I think both Democrats and Republican's are looking, and stating things in extreme ways. Govt shouldn't run the economy, but we can see what happens when industry operates unregulated, it's what led to the economy falling on its face under regulators Bush appointed who failed to regulate.
Deregulation's largely been a failure, is there anyone who believes the airlines, phones, energy, etc costs are lower now, do they offer better services today.
Obama continued to give TARP money to keep Wall Street in business on coming into office, but unlike Bush's people, it wasn't a gift, their were terms attached. The result is most of the TARP money is being repaid that Obama provided as until it's repaid, the recipient can't simply do what they wish, their are constraints, especially on bonuses. Still, Wall Street paid record salaries and bonuses.
I'm sick of CEO's earning record bonuses while laying off American workers, often in companies that aren't that profitable from the import of foreign products. American workers it's said cannot compete, the question is, is the competition fair. The decision is often made to totally automate the process in moving production offshore. What would the result be if the process were totally automated here.
In the auto industry most of the Japanese, German and other car makers have moved much of their production here, they still get quality cars at fair prices. True, they don't have the legacy costs, but while wages may be lower, in some cases benefits are even better, at least when it comes to opportunities for advancements.
American policy in much of the last half century encouraged foreign investment, it's only in the last decade or so that people started to see we need work for American's. Of course there always is another possibility, like the titans of Industry, all American citizens could simply label themselves all CEO's, pick a bunch of other CEO's to regulate their pay, and vote everyone all the money they'd like. No one would make anything but money. While this is said in geest, it's no funnier then the way CEO's lay off tens of thousands to pad their bonuses, or cook the books to do the same, they live for this year, if the company falls apart in five years, or less, they could care less, they have a Golden Parachute already.
It's time for some degree of sanity on both executive pay, and how much our people are worth.
Gary
