Originally posted by: Skoorb
Andrew, I want to be gentle in what I say, because I think your post is kind of sad, but elicits sympathy.
I almost wept after reading just that sentence.
Some of my passion as a liberal is caring about the situation for people he reminds me of.
My father is from a coal mining town in West Virginia. His father was a coal miner. We visited a teenage relative, and he had one possesion besides his clothes: a deck of cards.
He really cared about the deck of cards.
Such people are not especially savvy about the machinations of Wall Street, who both serves them and leeches off of them, but greatly affect them.
(And to make the analogy more direct, consider the effects of electing an anti-regulation administration with the reductions in mining safety standards and the resulting problems.)
When I see Andrew trying to fit his motor bike into the story of the larger economy of trillions, I feel protective of his interests.
To me, that's largely the government's role - to protect him from the 'powerful interests', to keep them in more mutually rewarding activities than exploitave ones.
The powerful interests are able to exploit - and then to usually win over public opinion anyway. I remember after Exxon-Valdeez how Exxon, finally ordered by the government to install the double hulls they had always refused to when asked to by the government, took out full page ads bragging they had done so as if it were their idea. I've recently seen Chevron having the gall to ask the public to 'join them' in solving the energy problems, whether the public will choose to be part of the solution.
When I see Andrew equate his motor bike as safe from recession because it's now worth more than he paid, I suspect he's not entirely familiar with the economic issues.
And he shouldn't have to be. We should have the regulatory authorities and the Congress protecing his interests without his knowing what Credit Default Swaps are.
And that's why you see some anger in my posts about the broken system, as the thieves walk away fine and leave the Andrews harmed cleaning up the mess, newly indebted.
But I recognize the problem isn't just the obvious crash, it goes back to when the system was corrupted time and again in election after election, the rules favoring the wealthy.
And I recognize that we need to do more to get government representing the people again. I say again with hesitation, because it's always been limited in doing so.
But at least, earlier the scams were simpler - now we have unprecedented media systems for distributing 'ideologies of free markets' to hide policies like unregulated CDS.
( :beer: Craig )
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