Just Suck It Up

We need to apply the same restraints and thinking to big business that big business is willing to apply to the individual. From my viewpoint, the standard thinking among the fat cats is that the individual homeowner, investor, consumer (take your pick) is a person who ALWAYS has the moral obligation to do the right thing. In other words, the individual is to be held responsible to a higher standard than Wall Street whose average annual bonus is in the healthy seven figures. The right thing, in this context, is to suck it up if a mistake is made and suffer the consequences. If an individual had the temerity to attempt to get in on the tech stock craze several years back (a sure sign of greed when an individual thinks that they might make a quick buck or two if large corporations are doing it), when the bubble broke,the response was "Tough." You got what you deserved. The same thinking has been applied to those individuals who mortgaged their homes, or remortgaged them to capture the increased value of their homes. When the housing bubble burst, the little guy has to suck it up again while the big guys and entities most at fault for the dilemma sought and obtained federal bailouts for their approach, which was the same as the individual investor looking to improve his lot. Bankruptcy laws were changed to prevent individuals from discharging their debt on the rationale that it was immoral for such relief to be provided and people needed to be more responsible in their financial decisions. The current administration has always been about relieving the pain of running a big business. The corporations yell that lawsuits hurt the bottom line. No problem, get rid of them by making the words 'trial lawyer' the anti Christ, right alongside "liberals." and pass laws that immunize whole industries from the conduct that injures and kills and maims thousands and thousands of people. When the economy gets a little rough, corporations are given tax breaks and federal assistance in staggering amounts of cases in nonsensical fashion (e.g., Detroit auto companies and the business tax break involving vehicles only exceeding 6000 pounds in weight- a really idiotic idea if one is the least concerned about fuel conservation).

As Congress considers the hastily crafted attempt by the administration (the same thinkers responsible for the current dilemma) to give away 750 billion dollars of our taxpayers to relieve the pain, maybe it's just time to acknowledge and let Wall Street take some of their own medicine; Just suck it up, big guys