Bonfire of the Vanities 2009
When Tom Wolfe dramatized the Age of Greed in the 1980s, his novel satirizing the downfall of a Wall Street Master of the Universe was not taken as prophecy, but reality is overtaking his art.
Now David Brooks, the New York Times pop sociologist in residence, is declaring that “after the TARP, the auto bailout, the stimulus package, the Fed rescue packages and various other federal interventions, rich people no longer get to set their own rules.
“Now lifestyle standards for the privileged class are set by…Democratic staffers, regulators, journalists, lawyers, Obama aides and senior civil servants” who “get to insert themselves into the intricacies of upscale life, influencing when private jets can be flown, when friends can lend each other their limousines and at what golf resorts corporate learning retreats can be held.”
Brooks exaggerates, of course, but the trend is undeniable. Automakers flying private jets to ask for government handouts, huge bonuses for Wall Street bunglers and $35,000 commodes for an executive washroom are inflaming a public beset by job losses, home foreclosures and shrinking retirement plans.
The automakers, no matter how badly they have mismanaged their industry, are still in the business of producing something to be used. Their Wall Street counterparts, on the other hand, have been engaged in making huge amounts of money by managing money, a set of skills that 21st century America has overvalued even more than running around an athletic field or making faces for a movie camera.
opinions powered by SendLove.to
One Response to “Bonfire of the Vanities 2009”
People in Washington set their own rules, or rather, choose to ignore rules and laws as they see fit, as we have seen with the recent scandals involving Obama's choices for at least three positions (there may be more), and which we've seen in the past with at least one Republican choice for an executive position. No doubt there are more such instances, not only with members of Congress and the highest-level executive officials, but with so many other people in Washington. A day or two ago I heard the stereotypical, tiresome refrain that the Senate is a “club” and so there was deference shown toward Daschle, but that in private he was “grilled” by his fellow Senators. The experienced cynic in me was led to suspect that what Daschle was subjected to was a number of frantic questions by the Senators about how his tax evasion and other problems may have been discovered or revealed — so the Senators can evade similar scandals.