Where is the *#@^%$ outrage?!?
Richard L. Hershatter
Contributing Columnist
hershatter@lbknews.com
With their tails between their legs,
Each CEO lines up and begs
For a bail-out from the governmental pot;
But though times are really tough,
There never seems to be enough,
And a trillion doesn’t sound like such a lot.
Where is the outrage?
Unbridled, unregulated greed on the part of senior corporate managers has led to the ultimate, foreseeable bursting of economic bubbles, throwing the nation’s entire economy into the worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Millions of citizens owning stocks have taken it on the chin and merit sympathy, but it is also true that they put themselves at risk voluntarily by choosing to invest in what Wall Street has to offer.
The same cannot be said for the average taxpaying citizen.
The so-called “bail-outs” are being imposed on the American public, against their wishes and without their consent by politicians running amuck in an unprecedented panic.
The United States Constitution has long established and the courts have upheld the principle that the purpose of government is to do for citizens what they cannot do for themselves, and in that regard Washington is empowered to levy taxes for public purposes.
People’s incomes and property have been taxed in order to maintain the safety and general welfare of the citizenry, but until recently it has been axiomatic that moneys could not be extracted from taxpayers for the purpose of enriching private interests.
When the United States Supreme Court held recently that the city of New London, Conn., could use the powers of eminent domain to seize real estate for the benefit of a private developer, on the theory that new construction would increase the tax base and therefore was for public improvement, state legislatures all over the country reacted by enacting new laws restricting the practice.
In the face of the national economic meltdown now afflicting the country, there is no question that some sort of governmental intervention is called for, but where is it written that people can be taxed for the enrichment of failed executives of private corporations?
Where are the “strict constructionist” jurists who can comb through the provisions of the Constitution to find authority for the massive trillion dollar deficit financing at the expense of the average taxpayer, his children and his grandchildren, all for the aggrandizement of incompetent and overpaid corporate chieftains?
And where are the outraged legal experts willing to mount class action lawsuits against the political entities acting without legal sanction?
No one doubts that the times call for drastic measures, but throwing masses of taxpayer dollars at the problem in the hope that some of it will stick and trickle down to the beleaguered average citizen flies in the face of common sense.
If a business is poorly run, common practice is to allow it to fail or restructure itself through the intercession of the bankruptcy courts. The idea that a company is “too big to allow it to fail” is nonsense. Most often such an organization can come through the process leaner and meaner, with a more competent management team.
Aside from its questionable legality, the present process acts as a temporary band-aid, replenishing company treasuries to keep ineffective management in place.
The latest attempts to extend stopgap loans in the billions of dollars to the three auto manufacturers, with management to be overseen by a “car czar” appointed by the president, is a classic case of the blind leading the blind.
The individuals occupying congressional seats are by and large politicians who know little or nothing of business and have never met a payroll or managed a profit-making enterprise.
To expect that this crew can concoct a sensible regulatory mechanism or that the less-than-effective current occupant of the White House has the wisdom to appoint a capable industrial expert to oversee the operation is laughable. After all, this is the same president who chose the fumbling Paul Bremer to mismanage the civilian occupation of Iraq.
Furthermore, the mere infusion of additional cash into failing enterprises, whether they be banks or insurance companies or automobile manufacturers can not, in and of itself, free up the economy.
The immediate need is to get the funds into the hands of consumers, so that they can spend on housing and vehicles and household essentials, getting demand and commerce moving again.
The present top-down, trickle-down use of borrowed billions is misdirected and will not work.
Is anybody listening?
Where is the *#@^%$ outrage?!?
Richard L. Hershatter is a retired Connecticut lawyer and novelist who writes a column of interest to Floridians. He can be reached at hershatter@lbknews.com.
