The End of Unlimited Greed as Policy and Values

What the financial disaster in our country, and then world-wide has shown us is the cost of unlimited greed, and the political support for it.

It isn’t complicated, not really. For years, since the deregulation of banks, oil companies, natural resource harvesting companies, and our political process of supporting the companies and individuals who benefitted from deregulation at all costs, these people have gotten unbelievably wealthy in financial terms. They have garnered the most money they can possibly accumulate, and called it ‘free markets’.

Well, we’re finding out the hard way how ‘un-free’ these markets truly are.

We’ve banked incredible numbers of billions, into the trillions of dollars, on people being able to pay for mortgage loans that everyone knew they never could pay once the balloon adjustments happened. Bankers got wealthy, derivative traders got wealthy, and our financial institutions told us that this is the way to do business.

Now, we are seeing the fruits of our refusal to use common sense in our financial dealings within our country, and around the world.

Of course, there is enough blame to go around, everywhere. We all got caught up in it. But the truth is, that our wealth doesn’t lie in Wall Street, or in Washington, or even in stocks, bonds, derivatives, or bank notes.

Our wealth lies between us. Heart to heart, soul to soul, person to person.

"We" are our wealth, not Wall Street nor Washington.

The end of unlimited greed is now here. It is not a value that holds people, or communities, or families, or even nations in esteem. Greed kills all that it touches by its nature. That’s what’s happening now. We banked on greed, with no regulations on any business venture, and it’s going to cost us dearly to turn this around.

But on the other hand, Mr. Bush and his pals are making out like bandits. So are all the folks who’ve known about the rise and fall of gas prices ahead of time, who’ve been on the money side of this King and his court, and those who’re about to benefit from the billions of bail-out dollars being handed out by Mr. Bush’s hand-picked pal.

Make no mistake about it, those folks will be taken care of by Mr. Bush before he leaves office. That’s what this bail-out is about, in truth. That’s why it was suddenly a major ‘crisis’, that had to be resolved right before the election, right now, by the end of that week, or the whole world would collapse, and once the bottom fell out of the markets, markets that were based on a foundation of thin air, this ‘crisis’ happened regardless of Mr. Bush’s claims otherwise.

This is what Mr. Bush, and all petty tyrants have always done. Declare a crisis, put an immediate time-table on it, and rush a law through Congress allowing himself to declare who will benefit from the borrowed tax money. This has happened all throughout history, once a tyrant gets a hold of a democratic government and shakes the life out of it.

Mr. Bush has lived and died in his actions based in greed. We all know it, we’ve all known it all along. It’s been called other things like ’supporting business’, or ‘global commerce’, but it simply has been greed, feeding his pals’ greed with no-look contracts, feeding his pals’ oil profits, feeding his own administration’s greed for power, destroying and literally looting our country, our treasury, looting our children’s children’s futures with his unlimited greed.

Greed, however, can only go on as long as the people sit back and do nothing about it. Many have tried over the last eight years to speak up, but the machine was too strong. Now, however, it’s over.

With Grace and Providence, perhaps Mr. Obama will be able to stop this horrible policy of greed, turn it around in Washington, and allow a business climate to grow that truly serves us as a people. Heart to heart, soul to soul, person to person. Businesses that empower the nation’s people to serve each other, not just serving those in power, as Mr. Bush has done.

I’m so thankful for the end of greed to come. May we all look to our neighbors, friends, families and communities, and find ways to be of service to each other. And may Mr. Obama see a clear path ahead toward a truly ‘free market’, one that allows for us all to be free, not slaves to unlimited greed.