Wikipedia says that in 1953, President Eisenhower nominated GM’s CEO Charles “Engine Charlie” Wilson to be Secretary of Defense.
“During the hearings, when asked if, as secretary of defense he could make a decision adverse to the interests of General Motors, Wilson answered affirmatively but added that he could not conceive of such a situation “because for years I thought what was good for the country was good for General Motors and vice versa.”
Apologist Eddie Elfenbein says, “…what’s often portrayed as the ultimate in corporate arrogance that defined the atavistic nature of American capitalism was instead a humble statement of public spiritedness.”
Perhaps. Yet those who now say, “What’s good for Wall Street is Good for America” are merely justifying their personal enrichment on Patriotic grounds. There’s a word for this, and it’s called “Jingoism”.
I submit these are not patriots at all, they merely serve the holy balance sheet, buzz all the token words, wear the ritual clothes. They are not patriots, they are scoundrels, pleasant scoundrels maybe, but scoundrels none the less. Yet they are half-right, as the interests of capital whom they represent collectively serve a necessary purpose: they aggregate into the new General Motors, in sum, they help pull the Nation’s economic plow.
Sticking with the analogy for a moment, it is easy to find the foundation of the Government’s role as a regulator of the affairs of private individuals, for if ANYBODY plows too deep, or plows across the grain, in open pursuit of the extra bushel or for any other reason, they destroy the only topsoil ANY OF US has, and erosion blows it away. Now, there is less for everyone, and THAT makes it everyone’s concern.
No, these are not patriots at all, these are scoundrels. LEFT TO THEIR OWN DEVICES, the incentives all line up for them to choose to actively chase the extra bushel every time, and beat the wind out of town. So it is a CENTRAL part of the proper role of government to have jurisdiction over them sufficient to ensure that the few are not permitted to ruin it for the many.
We now have institutionalized an opportunistic nihilism (that is, at the very least, a pervasive tendency of the modern survival instinct) meaning that there are few practical effective restraints upon ANYTHING a man might do, including influencing government by any means, IF it might be argued, is in the service of the best-interests of his stockholders.
It is therefor the proper role of government to resist that tendency and rein-in a wayward plowhorse before he can do much damage. In defense of The Only Economy We Have, it is reckless to wait for the next big wind, chanting praise for the “rights of capital,” misquoting “Engine Charlie” at rubber chicken fundraisers and press conferences.
And so it is that I ask the obstructionists among us to correct their stray course, repent their ways, roll up their sleeves and help fashion a regulatory framework that is quick, nimble, flexible and most-importantly, effective.
More big wind is in the forecast, and the way I read History, there are just not too many more big winds like the current one between our shoes and bare stones.
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