In capitalism, risk is supposed to be borne by the actor. In this recent case, the risk was private, but the loss was made public. This is an aberration unheard of in the annals of finance. What is more, it was institutionalized, made policy, expressed as the truth of the realm, but in fact, all of the rules were changed to suit the Wizard and the rest of us were literally left holding the bag.
In my day, people taking risks were considered gamblers, and gamblers did not have much of a reputation, well, at least not a good one. They were most often considered greedy, dishonest, deceitful, and unreliable. How is it that we turned the gambler into the pillar of society. I'm sorry, but I just don't get it.
I have nothing against capitalists in principle, as long as they play by their own rules, take their risk and losses like mature individuals and demonstrate by their own actions and behavior that they understand which world it is in which they operate. But, they have made their problems into my (and your) problems, and they have convinced the powers-that-be that it is only good and right and proper that the rest of us should not only pay for their mistakes, but that we should reward and continue to honor them because they are the rich, the powerful, the masters of the universe, the best and brightest ... which they aren't, never had been, and never will be. And that's, quite frankly, what turns my stomach every time I hear or see others fawning over them, kow-towing to them, catering to them and their wishes, believing their lies, their deceit, and never, ever questioning what they are doing. Why? Because for the most part, we have been repeatedly told that we can't understand this highly complex, if not complicated, world of modern finance.
Really?
Don't get me wrong, I don't claim to know all the ins and outs of the details of all the nonsense that they perpetuate, nor do I think it is necessary to do so. What we need is a basic understanding of how "the system" works so that we can recognize them for what they are: gamblers, and gamblers who play with other people's money. Your money, my money, pensioner's money, anybody's money but their own. And that simply has to stop.
The system they created isn't really much of a system, it is a shell game, a sleight-of-hand act, an illusion. We need to put some reality back into the system and they need to be put back in their place. As long as we can't, or won't, acknowledge the reality behind the illusion, they can continue to act as badly as they have so far and we will continue to be victimized by them and their elected henchmen.
At that moment that we traded in our society for a mere economy, we placed money (and property) rights above human rights, we made money the measure of all things, including ourselves. I'm not convinced that was a good idea. When the good St. Paul was writing his letter, he was, of course, talking about a different kind of salvation, but if we want to save ourselves from this nonsense, we need to understand what is going on, or as Paul put it "see [things] face-to-face"; that is, see things for what they are. It's not rocket science, it is business, it is a little economics, and it should be a whole lot of common sense.
It's time to expose the man behind the curtain.
Note: This series was originally published in slightly modified form on the Daily Kos.
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