The Great Myth of Main Street

One of my very hostile but articulate readers, Mike from Spokane, gives me both barrels between the eyes this morning. I think Mike thinks I won't publish it, because I'm a panty-waist business type swilling gin at breakfast. Here's what he says:

Bing...with all due respect (as you recently stated to me), you have no idea what you're frigging talking about. You, and corporate America, are so far removed from the realities of Main Street America, that you continue to confuse your personal financial comfort concerns with those of middle America.

I fully expect that you will delete all posts contrary to your limited and self-serving view, but at least you (or one of your corporate lackeys) will have to read statements that reflect what most of America regards as self-evident... that expanding and supporting corporate greed through taxpayer handouts for incompetence is no path out of the mess we're in. Not much satisfaction from this end, but at least you, or one of your timorous syncophants, will know that your world has finally sunk below used car salesmen in terms of universal public esteem.

Finally, fearing being one step from flinging fries at the local 'In&Out' joint may play well while swilling $20 cocktails in some high-end Manhattan watering hole, but it is a daily reality for millions of Americans who invested billions in now collapsed 401K plans.

Mike, it's always a pleasure to hear from you. But sometimes it's hard to see things clearly with so much blood in your eye. I sent my corporate lackeys and timorous sycophants out of the room. This is between you and me.

First of all, this "corporate America" that's on a different plane that "Main Street America" is a myth. I have worked in theaters, as a cab driver, in small companies, large corporations and mega-watt global behemoths, and they are all the same. They are people working for a living. And in one and all, it's the most dysfunctional that run the place. Whatever the gig, we work, we try to enjoy our jobs, and we go home. Guess where our homes are? Main Street.

Secondly, I come from Illinois. So I don't want to hear a lot of pompous, self-aggrandizing bushwah about middle America, either. We all live here. We are all Americans. None of us are more American than any others. We are all equally American. Let's move on.

I understand that you need to see people like me, because I sometimes wear a tie and work in an office, as rich, shallow mofos who deserve to be pilloried, in order to keep on feeling that righteous anger of yours. But in my opinion you'd do better to see all of us (except the very rich and unsuccessful putzes who whipped up this soggy mess) as citizens of the same troubled system. Everybody I know is very nervous about their jobs. Nobody I know has a pension. We worry about our stock price, and our families, and our friends, and what the hell is going to happen to us if the big companies that provide so many people with jobs aren't helped out right now.

We don't sympathize with the idiots who have gotten us all into such trouble. And we certainly don't want THEM to benefit from any assistance that is given to these failing auto makers, banks, insurance companies, whatever. We just don't want the entire ship to sink, taking the lives of all on board, because the captain and his crew are dolts, numbskulls and screw-ups, or because politicians, responding to the anger of their constituents, continue to follow instead of lead.

Take the miscreants out behind the barn! Line them up against the wall! Pepper them with heat-seeking projectiles! But when you're done with that satisfying exercise, let's try to save the American auto industry, the banks where we keep our money, and probably the mortgages of all those people who believed they could buy a home with no money down because a greedy guy in a suit told them they could.

Personally, at this point I'm not a big believer in the "free market" approach. It seems to benefit the guys in charge of the marketplace. And that's not us. And by "us" I mean we, the people. And by the way: MY 401K blows, too.

Thanks for writing, Mike. Say hi to Spokane.

Comments

[Pdubya]

i'm glad you put "free market" in quotes. we haven't had free markets. one can't even exist with fiat currency printed by a private cartel, the fed - a centrally planned economy. thats called a managed market. and it is through lobby whoring congress and counterfitting by the federal reserve that has put us in this debacle. it came to full fruition in 1971 with the bretton woods breakdown. but at its inception in 1913, the Fed was given power outside of our constitution and since then we have continued to allow the fed to dismantle the free market.

so if you don't believe in a paradigm, is it just to automatically think that the paradigm is wrong or that the perceived paradigm is wrong?

[SangZe]

Enjoy your private plane rides, my friend, they may not last too long. Corporate welfare is coming to its inevitable and sad ending. No loss there.

[Social Construct]

Yup. Having lived long enough, and paid enough attention, I am loathe to support anything that justs sets the Rebe Goldberg machine in motion once more. To varying degrees these economic blunders, created by these "dysfunctional" blunderers, are in the worst of vicious circles. Change the rules so that the most dysfunctional of us are sidelined for their assinine malfeasance and I might bend an ear to the pleas of our "expert" watchdogs to "save" this economy.

[Social Construct]

*Rube, not Rebe.

[joebaggadonuts]

Two things you said bear repeating to make my point.

1. But in my opinion you'd do better to see all of us (except the very rich and unsuccessful putzes who whipped up this soggy mess) as citizens of the same troubled system.

2. And in one and all, it's the most dysfunctional that run the place.

We are in this mess because WE LET 2 happen because we fail to take action against those guys you excepted in 1.

The point is that the question we need to ask is HOW DO WE STOP THE MOST DYSFUNCITONAL OF US FROM RUNNING THE PLACE AND INSTEAD PUT PEOPLE IN CHARGE WHO ARE GOING TO DO A GOOD JOB FOR US?

[RoloTomassi]

First step: Read "The Peter Principle," and take it to heart; it really does work that way, and I personally believe that it is a symptom of corporatism at the very core. In the corporate world the best people doing the best job they can at the level they are most qualified to work at will never become the norm; too many tenets of corporate self-preservation are put at risk--excellence is NOT a factor when judging what is best for the company [particularly when such is seen as keeping those at the top in those power positions].

That's one of the most ironic aspects of corporatism and their support of globalization; corporations are inherently protectionist when it comes to their proven practices and methods of operation, yet they insist that a protectionist attitude from anyone guarding against corporate exploitation is extremely negative and counterproductive.

And so we have the big 3 automotive fat cats insisting that to change anything in their mode of operation [retooling for electrics/hybrids, higher MPG standards] is too much of a hardship--and they state these lies while standing there with tin cup in hand.

[joanndarc]

The both sides should blame themselves and their delusions for the government they have and deserved.

[tompoe]

"We worry about our stock price, and our families, and our friends, and what the hell is going to happen to us if the big companies that provide so many people with jobs aren't helped out right now."

Ooops. You forgot, already? The free market failed. Why? America does not tolerate corporate welfare. Remember September 19, 2008? The day Paulson demanded entitlement for Bush's going away present to his cronies. The same day the RNC admitted they're the Party of Corporate Welfare. America does not tolerate corporate welfare.

All those jobs? All those jobs were based on accepting and tolerating corporate welfare. We don't tolerate corporate welfare. What we do expect, now, is to move forward with jobs programs that are based on what's best for Americans, not corporate welfare. Call it what you will, Main Street will be the beneficiary, not corporations that put profit first, workers last.

[schatsie]

I think we all agree that it is time to outsource the CEOs and their god forsaken Boards of Directors..

We need the same deal that Gordon Brown in England got... 12% return on the loan. Board Representation., guarantees that the money be used as intended, caps on CEO compensation including expenses such as corporate jets and NO dividends for the shareholders...

Just the same for Wall Street and the Automakers­...nothing less.

What do you think they would do in FRANCE if there was a bailout and the CEOs went off on junkets funded by the taxpayers? There is a reason they had a Revolution and it was because TRICKLE DOWN ECONOMICS NEVER WORKED...

[AContrario]

Don't get fooled mate - They do have bailouts in FRANCE and CEOs do go off on junkets but it is so part of our social and political DNA now..