Fighting The Giants
It was Sunday and I was reading “The New Yorker” magazine when I came across an article written by John Seabrook.
It concerned a speech given by Phillip Howard promoting his new book “Life Without Lawyers.” As reported, Howard talked about “lawyers who hang out at the intersection of tragedy and greed.”
Well, that got my attention and my dander up.
He went on to praise President Obama’s call for “a new era of personal responsibility” and told the audience that Americans are constrained by too many rules and that “any time someone gets angry they can sue.”
Considering the fact that the world is in the worst economic position in history next to the great depression caused by an American administration that abandoned rules and ignored enforcement, I am surprised he had any audience at all.
The problem Mr. Howard fails to address is the unequal balance of power that enabled financial institutions to run amok.
The same unequal balance of power exists in industry enabling pharmaceutical manufacturers to place deadly drugs in the marketplace, tire manufacturers to sell defective tires, and the insurance industry to abuse its policy holders.
Personal responsibility without the power to stand up to the abusers of power is slavery.
It is the brokers of power that “hang out a the intersection of tragedy and greed.”
The equal balance of power is indispensable and one only hopes that President Obama’s new era of personal responsibility includes an new era of industry accountability.
