Living in an Era of Fraud in America

I watched “The Big Short” last night. Wonderful movie. You should definitely watch it, particularly if you want to get an idea of some of the debauchery that led to the recent financial crisis.

There are a number of great lines in the film, but the following quote definitely struck a chord with me because I have been so disappointed with the current election:

“We live in an era of fraud in America. Not just in banking, but in government, education, religion, food, even baseball… What bothers me isn’t that fraud is not nice. Or that fraud is mean. For fifteen thousand years, fraud and short sighted thinking have never, ever worked. Not once. Eventually you get caught, things go south. When the hell did we forget all that? I thought we were better than this, I really did.”

I doubt that this is first time in the history of civilization that people are getting away with fraud; it’s pretty easy to think of a few systems of fraud that have somehow stood the test of time (though, thank goodness, they seem to be weakening). But the rest of the quote rings true.

When it comes to fraud these days, we either look the other way or pinch our noses and put up with it. Some of us bitch and moan, but more often than not, it seems like there are not enough of us to generate the change necessary to improve society.

Look at how people still support Hillary Clinton despite her email scandal, the DNC scandal, the lack of transparency regarding her Wall St. speeches, her switching sides on important issues after being swayed by big money donors, and all the rest.

And let’s not forget about “The Donald.” Trump University was a business built on fraud. He makes himself out to be a successful business man, but he’s declared bankruptcy more than anybody ought to have the right to. As Mitt Romney so candidly pointed out, the man’s entire persona is fraudulent.

Unless Jill Stein or Gary Johnson are able to pull off a miracle or two, the only viable candidates for POTUS will be two frauds. We should all be dismayed. Fraud #1 is too corrupted to fix anything and Fraud #2 is going to break even more things.

Anyways, the point of this rant is that we really should be less willing to put up with leaders who are dishonest and untrustworthy. Honesty and trustworthiness are the two characteristics that should be the first things we look for when we consider whom we support. At least then, even if their policy views are wrong, at least we can be confident that they will strive to serve the public interest, rather than their own or other private interests.