On the Contrary

I have to admit, I feel fearful.  I think the whole country is feeling fearful.  The future we thought we were saving for may not be possible anymore.  If you are in my age group, which is in the early 60’s, and the stock market tanks and your home loses its value, our retirement planning will be for naught.  We are too old to wait for the system to recover.  I think many people in the country are starting to recognize what perilous times we are living in.   Then there is the anger, anger at the people who got us into this.  The trouble is, much of it is displaced.  Right now the tide seems to be turning against the $700b bailout because many want to punish Wall Street.

But when the dust settles, reward and punishment are not the critical factors right now.  The critical factor is what is the appropriate action to limit the harm that can be done if the market crashes.  The answer is nobody knows.  If the $700b plan goes forward it clearly has to have oversight and equity share for the taxpayer.  Senator Shelby, conservative Republican of Alabama, does not support it because he thinks the marketplace needs to operate to punish those that got greedy (that would be all of us).  Newt Gingrich, another free market advocate, feels the same way.  I think they are letting their conservative dogma and strict father family moral values overcome their good sense.  If we do nothing and let these businesses fail, will the domino effect make the $700b investment by us look cheap?

I think the party is over and the hangover may be a killer.  We can argue all day long about whether we need to win in Iraq and Afghanistan, but it is moot.  As Tom Friedman pointed out in his column on Wednesday (Dear Iraqi Friends), we no longer can afford to solve the world’s problems.   Our own infrastructure is in bad need of investment so that our economy can compete and grow, yet we have been on this spending and get rich (read low to no taxes) quick train demanding ever increasing returns on our investments (read more and more risk) and now we must put ourselves more in debt just to bailout our investments.  We need massive, no I mean massive, investments in alternate energy to improve not only our national security, but to create an innovative energy segment of our economy that could just pull us out of the coming recession/depression.   I won’t mention climate change because many of you are still in denial and it would be counterproductive.  We have lost our moral leadership in the world under the Republicans and George Bush.  We have lost our financial leadership in the world and the consequences of this are yet to be realized.  The party is over and the house is trashed.

But what really scares me is that most Americans still can’t see that the greedy bankers in Wall Street were just the effect of a conservative philosophy of the marketplace.  It is not just the lack of regulation; it is the belief that government is the problem, hindering the acquisition of wealth that is the badge of success and morality.  Fifty percent of our population elected and re-elected George Bush and the Republicans who have not only reigned over our downfall, they have accelerated it.  Now these same people do not hold themselves accountable and are about to elect the same power structure with John McCain and Sarah Palin to continue the debacle.  They cannot see the connection in their conservative philosophy and a government that is powerless to respond to crises.

Think about it.  If we had a government that was empowered, then we would have fuel standards today that would have forced the automakers to produce cost efficient automobiles, and also not be in such financial trouble today. But our friends, the conservative Republicans and a couple of Detroit Democrats blocked every attempt.  As Bill Clinton pointed out on the Daily show Tuesday night, if after the tech bubble in 2001, if all that money that went into the housing bubble went into alternate energy innovation, we would be the leaders in the world today.  If after the 1970 energy crisis government would have stepped in and put a $1 additional tax on all gasoline, making the automobile a less economic choice for transportation, maybe we would look more like Europe with its excellent transportation systems.  We might also have money to fund infrastructure improvements, but that would be a tax and in the Republican mantra, all taxes are evil.  Government has a very big role to play by tempering the market with a long-term view of where we need to be.

Instead we are reacting in fear and anger, looking to find someone to punish for a philosophy of greed we all bought into.  We starved government because we are selfish and that selfishness reflects itself in the conservative philosophy of minimal regulation, low taxes, small government, and our unbridled self-interest reflected in the marketplace will solve all our problems.  It is a bankrupt philosophy, but the owners of this bankrupt philosophy  fail to recognize their own part in this disaster.  We may get John McCain, a reactionary throwback to the 80’s and Ronald Reagan, Sarah Palin, a throwback to the 19th century when gutting a moose was important, and the whole Republican power structure that brought you George Bush.

My fear is becoming anger too, but not at Wall Street, but at you people who voted these people into power, cannot see the failure in your own belief system that brought this misery, and are about to make the same mistake again.  Wall Street just reflects these values.  Have you learned nothing?  Apparently not and if you win this election, my children and their children will have to pay for your stupidity and selfishness.  You are the problem.

Note:  McCain is pulling a campaign stunt by trying to cancel his debate on Friday and go back to Washington “to solve the problem”.  It started with the hope for a joint statement from both Obama and McCain initiated by Obama, but then McCain unilaterally decided only he could solve the problem.  The last thing these negotiations need is the insertion of presidential politics and a new voice in the negotiations.  It is truly sad that anybody thinks this main who has jettisoned all the beliefs that made him a maverick to gain the presidential nomination will stroll into Congress and resolve the difficulties, when most of the people there don’t like him very much.  All he did was raise the stakes and turn this into a partisan battle ground.  Now that’s being Presidential.