"Greed"

There is nothing like an election season to bring out the “true believers” of every ilk. We are overdosed on absolute truths to the point that there is all but a stampede to the nearest vomitorium. Extremism flourishes, extremism being the tendency toward the eternal quest for simplistic solutions to complex problems. Extremists have no concept as to what critical thinking and intellectual discourse actually mean. All they know is they have all the answers and the opposition harbors an agenda that, if left unchecked, will surely destroy us all. Really?

The mantra that most amuses me is the one to the effect that, if left unfettered, the free and open market will always operate to the collective benefit of society much more efficiently and effectively than government could ever hope to. Talk about naive. It totally overlooks the frailties and shortcoming that are an inherent part of our human nature.

Despite their wishes to the contrary, not everyone operates from a totally moral base, with only the very best of intentions. The person has not been born who is not fundamentally flawed by the very fact of their humanity. It is simply inherent in our nature. Admittedly, some do a better job of reining in those temptations than do others, but the fact remains we all have our share of bumps and warts.

Society must have in place the means to ensure that individuals and institutions operate within constraints that protect our collective interests. Call it regulation, oversight, accountability or whatever. The fact remains that the frailty of our human nature must be tempered by consequences when we operate outside the bounds of legitimacy for the common good. Teddy Roosevelt, probably more than any president in history, was acutely aware of the need for government to protect us from ourselves, and he put in place the safeguards necessary to maintain a reasonable and healthy balance. On the other hand, we as responsible citizens have an obligation to ensure that government serves the interests of the electorate and is not allowed to go to either extreme of over-regulation or under-regulation. It is within those extremes that government must always operate. It is for our democracy to define the limits of those extremes, and hold both government and private enterprise to those standards.

Ronald Reagan came into office hell-bent on reducing the size of government in favor of a free-market economy. It has only intensified with successive administrations. Now, I dare say that goal was not without some merit. However, like most minds that deal in absolutes, they have failed to recognize and acknowledge one of the most insidious of all absolutes, namely GREED IS AN INSATIABLE APPETITE.

Once greed is unleashed on a society, it knows no limits and, like most parasitic characteristics, if left unchecked it will ultimately destroy its host. The seeds of self-destruction lie within the very nature of greed. Rather than seeing greed as the cancer it is on our social and economic fabric, it has become an accepted part of our daily lives.

Greed invariably leads to corruption. It panders to all kinds of vested interests focused on an unbridled profit motive and maximum return to stockholders. Those who benefit the most are those who have the most. However, those who reap the bounty do so at the expense of the most vulnerable among us.

Despite the fact that greed subscribes to the mistaken notion that “all men are created equal,” and uses that as the basis for touting the benefits of a level playing field euphemistically referred to as the free market, it totally ignores some very real differences in the human condition, namely:

• All human beings are not born with the same basic intelligence or physical characteristics.
• All human beings are not equipped to go to college and move into the more affluent levels of the workforce and society.
• All human beings are not born into and raised in a loving and well-rounded home that fosters self-confidence and the will to succeed...
• Human beings will tend to settle into the stratum of society where they are the most valued and that provides them with opportunities that allow for their limitations.
  

The nature of the free market, being what it is, will seek to procure their labor at the lowest price possible in the labor market. Greed will reduce that force to abject poverty and a sense of total helplessness. That is deemed, by the “powers that be,” as their divinely ordained station in life. Ownership flourishes at the expense of the owned.

Some of the more poignant examples of the price we have paid as a consequence of legitimizing greed as a perceived virtue in this country are:

• Easy credit with usurious rates of interest.
• Payday Lenders
• Cheap and unsafe goods flooding our markets.
• An unsafe and under-regulated food supply.
• The obscene cost of prescription drugs, aided and abetted by our government.
• The sub-prime mortgage disaster.
• Corporate ownership of healthcare delivery systems and their collusion with other sectors of the health care economy.
• Over 45 million people who cannot afford health insurance and have no access to health care.
• An energy policy that is the product of collusion and secrecy between energy companies and a government that is ostensibly charged with acting in the best interests of the consumer.
• No-bid contacts.
• Corporate ownership of a free and unencumbered press, the purpose of which was envisioned as society’s watchdog on our “democracy.”
• A crumbling infrastructure.
• The plundering of public lands held in trust for the people of the United States.
• Massive closures and the export of our manufacturing base to cheap labor markets overseas.
• The loss of millions of jobs to foreign pockets of slave labor around the world.
• The failure of our government to secure our borders, resulting in millions of illegal aliens coming into this country so business (greed) will have an endless supply of cheap labor at the expense of a living wage for unemployed Americans.
• A nation where ten percent of the worlds’ population consumes thirty percent of its resources.
• The most polluting nation on the face of the earth.
• And more ad nauseum ................

Greed seems to have fostered a prevailing characteristic within us that believes what we have sown will never come back to haunt us until there is a crisis. Then we want a quick and easy solution that will stave off the inevitable. We no longer seem to genuinely care about each other as a people. Rather, I see yet another manifestation of greed that essentially says, “As long as I get what I am after, I really don’t give a damn about anyone else.”

The worst and most perilous of all the consequences of greed as an accepted characteristic of our society is a government that is totally corrupt and self-serving. They seduce us every 2, 4 or 6 years only to return to pander to those who feed their own greed at the expense of the taxpayers. Nowhere is it more apparent than in the current spate of primaries. Those who swallow their every word as gospel are those doomed as surely as a herd of sheep waiting for the slaughter. Are they so desperate that they want to believe anything that will improve their lot in life, or are they simply content to live in a perennial state of self-imposed ignorance? God gave us minds for the purpose of thinking, analyzing and evaluating what goes on around us. To the extent we have those attributes, the time has come to start using them to our maximum advantage, rather than being spoon fed by those whose only goal is to feed on us!

I believe that our government is so compromised that there is little or no real distinction between the two major political parties. I have serious doubts that they genuinely care about any of us, particularly those whose lives are sacrificed on the altar of greed. That is the most vulgar form of exploitation. The whole lot of them should be ashamed for perpetuating a lie that has seduced the noblest intentions of the best we have to offer.

Our only alternative appears to be an independent political movement that will garner the support of the citizens of this country in expunging the cancerous growth on the government establishment from within the Beltway. I genuinely believe this election cycle is our last best hope to salvage the remnants of this great country. Otherwise, I shudder to think of what the future holds for us.

There is a finer side to our human nature and an innate decency within the fabric of the American people. We need to get re-acquainted with those values, and become all that we are capable of becoming in the very finest and best sense of the word.

Cowboy Bob
March 5, 2008