When did America become the place where a person or a group gets rewarded for failing? Take heed, the rewards for failure appear to be reserved just to that group of "preferred cronies" of the Treasury, Congress and others in power. It is worth nothing that Paulson came from Goldman Sachs and notice who is getting saved? Can you imagine the government rewarding you or I for the same failures. We could start a business, violate every basic and logical business principle that exists, take every possible risk outside of the area of expertise and then when it fails we would go to the government and ask them to bail us out. This is so outrageous it is impossible to think with and then leaves you with only some sense of the gravity of the amount of incompetence that is writing the rules for how our country's financial systems work or don't work.
I am unable to even think with the current actions of Wall Street and Congress over the last six months. In July of this year I wrote "Neither the Fed Nor Popular Financial Advice Provide Economic Solution." The problems being confronted today started much earlier and we all have some responsibility in creating this situation by our allowing these kinds of actions to continue on without the people involved in them being penalized. The politicians on both sides get to stay in office and the CEO's running these companies into the ground walk away with big paychecks!
I have spent my entire adult life building businesses on the Main Streets of America and anytime I failed I never considered that I would ask someone else to bail me out. My businesses are not intricately tied to the workings of the dollar and can not negatively impact our money supplies and that is the point! They are separate and should be kept separate. I succeed I am rewarded, I fail and I am penalized! These companies being bailed out today are too tied to government and that was approved by our current congress. The most you or I will get for our failures is some advice, a pat on the back and maybe a motivational pitch that we can bounce back but neither of us will get bailed out.
If you wreck your car do you expect the government to fix it? If you end up with a drug or alcohol problem should the government send you to treatment and then hang in there with you until you are all cleaned up? If you are an actor and can't get work should the government find a movie part for you? If you lose your job because the company you worked for no longer finds your position valuable to the company should the taxpayers (the government) pay you not to work? This reward of unemployment to individuals is another form of rewarding people for not being of value. Incompetent CEO's that are allowed to make multi-million dollar contracts to run a company into the ground is criminal and should be treated so.
If I take too many risks, mismanage money, become unable to sell my products, miscalculate the market, and then mismanage my company I am going to get worked out of the system. But that is not what is happening today. Most of these CEO's that mismanaged their companies will be allowed to come back and do this again. The politicians that approved laws allowing brokerage firms to become lenders should been removed from office due to their actions.
You and I are paying for the mistakes of others and then for not standing up as a group and saying enough incompetence! If you are incompetent and make poor decisions, then you should not be allowed to serve in any capacity and should be labeled as incompetent. I understand that the current actions with AIG and GS may be necessary to not further a meltdown but the same people that got us here should not be left at the helm of the ship. How dare any of us stand by and entrust those proven to be incompetent with 1 trillion-plus dollars. Does anyone think that they will change their behavior and not screw that up by rewarding their buddies with how that money is allocated?
The guys that ran these companies parachute out with millions and will throw back martinis at the country club while the rest of us pay for their mistakes. These guys shouldn't even be allowed to work on the street again. They should be labeled, much like a sex offender is, in order to save the rest of us from them repeating their actions. And those in Washington on both sides that have approved any laws that contributed to this disaster should be removed from office immediately and also labeled incompetent. There is no downside for these guys making poor decisions and because so they have no real cost.
When did we become so soft, so forgiving and so reasonable as a nation with those we elected to leadership. If a doctor kills too many patients he loses his license. If a teacher is unable to get her classes passed they lose their job and won't be able to get another one. Where is the accountability with our leadership?
The problem here isn't the Republicans or the Democrats but the idea that the American population sits back in apathy and does nothing and there is no cost to those that elect to lead for actions and decisions that later prove incompetent.
Grant Cardone is an Author and CEO.