Changing Bad Behavior at Davos

Davos, Switzerland -- The contradictions here are enormous. Many of the wealthiest people in the world are here -- and the most powerful, including heads of state. Yet there is more and more talk about values, even a yearning for them, especially in the wake of this economic crisis, which most here now believe was also a crisis of values. There is more sincere talk of the common good.

I am right now listening to a panel on "The Social Contract" and there is much encouraging talk about company's responsibilities to society and even the common good -- "doing good while doing well" and all that.

But what there has not been much conversation about is what we do when rich and powerful people and institutions act against the common good.

For example, this economic crises was not caused by all "the corporations" or even all "the banks." It was a crisis sparked by about six banks! Particular bank leaders from particular banks made some risky, short term, selfish and greedy decisions. So how do we name that, and them, and tell them they need to change their behavior, or hold them accountable for it and make new rules and, yes, laws that don't let them do it again.

Unless all our talk about "values" changes bad behaviors, we are just talking.

 

 

 

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Comments

[TimeMaster]

03:10 PM on 02/01/2011

A case of "do as I say, not as I do?". Lloyd Blankfein and associates go first and do the right thing, then let's see if others follow. It would be good to see change, but it will first require everyone to be on the same page from the average person, politicians and corporations. So far, it continues to be an us-versus-them, winner take all for the rich.

The middle class will have to forgive, but not forget when it comes to the financial crisis. Otherwise, history will repeat itself.

[piperflyer]

12:43 AM on 02/01/2011

That's what we do on New Year's eve---make resolutions. Re...again, solutions...a mixture of ingredients designed to do work---in the case of January 1, it is, we say, a solution to some existing malfunction in our lives which needs to be changed. But the "re" is the culprit. If the solution we adopted needs to be done again next year, it wasn't right in the first place. "the heart of man is deceitfully wicked," i.e., we have at birth a sinful nature. It is not our nature to be kind, peace-loving, generous, etc. Our nature is to sin. "there is a way which seemeth right unto man, but the way thereof is the way of death. All the Swiss meetings in these vain imaginations, will not bring about "values." Values that work are the result of the work of Christ on the cross, dying and paying for our sins, and our acceptanace of that sacrifice and the confession of that experience. This the only exorcist our sinful hearts need to produce real "value."

[Bayard Waterbury]

05:56 PM on 01/31/2011

Yes, Jim, no one, among the rich and powerful elite is going to "call a spade, a spade" when it comes to appropriately placing blame for those responsible for the massive financial crisis, which is, as we speak and write, continuing today and perhaps even deepening as the new "robber barons" take their rent and leave the rest of us in ashes. But then, why would their co-elitist globalists wish to take issue? After all, in the new age, corporate profits have not yet suffered. After all, who is it that runs the nations caught in their rent seeking traps? The political elite has been ensnared in the fiscal traps that weakent their nations while continuing to encourage destructive behavior and create serious global instability amongst all the world's nations. Those at the top don't have any sympathy, empathy, or pity for the millions who are presently suffering from their rigged games and contrivances. It is said that they suffer from the dopamine effect. I think they suffer from massive greed-based dehumanization which pervaids the top eschelons of international business with finance in the lead. They won't be brought to justice. There will be no doing good to accompany their garish accumulation of wealth. And so it goes in the great human experiment.

[Gerald Serlin]

04:43 PM on 01/31/2011

Corporations, Mr Walis, are motivated by their goal to extract the most profit from their operations. That is why they sometimes make enormous contributions to charity and public education, which in turn earns them good will, which in turn increases their profits. Therefore calling somebody greedy just for making the proper business decisions is the equivalent of chiding a person for praying to G-d.

[GAYF]

04:13 PM on 01/31/2011

When I was a child I heard the elders say, many times, "What you do speaks so loud I can't hear what you say."

the elders were often correct.

[Norman Morford]

12:55 PM on 01/31/2011

Thank God for Jim Wallis!

Norm Morford
Indpls., IN

[Texas Aggie]

12:23 PM on 01/31/2011

And even as we speak the American version of Davos is being held in Palm Springs by the Koch brothers and their henchmen. And I doubt sincerely that there is any talk of "doing well by doing good" going on there. As a matter of fact, I strongly suspect that the main topic of conversation there is how to get away with doing bad.

[Mary Saunders]

12:04 PM on 01/31/2011

Confine banks/credit unions to particular states.

They can join NCUA to clear card use across state borders.

Declare Freddie and Fannie to be the mistakes they were. Do not allow paper secured by collateral to be sold away from the collateral. Part out what good paper can be found at Freddie and Fannie.

Bust the bigs into bite-size bits. Trying to get booty back might be too hard, but we could stop the high-pressure leaks of more booty. If they can have expensive weddings, maybe their divorces can be more low-cost. It's possible for the limousine crowd to learn to walk or ride bikes. It would be good for their health, and they might live longer, but there are trade-offs to be made.

[Kenz300]

11:44 AM on 01/31/2011

Egypt and Tunisia are good examples of what:

High unemployment....

Lack of resources, food, water, oil.......

An ever expanding population..................

concentration of wealth in top 2%.......................

When limited resources meets an ever expanding world population something
has to give. Those with no jobs, no food and no future may revolt.............

[GranE]

11:11 AM on 01/31/2011

It was not by accident that our Founding Fathers gave the power to Congress to watch over commerce and apply restraints when necessary, they too lived with unrestrained looting of the people, mostly by the crown, but not entirely. They knew a capitalist when they saw one.

Our Congress has not, for the last 30 years, seen one they didn't like. Americans have no representative in Congress, at least none who are willing to put some brakes on commerce. They have the power to break monopolies but they refuse, they have the power to regulate but refuse. Is it the corporations who are at fault or the spineless representatives we send to Congress who will not use that power to protect Americans?

Are we going to ask corporations to play nice? Obviously the Founding Fathers knew they wouldn't or they would not have given Congress any powers at all. The beast does not change his habits.

[Pole]

11:02 AM on 01/31/2011

The Buddha once said: It is not wealth itself but the desire for wealth that destroys. As long as the primary mandate is profit, the basis for all businesses, discussion alone won't change anything. The five or six big banks have power. Summers, Rubin, and Geithner are proof that their influence extends right into the White House. They set their own policies which are predicated on acquiring as much profit as possible, no matter the social effects. Their boardroom drive is insatiable, their political influence enormous. Short of experiencing the full global effects of Global Warming and societal collapse, their momentum will continue. The same spiritual illness which afflicts them, inflicts the energy companies. Social well being is not on their radar. The influence of the banks in a capitalistic culture goes back to the 1800's. Throwing people out of their homes is standard operating procedure. Squeezing those with no resources emboldens their investors. Its all about money as the primary value. Money attracts power. Money always drives to disastrous results without safeguards in place. Making friends with wealthy people slows down the end results because there is still time for unpopular exposure to topple their objectives. But the disease won't be cured without global transformation to a new paradigm of social and economic activity that places people ahead of power, military might, economic positioning or fear-filled alternatives. The Torah speaks to the problem. Jesus and the Buddha spoke to the problem. Its time to solve the problem.

[SilenceDoGoodGauge]

09:46 AM on 01/31/2011

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The 'Your Mama Meter' will measure the civility of an essay. Unlike other forms of media which feed on controversy, the Do Good Gauge will restrict visibility based on hateful rhetoric. The intent is not censorship, it is to motivate an author to provide clarity through respect. As mama would say, if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all.

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[lastpost]

05:09 AM on 01/31/2011

“Many of the wealthiest people in the world are here -- and the most powerful”,
maybe the perceptive declined to spare the time Jim?

“doing good while doing well"
Or, while the opportunity remains perhaps.

“there has not been much conversation about is what we do when rich and powerful people and institutions act against the common good”.
How about having them explain to themselves, through questioning, the mechanism by which they believe they function in isolation from what happens to the rest of us?

“Unless all our talk about "values" changes bad behaviors, we are just talking”.
True Jim. But considering the present quality of communication betwixt us. Even talking would constitute a giant leap forward for articulate-kind.

[Bellanova]

02:49 AM on 01/31/2011

Amen, Jim.

[whitemale08]

02:07 AM on 01/31/2011

The "system" itself is inherently fraudulent and until we recognize that the only way to protect the average citizen from the gambling swindlers on Wall Street/City of London is to restore Glass-Steagall.