How about this economy? Staunch conservatives are foaming at the mouth as the new administration embarks on a spending spree of limitless proportions. “You’re nationalizing the Bank!” “This is socialism!” “Cut the goddam taxes!”
Well, this may be a case of protesting too munch. At an earlier epoch of our nation’s history robber barons took to the stage, and eventually – through legislation and enforcement – a healthy middle class came into being. This time around the robber barons are less visible, but they are there nevertheless. They hide behind the notion that market forces will take care of everything, when we all know how those forces can be manipulated. As a lifelong marketer I have come to appreciate what it takes to market a product or a service, and I can assure that we are not talking about the same market forces that have driven our economy to the brink of destruction. What we have here is deliberate fraud, also of limitless proportions. Oh sure, one or two rascals have been caught perpetrating Ponzi schemes, as if that pointed to the real culprits. The real culprits are the large financial institutions that have relinquished business principles for the siren call of the credit card mentality. If individuals could live beyond their means, why not corporations? The difference is that individuals don’t usually attempt to defraud the credit card companies. Financial institutions, deliberately and with malice, packaged and sold worthless pieces of paper to unwary investors – under no oversight or enforcement of existing laws.
Advertising of prescription medicines – despite the best efforts of countless lobbyists – has had to reveal to the public that side effects may include death, while financial institutions are under no obligations to tell you anything they choose to keep secret. The cry of “This is socialism!” as it relates to the current Democratic agenda may be right, but make no mistake – slogans are only ever used to camouflage the truth. The same robber barons who brought about this catastrophe now claim to be the defenders of their own corrupt brand of capitalism.