Friday, March 20, 2009
'Bonfire of the trivialities'
Hub Blog has been mulling the idea that there’s a parallel between the AIG-bonus outrage and the string of recent state-hack outrages – and today Charles Krauthammer and Gov. Patrick unintentionally provide the link with their respective “triviality” and "trivial" comments.
Let's be clear: Of course the AIG bonuses are meaningless in the big scheme of a $14 trillion economy. Of course the recent hackerama antics aren't the cause of the multi-billion-dollar budget deficit. But there's a genuine anger out there at corporate America and government -- and in my opinion it's justified, albeit misplaced at times. Our leaders, both in the private and public sectors, have shown an absolutely amazing failure to understand that all these little things add up and then explode in a chaotic mess of both rational and irrational resentments. The public anger is not "trivial." ...
BTW: Gov. Patrick's "trivial" comment is perhaps the single most stupid political remark I've heard muttered by a state or national pol in the face of genuine public outrage. It will stick with him for the rest of his years in the corner office.
On related matters, Reader No. 1 catches another great Michael Lewis column:
Update II -- Reader No. 1 on Deval's "trivial" remark:
Hub Blog has been mulling the idea that there’s a parallel between the AIG-bonus outrage and the string of recent state-hack outrages – and today Charles Krauthammer and Gov. Patrick unintentionally provide the link with their respective “triviality” and "trivial" comments.
Let's be clear: Of course the AIG bonuses are meaningless in the big scheme of a $14 trillion economy. Of course the recent hackerama antics aren't the cause of the multi-billion-dollar budget deficit. But there's a genuine anger out there at corporate America and government -- and in my opinion it's justified, albeit misplaced at times. Our leaders, both in the private and public sectors, have shown an absolutely amazing failure to understand that all these little things add up and then explode in a chaotic mess of both rational and irrational resentments. The public anger is not "trivial." ...
BTW: Gov. Patrick's "trivial" comment is perhaps the single most stupid political remark I've heard muttered by a state or national pol in the face of genuine public outrage. It will stick with him for the rest of his years in the corner office.
On related matters, Reader No. 1 catches another great Michael Lewis column:
Bingo! Kudos to Mike Lewis for the usual insight on Wall Street in particular, but human nature in general (eg the sense in which the difference betweeen millions and billions is meaningless)...Hub Blog especially liked Lewis's observation about how focusing on larger abstractions is a way of obscuring focus on "small payments to the guy down the street who doesn’t deserve them." Substitute "people who borrowed money to buy homes" with "state workers who game the pension system," and you have the AIG and state-hack parallel again. ... Reader No. 1 also adds:
Another serious diagnosis of the leadership problem in DC. I think it's pretty clear he's a fox who'd like to be a hedgehog but Peggy has special insights.Update -- Hub Blog forgot to mention another AIG-bonus/state-hack parallel: The argument that those who created a mess are needed to clean up the mess.
Update II -- Reader No. 1 on Deval's "trivial" remark:
Calls to mind Howie's 20-year-old description of our Governor's distant predecessor in the corner office: "shrimp wrapped in balogna" (sorry, no original link, it was from the pre-web era).
