The Age of Total Irresponsibility

Make no mistake. Our American democracy is under assault. The promoters of this assault engage in both irresponsible and destructive behavior. The consequences of this assault are immeasurably compounded because the world’s health has reached a tipping point. Our reliance on oil for energy has a limited life because we have reached peak oil coupled with increased demand from emerging markets (China and India, in particular). We simply cannot drill our way out of this. Water supplies are limited and constantly being depleted by pollution and climate change. Our food supply cannot support a growing population and is being threatened by the overuse of pesticides and drugs. This is a crisis that our politicians refuses to address.

IN THE BEGINNING...

This assault began at least three decades ago. It first began in reaction to FDR’s New Deal legislation. Then and now a fundamental difference of priorities exists between those who seek economic fairness and an opportunity to succeed and those who detest such programs as Social Security and regulations enacted after the banking follies that caused the Great Depression.

For several decades after the New Deal era, Congress enacted legislation that reflected a concern for the general welfare of all Americans. The Medicare program, labor laws to protect the American workers, a progressive tax system, environmental laws to protect our natural resources, and a slew of other legislative enactments were enacted by Congress and signed into law to protect the health, safety, and welfare of all Americans. That era is over.

America . A middle class symbolized our land of opportunity. The average American believed that opportunities for success were in reach for those who worked hard. Income fairness was not a fading dream. Since 1980, in large thanks to an effort of those who care almost exclusively about themselves, American governmental institutions and the basic social structures in America are under siege. It is not by accident that this political struggle got to where it is today.

THE ORIGIN OF 'ALEC'

A few years prior to 1980, several conservative men formed the American Legislative Executive Council (ALEC). Few heard much about this group until the last few months. Now we have come to learn that corporations and wealthy individual benefactors, such as David and Charles Koch, joined forces to recruit conservative politicians at a state and federal level. A purpose was to formulate special interest legislation in states and in Congress. The elected governmental officials who are members of ALEC would then sponsor the ALEC-drafted legislation.

Exclusive conferences were held a couple of times a year to bring together the politicians and the special interest groups. These meetings were not generally open to the public. The meetings were held in plush locations. Elected officials and their families were/are treated well, including day care and other hospitality perks. During the year, small working groups would draft legislation to feed to its elected governmental members. Today, you can give credit to ALEC for such laws as the Stand Your Ground, the repeal of environmental legislation, the restricting and repealing of worker and labor protection laws, restricting your right to vote, and aggressively surging the privatization of governmental activities. And this is just a partial list.

THE SEPARATION OF COMMERCIAL AND INVESTMENT BANKING

In reaction to the Great Depression caused by the irresponsible behavior of the banking industry, Congress, in 1933, enacted The Banking Act of 1933. It became commonly known as Glass-Steagall, after two of the bill’s sponsors. Glass-Steagall mandated the separation of commercial and investment banking to protect depositors from the hazards of risky investment and speculation by the investment banking industry.

The system worked pretty well until the late 1990s when Republican Senator Phil Gramm capped an effort to roll back these regulatory protections. The effort, however, began years earlier during the Reagan years when ALEC billionaire backers like Charles and David Koch took aim at repealing Glass-Steagall. As is too often the case, the Democrats were all too willing to go along with the banking industries desires. The repeal of crucial components of Glass-Steagall was signed into law by President Clinton. Many credit the financial meltdown in 2007 directly to the repeal of the protections in Glass-Steagall. This saga only begins to illustrate the efforts to undo oversight designed to require responsible behavior.

THE AGE OF IRRESPONSIBILITY

We live in an era most accurately described as the Age of Irresponsibility. The corporate giants that dominate the financial industry, the energy industry, the food industry, and the health industry are united in their efforts to do away with regulatory control over their activities. They complain that regulations impede their ability to act. So now they do business with wanton disregard for the environment or human safety. They want unfettered ability to do what they wish without being answerable for the harm they cause and the criminal acts they engage in. The problem is that they now have the money and influence to dictate to and to control federal and state elected officials. This can be seen in examples in all of these industries.

The banking meltdown in 2007 was akin to a major earthquake striking America. At risk to bring down every major American bank and numerous other financial giants, the financial behemoths prevailed upon the Bush Administration to commence a series of bailouts. First it was TARP, then it was followed up by legislation signed by the Obama Administration. And unbeknownst to the American public until recently, the Federal Reserve poured well over a trillion dollars into the failed banks. The taxpayers bailed out the banks. The taxpayers, who were the victims of the bankers’ shenanigans, were the biggest losers thanks to elected and appointed officials in Washington.

NO ACCOUNTABILITY

Irresponsible, and oftentimes criminal, behavior was rewarded with bailout monies. To this day there have been few criminal charges. Attorneys general from the states were convinced to accept settlements that hardly addressed compensation for the losses. Our SEC, attorney general, and other agencies with prosecutorial authority did next to nothing to punish the criminal wrongdoers.  Without vigorous enforcement of these white collar crimes there is no accountability. The irresponsible behavior by the financial tycoons is unfortunately the norm across the American corporate world.

