to honest as possible.
Over the last several decades the people in charge of the rules have bent over backwards to change rules the players don’t like. That is called deregulation. And they have looked the other way and refused to enforce the few rules that are still officially on the books. That is called dereliction of duty. You can’t have a safe or clean game if the umpires are dirty or just not there. And the umpires have been predominately Republican appointees during my lifetime. So they are to blame, probably more so than the Wall Street players and Banking manipulators and the Real Estate speculators. They should be taken to task. They should be held responsible. And the last thing we ought to do is hire another batch of the same people who have done such a miserable job and let the system get so out of control so that they can keep this cycle of dishonesty going.
But that doesn’t mean you and I are off the hook. We had responsibilities too. We were supposed to be informed and active citizens. We were supposed to monitor the actions of our representatives and make sure that they were enforcing the rules and protecting the country and its citizens. So I think we get some of the blame here too. We hired (or at least rubber stamped) these people. We have not clearly articulated our goals, desires, and standards for participation in our economy and our society. We have not told the politicians NO. They have not told the corporate capitalists NO. And now we all get to pay the price.
So let’s take a deep breath. Admit that it took years to get things into this state. And get ready to spend years getting out of this mess. I need to live on what I make. You need to live on what you make. And we need representatives that will make government, Wall Street, the Banks, and businesses large and small live within their means. We need rules that are fair. Rules that will keep greed in check. Rules that will protect the most valuable assets and aspirations of this nation. The “Free Market” is a failure, a twentieth century concept that never worked as advertised, a social experiment of huge scope and frighteningly huge consequence that produced a very few winners and made most of us and our natural environment losers. So how about an organized and regulated market where everyone knows the rules and knows they will be penalized for breaking those rules instead? What if we quit voting against our own self interests? What if we admitted how undemocratic corporate structures are? What if we enacted rules that held people and the environment to be more valuable than capital? What if…?
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