We're gonna do it again.
In November we'll elect new politicians but leave the same old moneyed interests in power. You know, the unelected CEOs Wall Street, and executive campaign contributors that got us to where we are today. They're the road builders who will soon win a $25 million contract to rebuild a perfectly good I-94 interchange in Oconomowoc.
Will we ever learn?
No intelligent businessman would design a company with the payola, bribery and corruption that exists in our current political system. No respected clergyman would tolerate this corruption in his church.
Yet our politicians, both Democrats and Republicans, refuse to fix it. They thrive on it.
We are about to spend $1 trillion of taxpayer dollars to offset the $1 trillion that our corrupt CEOs siphoned from the system. Main Street is about to bail out Wall Street, as they say. It's a free marketer's dream. We've privatized profits and nationalized losses.
That trillion dollars was in the system and now it's not. It's in the pockets of the wealthy but is going to be paid back by the middle class. Joe Biden is right: This bill has to fall on the shoulders of the rich, not the middle and lower wage earners. One can afford it, the other can't. It's time for them to give back at least some of their gains.
So, OK. We are converting the failed free-market system to a government-run system. What other option do we have? The greedy took too much from the national pie and we now have to pay the price. Will it slow investments by our wealthy? Yeah, but probably only in other countries. They weren't investing too much here anyway.
As well, if eliminating short selling is a good idea to recover the market, as they did for 10 days, why not make it permanent to prevent a recurrence? If speculating on Wall Street has driven gas prices through the roof, why not make it always illegal?
Because politicians are paid to not use common sense.
And of course the Bush tax breaks were not bad, they were good. Or so they say. But if tax breaks for the wealthy were a good idea then, why not do it again today? Why not let them pay zero and trickle it down to us?
The problem is that their investments trickle down in countries with lower wages, not ours.
I do agree that taxes for corporations should be zero, at least for those who pay their CEOs reasonably and do not outsource jobs. Our tax structure should provide incentives to keep jobs here, not ship them out.
But our problem is first political corruption and only secondarily an economy problem. It's the politicians and the campaign money they receive from the special interests that want in your pocket. The national pie is not growing; they just want a bigger share of what's left. And thus far they have been getting it.
I agree that we are doing what we have to do. For the moment. But with public funding of campaigns we would never have gotten to this point. Clearly, I'll take a "regulated" free market any day.
- Jack Lohman is a retired business owner from Colgate and publishes http://MoneyedPoliticians.net. He authored "Politicians - Owned and Operated by Corporate America" and can be reached at jlohman@execpc.com.
In November we'll elect new politicians but leave the same old moneyed interests in power. You know, the unelected CEOs Wall Street, and executive campaign contributors that got us to where we are today. They're the road builders who will soon win a $25 million contract to rebuild a perfectly good I-94 interchange in Oconomowoc.
Will we ever learn?
No intelligent businessman would design a company with the payola, bribery and corruption that exists in our current political system. No respected clergyman would tolerate this corruption in his church.
Yet our politicians, both Democrats and Republicans, refuse to fix it. They thrive on it.
We are about to spend $1 trillion of taxpayer dollars to offset the $1 trillion that our corrupt CEOs siphoned from the system. Main Street is about to bail out Wall Street, as they say. It's a free marketer's dream. We've privatized profits and nationalized losses.
That trillion dollars was in the system and now it's not. It's in the pockets of the wealthy but is going to be paid back by the middle class. Joe Biden is right: This bill has to fall on the shoulders of the rich, not the middle and lower wage earners. One can afford it, the other can't. It's time for them to give back at least some of their gains.
So, OK. We are converting the failed free-market system to a government-run system. What other option do we have? The greedy took too much from the national pie and we now have to pay the price. Will it slow investments by our wealthy? Yeah, but probably only in other countries. They weren't investing too much here anyway.
As well, if eliminating short selling is a good idea to recover the market, as they did for 10 days, why not make it permanent to prevent a recurrence? If speculating on Wall Street has driven gas prices through the roof, why not make it always illegal?
Because politicians are paid to not use common sense.
And of course the Bush tax breaks were not bad, they were good. Or so they say. But if tax breaks for the wealthy were a good idea then, why not do it again today? Why not let them pay zero and trickle it down to us?
The problem is that their investments trickle down in countries with lower wages, not ours.
I do agree that taxes for corporations should be zero, at least for those who pay their CEOs reasonably and do not outsource jobs. Our tax structure should provide incentives to keep jobs here, not ship them out.
But our problem is first political corruption and only secondarily an economy problem. It's the politicians and the campaign money they receive from the special interests that want in your pocket. The national pie is not growing; they just want a bigger share of what's left. And thus far they have been getting it.
I agree that we are doing what we have to do. For the moment. But with public funding of campaigns we would never have gotten to this point. Clearly, I'll take a "regulated" free market any day.
- Jack Lohman is a retired business owner from Colgate and publishes http://MoneyedPoliticians.net. He authored "Politicians - Owned and Operated by Corporate America" and can be reached at jlohman@execpc.com.
