"Coddling Our Crybaby Corporations" by Bobbo

[checks-n-balances]

Coddling Our Crybaby Corporations
By Bobbo
The Bobbsphere Blog
Thu, 07/17/2008 - 05:37

"Admit it people, we gave them the keys to the economy and they went on a late nite joy ride and wrapped it around a tree."

...Our corporate crybabies screeched that they needed to be liberated from government regulation and then we would all share in the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. So we eliminated virtually all the effective government regulation that evolved out of the wisdom gained from the Great Depression. And what happened? Think Enron, Countrywide, Bear Stearns, IndyMac and whoever else goes belly up on the day you read this. If you fire the bank guards and throw away the security alarms, you are going to attract bank robbers. I don't think that's too hard to understand.

/snip/

Our corporate crybabies wailed that their taxes were too high, that innovation was being strangled and investment was mired in excessive government spending. So we cut their taxes...and cut them again...and cut them some more...ad nauseum. Now levees fail, bridges tumble into rivers, trains run off the tracks, sewage systems leak waste, hospitals turn away sick people and some schools can't even afford toilet paper. As we dodge potholes on our battered bicycles or in our second-hand cars, we're supposed to be grateful for a tax rebate that wouldn't even buy an evening in the fancy private clubs where our corporate crybabies go for escape.

/snip/

Finally our corporate crybabies have convinced us that we need to invade other peoples' countries, steal their resources and treat their citizens as cheap disposable labor--- all for the benefit of---- guess who? We send our largely working class military to do the dirty work as America falls apart and soldiers come back in body bags and wheelchairs. No way. Never again. Seriously, when is the last time you saw a corporate crybaby struggling through painful rehab at one of our understaffed and overcrowded VA hospitals?

Not only do we have to take away their keys to the economy, we have to take away their guns as well. Our military personnel are not the private security guards for Big Oil, Big Whatever or any other corporate crybaby. Reorganizing our military so it defends our country and not our corporate crybabies would save a lot of lives and a serious amount of money.

Also excerpted from a comment to this blog entry:

"We also need to take away their allowances. No more multimillion dollar payoff when they leave a company they've helped bankrupt. Why should they walk away with millions when every shareholder and employee is left broken and without jobs and pensions? What is enough for these greedy crybabies?"

More at:
http://www.bobboblog.org/bobbo-47

[HughBeaumont]

1. This cannot be recommended enough.

I've been saying for far too long that unbridled corporatism needs to come to an abrupt end. You continue to please only one piece of society and you can look forward to more and more dilapidated small towns, no free enterprise, no economic expansion worth mentioning, lots of expatriation for those who can do so and more resource wars, among other things. Buoyancy of the wealthy has gone far enough.

Some frightening workplace statistics, in case anyone thinks this is all a bunch of hooey:

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/HughBeaumont/46

[dbt]

2. True dat, so K& R.

Lying, thieving, soulless entities that OWN the government, too.

[checks-n-balances]

3. Everyone should also read your own journal entry, Hugh

Thanks for posting it. Frightening statistics, indeed.

Excellent closing remarks, especially in reminding us that this has been a calculated coup:

"If anyone ever needed a reason enough NOT to vote Repuke, it'd be this one. It's been proven on here that Obama will finally do what needed to be done eight years ago - tax the people who aren't paying their fair share - and ease the burden on middle class taxation. Sorry, wealthy and you Republicans who apologize for them, but you can't have low taxation for long periods of time and expect there to be no bill in the form of a fat Reality Check come due...

"It's really horrendous that the middle, working and poor classes have to suffer so greatly in the waning months of this coup. I wonder what it would be like to not worry so much. I wonder how long it's going to be before this ship is righted again and we can look back on these years as something to be learned from and never again have happen."

This catastrophe has been accelerated by these repeated tax cuts, but the populace is simply not aware of that connection and I fear that even a future democratic majority in Congress may not have the guts to stop the blood from gushing out of our constitution.

[Golden Raisin]

11. And I'm so sick of that old refrain

Repubs are always singing about, "Let the Free Market Reign" (you know the tune: those that fall by the wayside, so be it.) EXCEPT if you're Bear Stearns or Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac or some other corporation "too big to fail". Then you get bailed out by the Fed or some other form of Government or Government in combo with Private (JPMorgan Chase and the Fed in the case of Bear Stearns). And the Government bailouts are funded by OUR tax dollars.

[HughBeaumont]

23. You have Reagone and the First Bewsh to thank for that.

They pretty much got the ball rolling with relaxing thrift regulation, via the Garn-St. Germain Bill (when Saint Ronnie signed it, he said something like "All in all, I think we've hit the jackpot") in the early 80s that led to a little thing called "The S&L Debacle" years later. And just as everything that deteriorates under presidential rule to the tune of the middle/working class getting it up the tailpipe, a Bewsh was of course involved in it somehow.

Same bullshit happened back then - this bill lifted FDR-era restrictions on thrifts, more or less allowing Wall Street speculators and corporate pirates to use S & L's as their own personal mints and swindled billions in retiree dollars. They took these billions and placed them in the riskiest investments possible - to the taxpayers. Congressmen and Senators (like some guy named John McCain, for instance) were paid with this thrift cash to back off looking into it. The resulting bailout totalled something like 1.2 trillion when all was said and investigated.

The relaxing of these regulations, along with the financial piracy of dickheads like Mike Milken and Ivan Boesky, ushered in the era of rampant white collar crime the Reagan years were known for, and set the precedent and rule for both Bewsh administrations. We'll be paying for that shit for the rest of our lives, all thanks to Teflon Ron and his allowance for unbridled capitalism.

