Rot in the Barrel

Wonderful article, and, sadly, completely accurate.

Corporate America is a short-sighted Ponzi Scheme cloaked as free-market capitalism and market choice.

It has nothing to do with profits, good management, market share, products, or services. It’s about self-dealers, manipulators, and con-artists. And they get rewarded well for it.

The mainstream media celebrates these thieves until someone gets indicted or a company goes bankrupt. Many people just don’t get it.

The cycle just repeats itself over and over again all in the name of “freedom”, the American Dream, and unregulated capitalism.

This is not about hard work, equal opportunity, or freedom. It’s about greed, deception, and manipulation, and about many voter’s faulty perceptions, values, and assumptions as to what a free and fair market is really about.

It’s not just about Democrats or Republicans either. It’s about the entire system that needs to be overhauled. It just so happens that with the Republicans in power, the problem has grown exponentially. It is simply unsustainable, as all Ponzi Schemes are.

Posted by K on Jun 9, 2006 at 5:31 PM

As a foreigner to your US internal debates; I’m amazed the CEO of Fannie Mae received $90mio. For doing less than nothing.

Mussolini was shot BEFORE being hanged from that lamp-post ?

What are you waiting for ?

Posted by frog on Jun 12, 2006 at 1:26 PM

ktkt,

1. You should look up the definition of “Ponzi Scheme.” It’s utterly hysterical of you to call “Corporate America” a Ponzi Scheme. There are examples of fraud, sure, but some fraud does not a Ponzi Scheme make.

2. “It has nothing to do with profits, good management, market share, products, or services.”

Actually, for the vast majority of corporations, it does have to do with those things you listed specifically because they are the only path to lasting success, which so many corporations have achieved. They certainly didn’t achieve lasting success with “self-dealing, manipulating, and conning.” Here is something about Corporate America that is short-term: fraud. When it happens, it only lasts so long before the fraud is uncovered.

3. How do you propose, specifically, to “overhaul the system.” Can you think of any negatives associated with your proposed overhaul that might accompany what you see as the positives?

Jeff C

Posted by jeffc on Jun 15, 2006 at 9:20 AM