LOD: Trickle-Down Immorality

Last week brought a flurry of reporting about the moral decay of America’s economic and political culture; the politics of greed is at the heart of the problem and the right target for the Occupy Movement and others. Somewhere in the 1980s, thanks to leadership at the top ranks of business and government, the transition accelerated from John F. Kennedy’s “ask not what your country can do for you” to the current mantra of “what’s in it for me.” As Robert Reich knows well, immorality started at the top and trickled down. He writes, “There is moral rot in America but it’s not found in the private behavior of ordinary people. It’s located in the public behavior of people who control our economy and are turning our democracy into a financial slush pump. It’s found in Wall Street fraud, exorbitant pay of top executives, financial conflicts of interest, insider trading, and the outright bribery of public officials through unlimited campaign donations.” Reich wants to focus for the moment on Republican co-conspirators of this sick selfishism, but a fuller analysis would bring in many Democrats as well; the politics of greed is now taken for granted as the way things are, the way to survive and prosper. An insider at Goldman Sachs wrote a revealing op-ed attacking his “morally bankrupt” company as he resigned last week. For a horrific tale of corporate greed and corruption closer to home, read Rolling Stone’s cover story about Charlotte-based Bank of America, “a bank too crooked to fail.” Writes Matt Taibbi: “The threat posed by Bank of America isn’t just financial – it’s a full-blown assault on the American dream. Where’s the incentive to play fair and do well, when what we see rewarded at the highest levels of society is failure, stupidity, incompetence and meanness?” No wonder people will call this the decade of madness.