Really, when you think about it, there were only two parties that got punished in that fiasco: Chuck Keating (deservedly) and the taxpayers (undeservedly). Everyone else (mainly those with wealth and influence) got off scot-free, as the issue was too complicated for the average American and press idiot to make it into a cause celebre.

Jump to 2008 and pretty much the same crap is happening, only this time it's with mortgages (the one area of this house of cards economy always thought of as a bubble waiting to pop). Risky investments. Ruined lives. The rich and the corporations they run get off with nary a handslap. Wealth privatized. Risk and loss socialized.

Second verse, just as bad as the first . . .

And there are still some that parade this myth about Republicans being "The Party of Fiscal Responsibility"??

"S & L" would be the one and only argument needed against privatizing social security.

[elizfeelinggreat]

4. another k & r

[varelse]

5. K&R

:kick:

[Pavulon]

6. Crime VS Subsidy

corporations that act criminally, like lending a person who makes 50k 500k for a house should be investigated.

There is no way that should happen.

However companies like Airbus are subsidized by governments. Boeing, General Dynamics, and others are indirectly subsidized here. They serve a critical role.

Most of us work for corporations. I think that they should be bound to law and people jailed when they are broken.

However there is no reason to allow a company to fail and cause the banking industry to stop making loans available to low income buyers.

[CrispyQ]

7. Best thread of the day.

Kicked, recommended & bookmarked!

[progressoid]

9. Maybe the best thread of the week.

K&R!

[Coexist]

15. of the month, at least.

[Trillo]

8. Excellent!

It is 'oh, so true'!

[checks-n-balances]

10. Outstanding writing skills & ability to connect dots make this a winner

Glad I found this online today - I plan to be a regular reader of his blog now!

[midnight]

12. "Our military personnel are not the privates ecurity guards

for Big Oil, Big Whatever or any other corporate crybaby." That's right! Now bring them home.

[treestar]

13. kick

[Coexist]

14. ** EarlG - can this be the basis of our next Action? **

it is brilliant.

[checks-n-balances]

17. Great idea & fine w/me - maybe should check w/author

I'm so glad that lots of DUers found this to be as outstanding as I did. Do keep us posted!

[Enthusiast]

16. This is a wonderful post! nt

[PurgedVoter]

18. K&R

I want to create ten more accounts on Democratic Underground so I can Kick and Rec this post ten more times!!!!

[Donkeykick]

19. This is what happens...

when you get out of the way of big business and let them run everything. :eyes:

[nikto]

20. TOTAL TRUTH!!

This horrendous Truth is what millions of Americans
just can't get their minds around, until they start SUFFERING.

The average person simply does not usually go around looking to rip people off
like most Korporate interest$ pretty much always are.

The "regular folks" just can't fathom that the ultra-rich people running
Korporations, and getting the lion's share of profits from them,
would be so malicious and dishonest and willfully LARCENOUS
against ***regular working people and their families***
as they actually are.

The 30s Depresssion brought necessary **reality** to the American Public,
and public sentiment SWUNG LEFT, hard.

Now, most of those folks are dead, and today's Americans have grown complacent
and FORGOTTEN the precious lessons and Truths gleaned from the 1930s Depression.

America is getting its LIBERAL EDUCATION anew, in the new millenium.

I just hope we never get to the point of having wild, public, neighborhood lynch mobs out
hunting for rightwingers to persecute.

If The People don't get some relief, it may come to that (although I pray it never does!)

I just think that it's some of the REGULAR PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEEN AVOIDING THE TRUTH, OR HAVE BEEN IN DENIAL, who will go the most enraged/ballistic/crazy and SNAP!

It will be up to US----WE WHO HAVE BEEN FOLLOWING THIS ALL ALONG, to try to calm
some of our fellow-citizens down if the economy gets really bad, like, "Mad-Max bad".

It could happen.

But...
Liberal Leadership for the WHOLE COUNTRY
could prevent that, I believe.

[StClone]

21. Finally! DUers have been on to this

Since just before Bush took office and said:

1) Bush will be a disaster ("War and Recession" BartCop 1999)
2) Corporate Fat cats will run wild and steal us blind (StClone etal. 2000)

Why is it us Liberals, Progressives and Democrats are right more times than the Thinktank Cons...Oh I see they are creating a reality and we are predicting it from prior experience of their "Conservative" activities.

[paparush]

22. Holy Shit! Now this is a summary the People (tm) can understand.

Best post I've read in a long time.

Gonna ask Bobbo if I can submit this as a credited LTTE in my local paper.

[Mojorabbit]

24. Bookmarking

to delve more fully into this later

[Kaleko]

25. Psyops on a massive scale to guarantee the feeding of billionaire parasites.

K & R

[The Backlash Cometh]

26. Taking the keys away from them is not enough.

Financial restitution would hurt the most, but a little public humility would stop the next Donald Trump wannabe from dipping his private ventures into the public well.

[happygoluckytoyou]

27. it is...AND HAS ALWAYS BEEN...class warfare... if you don't get it, they already gotcha

[Canuckistanian]

28. Excellent, excellent, excellent

Couldn't recommend it more. :thumbsup:

[tanyev]

29. Phil Gramm was one adjective away from being right.

America is a nation of corporate whiners.

[AzDar]

30. K & R ....

[DailyGrind51]

31. And yet "they" STILL argue in favor of deregulation?

Get Government off of "their" backs, so that "they" can get away with murder!