Why is financial terrorism treated so differently than a terrorist bombing in America? [View all]

[Purrfessor]

While I in no way mean to diminish the impact that the Boston Marathon Bombing had on this country, it was and forever will remain a terribly tragic event, I have a few questions regarding what I believe could easily be considered an equally destructive terrorist attack on America, albeit in a different form.

Here are my questions:

When financial terrorists struck at America’s core and very nearly destroyed the economy, and did, in fact, drastically alter the lives of millions of Americans for the worse, where was Homeland Security, the CIA, the FBI, state and local police, elected officials proclaiming what a terrible tragedy it was and that we, as a nation, would not rest until those who perpetrated this tragic attack were hunted down and brought to justice?

Where was the proclamation that no amount of money was too much to spend in our search for these terrorists?

Why did the government turn to the public and, rather than ask us to shelter in place so that these criminals could be found, demanded that we must bail them out with hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars, or watch as our entire economic and financial systems collapsed around us?

Why did we allow them to walk among us, completely out in the open without fear that it was simply a matter of time before they were handcuffed and jailed, and then dragged to court before an angry nation decimated by their disastrous attack?

Why did we let them return to their mansions at the end of every work day while their wealth grew exponentially at our expense?

Why did we fail to act when, rather than hiding beneath a tarp on their yachts in fear of arrest and prosecution, they spent weekends cruising our local waterways while toasting the success of their attack with expensive champagne and caviar?

Why did we praise these financial terrorists as “makers,” “job creators,” hard workers who deserved the hundreds of billions, if not trillions of dollars they stole from us, and then label as “takers” those Americans, the true hard workers of our society, who lost jobs and homes and were forced to rely on government assistance simply to pay necessary bills and to feed themselves and their children?

Rather than pass regulations so that we are never again susceptible to such an attack, why do we allow our elected officials to cower in the shadow of lobbyists who lie when they say any such regulations will only make it easier for a future financial terrorist attack on our economy?

In the aftermath of this financial attack, as the nation struggled to recover, why did we demonize teachers and firefighters and police officers and other government workers, calling them greedy and a threat to America only because of pension plans they negotiated in lieu of higher salaries, instead of applauding the hard and difficult work they continued to do day in and day out for the very people who were demonizing them?

We do not provide bombs to terrorist bombers, so why are so many of us willing to turn our Social Security and Medicare Systems over to financial terrorists in the form of privatization? How does this differ from providing bombs to terrorists?

And finally, why do we, the American public, allow ourselves to be treated as scapegoats, as the overriding drain on society, as the cause of our entire financial problems, while the military budget increases year after year, while corporations hide their income offshore, pay zero taxes yet still receive refunds and subsidies in the form of government handouts, while the super wealthy are awarded preferential tax treatment, are free to label their earnings as something other than income in order to further reduce their tax load, and are then given free rein to hide ever more of their money offshore so that in the end it is the declining middle class that has to make up for this tremendous loss of tax revenue?

Why indeed?