Yesterday, Iowa Senator Charles Grassley suggested the executives of AIG who drove the company into near bankruptcy and the need for government bailouts, should "take a deep bow, apologize, and then either resign or commit suicide.
Last week a student asked what I thought should happen to Bernard Madoff who ran a Ponzi scheme which defrauded investors of 60 to 70 billion dollars, helping to create, or at least add to the current economic crisis. Honestly I don't know what should happen to him. He is 70 years old, so sentencing him to 150 years in prison doesn't seem all that helpful. But the question got me to thinking.
There is an old Pete Seeger, or maybe it is a Woody Guthrie, song where he says if you are going to rob a bank it is better to do it with a fountain pen then a gun. People who embezzle from banks usually steal a lot more money than your typical bank robber, and they generally do less prison time when they are caught. Bernard Madhoff is a theif who stole peoples money, a lot of money, with a "fountain pen," not a gun.
I believe the death penalty is wrong, but since our country uses it, why not use it on someone like Madoff. Take him to Wall Street and have a firing squad put a bullet or two in his head. If people who support the death penalty are correct that it is a deterrant, what better way to clean up the economic shennanigans on Wall Street then executing Madoff, a couple of AIG executives, along with someone from Bear Sterns, Merril Lynch, and Wachovia. When I suggested this to one class, one which includes several kids who believe the death penalty is a good thing, they argued that Madoff and the others "didn't hurt anyone." I asked what about those folks who lost all their investment or retirement funds, and the answer was, "he didn't take it by force," taking us back to the fountain pen approach to theivery. The kids seemed quite all right putting someone to death who used force to hurt someone, or someone who did something "really perverted." But, as they said, Madoff "only took people's moneyand he didn't threaten them."
So the old folk song is still valid. Steal money, lots of it, without using force and you do some time in jail. Use a gun or force, and spend the rest of your life in jail.
2 comments:
I once heard it said that to improve the distribution of wealth in the world, every year the 50 richest people should be rounded up and shot. I don't advocate it, but there are times when you just want the bastards to pay.
So, I'm curious what your students would say about the commission of war crimes. You may have noticed that Spain may be going after some Bush admin. officials who wrote legal opinions supporting torture at Guantanamo and in Iraq and Afghanistan. It's pretty clear that they did so after Bush, Cheney & Rumsfeld had already authorized the use of torture. In my view Bush and Cheney are guilty of war crimes. Of course they didn't directly hurt anyone themselves. Never-the-less they are responsible for torture and also for the deaths of dozens of prisoners who died as a result of torture. I guess my question is whether they really hold to the standard of punishing people who harm people by force more than those who don't, or if they are simply more comfortable excusing the behavior of the rich and powerful. Bro
I think the students have been socialized to excuse the "behavior of the rich and powerful" as you suggest. My guess is some of them would argue that Bush and Cheney didn't actually hurt anyone themselves. What I hear more is "we should just move on and not dwell on the past." Unfortunately that attitude reflects their general approach to the study of history though I do my best to make it relevant. If I was Bush or Cheney I think I would be careful when making my future travel plans. My guess is Bush may let his passport run out anyway since he didn't show much interest in leaving the country before he decided to run for President.
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