muckraker - an individual who seeks to expose or reveal the real or apparent corruption of businesses or governments to the public.I do not feel sorry for the demise of our countries newspapers. They have let us down over the past 20 years. The reading public has to accept some blame. Americans got lazy. They didn't want to read about real news. They wanted to read about Paris, Britney, Brad and whoever else was a hot topic for 15 minutes. Newspapers gave Americans what they craved. Meanwhile, our government and big corporations destroyed our country. And we let it happen while sitting on our couches watching reality TV. About 100 years ago, big corporations with the help of our government were attempting to ruin our country. But the newspaper writers known as muckrakers reported their misdeeds on a daily basis until the public outcry brought about changes that improved the lives of all Americans. I've been reading Matt Taibbi's articles for the past 7 years. He is definitely a muckraker. His latest article for Rolling Stone is a must read for anyone who wants to understand how America's economy fell apart. Please read this article, it names the motherless humps responsible for fucking us without so much as a hug or a kiss. Here's an article from 1999 that predicts what will happen when the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 was about to be gutted by Clinton and the Republican Congress. Maybe if we had more people writing like this or more people actually paying attention, things would be different. If you truly love your country, then start paying attention. This is not a test. The revolution starts now...
And there is a much more recent experience than 1929 to serve as a cautionary tale. A financial deregulation bill was passed in the early 1980s under the Reagan administration, lifting many restrictions on the activities of savings and loan associations, which had previously been limited primarily to the home-loan market. The result was an orgy of speculation, profiteering and outright plundering of assets, culminating in collapse and the biggest financial bailout in US history, costing the federal government more than $500 billion. The repetition of such events in the much larger banking and securities markets would be beyond the scope of any federal bailout.
ReplyDeleteThat was written in 1999! And look at where we are now. Amazing.