We're ALL to Blame

I read, with much interest, a recent editorial claiming that the American economy is collapsing. The bottom line of the article is that the corporate world is essentially to blame: "America has been scammed big-time over the years. The corporate wheelers and dealers, with the complicity of their bought and paid for political whores in Washington, have sold the American working man down the river, and the general welfare of the entire country as well."

The author continues to say that the "corporate crooks" now blame the "greedy American worker, the communist labor unions, the demand of Americans to have clean air and water, and worst of all the bunker mentality of the American people to put up fences against free trade, protectionism." He also reasons that these corporations own most mass media in America and as a result, they work to insure the blame isn't put upon the corporations.

So, what is the truth here? Well, as usual, a little of everything.

Corporations are suffering from agency issues. Where stakeholders hire a management team to run a company, the management team has basically taken the company as their own and to hell with the stakeholders. To wit, the enormous salaries, perks, and golden parachutes managers award themselves (via their pals on the board). How did this happen? Here is how: Your representatives (you elected) care more about their relationship with big business than with you, the SEC is a joke, stockholders are unconsciousness, huge blocks of stock are now managed by singularly friendly fund managers and investment houses, and even those that are individual stockholders often blithely state, "hey if they keep the stock price up, give them the huge salary." Bottom line: stakeholder GAVE UP their control. Should I continue?

I work for a large global concern... they regularly threw HUGE 3-4 day parties at their world headquarters inviting ONLY investment managers and Wall Street Analysts. These were large, lavish, plush, and EXPENSIVE events with the finest wine and champagne - using the stakeholders dividends or assets. Yet, not a peep of outrage from the stakeholders. The company? A large IT firm. And all the while the stock was plummeting.

And if you think you're going to get back any kind of control... I laugh at you. You willingly GAVE IT UP. We all did. It's too late - fasten your seat belts.

Considering the corporate charge? Yes... American's are greedy. Nothing else matters and that same message is repeatedly pushed into our mushy heads to reinforce that. To wit: the mainstream media's (FOX, CNN, et al.) obsession with dead Anna Nicole Smith and her baby. It's ALL ABOUT money and nothing more.

And yes, unions are paid far more than they should be but they have a legitimate beef when they claim that management's salaries are rising exponentially - so then should theirs.

Who are the corporate leaders? Management. And so unskilled labor is just following the leader. Can you blame them?

And let's talk about the consumer. John and Jane Doe. They put their children into daycare so that both can be bring home more and more and more and more money. Greed above family? Everyone HAS TO HAVE the latest toys, newest cars, biggest houses - whether they can afford them or not.

Yet, all the consumer has to do is not buy what they don't need or really want. That won't happen though. We must ALL keep up with the Joneses and we're all in debt up to eyeballs. Easy credit is the gasoline on the fire... low interest rates are the logs on the fire... greed is the match that starts the fire... and our own inability to think clearly or act rationally is the wind that fans the fire.

We have a bonfire at hand - but the blame rests with all of us.