Yes, they do. Again, it is the result of a fundamentally amoral culture and the human heart.Purplehood wrote:I agree with you guys about stiffening laws, penalties and actually enforcing them. My problem with the whole banking industry and the house-of-cards that our economy sits on is that those folks in the Finance Industry in general will always find a new way to get around a better mouse-trap. They have, and they continue to do so every day.
People know what they are doing is wrong when they do it; they just don't think they'll get caught, and they think that the penalties for getting caught are either easy to avoid, or easy to minimize. They do not fear getting caught, and they have no shame. But that is just symptomatic of the culture - the same culture which objectifies women, glorifies bad behavior by making its practitioners into stars and cultural icons, and which rejects the notion of personal accountability for almost any actions. Corporate piracy is simply the culture at large, times ten.
They used to hang pirates on the spot, wherever they were caught. Over a very short time, piracy was virtually eradicated. So, let's start hanging them again. On the spot. Wherever they are caught. Leave a few of them twisting in the wind as a reminder to the rest of what happens when you practice corporate piracy, and pretty soon it will stop.
I know I sound facetious, but I'm kind of serious. Fundamentally decent business people have nothing to fear, because they are acting with fundamental decency. But for business people who have no fear or shame, the only possible response to prevent their depredations is to instill fear and shame in their breasts.
That way, the rest of us still get to enjoy the benefits of a capitalist society, and to grow our own portfolios by investing in the stock of responsibly managed companies, without having to go toward the only real alternative, which is a state managed economy, also known as socialism. We're already half way there, and I don't think there are any of us who are satisfied with that fact. Being half way there isn't working. Going all the way toward socialism won't work, so the only viable alternative left to us is to make the penalties for getting caught in financial jiggery-pokery so prohibitively costly as to make the risks outweigh the benefits for those who have no fear or shame.
You've just gone and insulted the cherished beliefs of a significant percentage of the board's membership... ...but you claim to adhere to moral and civil obligations? Please.