Corruption and Greed are causing too much suffering.

Date:   1/31/2009 6:02:07 PM ( 15 y ago)

About 8 million people are faced with starvation in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, due to the drought that is killing the corn crops.

There was large amounts of corn held in reserve by the government, just for these types of emergencies, but someone in government there sold most of it to traders and millers for a personal profit, condemming those millions of people to starvation.

Corruption of this kind is not unique to Africa of course, but in Africa a lot more people tend to die when things go bad.

The financial crisis that started in the U.S.A. and spread around the world was triggered by bankers who were dealing in risky mortgages. Those bank workers got bonuses based on the number of loans they signed up, and it didn't matter if those mortgages were risky or not because those mortgages were bundled up and sold off to other financial institutions. Everybody was far too over-extended with credits that had very little backing, but only a few "conspiracy theorists" were protesting this situation. People were making money and they had very little responsibility if anything went wrong.

Both those examples are about taking advantage of situations where a few people can get very rich very quickly, and many people have to suffer greatly because of it.

Imagine how smoothly this world could be running, how easily problems could be solved, if only the leaders and the big-time players had the best interests of the whole in mind. That is not how things work though. We have been brought up on a diet of capitalism where greed was thought to be the only thing that could encourage talented people to create wealth.

Under these conditions, driven by rewards that create wealth for a very few people, we have seen 90% of the world's wealth concentrated into just 5% of the people's hands. Those fortunate few have been led to believe, by circumstances and by their little niches of wealthy elites, that they are such special people and that all others are not worthy of the most basic considerations. Kill the poor, what the heck good are they?

We are now seeing that system come apart. When the poor are pushed too hard, they can no longer make their payments and banks collapse. The poor are starving, losing their homes, their jobs, everything.

In some places, such as Africa, there are violent revolts against the wealthy and against the governments, and those revolts seem to be completely justified. Necessary even. When will that become necessary in North America? The "Masters of the Universe" [Wall Street Types], and governments of the Right Wing, do not seem to get it that the concentration of wealth and the rewards for being greedy are causing unacceptable suffering.

Examples of this kind of delusional thinking were evident in the Rod Blagojevich scandal, where it seems that he actually thought it was okay to sell the Governer's seat for personal gain as if the best interests of the people did not matter. The Executives asking for taxpayer money while living lavish, and even buying new jet airplanes to get around in, or spending $50Million remodelling their offices, just do not seem to get it. They have been bitten by some kind of ego-bug that has infected their minds; they actually believe they can do no wrong and that they should allways be rewarded despite the fact that they screwed up badly.

If things do not turn around soon, it may come to the point where the whole system will come down, the U.S. currency will be scrapped, and we will all start out again as equals. Then we will see just how valuable these elite wealthy people are - it is my hunch that they will appear very normal, not at all better than the rest of us. Their "skill set" will have little use in a world of equals.

We could be doing so much better than this.







 

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