Greed and Stupidity

It is often said that we are incapable of learning from history. In fact, one acerbic wit said that history does not enlighten the petrified mind. If we learn anything from history, it is that we do not learn from history. However, the inability to learn from history is not really the point.

To make changes necessary to prevent recurring crises requires that we limit the power of the corporatists. These are the brokers of power that operate and control the financial institutions behind the façade of constitutional government. The people vote for the legislative representatives but the power brokers, the corporatists, control the legislative branch. They are the military-industrial complex in collusion with bank financed speculation pursuing insane profit. In fact, Senator Durbin recently stated that bankers own the U.S. Congress. And there are those who believe that bank financed speculation may eventually destroy capitalism. The present day economic crisis is an indication of how close we have come. We have survived several economic bubbles in the last 30 years but none were as serious as this one and those in power do not want change.

The shocking lack of regulatory control over the financial institutions, of course, was a major contributing factor to our present economic crisis. In addition the corruption of our legislative branch of government due to the control of lobbyists who represent the military, the industrialists, and the financial institutions is destroying the checks and balances written into the Constitution. As a result, the Congress has very little control over the expanded power of the Presidency. This was particularly true under the Bush administration. Whether this will continue to occur under the present administration will require that we wait and see.

What will likely continue to occur is the control of the lobbyists and the payoffs for favors. Bribes to legislators in the guise of campaign contributions will no doubt continue. Greed and stupidity is endemic in all political systems.

One of the more scandalizing operations of the ace lobbyist, Jack Abramoff, who was eventually convicted of a number of counts of fraud and is now languishing in jail, was the one in which he and Tom Delay, Texas Congressman, lobbied Congress to prevent the passing of a minimum wage law on Saipan in the Mariana Islands. Sweat shops owned by U.S. Chinese industrialists paid Abramoff $10 million to defeat the bill. Thousands of women work for practically nothing to produce high priced clothing for big name companies, such as Nordstrom, Liz Claiborne, Reebok, Eddie Bauer and many others.

Another one of the tactics used by lobbyists to gain approval of a particular bill is to stress the number of jobs that the legislation will provide for the Congressman’s constituency. This strategy is often used to pass a weapons bill for the military, whether it is a useful weapon or not. The main concern is to get that Pentagon money into the local community. The initial payoff is again called a campaign contribution.

Does anyone think Obama can break up this entrenched corruption?


References:

Galbraith, John Kenneth. A Short History of Financial Euphoria. 1994
Johnson, Chalmers. Nemesis. 2006
Wikipedia