“Wall Street had been doing business with pieces of paper; and now
someone asked for a dollar, and it was discovered that the dollar had
been mislaid. It was an experience for which the captains of industry
were not entirely prepared; they had forgotten the public. It was like
some great convulsion of nature, which made mockery of all the powers of
men, and left the beholder dazed and terrified. In Wall Street men
stood as if in a valley, and saw far above them the starting of an
avalanche; they stood fascinated with horror, and watched it gathering
headway; saw the clouds of dust rising up, and heard the roar of it
swelling, and realized it was only a matter of time before it swept them
to their destruction... But it is difficult to get a man to understand
something when his salary depends upon him not understanding it."
- Upton Sinclair, "The Moneychangers"
"You are a den of vipers and thieves. I intend to rout you out, and by
the grace of the eternal God, I will rout you out." - Andrew Jackson
It was discovered that in all that blizzard of corruption, and the paper
that covered it up, that the very basis of the value of things had been
'mislaid.' And then the deluge came. If you listen to the reasoning of
'free market' types, and their paid mouthpieces and demagogues, this
kind of thing could not happen, because companies, being rational and
focused on the long term, would not allow tainted meat with their name
on it to be sold into the markets.
They would not risk the lawsuits, and damage to their reputations. It is
a similar argument that holds that financial markets need only light
regulations because people will manage their own behaviour for the
ultimate good, with almost perfect rational and altruistic
self-constraint.
But alas, we know this is not true, as anyone who ever travels on a
major highway can tell you. People and their tendencies to greed and
careless stupidity require a certain association of people in a society
for their common good, to take on not only large tasks with common and
broad benefits to the pubic, but also in order for the majority to
protect themselves from criminals, cheats, sociopaths, and plain old
ignorant selfishness. This is why we establish police and fire
departments, and have health laws, for example.
Government is never perfect. But its occasional flaws and corruption are
no reason to do away with it. The power of government must be held in
balance, but so must the power of private wickedness.
If you bother to look into the history of certain types of laws,
especially those designed to protect the public, and the often long
progressive efforts of many dedicated souls to achieve them, from civil
rights to basic food safety to voting rights to consumer protections
against financial fraud, you can see what they have accomplished, and
how their effectiveness must be upheld and occasionally renewed, since
the corrupting power of easy money respects few if any boundaries.
Goodness may occasionally falter, but evil never sleeps. And as many are
now discovering, telling the truth becomes a subversive act, in times
of general deceit. Notice the patterns of smears and dehumanization of
certain types of people. This is how it begins.
And so it seems that every other generation forgets the lessons learned
by their grandparents, and casts off their protections in fits of
foolishness fuelled by the sweet words and slogans of the pampered
princes of easy money, and their puppets, who will say and do anything
for power and position. Those who forget history are doomed to repeat
it, and this is surely the story of the last thirty years, especially in
the area of financial regulation, and the political standards of oaths
and stewardship.”
-by Jesse
OneLove
:::MME:::
