Posted on 01/20/2009 6:47:51 PM PST by NormsRevenge
KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) – From billion-dollar ponzi schemes to bad mortgages and pay-to-play dealings by public officials, some are asking: Is there a crisis of ethics in America?
The swirl of corruption, fraud and greed stretching from Wall Street to Main Street has many U.S. church leaders saying the answer is a resounding yes -- America is facing not only an economic meltdown, but also a moral one. And they are rushing to bring flocks back into the fold.
...
The list of examples of dishonest dealings ranges from disgraced financier Bernard Madoff, who has been accused of fleecing investors out of $50 billion in what may be the largest Ponzi scheme ever, to Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, accused of trying to sell the U.S. Senate seat formerly held by President Barack Obama, to the more than 400 people charged last summer in a $1 billion U.S. mortgage fraud investigation.
"Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age," Obama said at his inauguration as president on Tuesday.
Greed and lack of accountability are blamed for the suffocating personal debt borne by millions of Americans and the toxic financial products that led to the decline of several U.S. banks and brokerages.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Trillions of dollars of assets have essentially been looted from the Treasury and Fed coffers,, Poof.
The Dems look the other way even tho their lack of oversight and fingerprints are all over the legislation that helped get us here.
Add some massive egos and the monstrous amounts of monies we're talking about and what can you expect?
I would expect those responsible to be tried and convicted of the crimes they have committed.
We'll see if America gets ethics and soon, before it is too late.
Obama just took office, without even being able to prove that he is constitutionally qualified, after having garnered who knows how many votes from outright vote fraud, and has presented us a Cabinet that makes Grant’s look like Boy Scouts, and they have to ask if there’s an ethics problem in America?
Why are these pastors worried about an “ethics” crisis? They should be more alarmed by a “spiritual” crisis instead. If this nation got back to the one and only God, His Son Jesus Christ, and preach the proper gospel message, we wouldn’t be in this ethics crisis.
captain obvious can’t even be bothered with this.
American ethics have been swirling around the drain for quite some time now.
YEP...what you said! If the pastors preached the Word of God....the ethics problem would go away....
whew!
Is that a trick question?
Well, don’t take any wooden nickels!
Indeed. Here’s a column in that regard:
September 17, 2008
It’s the Morality Stupid
www.TableOfWisdom.com
The title of this column of course refers to the Clinton campaign’s famous slogan in the 1992 election. I don’t mean to call anyone “stupid” but as that phrase was deemed so integral for that particular time, I think that the emphasis now more than ever should be diverted to the consequence of our materialism. It is not my intent to undermine what is often referred to as the “American way”. I think prosperity is a positive and it is not for government to be our conscience. It is up to us to properly align our collective conscience and for government to reflect it. Judging from the disappointing actions of many representatives in Congress, it looks like they are indeed doing so.
Watching the financial news networks and reading most of the popular publications has brought me to the conclusion that most if not all of them are missing the point. The big government liberals want to blame our woes on “corporate greed” and the Bush administration for the onslaught of financial losses.
It’s not just “corporate greed” that is to blame. Immorality has permeated our entire country. Adams warned that “our form of government was intended for a moral people” and that it is entirely “inadequate for the government of any other.” Self government doesn’t work for a people incapable of governing themselves. The same is true for capitalism.
Capitalism is a beautiful thing when the people “love their neighbors as themselves” and “do onto others” as they would have others do onto themselves. A country of hedonists and narcissists will destroy each other without hesitation. These are the fruits of Darwinism. It is survival of the fittest. Why shouldn’t I plunder you for everything you have? So what if YOU are going to be destitute; just think how happy my wife and kids will be while we enjoy your money. It equals out right? “If I didn’t take the suckers money, someone else would have.” If there is no system of eternal reward or punishment why should I care? Oh, it’s wrong because YOU say so? Well it “feels right” to me so what gives you the right to impose your morality on me?
We are reaping the harvest that comes as a result of moral relativism. Today’s corporations are run by generations who have been taught by public schools and Ivy League universities that they are accidents which emanated from cosmic goo (Carl Sagan). They believe that man determines right from wrong and there is no higher authority. This is the same disastrous belief that failed the so-called “enlightenment” in France a concomitant of the French Revolution. Ivy League universities like Princeton think they are being savvy by adding courses on corporate ethics to their curriculum but when people are taught that they are accidents and there is no morality beyond what “reason” can bring us – it is all empty rhetoric.
You cannot believe anyone anymore. How do you trust anyone’s reported numbers? How do you know you can trust anyone’s analysis? Stronger government oversight and regulation will safeguard us from corporate greed? Dream on folks. That has been tried for the last 100+ years. First of all, immoral people will always find away to get around the new laws and regulations. Secondly, the government and their regulators are no more than a sample taken from the same pool of immoral people that are ostensibly being regulated. Look how many of our representatives took sweet heart deals from Fannie Mae. They are just as corrupt as those running many corporations. These are the same spoiled brats who we saw smoking their dope, dropping their acid and protesting our country at Woodstock. You’re going to take solace in the notion that these reprobates are going to fix the problem? They ARE the problem. They reject the very foundation that made this country the most prosperous nation on earth.
We are overly self righteous in that we all point the finger at corporate America for being corrupt and insatiably greedy as though we ourselves are immune. When I listen to the Obama campaign it makes me nauseous to hear them blame the banks and mortgage industry for making “bad loans”. There is culpability across the board from the mortgage lenders, realtors, developers, property appraisers to the actual borrowers themselves. It is time for America to grow up and start taking responsibility. The elected idiots are telling people what they want to hear. You never hear about “predatory BORROWERS” in their populist rhetoric. You don’t hear about the millions of prodigals who knowingly borrowed more than they KNEW they could afford for a house or houses they knew they couldn’t afford. As I warned these people myself that when the bottom drops out they will not be able to make their payments once their ARM adjusts. They just replied that they were going to “flip” the home before that ever happened. Well the music stopped and all of the sudden they are playing the victim and are calling for a “new deal” from their enablers the Democrats.
We as a nation CAN become stronger from our suffering if we stop acting like insolent children, take responsibility for our own actions and once again become a people worthy of self government. Just as gold is refined by fire as the fire burns out all of the impurities, we can use this time to become a better people. If we as a nation do not return to our heritage, which first requires that we learn what those roots are (thanks to the juggernaut of public education), we will witness a tyrannical ending to our freedoms. The writing is on the wall. People find it cute these days in using the phrase about having a “come to Jesus moment”. I am not being flippant in saying that is exactly what we need.
“Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths, which are the instruments of investigation in Courts of Justice?” – George Washington/Alexander Hamilton (Farewell Address)
Depends on the type of wood.
Rather slow to the gig aren’t you, people? Should have spoken up last May.
Ethics problem? Can’t be no problem, ain’t no ethics!
They are almost all scams. From video professor, to finance companies, to get out of debt scams. TV station and radio stations should not allow over half the commercials on. Low rate teaser mortgages. Credit card teaser rates, car financing, lawyer ambulance chasers. I swear, everything is a scam, and nobody seems to care.
Yeah, there is an ethics crisis (I am not even talking about the trash programming).
Your post beat me to it. And better than I could have said it.
A country that seems to be going faster and faster down the Road to Serfdom, fewer people paying taxes and willing to live off those who do, mainstreaming homosexuality, destroying the family, trampling people to death to buy a damned xbox.
Yeah. There is a problem.
To America’s clergy:
Physician, heal thyself.
What? Are you suggesting my “enhancement” pills really aren’t working?
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