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Here come the pitchforks
The level of public outrage over Wall Street's shenanigans has not abated. In fact today, Gawker announced the Goldman Sachs Project, asking people to report any excessive spending by Goldman employees.
From Gawker:
Are you Facebook friends with a Goldmanite who just posted photos of his lavish bachelor party? Post them to our fancy new tag page, #GoldmanProject, or e-mail them to us. Are you a realtor who just sold a $4 million duplex a Goldman banker? Is your ex-boyfriend Goldman banker planning a year-end trip to Cabo to blow his bonus wad? Shoot us an e-mail...
If this sounds like a creepy exercise in crowd-sourced surveillance to you, understand that we're not looking interested in digging up private details about private citizens. We just want to catalog how are tax dollars have been spent, and see where $23 billion goes. If Goldman's employees earned those bonuses, they should spend them with pride. Own it.
Actually it does sound a bit creepy, but more to the point, what does it accomplish? The rage is understandable, but shouldn't it be directed toward the people who made this possible? I haven't heard of anyone rounding up Internet search parties to demand that Congress break up these companies or fix TBTF.
One commenter put it like this:
Targeting the kids at Goldman for bottle service is the exact ... equivalent of picking a random orgy participant in ancient Rome and calling him responsible for the Nero fire.
Your opinion?
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Goldman has become the foremost symbol of the robber class, so I don't think its unfair to scrutinize its employees. The American people have been robbed, and its much different to pick on an accessory to a robbery than to pick on a orgy participant. Their orgy costs us dearly. Tracking Goldmanites lavish expenses will keep the public outraged, and a vigilent public will be better able to fight the next attempts to transfer its wealth to the robber class.
Ruling against every imaginable abuse in advance of its commission, and blaming the regulators absolves the criminal of their crime. When my kid says "you didn't say I couldn't flush it down the toilet", we both know his argument sucks.
I reject any suggestion that people either didn't know right from wrong.
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Congress that doesn’t enjoy the same retirement plans
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Boys will be boys. That said, this is hardly the time to rob Fort Knox. There are lot of people under investigation. Sit back, relax, and enjoy when they are harvested.
Enjoy
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The price of unrestrained and unchecked capitalism. The rich get richer and the poor have to pay! We should be happy! Remember what Greenspan told us, "Americans have become far better off with all the growth and prosperity" I really worry about the future generations and how they will see us. I can see it now, "To the bastille!"
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