The news is
constantly filled with stories about people like Jack Abramoff, Kenneth Lay,
Jeffrey Skilling, Andrew Fastow and Reed Slatkin, who was guilty of perhaps the largest case of
fraud (as in Ponzi scheme) in American history,
ripping off some 800 investors for about two hundred-fifty million
dollars..
We were
deluged with wall-to-wall media coverage about Enron, their executives and
auditors, Arthur Anderson. The
government quickly indicted the accounting firm while our ever obliging
politicians, with their usual eye to re-election, held hearings and passed new
laws to fix the problems they perceived, or thought they perceived — without
even waiting for all the facts to be brought to light.
Is everyone a
crook?
Does all this
mean that everyone in business is a crook?
That seems to be part of the undercurrent of
the hype that the media constantly promotes to pump circulation and ratings.
There have
always been, and always will be, dishonest people. No matter how many laws are
passed, dishonesty and taking advantage of others is like water flowing to
whatever outlet it can find.
But, that
doesn’t mean everyone in business or who works for some private enterprise
(large or small) or for the government is inherently dishonest or a cheat.
What about you? Do you automatically look for some way to
take advantage of other people when you do business with them? I doubt it. Some may, but I believe they are in the
minority.
That may seem
naïve in these times, but I have reached this conclusion after over 50 years in
business, so it is not without considerable thought and experience being
factored into my perception. What I do believe, however, is that everyone tries
to make the best deal they possibly can in commercial transactions or in
politics: buying, selling, negotiating contracts, seeking employment, hiring
others, or cutting deals to get legislation passed, etc.
In spite of
over 60,000 pages of legal gibberish that favors special interests and extracts
as much as possible from taxpayers, most people still try to minimize their
taxes. At least, those who can, do. Does
that make them or their tax advisors dishonest? Or, are they merely trying to
interpret their way through an impossible labyrinth of detailed rules that
confound everyone, including the legislators who write the laws.
Who’s honest?
And,
what about politicians and the government? Are they honest?
Consider the
duplicity that’s evidenced by the nation’s so-called Social Security “trust
fund.” Our Social Security system is
nothing more than a giant Ponzi scheme, continuously
taking funds from new investors (workers) and paying the money out to retirees.
That’s similar to what Reed Slatkin did, and he went
to jail for it.
There is no
Social Security “trust fund.” It’s
nothing more than an accounting gimmick, employed to disguise the fact that
Social Security monies are being used to fund the government’s current operations.
It’s hidden by tricky accounting practices for the purpose of
keeping the liability for these “borrowings” from appearing on the Federal
balance sheet. That’s somewhat analogous to what happened with Enron.
Are more laws
going to improve the character and ethical behavior of business and
professional people, or politicians? Not likely. That comes from somewhere
else, doesn’t it?
What to do?
So, what
should be done? Continue to pass more laws that attempt to control the conduct
of individuals or try to do a better job of raising and training ethical
people?
But, that’s
just my opinion.
© 2007 Harris
R. Sherline,
All Rights
Reserved