Villagers? More Like Snooty Brits!

The San Francisco Chronicle writes, "English villagers blocked a car taking photographs of their homes for Google's StreetView mapping service Wednesday..." If I hadn't read any further, I would have thought that these indigenous peoples of the isolated British island had every right to be angry at the Google vehicle. The rambunctious automobile probably scared the livestock. But then I read further. The villagers were "complaining that the images invaded their privacy and increased the risk of burglary." Now I'm wondering how many livestock burglars utilize Google Maps to strategically plan an assualt.

Livestock burglarly jokes aside, Paul Jacobs, a resident of Broughton, accused the Google vehicle of facilitating crime. Because the neighborhood is "an affluent area" and Broughton has "already had three burglaries locally in the past six weeks" Google is inviting "more criminals to strike." Paul Jacobs may have won this battle, but the 373 news articles relating to "villagers chase away Google car" are not helping his desire to draw "less" attention to the affluent area.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/04/02/BUQQ16RSQS.DTL

Ordinary Rage, Rational and Focused?

The hot topic this week is "Populism." There is sentiment that hard-working taxpayers, the ordinary citizen has been taken advantage of and it's understandable. Their income has deflated. The middle-class's home values are decreasing. Many are out of work. We are not seeing light at the end of the tunnel. And the elite that catapulted the nation into this mess are on vacation and/or swimming in their pools of ill-earned cash. These are a few reasons why so many are angry but the transformation to extremist populism is astounding. We have become obsessed with the AIG bonuses, Ed Liddy, and other banking executives. John Thain, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, Timothy Geithner, Ben Bernanke, Dick Fuld , Lehman Brothers are just a few on the "hit list." Us versus them. The elite versus the worker. It's almost like we're back to the 1890s where the miner's revolt began and populism was born. Maybe we're not that extreme, yet, but it feels like the pitchforks are raised and the march has begun.

Newsweek's most current issue features essays from well-known pundits and syndicates about populism. Eliot Spitzer writes, "Anger-fed populism now is no better a policy compass than libertarianism masquerading as capitalism was during the Bush administration." Joel Kotkin writes, "populism is far from dead, and represents a force that could shape our political future in unpredictable ways." And then there is Rick Perlstein who dismisses the populism stating, "you might more accurately call that common sense."

"My second reaction was to dismiss the word as inaccurate. What makes this rage 'populist'? This is ordinary rage, rational and focused. The lead pitchfork bearers, after all, are people like New York Times business columnist Joe Nocera, who wrote that AIG's Financial Practices Group was guilty of a 'scam' at which 'we should be furious.' You might more accurately call that common sense." Perlstein writes in his essay featured in the March 30th issue of Newsweek.

Perlstein then goes on to say that he cast an "eye over the broader sweep of history" and "no longer fears populism." Maybe Perlstein should have cast a closer eye to the remarkable threats AIG received a week earlier.

-All the executives and their families should be executed with piano wire around their necks --- my greatest hope.

-You mother-f***ing, c***s***ing, d***l****ers need to be taken out one by one and shot in the head. There's a special place in hell for you pond scum. Watch your backs because someone will come to get you, you can be sure.

-All you motherf***ers should be shot. Thanks for f***ing up our economy then taking our money.

-The Revolution is coming. The family members of your executives are not safe. Your blood will run through the streets in the coming months.

-Dear Sir: Ya'll should have the balls and come clean and give back the bonuses. I know you would never do this so the gov't ought to take you out back and shoot everyone of you crooked sonofb****es...I would be very careful when I went out side. This is just a warning. If I were ya'll I would be real afraid. Thanks, Bill.

After those comments, I fear populism. And the comments are not "rational and focused." This is the kind of rhetoric that will not only discourage these "elites" from taking the bonuses but also effectively dis-incentives them from working at AIG, ever again. And that's precisely what happened. Jake DeSantis, executive V.P. of AIG's financial products division, tendered his resignation by email on March 24, 2009. The "Dear AIG, I quit" letter cited that he and many others within the division were not responsible for the faulty credit-default swaps (the device that ultimately crippled the insurance giant). DeSantis writes that most of the culprits responsible for the swaps left the company. He felt that he and much of his staff were being thrown under the bus, criticized for events they took no part in. The former V.P. even agreed, like Chairman Liddy, to a $1 annual salary. Their job was now to dissolve the division in an acceptable manner and those bonuses were actually retention payments. In other words, these "bonuses" were incentives to stay with a sinking ship. Stay with the ship and try to repair the leaks or jump overboard and risk the ship contaminating the whole pond.

Finger pointing set aside, it is in the best interest of everybody (taxpayers, public, populists, etc) for AIG to repair its "ship" or at least properly dispose of the toxic pieces before it contaminates everything else. $165 million is a lot of money but put into perspective, it is a drop in the Hudson. It represents about 0.02% of the total aid AIG has received from the United States government.

The taxpayer should act in its own self-interests and looking at options that will yield the greatest chances of AIG repaying the $79 Billion aid-and-care package. This package wasn't a gift. It's not free money. I expect to be repaid and everyone else should, too. But hinderingAIG employees from working would severely diminish chance that AIG will repay the debt. Many of them are already working for $1 a year. I can not fix the problems at AIG and I don't know any pitchfork wielders that can, either. The pitchfork thinking and populist tendencies are self-destructive. Let's be more "rational and focused."

Dear A.I.G., I quit!
Rick Perlstein's Newsweek Essay