No Risk / High Reward

"The working man's a sucker."
-Cologero
A Bronx Tale

My aunt just switched cable providers and on her first bill she was overcharged for services and hardware she never received. This made me think about how many people pay their bills and don't catch "mistakes" like this on a monthly basis. When consumers notice these "mistakes," someone in India apologizes and removes the extra charge from the bill, without the corp. taking on any fiscal responsibility. Is this not a microcosm for the way all mega-corps. operate under Western-capitalism? No risk with the possibility of high reward. The largest banks in America are being bailed out by the government after making mistakes with their stockholder's money. They took what should have been huge risks for the opportunity to make lucrative amounts of money. Only under our current system, apparently there is no monetary risk involved in being fiscally irresponsible. When are CEOs and politicians going to have to answer to the people for their "mistakes?" Their answer is likely to be more deregulation and "free" market ideology right? That way corporations can continue to exploit vulnerable consumers without answering to anyone. So in the end, the consumers foot the bill either way: they either rip us off or we have to pay to bail them out anyways. That's how the land of opportunity really rewards the hard-working majority. It's also how the myth of the American dream has turned the U.S. into a nation of suckers.

And for those who still believe that "free-market" capitalism is our mode of production or that Western-style capitalism is unquestionably synonomous with democracy: http://www.oldamericancentury.org/14pts.htm