America Rewards Incompetence

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 are 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 the Nor Popular Finance Advice Provides and 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 your 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 contacts to run a company into the ground is criminal and should be treated so.

If I take too many risk, 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.

Follow Grant Cardone on Twitter: www.twitter.com/grantcardone

Comments

[larry278]

Blessed are the incompetent for they shall inheret the earth [& the more portable assetts too].

[chappelforpres]

I don't know about your prior comment that "most" of these home being already in foreclosure, but the inflexibility of banking executives verges on complete incompetence, compounded by deep denial.
Talk about a deer frozen in the headlights.

I have a sickening feeling that many homeowners who might have saved their home in a permanent (30 -40 yrs), or temporary restructuring (3-5 yrs) were not given the resources, encouragement or the channels to do so. How many mistakenly called their loan service / processing companies. Firms with "0" incentive to mitigate the crisis, or properly assist them. Where were the emergency directives to channel such calls to loss mitigation?

Added to that, there seems to be a tragic groundswell of "moral superiority" rippling through these boards, which is deeply disturbing. Many people seem to relish in the plight of individuals who made bad decisions, or overreached, in an effort to buy a piece of the American dream (their own home). Nobody forced lenders to open up the flood gates and abandon their primary responsibility as the gatekeepers of "credit risk" in favor of short term profits. This is a classic economic class war. One Main Street America needs desperately to win. All home values plummet, as a consequence of rising inventories and housing inventory has been a true cancer. If it's not stopped, its certain to spread everywhere, and with unimaginable swiftness.

[Rule Of Law]

Once more--

Grant, you are wrong!

"You and I are paying for the mistakes of others and then for not standing up as a group and saying enough incompetence!"

These were not mistakes. There was no lack of professionalism or skill or ability; in fact they used all their Business School degree acumen from the Axis of Weasels--Harvard, Yale, Princeton--to pull the greatest theft of any age, and to suggest that it was all just a big balls-up, is to remove any of the responsibi­lity--both fiscal and moral, that they should be held accountable to.

Are we paying? Yes, of course. Haven't we always? Can we just shrug it off as the poor business management of our C grade President and his drop out VP and their billion dollar a year buddies on Wall Street? No!

This is the looting of the American Treasury that the Neos have lusted for since before Reagan. They will take FDR and his programs down screaming from the loss of funds, while they go on to live like kings in extradition exempt countries like Dubai and Paraguay.

Grover Norquist is smiling somewhere, running the bath water that they promised to use to drown our government.

[RichardThomas]

We are powerless becuase we are divided.

Most of the world doesn't know about the 65 Trillion Dollar Credit Swap Defaults still looming. It dwarfs the mortgage crises and it all has more to do with a Fiat Currency Bubble Burst.

The info is on http://www.coinage.me/default.htm

Where the flaws are articulated in detail unlike anything you see on the news, such that you can understand them and so the workings are not obfuscated with complexity. A detail solution is provided to fix the foundation, which everyone else speaking about the problem seems to lack.

Many people only see the appearances they do not see the fundamental flaw in the system itself. The bailout should go directly to the homeowners or to stimulate the economy so they can pay their mortgages.

http://storyline.me/default.htm “reports Congress being blackmailed, wealth extorted from citizens”

[Grant Cardone - Huffpost Blogger]

I absolutely agree with much of what you say, regarding the real estate most of those homes are already in foreclosur­e....and vacant... and to further exposure debt to people that are already in trouble will not provide security for people that have to buy the loans...

[jhNY]

HuffPost's Pick

White men , who held all practical power in society a half-century ago, have felt amongst themselves besieged by other forms of citizenry demanding rights, equal pay, etc. And mostly they have reacted by digging in their heels whenever and wherever they could.

One unexpected and possibly unintended outcome of this intransigence has been the reward proffered to mediocrity, so long as its exemplar was a white man, usually a tall white man with a fine head of hair. Class and race status maintenance has come at the cost of competence, achievement or success. See the career of GWB, businessman, for how well this actually works. (And while we're at it, consider GWB's Yale and Harvard experience as proof that class status maintenance is a huge portion of the industry ongoing in those fine institutions. After all, no serious person could accuse Bush of having an education.­)

The racial makeup of boards of directors,and upper upper management is pretty much a portrait in monochrome to this day, and is in itself reward enough for those who cannot bring themselves to be comfortable around upstarts. But the maintenance of class status by the unqualified to lead obviously has its downside, as in for example, the American economy.

Any minute now, a trillion dollars will be foisted on proven failures, in the fervent hope that this time they will comport themselves with more care. They will not, of course, knowing they've been forgiven in advance.

[Grant Cardone - Huffpost Blogger]

I don't care what color a person is I just want results. The white man has had free rein for a couple of hundred years here in the US but for me the issue is incompetence regardless of the color of your skin. I don't care if you are male, female, black, white or red if you can lead, solve problems, come up with real solutions and get real results I am behind you!

[Minotaurus]

I agree with Grant.

[LHoney]

In fairness tho, regarding the apathy, those of us who will be hurt by this are working 2 and 3 jobs to feed our families and those who have time to complain, have nothing to complain about...

[Grant Cardone - Huffpost Blogger]

I know what you mean. I work from 7am until midnight almost everyday to keep my head above water, keep my businesses running and make sure I don't have to lay off anyone!
See you in the trenches

[Grant Cardone - Huffpost Blogger]

that is a fact!