I've Been Saying This Stuff for Years

A few years ago I jokingly stated to friends and family that one day, the United States will have 5 mega companies: Nike, Best Buy, Costco, WalMart and Bank of America. That's it. It's all we need: sneakers, a bank, monster TV's, food and drink. All other competitors will have vanished....sort of like what's going on right now. While I chuckled at the thought of that, it's now looking like we are on our way to this actually happening. Yikes!

America seems to have haphazardly sailed into a raging sea of financial socialism. Debts are passed on to the American taxpayer while corporate profits remain privatized as greedy corporate leaders focus solely on the ticker price of their company's stock instead of caring about what they should care about: Their customers and their employees. Debt? Let the taxpayer handle that.

Perhaps I have an old-fashioned view of the world but taking care of employees and customers is a pretty decent mission statement for any business. Character traits that business owners should espouse include honesty, integrity, hard work, empathy, and (of course) a good dose of laughter. This would seem to me like a good mix for any business - from Wall Street to Main Street.

Now I'm no proponent of socialism - there will always be have's and have not's, but the absurdity that exists in corporate America at the highest levels is comical and criminal. While the poor sap in the shipping department frets over the cost of diapers and when his next raise will come, the CEO and his lieutenants are living large and setting stacks of hundred dollar bills on fire. The gap, financial, emotional and otherwise, between the executive suite and where the real work gets done has grown too large over the past 25 years.

During the course of his adult lifetime, my father held executive postions for large corporations on both coasts. Each morning during the workweek, he made it a point to walk the shop and talk to office staff and the folks in the manufacturing facilities. As a kid, I joined him many times on this walk. I enjoyed seeing and listening to the banter that went on between my dad and his co-workers. He knew the names of their spouses, their children and listened to their ideas on what could make the company more efficient. He cared if they were happy. He understood that his success, and that of the company depended on everyone being on the same page. I sense that doesn't happen a whole lot today.

These are historic times. It is an embarrassment and national disgrace when the President of Iran calls out the United States like he did last week at the United Nations. If I were in the room, I think I would have ducked under a desk. The Bush presidency will go down as among the worst in our storied history. Personally, I like George Bush and believe he was dealt a truly lousy hand with 9/11 being the signature and defining moment of his presidency, followed by an unpopular war (aren't they all?), and a financial meltdown rivaled only by the great depression. After all of this, any President would be checking off the days until the new guy takes over and I were George Bush, I would be doing a "Happy Dance" each night with a bottle of Jack Daniels.

To be sure, Congress and it's petty partisan politics didn't help matters much and they are not as innocent as traitors like Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi want the electorate to believe. The "I'll vote for your bill, if you vote for mine," is juvenile, petty and criminal.

The fact that the vote today on the $700 billion bailout failed is testament to a truly broken political system. I'm not sure if I'm for or against the bailout and most certainly have no illusions that the funds, if one day approved, will somehow magically help the guy with the foreclosed house. This seems to be a common argument for passage of the bill; "Help the people who have lost their homes."

I'm afraid that statement makes for a good headline in the newspaper, but frankly, that person has moved on and the house sits empty and, likely, vandalized. The bank holding the mortgage will benefit from this buyout, if it happens, and then one day go back to lending money albeit much more judiciously than in the past. This bailout will stabize our banking network - what's left of it. It will help the balance sheet of banks who made bad decisions, used deceptive lending practicies, and ultimately made bad loans - then fell flat on their face.

Every great civilization that has risen on the earth has ultimately failed or faded away. What makes us so sure that the United States is immune to this cycle?