They're Taking Our Lifeboats

cross-posted over at dailykos

I watched some of the AIG testimony on the hill yesterday. I commented on one particular metaphor that was made by Representative Stephen Lynch (D-MA).

This is like the captain and the crew of the ship reserving the lifeboats. They are saying, to hell with the passengers, we are going to take the lifeboats for ourselves.

I was shocked that the MSM completely missed this metaphor, well, not that shocked. It so perfectly sums up the standard operating procedure at Wall Street for, at least, the last decade. A standard of greed. Rep. Lynch may have only been talking about the bonuses, but this applies to a much larger swath of this issue. These bonuses were not given out to people that failed (at least, not as we're thinking of it).

We state the obvious in the letter, bonuses should not be given for failure.

I say, these bonuses were given out to people that completely "succeeded" in the eyes of their bosses.

How else can you explain selling derivatives and handing out predatory loans? The fact is, these people made a killing off killing our economy. They made a killing for themselves, and their bosses. That was their only goal.

Let's expand Rep. Lynch's metaphor:

This is like the captain and the crew of the ship reserving the lifeboats. They are saying, to hell with the passengers, we are going to take the lifeboats for ourselves.

These people were steering our ship, and they even knew exactly where the iceberg was, yet they barreled ahead at full speed. As we neared the iceberg, they quietly began sequestering lifeboats. When we finally slammed into that iceberg, they turned to outright tearing lifeboats away from the women and children. Then they left us on the sinking ship, though there was plenty of room for everyone to fit on a raft. They left us to swim for ourselves. These bonuses, we're merely a few of the lifeboats they reserved for themselves.

The captains and crews never saw themselves as steering a ship, with the responsibility of safely landing their passengers at their destination. So in their eyes, they succeeded. We need to fundamentally change the definition of success on Wall Street.