PSA: How many people here who love to hate "Wall Street" actually know what it means?

[Armstead]

64. Nothing wrong with it inherently. The devil is in the details.

The idea of business and capitalism is not inherently bad. But only if they are placed within the context of their overall impact.

It obviously gets very complicated. Since it is the basis of our economy and society, it can only work if there is a balance between self-interest and the public interest. But in addition to its benefits, Capitalism contains elements of abusiveness and is contrary to the idea of the public good and democracy.

It ultimately boils down to morals, ethics and priorities. Those are required to restrain the negative aspects of business, so that capitalism can work for everyone, rather than hurt everyone to benefit a few. When that is not self imposed, it has to be imposed by the rules of society.


There is also a dangerous dynamic within any institution or system. Wealth and power feed on themselves. The more power and wealth an institution or individual gains, the more ability they have to increase that geometrically. An example. Wal Mart. The more resources they have, the better able they are to move into a town, lose money on a store for a while to undercut existing competitors and drive them out of business to create a captive market. It also gives them more power to squeeze their suppliers and workers.

Since around 1980, the equation has shifted from a balance of those factors has shifted to the "Greed is Good" mentality. We allowed the negative aspects of capitalism to completely overshadow morals and ethics. There are endless examples, and it has been the death by a thousand cuts. We allowed a few corporations to become monopolistic empires. And Wall St. has changed the goal from a reasonable return on investment to a constant "quick killing" by screwing workers and consumers.

And individuals who step into the "lucky lane" will do awful things to their neighbors in order to gain obscene wealth. Whjere once a CEO might have been satisfied to earn 5 times the wages of average employees, it is not the goal to earn 50 times or more, with wealth in the Billions, while their employees just eke by.

It has degenerated to the point where corporate behavior that would have been considered totally unacceptable a few decades ago has become commonplace.

We have allowed Corporate America and Wall Street to do that for too long. The problem can be tracerd to the rise of Reagonimics and Supply Side economics championed by the GOP. But unfortunatly, the Democratic Party under Bill Clinton and the DLC/Third Way (shorthand but you know what I mean) jettisoned liberalism and bought into the same shit. by championing things like "free trade," excessive deregulation, privatization, monopolization and shrinking of the public sector to benefit the oligarchs.

The ONLY way to reverse this larger trend is to acknowledge the problem, take a stand against it and pursue the reforms that will restore a balance by reasserting Liberal/Progressive values and re-establishing regulations that will restore a healthier balance.

That reelates to this primary nonsense because it is not simply a matter of Hillary vs. Bernie. It is a matter of breaking free of the forces and Crony Capitalism that skewed the balance.