Thursday, February 28, 2008

Speculators Should Have More At Stake Than Other People's Money

The price of oil had doubled in a year, though the cost of producing, refining, and distributing it has not risen appreciably for something like 5 years.
Yet, it's not a matter of if the price will top $150/bbl, but only when that baleful day will come.
Why?
In a word, "Speculation."
Which leads me to my own speculation: that those who traffic in and trifle with the very fundamental elements of the life-world of the rest of us should have more at stake than just their own, or more commonly other people's money.
If their speculations are gonna effect lives--cost jobs, raise mortgage payments, close banks, shit like that--then their very lives should be at risk, too. Then failure--the burden of which all too often falls on the least able to endure it--will cost the greedy ones, too.
Of a part with my modest proposal that the execution of an occasional corporate malefactor, a rich and powerful CEO, would prove a salutary corrective to others of the class who might think to bend the rules, or chivvy the poor for another nickel. This presumes, of course, the truth of the well-loved right-wing maxim about the deterrent, or illustrative, power of executing any criminals.
Heck, why not give it a chance? Let's find out.

No comments: