No, Mr. Santelli, this isn’t America

February 19, 11:28 PMDC Corporate Ethics ExaminerJim Cunningham

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Rick Santelli created a stir when he whipped up a bunch of traders today with his rant on the housing bailout. He turned, gesturing to the traders and shouted “This is America!”

But he’s wrong. A room full of stock traders ISN’T America. At least, not for most of us.

We need to stop measuring economic growth by the rise and fall of the stock market. We need to stop measuring economic success by the happiness of the investor class – those who have so much money to spare that they use their money to make money by, not creating, but manipulating wealth. We need to stop creating public policy based on what stock traders want. If anything, public trading of companies does far more harm than good to regular Americans.

While private companies can afford to operate under a decent value system and treat their employees and customers as good as possible, once they go public their priorities change. All else may be sacrificed to keep stockholders happy. While business success can usually be obtained at the mutual benefit of owners, employees and customers, when someone sets their sights on becoming a tycoon, it’s almost always done at someone else’s expense. The line between simple success and tycoonism is usually drawn when a company goes public.

Economic success should be judged by the economic security of the middle class and, dare I say, lifting the poor.

The stock market aside, economic justice of “the people” is made of the economic security of “the people”. By this, I mean: job security, good salaries, fair treatment, real employee safety programs and buying power.

The news media might like to solicit commentary from economists from the stock-broker culture, but they don’t speak for real Americans. Real Americans struggle to pay the next bill. The investment class “struggles” when that extra, investment money, fails to create profit. Most Americans struggle when those very-same stock holders benefit by profit increases gained by layoffs, outsourcing, and salary cuts.

When the media, and politicians watch and react to the stock market, they’re blind to the plight of all of those who don’t have all that spare cash to invest in stocks. They’re blind to all those Americans who are having trouble simply stocking their pantries with food.

The stock market and investor class represents the upper echelon of American economics. If they’re happy, it’s often at the expense of the rest of us.