Scott Allan’s World

Pelosi and Reid say Bush/Cheney. Bush tells the Dems to look in the mirror. Obama says McCain. McCain/Palin say Wall Street corruption. So who is right? I am. The blame for this is on everybody’s shoulders. Nobody did anything because of all the damn money. And they’re still not doing anything. The Democrats repealed important banking regulations when Bill Clinton was President. The filthy rich Board members of these filthy rich corporations grave mind-numbing bonuses to executives whether they performed or not. Golden parachutes floating here and there for complete failures. CEOs and CFOs cooking the books to get higher profits. Handing out bazillions in risky loans because there is no consequence for failure down the road. By then the CEO will have amassed his fortune and moved on to his private island and offshore accounts while the lowly employees lose everything. What is the average term a CEO serves? Can’t be more than a few years. There is no fiduciary responsibility any more mostly because nobody holds them accountable. We want our teachers to take proficiency/performance tests for a measly raise and job retention yet we do not hold the executives in charge of the nation’s wealth, your and my money, to any standard at all.

We marvel at the amount of wealth they amass and declare that the free market works unfettered. After all they deserve what they make based on the size of their profits and a lifetime of achievement. The problem is that they are playing fast and loose with our money and they are rewarded even when there is no profit. It has finally caught up to them and the rest of us. Have you seen the bonuses these people receive? It’s obscene. These people are not just wealthy, they are disgustingly wealthy. Really, once you have $100 Million dollars, how much more do you really need? It’s a “good ol’ boy” network protecting and feeding off each other and when you have arrived you are treated like royalty. It is expected that you will receive millions when you “retire” (are fired). Then you will be appointed to someone else’s Board by the elite network to make even more millions.

I believe in Adam Smith and the forces of the free market and my libertarian streak wants government to stay out of business as much as possible. But my assumptions are based on a perfect system where people are well intentioned. I used to dream about how I too could one day be that rich if I was just willing to work as hard as they do. Just because other people are very rich is not threatening and does not limit my opportunity to succeed as well. In fact it can be motivating. I don’t begrudge people becoming wealthy as long as they act in an ethical manner befitting the position power and responsibility they hold. Abusing that power or being complicit in that abuse is criminal. With great power comes great responsibility. I am now seeing the wisdom in regulation and oversight when the entire WORLD’s economy can be destroyed by a few greedy, corrupt people. Look I know that rich people are necessary for a healthy economy, but let’s make sure these people are forced to be responsible in order to earn that wealth.

Somebody needs to go to jail. I’d like to say these companies deserve to fail, but really for the thousands of employees who trusted their executives to make responsible decisions, what should they do now? Is it their fault too? Apparently we still haven’t learned the lessons of Enron and WorldCom. We need to reform the system so that financial executives are truly paid for performance and for what they are worth. And they need to be punished for un-ethical practices. If you run a company into the ground and all the lives associated with it, you shouldn’t get to keep your fortune. Suffer like everyone else you’ve harmed. I thought I would never say this, but the government actually has a role here to protect us.