The Con
Con artists have a word for the inability of their victims to accept that they’ve been scammed. They call it the “True Believer Syndrome.” That’s sort of where we are, in a state of nagging disbelief about the real problem on Wall Street —The real problem is that it doesn’t matter what regulations are in place if the people running the economy are rip-off artists.
The system assumes a certain minimum level of ethical behavior and civic instinct over and above what is spelled out by the regulations. If those ethics are absent — well, this thing isn’t going to work, no matter what we do. Sure, mugging old ladies is against the law, but it’s also easy. To prevent it, we depend, for the most part, not on cops but on people making the conscious decision not to do it.
Matt Taibbi, “Wall Street’s Bailout Hustle”, Rolling Stone Magazine, Feb 17, 2010
For the past few years I have been writing blog entries about the “free market” con-game. Almost every article in this blog is relevant. My argument is that those who con us into being “True Believers” in a “natural system” based on individual self-interest, are con-artists who are setting us up to be “ripped off”. Sadly, the ideological nonsense of Free Market “theory”, has been bought into by Americans — hook, line and sinker — so we keep getting “Reloaded” (Taibbi’s Con 7).
Taibbi’s terrific article walks us through the cons perpetrated by the Wall Street financial con artists point-by-point, but anybody who is really listening will realize that it isn’t just Wall Street that needs to be unmasked. From Wall Street to Main Street, the whole edifice of free marketism that eschews what Taibbi calls, “ethical behavior and civic interest”, in favor of profits realized through deception and gaming the “system”, needs to be torn down.
We cannot extricate ourselves from the bloody talons of the predators among us until we recognize that when we accept their ideology of “predator and prey” we condemn ourselves to being preyed upon. We must substitute a values-based vision of our society, in which we as people do not aim to make a profit, but aim to create value that makes a better world for everyone. — in which case, everybody profits.
As old as the hills, here’s Taibbi’s list of con-games being run on us:
CON #1 THE SWOOP AND SQUAT
CON #2 THE DOLLAR STORE
CON #3 THE PIG IN THE POKE
CON #4 THE RUMANIAN BOX
CON #5 THE BIG MITT
CON #6 THE WIRE
CON #7 THE RELOAD
Read ‘em and weep.
For a more sober assessment of the grand con, read “The Doomsday Cycle” by Simon Johnson and Peter Boone, in CentrePiece Winter 2009/10,
