A proposed demand for Occupy Wall Street
Let’s tackle the debt that actually matters
http://politics.salon.com/2011/10/05/a_proposed_demand_for_occupy_wall_street/singleton/
Yes, the ‘moral hazard’ is still there, but as the author points out, how is that one tiny bit different than Goldman Sachs reporting record profits when the entire globe is in a recession? There is plenty of moral hazard in complaining banks are too big to fail then making them even bigger! And don’t get me started on the corporate moral hazard of our government guaranteeing profit for companies that package mortgage backed securities (Freddie and Fannie) or student loans (Sallie). Yes, it would really suck to be the one who responsibly paid down their debt, lived within their means and were lucky enough to remain gainfully employed during this Great Recession, but which is worse? Another decade (or two!) of slow to no growth where you can’t find buyers for your house and your retirement grows at a pace that actually causes it to shrink once inflation is accounted for or growth such as we saw during the Clinton years?
This would give the top 1% an ‘opportunity’ to share with the rest of the country’s economic malaise. Of course it has a near zero chance of becoming a reality, but it makes for a fabulous rallying cry and likely any politician smart enough to attach to it would see huge voter support. And maybe, just maybe, that support would translate to action in Congress.
