Capitalism, government, the private industries and motivation

There has been a lot of attention lately on 'wall street' and the relationship between the financial sector and government after the implosion of our banking system which left the rest of the country in near ruins.

We speak of the banking and financial sector as an industry of our capitalistic system along with the other industries, like the educational industry, health care industry, etc., but the financial industry was setup as a government authorized service that operates under a bank charter and was intended to be used to funnel money THROUGH our education, health care, energy and various industries...not an industry within itself that competes with these industries (sorry Dylan Ratigan, had to steal that from ya, especially after seeing you loose it on air;).

The fact that untethered usury (or better known as 'interest'), the key component to financial sectors profit, something that was considered immoral and illegal in early European evolution, and the predatory practices of companies like Bain Capital, which are now considered 'job creators', like Mitt Romney has suggested as of late, is philosophically corrupt (as illustrated here in Bill's "New Rules";)

Pretty strong statement, I know, but if you look at the 'products' output by our financial industry, the packaging of loans, mortgage backed securities, derivatives, company's betting on the failure or success of certain loans, investment companies buying up other profitable companies, leveraging the debt, paying out huge dividends, filling for chapter 11 and then laying off all the employees...its starting to look identical to the gambling and gaming industry, and just like that industry, its rigged and the 'industry' itself is walking away with the all the money, but in this case...its the rest of America that looses.

To put it in short...the corruption of the financial sector is basically robbing the oxygen from the society it was instituted to serve.  TO SERVE!  Not to compete against and come out the victor.

Our government has allowed this to happen. Why? It comes down to a simple answer. The mixing of money and politics.

Although many would disagree with this statement, government is not intrinsically evil.  In our constitution, government was structured to be an organization for and of the people.  What makes it evil is the incentivizing of government officials to rule one way or another due to financial gain, which is why we need to get the money out of politics.

It often occurs, even by me in the past I have to admit, to compare any government organization to a privately held organization with the finding that the government compared office runs less efficient, less profitable, etc.  But something over looked in these findings is the 'motivation' of what drives people in a government environment if its not money?

We know what drives people in the private industry generally...money.  Making the shareholders happy is generally number one on the list and everything else comes second.  Hopefully you have leadership within your company that identifies the qualities needed for longevity, like good work conditions, environmentally responsible, fair wages and overall, a needed and valued service to society.

This isn't always the motivation of all that rise into prominence and fame.  Take the example of Enron, (I think the motivation of Jeff Skilling and his company are well illustrated in this video)...the meeting of Darwinian economics, stock trading and corrupt government policy influenced by money and personal gain... a prime example of why 'privatization', in this case, of our energy distribution,  isn't necessarily the answer to our woes.

Motivation is an important thing in human society. If we want to find out who committed murder, burglary or any other breach of law, we generally start with motivation.

Many a politician has fallen from grace due to some sex scandal, like republican Florida congressman Mark Foley, who was caught trying to solicit sex from his male pages or democratic New York Congressman Anthony Wiener who accidentally tweeted photos of his dick when he was trying to privately send them to another woman that wasn't his wife.  The reason these incidents are so publicized and news worthy in our society, outside of the fact that our media is also generally motivated by finacial gain and not reporting for public good (another blog topic for my future consideration), is because these incidents are seen as a breach of public trust... a breach of motivation. We elected these people to be motivated by right and wrong and operate under the law in which their offices had previously instituted, not be motivated by money, sex or power.

So coming back to what motivates, or should motivate, government officials elected or hired to serve the American people...the only answer we should accept is 'to do what is right'... to provide 'service' to its constituents... the American people.

Government may operate slower than a private industry, but the private industry's motivation is for financial gain, which also opens the door for making decisions based on personal gain and not for common good.   So even though we love to be fast, efficient and profitable in American society, we can't allow our government to operate in the very capitalistic system in which it is suppose to over see and regulate.  I would think this would be obvious.

Enter the Supreme Court's 'Citizens United' decision. 

The fact that our supreme court ruled for this decision makes them much less 'Supreme' in my eyes and when President Obama condemned this ruling in last years address  and republican's generally supported the ruling, I found myself wondering...was it that the majority of the republicans were ignorant to the effects of such a ruling? Or were they motivated by something else outside of right and wrong in their decision making? I still don't know the answer to that question, especially considering that many of the republicans running for president this year are now seeing the evils of such a ruling and are speaking out against it (possibly with the added perspective of comedy central's Stephen Colbert ).

Get money out of politics...its the only answer.

Just like we shouldn't allow and view the financial sector as an American industry, but a tool and service to our society, we shouldn't compare government to private industry because IT IS a tool and service to our society, or at least it should be, and the minute we allow it to become privatized, although it may become more efficient and more profitable, we are intermixing the two things that will eventually spiral our society out of control by compromising the key component that allows them to serve the people...motivation.

This all being said...the reality is, our mixed system of capitalism, socialism and corporatism will never be perfect...and government elected officials will always be susceptible to corruption, and the last front we have against a corrupt government is us...we the people.  But we will never be heard or have effect if we don't speak up.

All those in favor say 'aye';)