Business is Not a Solution to Our Problem, Business is the Problem

[Joanne98]

The billions of dollars allocated by the Federal Government in bailout funds has been a lightning rod for criticism on both sides. This morning's news that AIG seeks government approval to grant their CEOs and top executives another round of bonuses could easily inflame liberals, conservatives, and taxpayers all. The article takes care to set out the fact that AIG might never be able to produce any return for shareholders, even after paying back the billions of dollars it has received from the government, a reality in no small part due to its retention of the infamous credit-default swaps that undermined the solvency of the entire financial system and helped create the economic mess in which we are currently stuck. That the company would have willfully refused to learn its lesson ought to illustrate that the private sector should never be viewed or advertised as the noble, virtuous counter-weight to that metastasizing mass of collective "evil" found on Capitol Hill.

cabaretic's diary :: :: What I have often wondered is how Republicans can legitimately continue to criticize Washington, D.C., as some kind of evil morass of corruption and inefficiency when the private sector has arguably proven itself more corrupt and more than willing to resort to illegal (and certainly unethical) means to perpetuate itself. This is an ancient talking point that dates at least back to 1980. Starting with Reagan's first term, the continual GOP drumbeat has been to assert that government is the problem and that it ought to be as small as possible so as to reign in its excesses. This is well and good until one takes into account that the corresponding, singular focus on the free market adopted then meant that the private sector grew larger and larger, corporations swelled to unprecedented sizes, and without sufficient regulatory oversight, they took frequent greed-driven liberties which contributed greatly to the economic mess of today. And, using AIG as an example, they are still more than willing to take these liberties, despite the devastating impact that their foolish practices made upon the lives of people in this country and around the world. Sainted capitalism is hardly any solution.

Furthermore, as MSNBC's First Read this morning reported, 40% of the stimulus took the form of tax cuts. Yet, neither Republicans, nor Democrats seem to wish to incorporate this interesting fact into their arguments and counter-arguments. One can understand why Republicans would choose not to bring it up---it doesn't suit their agenda and makes the Obama Administration look bi-partisan and conciliatory rather than unilateral and radical, as they like to paint it. But I still wish some Democrat would throw this fact out in debate, preferably with the American peoples' full attention. What gives Republican arguments some degree of veracity and heft is that the United States is a nation with a strong libertarian streak. Tied to those libertarian leanings are a long tradition of being wary and suspicious of government. Criticizing those in high elective office might as well count as a national pastime. Corruption scandals only validate those cynical reactions and, indeed, often times these reactions are quite justified.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/7/10/752017/-Business-is-Not-a-Solution-to-Our-Problem,-Business-is-the-Problem

[FiveGoodMen]

1. Our government became more corrupt...

...not only by doing the bidding of big business, but also by trying to run itself like a business.

That's what all that 'CEO President' shit was about.

So, yes, business is the problem.

[FiveGoodMen]

2. Kick

[Tansy_Gold]

3. K&R

and bookmarked for the week-end read

[tomreedtoon]

4. So what is the solution? Greater firepower?

Every time I see one of these posts, I'm reminded of Emma Goldman in the musical Assassins. She screams about the capitalists and the rich and keeps telling her share of the proletariat, "What do you do? What do you do?"

She didn't overtly tell Leon Czolgosz to hide a gun in his bandaged hand and kill President McKinley. But she helped support and promote the sense of futility and doom that convinced him to take such an action.

Spreading fear and paranoia was the hallmark of the Bush administration. What difference is it that this Daily Kos writer is using the same foul technique? Because he seems to be on "our" side?

[bemildred]

5. It is fatuous to suggest that unrestrained pursuit of shallow self-interest leads

inevitably to the common good. If we want the common good, we are going to have to pursue the common good. Otherwise, most of us are going to keep getting screwed, like it is today.