I heard part of a radio interview with Harry Markopolos today. He's the fellow who saw through Bernard Madoff's "investment" scheme, and made every effort to get the SEC to pursue it. I have tremendous respect for Markopolos, and hope he will continue to use his talents for public good.
He was talking about "chasing the bad guys," and it got me thinking that while "chasing the bad guys" -- the ones who abuse the rules, who flout them completely, who betray trust others put in them -- is important, there is something else that also needs to occupy our attention.
We have a structure, which few of us are conscious of, which funnels our nation's wealth into the pockets of a particular class of us, and until we -- a large proportion of ordinary people -- become conscious of the particulars of that structure, we are simply putting our attention in the wrong place.
The theft by Bernard Madoff from some of our wealthiest folks -- I'm guessing that few of his victims were below the top 5% of the net worth distribution, counting just the dollars they sent to Madoff and their other holdings, not the assumed increase in the Madoff "investments" -- may simply serve to divert our attention from noticing that major structural matter to chasing a bad guy.
I discovered an interesting book online this weekend. Hardcopy sits in my library -- from my late grandparents' collection -- but I'd been put off by the title, and never bothered opening it. The title is "The Story of My Dictatorship." It turns out to be funny and interesting -- a telling of a dream, a bit along the line of "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Courts."
We need people who will play whistleblower on our system, our structure. And we need to listen to them.
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