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The concept of unfettered capitalism reminds this blogger of a Hans Christian Anderson tale, The Emperors New Clothes, in which two tailors swindle a self-involved king by promising an elegant set of clothes that will be invisible to anyone unfit for his position or too stupid to see the clothing. The king parades his new outfit in front of his subjects, and everyone feigns admiration for such beautiful garments-everyone, except a child who cries out that the king is naked. Consider politicians and pundits who insist that no regulations should inhibit the natural flow of capitalism as the king's subjects and the child a representation of those that call for more regulation because they recognize the damage wrought by capitalism run amok.
Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, symbolizes the problems with the notion that regulations cause unnecessary interruptions to businesses. Most readers will vividly recall the economic meltdown that occurred in 2008, from which the United States has yet to recover. Dimon presides over one of the largest financial behemoths in the world and received a whopping pay package of $23 million in 2011, despite his organization's contributions to the financial disaster that happened during his tenure. How many readers would still be working for an organization that failed under his/her leadership?
World Com, Enron, Lehman Brothers, and others too numerous to list have gone under because capitalism has gone awry in the United States. Readers will also recognize the name Bernie Madoff (aptly named, according to this blogger) who stole $18 billion from investors using an elaborate Ponzi scheme to "rob Peter to pay Paul." That figure was the final tally from a court-appointed trustee who worked on the case. None of these egregious situations would have occurred if tighter controls existed allowing for more oversight of those entrusted with handling investors' money. Just trying to sort through hedge funds can make one crazy and hedge fund managers have confessed that they don't understand the instruments themselves. However, that doesn't stop traders from accepting the enormous bonuses that follow after persuading people to invest in them.
The American economy is now predicated on consumer spending, a situation that attracts disaster. When the economy depended more on the creation and sale of manufactured items, it had a solid base on which to thrive. Now, the shrinking middle class has fewer dollars to spend, and the wealthy elite purchase 38% of goods sold in this country. The government touts figures that show more people are employed with each passing quarter, but many of those jobs are part-time or at a rate much less than employees previously earned. Concurrently, prices of almost everything are rising, thus increasing the gap between income and cost of living expenses.
The Today Show aired a segment this morning revealing that just 11% of working women have paid maternity leave, while only 60% qualify for the 12 weeks of unpaid leave required under federal law for businesses with at least 50 employees. So much for the lip service paid by those in office about the importance of children as leaders of tomorrow. Even more startling, the United States is the only industrialized country in the world that doesn't mandate paid maternity leave. Congress capitulates to business groups that whine it would cost them too much to provide it. Clearly, this nation faces myriad problems caused by a capitalistic focus that will eventually divide the population into haves and have nots, as many works of science fiction have already depicted on film. Enough already!
Ham and Wry offers the following solution: fire everyone in Congress and get rid of all lobbyists. America's economy would vastly improve and perhaps the middle class could again occupy its rightful place along the Bell Curve.
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