Accountability

We tend to elect the same riff-raff to office every time.  This is a combination of the fact that only riff-raff runs for office and a truly ignorant electorate.  There was some hope that the latter would show improvement but aside from numbers, they voted as predicted.

My approach is to throw them ALL out but my approach doesn’t get much airtime or notice.  Let’s try a different approach…

WHAT OF ACCOUNTABILITY?

America is in the worst shape I have ever seen.  I did not live through the original depression but I’m sure in some ways, this is worse.  And it’s not likely to get better soon, even by the most rosy of predictions.

My wife is a wise woman, aside from her questionable taste in men.  She said what we need in office is a housewife.  Someone who can manage a household.  Who has a specific budget and must stick to it.  Who can’t just print money or readily borrow it.  Who can do this while raising kids.   This is not a call for a woman or a man.  It’s a call for a competent person.  Let’s ignore the fact that politics would have him or her weeded out long before the primary.

But we don’t get competent.  We get what we vote for.  Some would say what we deserve.  I believe we deserve better.

There was an old business concept called accountability.  It’s a concept by which you are held responsible for your actions and the consequences thereof.  Personal responsibility disappeared a long time ago, courtesy of the legal system.  The biggest signpost on the road away from responsibility was when some jury full of people who no doubt took time off from doing brain surgery and rocket science to award a woman millions of dollars because she spilled coffee and burned herself.

On the business side, we bid farewell to accountability last year when someone had the bright idea to bring about Corporate Welfare.  No one knows exactly how it started, but America is the only country in the world that has managed to socialize losses and privatize profits.  Bailing out huge corporate entities is now an everyday event.  It’s barely questioned anymore.  To put a fine point on this, the latest entry in the Handout Brigade is Larry Flynt, publisher of Hustler.  The really sad part about this is that we are not taking this seriously.  The man is a real thorn in the side of the legal system, much to my amusement.  He makes a tremendous point.. it’s a shame we as a country missed it.

I suggest that we bring back the old fashioned value of accountability.  Instead of willingly handing over trillions of dollars to huge corporate entities that drove their businesses into the ground, let’s hold their leaders accountable.  Or at very least their stockholders should.

I propose we expand this to our alleged leaders in office.  Hold them accountable for the economy.   Last I checked, I haven’t overspent.  You haven’t overspent (except on your credit cards).  Why should WE pay for corporate and governmental overspending, mismanagement, and general incompetence?

Doesn’t this make a lot of plain sense?  It does.

Yet we sit still while our alleged leaders steal trillions of dollars from the populace.  From our grandchildren and great grandchildren.   This is YOUR MONEY, people.   It’s tax money.  The government is of the people, by the people, and for the people.  But it’s not.

What do you think?