RCE wrote:
You know what? None of this matters. For every proven crook running a
company, I'll find you an honest, hard working example.


That's very true. It's also necessary for the functioning of
our whole hi-techindustrialized economy. But that doesn't
help if it's *your* IRA that's been plundered.


thunder wrote:
Personally, I'd expect you could find hundreds of honest businessmen for
each crook,

Cynic that I am, I agree wholeheartedly.

... but there lies the problem. As you know, it's quite
competitive out there. Competing with crooks isn't a level playing field.

Agreed.

If we don't punish the crooks far more heavily than we do, even an honest
businessman is tempted to shade the edges. What did Ebbers get? 25
years for an $11 billion fraud and there was talk that it was a "stiff"
sentence.

Look at the next part of the equation... who hands out lots
& lots of money to politicians? Mom-n-Pop stores? No.
Businessmen who can profitably make goods & services without
gov't intervention or plum cost-plus contracts? No again.

Therefor it is in the politicians interest to foster a
climate where huge comglomerates operate in murky fiscal
webs, large sums can change hands in the fog, and crooked
CEOs (or other corporate officers) go unpunished.

That's not cynicism, that's the hard cold reality of what is
happening today.


...If I'd lost my retirement and was forced to eat cat food
during my Golden Years because of some fat cat's greed, I'd be thinking
he'd better be spending heavily on security.

Oh, don't worry, they do. You might also want to check out
the recent growth in spending on security for gov't offices
& officials; and the bloom of laws about threats or assaults
on various gov't drones.


.....Obviously others here are not.
Makes the world go 'round. In my life there have been more people telling
me I couldn't do something than those who encouraged me to try. I rarely
listened to the first group.


Should have been taking bets... that's what I do (sometimes).

DSK