Where does the buck stop?
July 25th, 2009 | Published in Most things go here
The Dow hit 9000 this week – that’s apparently some kind of bench mark – well that’s good…..I guess.
The major investment banks made enormous profits – I even read somewhere that ford turned a profit, after almost falling into the abyss.
I read this piece in the NY times about traders making money on trades due to the speed of their computers – very fast machines that are spotting and taking advantage of trends in the market at the speed of light. The article pointed out that everyone else is at a disadvantage in regards to trading. It would seem that this “disadvantage” is the common theme – everyone else is at a
disadvantage
. Big banks, Big companies, Big trading houses have stacked the odds so far in their favor that very few people have a shit show in hell of competing,playing,investing on an even, remotely level playing field.
I guess the irony is that during the past 6 months or so there’s been many people pointing out that govt money has been going to large business. Tax payers are propping up what appeared to be failing companies, of course the benefit has been seen on the company ledger sheets and no where else.
Unemployment has continued to rise, in the U.S apparently the unemployment insurance system is close to breaking point due to years of negligence and a swath of people now needing/applying for it.
So social services and everyday people play second fiddle to the machinations of big business with plenty of government connections, and the quest for profit squashes all other notions.
Which really brings me round to Bill Maher’s piece in the Huffington Post.
I’m an entrepreneur, I believe in business and profit – but I don’t believe it should be the prevalent force in life.
- The oceans being fished out
- The jungles being cut down
- The melting polar caps
- The polluted rivers and steams
- The displacement of millions of people
- Full prisons
the list goes on and on – almost all of it can be attributed to endless quest for profit at the expense of humanity, common sense and self restraint.
The buck has to stop somewhere.
