I am not the first person to point out the similarities between the private sector of the 2000’s and the private sector of the 1920’s. Rampant deregulation, shady financing practices, political bedfellows and over-confident public and a complete lack of foresight. However, there is a much more human quality to nations and their economies, a component that many would refer to as a moral code, that’s also missing in both eras; that of civic responsibility and social stewardship. I can’t be the only person to be thinking this (and I’m not), but why do I feel like the resigned father that’s just going to let his son “find out the hard way?”
Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, reported here in Slate, that there is a “moral rot” and that it’s, “located in the public behavior of people who control our economy and are turning our democracy into a financial slush pump.” Reich accuses many of the corporations and big businesses in the United States of abandoning social responsibilities in favor of profit and growth, a concept that is at least as old as The Great Depression. He goes on to point out that basic principles of what is decent and permissible in the business world in post-war U.S. have given way in the last thirty years.
