Shameful: Exploiting your emotion while enhancing their power…
Who doesn’t feel terrible about seeing a person lose their job? The pain seems especially pronounced when it comes to the images of workers who don hard hats and work boots. The images of an auto, coal or any hard hat evoke sentiments of American greatness; our willing, hard working, hands on character (Tim the Tool man Taylor from Home Improvement howls “argh, argh”). We also imagine the dinner table and the family receiving the news of the factory shut down.
The fear and uncertainty of being unemployed resonates with all Americans. The media puts these images center stage in financial crisis but this story incomplete. It needs a villain and the villain can’t be the workers or the market. If it is not the hardworking, family man or the free market, then who; enter Wall Street. The spotlight then shines on the suspender wearing, Gordon Gekko who reaps the reward of the average Joe Company’s failure. The narrative becomes the war between white and blue collars; Wall Street versus Main Street. The boardrooms are portrayed as the secret lairs of the Dr. Evils (aka financial sector) where plots to stick it to the common man are hatched.
Politicians exploit this narrative with the rhetorical Main Street vs. Wall Street slogan. Hearings on Capitol Hill become virtual theaters with preening politicians speaking in 30-second sound bites in the hopes of making the nightly news. These perfumed princesses/princes of government are ostensibly making things right by punishing those responsible for poor investment strategies; hindsight being 20/20. The pot calling the kettle black is an understatement in this populist show of CEO Gotcha.
New regulation moves forward, unemployment benefits are expanded and the investors run to sidelines uncertain of just where to plant their seeds. Those seeds represent the hope and dreams of Main Street folks who aspire for a better economic life. The investment farmers are Wall Street brokers looking for the most fertile soil. The politicians are unpredictable weather phenomena manifest in hurricanes, droughts and floods. The characterization of this class war helps only those exploit for their political ends.
What does the investment banker get for failure? Why would they desire to hurt their Main Street clients? Look, greed is a constant of the human condition. It doesn’t ebb and flow; it is omnipresent in man’s fallen nature. To say people have become greedier is patently absurd. Again, it is a staple of the human condition; thank heavens for grace.
When you lose your job it is just plain awful. The experience is carved into your memory and remains like a deep wound from a jagged knife. Those cuts are not just felt by those in work boots; everyone who works is open to being downsized. A business, any business, is driven by profits - pure and simple. If the company is not making, and or maximizing; the cutlery is sharpened.
This raises the question, what group is most interested in knifes sheathed? Workers, managers and executives, on the streets of Main and Wall alike, are motivated by economic growth or the paycheck. However, job security in politics is different. It is not based on profits, but protection. Whether that protection is economic, cultural or security related; if they convince you they are handling those issues, they are likely to keep their seat. Distorting the facts to exploit people’s emotional pain is a shameful way to keep a job. People of Main and Wall should collectively reject these naked class warfare appeals, and turn our attention to the true villain; the overall loss of liberty through government regulation.
