Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Bush - Screwing You, Screwing Me

The Republicans and Conservatives believe that the source of our nation's wealth is the corporation. They support policies that treat the manufacturers and their wealthy owners better than the workers and common folk are treated because they believe that the big companies have the resources and the power to create wealth. And, as anyone who follows American politics knows, the Republican philosophy is that this wealth will "trickle down" to those who are not part of this wealthy establishment.

Well, many of us liberals suspect that the wealth doesn't trickle down so much as it trickles UP. The CEO's, stock holders, owners and administrators of these huge corporations have seen their compensation increase a hundred-fold - or even more - as they trickled their jobs down to workers in China, Thailand, Brazil and hundreds of other countries, while American wage earners' salaries have stagnated or declined.

The zeal with which the Bush administration has sought to make the wealthy even wealthier is obvious to anyone watching the political scene. Unfortunately the big news organizations in the US are also, for the most part, big business and they don't focus much on the policies that help them grow and prosper. But the news is out there.

In an article on Slate, Nicholas Bagley points out that the Bush administration actively worked to stop regulations from being passed in a dozen states or more which would have stopped the incredibly sloppy lending practices being engaged in by huge banks and mortgage lenders that has led to the collapse of the housing market in recent months.

Not that it's any surprise that the Bush administration would screw over hundreds of thousands of Americans to help their rich buddies get richer, but it's good to keep track of the abuses.

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