Remove the Wall Street virus from the economy

[marmar]

excerpt from David Korten's "Agenda for a New Economy":


Efforts to fix Wall Street miss an important point. It can't be fixed. It is corrupt beyond repair, and we cannot afford it. Moreover, because the essential functions it does perform are served better in less costly ways, we do not need it.

Wall Street's only business purpose is to enrich its own major players, a bunch of buccaneers and privateers who find it more profitable to expropriate the wealth of others than to find honest jobs producing good and services beneficial to their communities. They walk away with their fees, commissions, and bonus packages and leave it to others to pick up the costs of federal bailouts, gyrating economic cycles, collapsing environmental systems, broken families, shattered communities, and the export of jobs along with the manufacturing, technology and research capacities that go with them.

Even more damaging in some ways than the economic costs are the spiritual and psychological costs of a Wall Street culture that celebrates greed, favors the emotionally and morally challenged with outsized compensation packages, and denies the human capacity for cooperation and sharing. Running out of control and de-linked from reality, Wall Street has created an Alice in Wonderland phantom-wealth world in which prospective financial claims and the expectations that go with them exceed the value of all the world's real wealth by orders of magnitude.

We can no longer afford to acquiesce to a system of rule by the those engaged in the pursuit of phantom wealth far beyond any conceivable need - and to no evident end other than to accumulate points in a contest for the top spots on the Forbes list of richest people. ............

[Zenlitened]

1. K&R,

...because the essential functions it does perform are served better in less costly ways, we do not need it.

Very true.

Is this excerpt from a forthcoming book?

Edited to add: Oops... indeed it is from his book. Here's a link to his website:
http://www.davidkorten.org/NewEconomyBook

[cbdo2007]

2. So what does he think should replace everyone's 401K?

[Vidar]

3. K&R.

[glitch]

4. Excellent book, highly recommended. Thanks for posting! K & R nt

[earth mom]

5. I had a guy from an investment place knock on my door the other day.

I couldn't believe it because we are full on middle class/working class, live paycheck to paycheck and the only thing we have is maybe some equity in our house.

Wall Street is nothing but a giant Vegas like ponzi scheme and the sooner people wake up to that reality the better.

Those bastards won't be happy until they squeeze every last drop from every last one of us. :grr:


edited to add: I didn't open the door to that investment joker but just said through the door that "I'm not interested". He then said "ok" and then said "I really like your house."

I live in an old fixer upper on a bit of land. He probably thought the house was totally paid off and some old folks lived here. You wanna bet that he thought he could score my house for his "investments"?! :puke: