Wall Street vs Main Street

or Wall Street is Not EEEVIL!

Look on the bright side, at least I didn't work the word "shitty" anywhere in the title or subtitle. And out of kindness (and the fact that it became less funny and more shitty), I'm going to skip the shit filled shit with the shitty references every shitty sentence in a shitty attempt to beat South Park's spanking of Congress in using the word "shit" on television (162 shitty times).  And shit.  But it does give me reason to throw up a shitty clip:



Long story short, yesterday was another run at Congressmen attempting to demagogue the shit out of a company for political gain, including incessant use of the aforementioned overused expletive which appeared in a Goldman Sachs memo.  This practice, of course, is standard procedure at any Congressional hearing, and  is shitty, to boot.  (Yeah, I'm done.  And shit.)

The concept however, is to affix the blame for the Great Recession on the EEEEEEEVIL Big Wall Street, who is guilty in classist circles of destroying the economy, sucking the taxpayers dry, GREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEDDDDDDD!!!!!!!!!!, and probably raping little children, eating babies, and pissing on old people, who they then rape, kill, and eat (not necessarily in that order).  They treat the Big Wall Street CEO as someone lower than a chicken molester (which reminds me of another South Park clip).

By the way, when I cite two South Park clips in pursuit of a logical point, you can tell that ridiculousness abounds.

And here's the point.  We've been fed for years a line that corporations are this monolithic evil, run by old rich white guys that make Satan (and his spawn, Elmo) look cuddly, and that their only purpose is to rape, pillage, buy expensive property, and anally rape the average American while pouring sugar in their gas tank.  However, if that were true, life would suck for almost all of us and I'd at least be getting some.

But corporations are made of people (but not in the bad and yummy Soylent Green way).  That includes people from the lowliest occupations, like janitors and tech support, to the CEOs, who themselves range from half the workforce at the company (not including their tech-savvy sons) to people who's walking around money equals my yearly wages.  And like the rest of America, it includes a mix of altruistic guys (Bill Gates, for example) to a lot of guys who just want to be at the top and try not to break the law, to a small percentage who are, as the Redundant Democrats would have you believe, shitty at heart.

So this supposed "war" between "Wall Street" and "Main Street" is an exercise in distraction, confusion, dilution, and illusion perpetuated by people who use the all-too-human tendency for envy as a wedge to turn American against American and distract from whoever is giving them the money-stuffed Fleshlight (note: adult link) this week.

And the reason this is such a big deal is that this incessant demonization is how the politicians get the approval to screw their business choice with legislation.  Whether it be Wall Street, FILTHY rich anyone, or Big Whatever, it's a smoke screen.  And it means that the law doesn't get applied equally.

Now anyone sane does NOT cheer for the idea of a completely unfettered free market, with no regulation.  That leads to anarchy, because Wild West rules means that the fastest and most guns win.  Civilized society protects the people packing old pistols, smoothbore rifles, and nothing but a knife (pretty lame in a gunfight) from the guy who can roll a wagon with a Gatling gun on the back into town.

It's the same with what we need to do with regulations on Wall Street (as the shifting, conflicting, and counterproductive regs were a contributing factor to the mess).  You put in regulations that promote transparency, limit abuse, protect against fraud, and then you hang the bastards that violate them.  Or take them to court and make them pay in blood.

As for Goldman Sachs, if they did knowingly screw their customers, then painful amounts of compensatory damages would be a good thing.  I'm not going to render a verdict as to whether they deserve it though (unlike their shitty day before Congress).  And attacking them because they are of an "EEEVIL" group known as Wall Street is the dehumanization of people in a group that is the stuff of Holocausts past.

Finally, consider that a rising tide lifts all boats (unless you're selling short).  In that case, to attack one of us is to attack all of us.  And with the economy as limp as I (due to the price of things like the aforementioned Fleshlight), that doesn't make sense.