Assign blame where it's due
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Who revised lending requirements in the 1990s, resulting in many people who would otherwise be declined a mortgage loan to qualify? Who writes the rules of Wall Street, and who acts as police? Who wrote the big fat check to bail out bloated banks? Who funded Cash for Clunkers? Who funded the bailout of millions of homeowners who for whatever the reason were not able to make their payments (see first question). Who continues to fund Fannie, Freddie and the Post Office? Who paid 24 billion dollars in fraudulent charges and processed 478,000 Medicare claims for deceased doctors in 2007? Who is responsible when GE files a 57,000-page tax return and pays no taxes on 14 billion in profits? The answer for all the novices out there: it’s the government. One could argue that the government is the people, but I think we’re all smart enough to recognize that isn’t so much the case these days.
If the smarter-than-I-am club on Wall Street plays by the rules and earns profits, what’s the problem? If a corporation makes “gross profits,” where do I apply? If the US government wants to hand both banking and manufacturing big fat checks and they take them, who can blame them? Wouldn’t you? There are doors all over our country that open into government offices where you can get a check for oodles of different reasons. Don’t kid yourself, bailouts are alive and well in America in the form of subsidies, grants, loans, rural development programs, housing, drug therapy, the arts and so on, on and on.
I’m so tired of listening to people complain about corporate greed. People go into business to make money. People go to work on Wall Street to make lots of money. God bless ‘em and more power to ‘em. There are cheaters everywhere and usually if whichever one of the hundreds of governmental agencies is doing their job, the cheater will be found out. It’s when our big fat bloated government sleeps on the job, which seems to be more often than not, that the cheater gets away. If the government fails to write sensible rules, whose fault is it when the outcome is unfair? Whose fault is it when a corporation gets into trouble and gets bailed out on the backs of the taxpayer?
The Occupy camping trip is a joke. They obviously don’t understand who makes the rules or who is responsible for enforcing them. But then again, I might one day quit showering, buy myself a tent and set up camp. I’ll sign up for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Unemployment, Disability, housing assistance, food stamps, an energy subsidy, emergency cash and child care assistance. I’ll get state-sponsored drug treatment therapy while I sue to have religion stripped from our society. I’ll promote condoms and cucumbers in class while I degrade the values of others. I’ll raise rude children who have as little respect for themselves as they do for anybody else, and I’ll sue the school for attempting to discipline my unruly kids. I’ll then go to the store whose name shall remain nameless, buy a bunch of Chinese disposable products, use my welfare check to pay for cable and my fancy new cell phone, and then I’ll sit back and complain about how bad I’ve got it, how corporations have ruined my life and ponder whatever happened to candy cigarettes.
Until that time comes, I think I’ll stick with the job hunt.
Editor’s note: Autumn Parmenter is a Polson resident.
