Economics is easy, changing our culture of greed is hard.
Cheating manifests itself in many ways. Bernie Madoff was a cheat. The insider traders of the 1980s were cheats. Filming practices of an opponent against league rules is cheating. Gaining certain advantages through legislation, or having safe guards eliminated so large numbers of citizens can be taken advantage of is also a form of cheating. While completely legal in the eyes of the law, ethically it leaves a lot to be desired.
The financial crisis was brought about through the passage of legislation that left individuals and institutions vulnerable to abuses that had been checked more than 60 years before by a post Crash of 1929 and Great Depression Congress. The photographs of our nation's suffering during the Great Depression were ignored and labelled irrelevant by the Congress of the United States.
Greedy people have no need to remember, be concerned or think about the needs of others. They only care about themselves. Bernie Madoff is not the only greedy person in the financial industry that we need to deal with. There are others just as bad, we just have not uncovered their crimes.
Stay tuned.
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7 comments:
A mass of greedy, unethical people never change their ways voluntarily. Historically, they have been removed from power by revolution.
The truth of the matter is and should be a shame. The principle of "Spending the Common Wealth for the Common Good", progressive politics at its finest, is, unfortunately, anathema to the wealthy and greedy few - at least - as long as that principle has the potential to reach into THEIR pockets, along with everybody else's. How many times have you heard the refrain "I'm not gonna pay for somebody to sit on his ass" - or words to that effect? There are two groups you'll hear that from = those wealthy, greedy types we've alluded to and those who are too uninformed or stupid to make their own and informed choices.
Sometimes the revolutionaries are just as greedy
We need to turn the spot light on these people. The press and TV and radio have done this job in the past, but now there is the Internet. That you and me and that's all of us out there. The next stage is for the Internet to be a force for change. To expose those that would hurt us and our families for their own greedy life style. Look how many people were hurt by what Bernie Madoff did. Did the SEC even spend 60 minutes a year looking into what he was doing?
When Reagan was elected in 1980, many people thought the economy would do "better" with the tax cuts and deregulations that followed.
I never supported Regan, but for some reason, other people kept thinking; "We could do better."
Since that time, technology has marched forward. In many ways, life is richer, but that could have happened anyway.
As for fair distribution of wealth, we've most likely taken steps backwards. We've taken steps backwards for universiality of health coverage, affordability of a place to live and curbing of greenhouse emissions.
I think much of the Reagan revolution was a step backwards even though some aspects of society, like technology, continue to make progress.
I've hoped that the Reagan era would end, but it keeps coming back alive especially after Republican victories. Hopefully, now, it's gone.
If there are future Republican gains, I hope the new generations have more common sense and there can be more to life than just trying to get rich.
Have you seen the latest from the SEC on regulations. This may be good but first of all they need to do their job. Had they when Madoff was exposed then there wouldn't be such devestation. People may have lost in the long run but not nearly as bad.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/05/AR2009080503803.html?wpisrc=newsletter&wpisrc=newsletter&wpisrc=newsletter
One of the head regulators in the SEC recently stated she attended a Madoff wedding.
I'm sure she looked "deeply" at Madoff's transactons.
Maybe I'm getting more "crusty" but I believe when someone in government or business does not perform to expectations, there should be a severe punishment. In Japan, they resign and/or commit suicide.
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