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With Congress passing their recent financial system overhaul, and with the recent health care overhaul from Obama, one could ask, "Does everything need an overhaul?"
When you go to the mechanic and you say, it looks like I need new break pads and then you go to pick your car up only to find that he replaced the pads, the rotors, the calipers and the master break cylinder, you feel cheated, ripped off. In fact you might refuse to pay because that was not the problem in the first place. The mechanic did more than he was commissioned to do.
When you go to a doctor to have your rotator cuff repaired and they take out your arms off you have every reason to sue and be upset. To do so would be grossly negligent and would betray the trust given the surgeon.
When 85% percent of the country is insured, should the solution be to remove the whole system?
And when the financial industry has a hard two years (of their own making) does it mean the whole system needs an overhaul? Seems to me that a financial system who wants to be greedy, should feel the full weight of their greed when it comes back to bite them in the butt. That includes the millions of Americans who were greedy enough to get into bad loans in the first place. Sweeping overhaul does not effect those with the problem, it punishes those who honorably meet their obligations. This is why punishment has its place. It targets those who violate the laws not those who are keeping them.
How is it that the United States of America can be the greatest nation in the world, a bastion of freedom and opportunity, yet everything needs an overhaul? If this country is so backwards, and people think we should be like other countries in the world, then why are so many people come here illegally under chance of death? Why are the most evil and disgusting people in the world fighting against US? And why does the world look to the US to solve all of their problems? While the US is not perfect, it is far from a need of an overhaul - at least it wasn't in need of an overhaul - now I'm not so sure.
Don't get me wrong, when something is broke, you should fix it. But there is a good and prudent way to do so. One does not wrap a 3rd degree burn in duct tape. Sure it would protect the wound from outside bacteria, but it does not heal the underlying problem. And it will hurt like a mother when it is to be removed in order for the wound to heal. Some wounds take time to heal, some remedies make things worse.
Bad economies come and go, bad regulations seem to stay around forever.
If you read the fine print, the financial system did not get an overhaul, and neither did the health care or health insurance industries. What we are getting here is not massive change, or massive re-regulation, or massive prosecution of fraud, just massive politics as usual.
ReplyDeleteThe recent stimulus provides an excellent example of the kind of non-regulatory regulation and non-reform reform we get these days. They have something called the HIRE act that's supposed to stimulate employment by relieving employers of the responsibility to pay the employer portion of SS on qualified new hires. Obviously no employer is going to hire someone in order to save 7% of their salary, but in order to get the free money, employers have to track who's qualified and report it, and their payroll system has to be jerry-rigged to allow a tax hiatus for certain employees. All this probably costs about as much as they'll save, but will accomplish nothing.
So why can't we get effective regulation? Why are we imposing a burden that provides no rewards? Why can't we fix any systemic problems? It's because we have a coalition government like the Brits, except our coalition is Republicans plus the Corporate Democrats - maybe we could call them the Corpebulicrats. They form decisive majorities in both Houses and have zillions of dollars behind them and the media is content to pretend they are fighting each other while all they're doing is protecting those who pay for their campaigns.
There are a few people in the Congress who still represent the people on both sides of the aisle, but you could probably invite all them over to your house for dinner and they would fit around the dining room table.