In January 2009 Wall Street investment bank executives willfully accepted millions of dollars in bonuses—an estimated 20 billion dollars worth—in spite of the fact that they precipitated our current economic troubles. President Obama publically scolded them, not for causing the problem but for adding insult to injury in accepting a bonus. Obama said these bonuses were shameful and that those executives receiving these bonuses did not show personal responsibility or have any regard for what many in this country were experiencing.

In light of the economy being shaken to its knees, this outright display of self-interested behavior—let’s just call it American capitalism—looms before us causing disgust, if not intense anger among many. What makes these actions seem so reprehensible is that these very people—and the institutions they represent—created a very deep hole from which the rest of us must climb out of. It will take significant energy just to get us back to where we had been—which for many of us will still be a hole. Accordingly, the anger, disgust and downright hostility that many feel toward these executives—and those complicit in this assault on the working class—seems justified. How could it be that those who precipitated this are not only protected from the consequences of their self-serving actions, but in many cases are financially rewarded? Continue reading →