And the rest of America pays for her and others like her. And we wonder why we’re bankrupt both fiscally and morally.
This financial crisis is going to produce many lessons learned. Be glad you are the observer and not the subject of the lesson. The failure is so widespread that it will cost the government and lender more to prosecute then recovery of the losses. Since this nation does not have the will to go after the borrower and do not want to distabilize the financial system for prosecuting those who caused the financial collapse and reckless schemes, we will end up doing what most people with money do when they are ripped off, take the losses and take the lesson to heart.
What you say is true.
It is also true that over the past two decades many Wall Street private equity firms have purchased viable US companies, stripped the cash and other assets out of them, significantly downsized the employee base, leveraged the company to the hilt, and then left the banks and other lenders holding the bag while they walked off with billions. The losers — employees, banks and investors, localities, and the US economy. The list of companies looted and destroyed by these companies is endless. In many instances they looted the pension plan assets as well leaving the federal government holding the bag when the company filed bankruptcy. The way these deals are structured the private equity partners have none of their personal wealth at risk — these companies are structured as independent entities.
Unfortunately the misbehavior of Wall Street is causing the average citizen to wake up and say why should these people be protected and bailed out when I have to suffer. When private equity raiders strip the company employing me, it is I who lose a job and my pension plan. It is my community that pays the social services to support the employees let go. It is my taxes that pay to bail out the banks that made loans to people with more credit and it is those same banks that then turn around and pay their executives billions in bonuses while I’m living paycheck to paycheck.
Rightly or wrongly, the average citizen who believes in the Constitution and capitalism is fed up not only with government but the financial elites as well. No wonder average people who a few years ago wouldn’t have considered be late with a credit card payment are now seriously thinking about walking away from underwater mortgages. I live in Florida and have two neighbors who have done exactly that. They were small businessmen who played straight but now feel the government, big business, and big finance are out to take advantage of the little guy. In their minds walking from their mortgages is payback.
The moral fiber of this nation has been destroyed by the immoral behavior of the elites in government, business, academia, the legal profession and Hollywood. We were once a God fearing nation where two men of character could transact a business deal with a handshake. We now live in a world where contracts drawn up by armies of lawyers are frequently litigated when one party decides it no longer wants to be bound by the terms of an agreement willingly entered into.