Do you trust these men?
(My apologies. Try as I can I have not been able to upload the critical photograph. I guess that clicking of the question mark will bring it up. If not please try,http://www.flickr.com/... )
Look closely at the men in this picture. These men run your country. They can put you out of work. They may already have done so. They can destroy the nation’s economy. They already almost have done so.
Each one of these men or the organization he was in charge of has been caught at or been responsible for actions that have cost the nation and the nations taxpayers billions of dollars. Some of those actions were illegal, unethical or grossly irresponsible.
Each of these men make in one year more that 50 times what the President of the United States makes. They make more in their sleep in one night than the average American makes in a year.
Yet, neither you nor I nor all of us collectively can remove any one of these men from their positions of almost absolute power. Nor do you or I have available to us the traditional means in a free market of expressing our dislike or disapproval of what these men do by not buying their products.
This is neither a democracy nor a free market system.
These men in the picture appeared before your Congress following the collapse of the economy a few years ago which these men had a lot to do with. These men in the picture told Congress they should be free to continue to do what they have been doing because they knew what they were doing.
Your Congress for the most part agreed with them.
Since the time this picture was take some of the men in the photograph have been replaced by other men (and only men) and some have not been. Since this picture was taken some of the same things that caused these men to appear before Congress at the time this picture was taken have happened again.
Look closely at this picture. None of these men are smiling. Although they are not smiling they are laughing at you and I. They know that your Congress will not do anything serious to limit these men from doing whatever they want to do with your money.
Look even closer at this picture. These men are not smiling also because they are worried and afraid. They are worried and afraid because they are concerned that one day you and I may realize what it is they are doing. They are worried and afraid that we may stop them from doing it any more.
As Abraham Lincoln observed:
“The money powers prey upon the nation in times of peace and conspire against it in times of adversity. The banking powers are more despotic than a monarchy, more insolent than autocracy, more selfish than bureaucracy. They denounce as public enemies all who question their methods or throw light upon their crimes. I have two great enemies, the Southern Army in front of me and the bankers in the rear. Of the two, the one at my rear is my greatest foe.”
They are the enemy.
_________________
On the Role of Civil Society:
“Why would anyone be morally bound or wish to be morally bound to a civil society that does not share the goal that it’s citizens deserve a fair distribution of wealth, income and power? If the civil society is not dedicated to that end what else could it possibly be dedicated to? What is freedom, to those without wealth, income or power?”
Trenz Pruca
On Economics as a Science:
“In Science. a physical theory that is logically consistent may be considered truth only until falsified. In Economics, a sociological theory that is logically inconsistent is often considered true even when falsified.”
Trenz Pruca
On Governmental Priorities:
“As with most fundamental freedoms, preventing those who wish to abridge the fundamental rights of others is a more important role of government than encouraging the exercise of those rights. Exercising our rights are our individual jobs, protecting us from those who would abridge are rights is the duty we collectively give to government. If government is not the guarantor of Freedom then it is a tyranny.”
Trenz Pruca