We have seen what happened when the financial system was allowed to do business without meaningful regulatory oversight. But this phenomenon has spread across every important industrial and corporate sector.

NUCLEAR THREATS

One of the greatest and most serious catastrophic threats to our world is the unregulated proliferation of nuclear power plants. Yet today the federal government is about to issue over a half dozen new licenses to build nuclear plants. Some European countries are rethinking nuclear energy in the wake of the Fukushima disaster. Not America.

The American media writes little about what is still happening in Japan. The unfortunate truth is that reactor Unit 4 at Fukushima remains dangerously unstable. The Japanese government begrudgingly acknowledges that there could be a meltdown of the spent fuel rods nuclear waste that is stored there. If this occurred, a real-world wide catastrophe could unfold. The amount of nuclear fallout that could occur is estimated to be 85 time worse than the Chernobyl meltdown.

Yet the American nuclear energy advocates are pushing for more plants, all the while claiming they can responsibly build them. Nothing new is being proposed that is measurably different from the design and precautions taken when Fukushima was constructed. Quite the contrary. GE and other nuclear plant companies urge less regulation and less oversight. Nuclear plants are dangerous. They are so dangerous that all these great promoters of free market capitalism don’t put their own money at risk. They put taxpayer money at risk thanks to our corrupt politicians. They secure guarantees from our government on all the loans. A tragedy could befall our country and our Congress has committed the taxpayers to bail out these corporations yet again.

A NEW ERA OF DEREGULATION

The pattern of wanting to do business without oversight and regulation only increased during the Bush years. With Dick Cheney as a deregulation advocate, the Bush Administration exempted the natural gas industry from complying with clean water laws so our energy Goliaths could pour millions of tons of chemicals into the earth to begin the process of known as hydraulic fracturing (fracking).

Not only is there little or no government oversight, Congress prohibited the government from disclosing to the public the chemicals used in the fracking process. The stories of some of the probable horrors of fracking are starting to be reported. But who will clean up the chemical mess and who will replace polluted water aquifers in the future? If fracking is safe, as industry advocates state, then why do they keep secret all the chemicals used in the fracking process? When the gas is gone, these companies will slither into the night and leave a devastated population and environment as the legacy. The taxpayers will suffer, some will die from cancers and sickness, others will not have safe drinking water, and the taxpayers will end up footing the bill.

Another example of absolute irresponsibility is the behavior of the oil company giants. Permits to do deep water drilling in the Gulf were and still are approved with little or only ineffective government review of the dangers. BP cut corners to save money and used a predictably unsafe and inferior drilling process in the Gulf. When BP’s Deepwater Horizon well blew up, it caused not just an environmental catastrophe that continues to this day, but also the deaths of 11 workers and injuries to at least 19 others, not to mention the devastation caused to the lives of many Gulf area residents. No criminal charges have been brought against BP officials. No revamping of the lax regulations has occurred. Again, the industry had succeeded in getting Congress to pass legislation to cap their exposure if/when tragedies like this occurred.

The Keystone pipeline will ultimately be approved, not because it is a good idea, but because people like the Koch brothers, their companies and big oil have the political power to impose their will on the government. When the spills occur and sensitive ecological areas are harmed, it won’t be the companies that pay for the harm that occurs. It will be the taxpayer. This is not free market capitalism. A truly free market system would not cap the risks and transfer them to the taxpayer. Business activity and behavior is only responsible when those who cause harm to person or to the environment are required to pay for the entire harm that occurs. That is the way business should be required to act.  

Our food supply is being compromised by the political powers of the chemical giants like Dow Chemical and big industrial food producers. Pesticides are being poured into the soil with little concern about the long-term consequences. Genetically engineered seed is being approved without regard to the long-term consequences. Pesticides and seeds migrate to organic and other responsible small farmers. Monsanto literally has a policing force that intimidates smaller growers. The poultry and cattle industry overuse antibiotics to prevent the spread of disease inherent in their unhealthy processing procedures. As a consequence, genetically resistant viruses are rendering impotent our antibiotic drugs. People will die. Food nutrition will be compromised. These companies will make healthy profits and never pay society for the harm they cause.

DO THE RIGHT THING?

We have all heard it said that corporations exist to make a profit and to provide a return to their shareholders. The corporate lobbyists and spokespersons say that we need no regulation because these businesses will do the right thing and act honorably. We have witnessed enough tragedies and horrific events to realize that, if the raison d'être of a corporation or business is to make a profit, it will cut costs any way it can. And that is why they don’t like regulations. And that is why they are turning out to be the most irresponsible corporate citizens today.

It is time to return to sane and safe regulatory practices. Of course profits are much larger if you don’t have to clean up your mess. But if we care about our futures and the futures of our future generations, we must stop allowing corporations to buy our elections and our federal and state elected and appointed officials. It is time to make the corporate world clean up its messes. It is long past the time to make these corporate executives and members of corporate boards criminally and personally liable for the harm their companies do and the criminal acts these companies engage in. Our world will be a safer and more healthy place to live if we make these businesses accountable.