Medicine
The Sunday (February 8, 09) New York Times had an (as usual) excellent column by Frank Rich, “Slumdogs Unite!”. It addresses the issues of tax problems, conflict of interest, especially in the financial sector, and confidence of the public in the new Obama appointees. I would add only one thing: when I read the sentence “Most ‘ordinary Americans’ still don’t understand why banks got billions while nothing was done (and still isn’t being done) to bail out those who lost their homes, jobs and retirement savings.”, I initially misread “bail” as “jail”. Maybe that was wishful thinking. I suspect most “ordinary Americans” would think, as do I, that jail would be a good place for these financial “titans”!
Some of this suspicion is highlighted by an even more pointed column by Eugene Robinson, a member of the Washington Post Writers Group, which appeared in my local Kansas City Star on Monday, February 9, 09. Quoting liberally from Sen. Claire McCaskill’s “These people are idiots,” speech (referring to the financial executives who have been paying themselves billions from the federal (read: your money) bailout, Robinson cautions them to “…pay attention to those citizens outside, the ones with the pitchforks and torches.” Going beyond, but not missing the opportunity to discuss at length, the horror people feel at the arrogance and greed of our “masters of the universe”, including the craziness of the average CEO making 344 times what the average worker makes, Robinson adds the following:
“No longer does it make any sense to reward those who work in the financial industry so lavishly compared with the way we compensate those who, say, build tractors or write software or teach our children. Salaries should be reasonable and bonuses – much more modest ones – should be reserved for those who actually, you know, make money. If some of Wall Street’s vaunted “talent” balks and flees, terrific. It was “talent” that got us here.”
Couldn’t say it better. Maybe, if we insist on not jailing them, and not taking away all their money and using it for balancing the national debt and having them live in surplus FEMA trailers (all of which I advocate), they can learn an honest trade doing something truly necessary. Like collecting trash. But maybe they don’t deserve such a good job.
- Health Care Systems Should Not Be Run For Profit, But Rather For People's Health
I wrote in a recent blog (“How can a health care system lead not to ruin but to, actually, health?”, December 28, 2013) that our health care system ”…is a parallel to our financial services industry: private enterprise is given a license to make...
- Haiti And Health Reform: We Need Real Leadership
. There is a lot bad in the world, and compared to people in many places, people in the US are doing OK. The most obvious and well-covered venue of desperation is Haiti, where the earthquake smashed a country that had been set up for failure, figuratively...
- Medicine And Social Justice – The First Year: An Index
. Thanksgiving weekend – today, November 28, specifically – marks the first anniversary of the Medicine and Social Justice blog. I thought I would review the topics I have covered, grouping them generally into several areas. This might enable anyone...
- "wall St. Smarts"? Maybe The Smart People Should Be Doing Something Productive
. The humorist Calvin Trillin had a recent column in the NY Times advancing his theory as to what changed on Wall St. that led to the orgy of greed that both came close to destroying our economy and continues to this day. Because he is a humorist, “Wall...
- Social Justice: Economic Stimulus And Bailout
As the Congress considers President Obama's economic stimulus package, it is distressing, if not surprising, to hear Republican leaders such as Mitch McConnell of Kentucky decry that there is too much going to spending and not enough to tax cuts....
Medicine
Masters of the Universe: They need a long fall
The Sunday (February 8, 09) New York Times had an (as usual) excellent column by Frank Rich, “Slumdogs Unite!”. It addresses the issues of tax problems, conflict of interest, especially in the financial sector, and confidence of the public in the new Obama appointees. I would add only one thing: when I read the sentence “Most ‘ordinary Americans’ still don’t understand why banks got billions while nothing was done (and still isn’t being done) to bail out those who lost their homes, jobs and retirement savings.”, I initially misread “bail” as “jail”. Maybe that was wishful thinking. I suspect most “ordinary Americans” would think, as do I, that jail would be a good place for these financial “titans”!
Some of this suspicion is highlighted by an even more pointed column by Eugene Robinson, a member of the Washington Post Writers Group, which appeared in my local Kansas City Star on Monday, February 9, 09. Quoting liberally from Sen. Claire McCaskill’s “These people are idiots,” speech (referring to the financial executives who have been paying themselves billions from the federal (read: your money) bailout, Robinson cautions them to “…pay attention to those citizens outside, the ones with the pitchforks and torches.” Going beyond, but not missing the opportunity to discuss at length, the horror people feel at the arrogance and greed of our “masters of the universe”, including the craziness of the average CEO making 344 times what the average worker makes, Robinson adds the following:
“No longer does it make any sense to reward those who work in the financial industry so lavishly compared with the way we compensate those who, say, build tractors or write software or teach our children. Salaries should be reasonable and bonuses – much more modest ones – should be reserved for those who actually, you know, make money. If some of Wall Street’s vaunted “talent” balks and flees, terrific. It was “talent” that got us here.”
Couldn’t say it better. Maybe, if we insist on not jailing them, and not taking away all their money and using it for balancing the national debt and having them live in surplus FEMA trailers (all of which I advocate), they can learn an honest trade doing something truly necessary. Like collecting trash. But maybe they don’t deserve such a good job.
- Health Care Systems Should Not Be Run For Profit, But Rather For People's Health
I wrote in a recent blog (“How can a health care system lead not to ruin but to, actually, health?”, December 28, 2013) that our health care system ”…is a parallel to our financial services industry: private enterprise is given a license to make...
- Haiti And Health Reform: We Need Real Leadership
. There is a lot bad in the world, and compared to people in many places, people in the US are doing OK. The most obvious and well-covered venue of desperation is Haiti, where the earthquake smashed a country that had been set up for failure, figuratively...
- Medicine And Social Justice – The First Year: An Index
. Thanksgiving weekend – today, November 28, specifically – marks the first anniversary of the Medicine and Social Justice blog. I thought I would review the topics I have covered, grouping them generally into several areas. This might enable anyone...
- "wall St. Smarts"? Maybe The Smart People Should Be Doing Something Productive
. The humorist Calvin Trillin had a recent column in the NY Times advancing his theory as to what changed on Wall St. that led to the orgy of greed that both came close to destroying our economy and continues to this day. Because he is a humorist, “Wall...
- Social Justice: Economic Stimulus And Bailout
As the Congress considers President Obama's economic stimulus package, it is distressing, if not surprising, to hear Republican leaders such as Mitch McConnell of Kentucky decry that there is too much going to spending and not enough to tax cuts....