Forum Post: Wall Street Manifesto - Part 1
Posted 13 years ago on Oct. 14, 2011, 2:21 p.m. EST by enough
(587)
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(Hypothetical speech by a prominent Wall Street banker to the 99%)
We, the bankers of these United States , want to assure all Americans that we are devoted, heart and soul, to the interests of this great nation. Contrary to countless disparaging remarks by so-called pundits, there is absolutely no daylight between the interests of Wall Street and Main Street . One of our leaders eloquently expressed this view when he said that we do God’s work. We labor night and day to furnish the financial resources that are needed to build this great country. We proudly carry on the great banking tradition of our forebears such as John Pierpont Morgan and Andrew Mellon. Without our munificence over the years, many great projects would never have been funded and, therefore, would have never been built. As President Calvin Coolidge succinctly put it, the business of America is business. It is Wall Street and the big banks that provide the lubricant in the form of capital that makes business work.
Poor private banks, based on acredit system to colonise and enslaved salaried people, declaring losses from their wild speculation madness and having the losses reimbursed from the taxes of the common citizens to continue paying themselves astronomous bonuses, so sad
Sounds like something Krugman might agree with. But it is false . . . See . . . http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=195774
Each state should have a public bank like the NorthDakota bank, and a credit union in every city to compete with the private banks monopoly
"As President Calvin Coolidge succinctly put it, the business of America is business."
This statement is exactly what we are here to confront. There is - there must be - more to America than her GDP.
I wouldn't necessarily go that far, but what I would say is that there had better be more to America's GDP than the financial and service industries.
Justice doesn't show up in GDP. Equal rights and protections under the law isn't quantified in dollars. I hate swaying into the vocabulary that is so often (ab)used by extremist ideology, but I will make this one exception. We have laws in the books that suppress voters in order to "encourage" certain political outcomes. We can not say, "this benefits the GDP, therefore it's ok."
There must be more to America than GDP.
I totally agree with you on that; I was just wondering what exactly you meant by "more than her GDP" because I recently ran into a quite charming young troll who suggested that we'd be better off as a nation eschewing technological and scientific progress and doing the whole hippie commune thing.
As for my comment, that's part of there being more to the country than GDP because when you take a closer look at the economy you'll find a staggering imbalance between facets of the private sector, and fixing that has to be the first step attempting to create a republic that can indefinitely sustain its citizens' expected standard of living.
GDP is important, but in the end America is the standard of living that we can truthfully ascribe to the majority of our citizens and thus the GDP is merely the means to an end. Just as positive desires for the future don't excuse immoral tactics, temporarily enjoyable means that turn us away from our overall end (better living for all) are dangerous.