"Second, whatever else is true, the events of the last week are the most momentous events of the Bush era in terms of defining what kind of country we are and how we function -- and before this week, the last eight years have been quite momentous, so that is saying a lot....
"What is more intrinsically corrupt than allowing people to engage in high-reward/no-risk capitalism -- where they reap tens of millions of dollars and more every year while their reckless gambles are paying off only to then have the Government shift their losses to the citizenry at large once their schemes collapse? We've retroactively created a win-only system where the wealthiest corporations and their shareholders are free to gamble for as long as they win and then force others who have no upside to pay for their losses."
-Glenn Greenwald, in a blog post here.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
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3 comments:
Please. This is what you get when you walk around in your Chinese factory made Walmart clothes and declare that American democratic capitalism is the end-all.
Well, I'm definitely not surprised that the bubble burst. But, after years of hearing Americans decrying "socialism", having the US government ask every man, woman, and child in the country to pay roughly $2000 a piece to socialize an industry, so that idiot investment bankers can keep their McMansions is a bit shocking. And, hearing the "free markets are God" people now saying, "well, it's a shame, but it has to be done for the good of the economy" is enough to make me wish we could still put them in the stocks overnight.
I wish I could be shocked by it, but it's the logical consequence of so many decades of wealth being a virtue, and repeated falsification of the value of money. When cash stopped being 100% backed by gold, and when credit became a form of cash, this exact situation became the light at the end of the tunnel, and now we're all supposed to buckle down and do our bit by laying down in the tracks of the oncoming train behind that light.
What a disaster.
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