not known by its name
John Robb of Global Guerrillas, has a provocative post up about the misplaced angry fallout from the financial crisis, and the true source of that anger, in part:
We have collectively developed the belief that the capitalist system that we work in and our system of governance, although very messy at times and often harsh, is fundamentally fair. The financial collapse proved that these beliefs were completely unfounded and we (collectively) were fools for believing in such nonsense. Here’s how this realization rolled out, step by step.
First, the meager rewards of system (the status quo game) stopped coming:
- Easy, endless debt in lieu of gains in income (for increasingly productive hard work) was either made impossible to get or converted into usurious debt.
- Wealth, particularly in the form of home values/pensions/expected future earnings, evaporated.
- Incomes tumbled (cut backs in hours, permanent to temp status, outsourcing, or outright termination) while prices (education to health in particular) kept accelerating.
Second, in contrast to the game depicted above (where the pigeon was first given regular rewards and then suddenly and without explanation denied those rewards), it was now generally known why our rewards for participation in the system had at first dwindled and finally stopped: our capitalist system had become so corrupt that a relatively small group of people were able to perpetrate the greatest financial theft in the history of mankind.
The final and most damning step in this process was how that even after this theft had become public knowledge (on the front page of every newspaper from here to Timbuktu), the governmental system we expected to punish malfeasance didn’t work. Not only didn’t it work by failing to punish these traitors (as those who damage a nation in the worst possible way are termed) for their acts, it actually rewarded them. It made them rich with hundreds of billions of dollars in bailouts and tens of trillions in public guarantees (to protect them against losses on their future thefts), in effect extending them a golden invitation to pillage our future again.
Funny, he doesn’t mention the word corporatism or institutional failure once, even though that’s what he’s describing. But he does get the consequences right:
In the end, absent a real catharsis to purge the sense of betrayal generated by the original treasonous theft, the legitimacy of the US government will continue to sink. Worse, all bets are off when the next financial theft occurs. The disorder and fragmentation that will result from another event of that type will be terrible in its consequences.
(my bold)