It is too clear and so it is hard to see.
A dunce once searched for a fire with a lighted lantern.
Had he known what fire was,
He could have cooked his rice much sooner.
- The Gateless Gate, Translated by Nyogen Senzaki and Paul Reps
I really do not like talking about negative things, but to not speak out
against ills would be tantamount to hiding them. I have talked about those conservatives and
libertarians who continue to push for deregulation in spite of all the damage
that the nearly deregulated environment has created. Today, for example, I was reading about
Rebekkah Mackey’s effort to save her mother’s house from foreclosure. The mortgage holder, Bank of America, refused
to allow Ms. Mackey to take over the payments because when the mortgage does go
into default, the bank will collect the insurance on the mortgage thus paying
off the debt, then turn around and sell the “debt” thus enhancing the profit
from the transaction, work to collect the debt from the debtor (this is all legal
by the way) even though at this point the bank has received far more in money
than the original mortgage would have provided for, and then turn around and
resell the house. What a SCHEME! I mean – WHAT A SCAM! Yet, this is but another example of what
corporate behavior deregulation brings.
Most people today have, at best, little knowledge of the ‘thalidomide
babies’ disaster of the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. Briefly, in 1957 a German drug company named
Chemie Grunenthal brought a new sedative to the market, a thalidomide drug they
called Contergan. The drug seemed to
work extremely well for the purpose for which it had been released, but, as is
the often the way with drugs and now with the genetically modified organisms
(gmo’s), it was not fully tested. It
quickly became the ‘go to’ drug for pregnant women who suffered from morning
sickness. The result was horrific
numbers of badly malformed children - a great many are still alive today as
adults in their 50’s. From this incident
people should have learned the importance of product testing on any drug or any
substance that would be ingested by any – people or animals.
Yet today, we see that despite the rapidly mounting evidence for the
potential dangers of GMO’s, there remains no in depth, neutral party testing of
these things people have already been consuming. The behavioral limits imposed by regulation
having been thrown out the window have put the public at large in great risk. And it’s not just the GMO industry for, in
addition, many drugs now get on to this deregulated market without proper
testing or are used as unapproved methods of treating problems unrelated to the
drug’s original intention. Perhaps you
may remember a couple of years ago that drugs used for treating depression in
adults began to be used on children despite the lack of ANY testing for such
use. The results were horrifying, in the
worst case situations you had children who had been administered the drugs
committing suicide. The list of untested
or misused (at the manufacturer’s encouragement) drugs is lengthy, but to name
just a few – Singulair, Levaquin, Topamax, Zyprexa, and Seroquel. The manufacturers make huge profits, but look
at those who suffer. Worse still, in the
long run, ultimately society pays in very many ways. But,
apparently most important of all, is the profit to be made.
So, what does deregulation really mean?
Profit for the few at the expense of the many. The deregulated banks can afford to play high
stakes games of risk because they cannot
lose. If someone offered you a blank
check to gamble in Las Vegas and allowed you to keep any and all winnings to
boot, would you turn down such an offer?
The US government under George W. Bush gave that blank check not only to
the large US based banks, but to an insurance firm, AIG (American Insurance
Group) as well. What is more, AIG later
threatened to sue the US government for not
giving them enough money!! Even the
conservative President Theodore Roosevelt understood that same issue in his day
which explains why he became known as the ‘trust busting’ President.
For fun, read Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle. Beginning with the Reagan presidency the FDA
began to have severe restrictions imposed upon it that have resulted in an
effective deregulation of the meat packing industry. Today that industry largely mirrors the one
Sinclair wrote about.
Unregulated capitalism has proven over the last 150 years that the people
running the corporations and the people supporting corporations that such
capitalism produces tend to be false to the public to maximize their
profits. The Buddha said that the
precept of truth was the most important of all the precepts, as a person who
tells lies would very easily then break the other precepts and cover up his
misbehaviour by telling lies. A person
who always told the truth would not perform an act he would be ashamed to own
up to later.
From Wikipedia
The Buddha also instructed Rahula (his son) on reflecting and thinking
before he acted to ensure that his actions were moral and conducive to the
well-being of others and himself, by using examples and language a young child
would understand. Showing him a mirror, the Buddha asked Rahula what a
mirror was used for. Rahula replied that
it was for the purpose of reflecting. The
Buddha then said: "Similarly, Rahula, before you say or do anything,
reflect. Reflect if this speech or
action would be beneficial to others and yourself. If, when you reflect, you feel that it is not
beneficial to others and to yourself, then refrain from saying and doing it. If you feel when you reflect that it is for
the benefit of yourself and others, that such an action will not bring harm to
another, that it is beneficial to others, then and only then should you perform
this action. You should then perform
this action again and again.
If
all people, regardless their religion, regardless their economic philosophy,
regardless their personal ethics and morals, would follow these precepts of the
Gautama Buddha, life in the world would work to the benefit of all.
