Institutions let public down

By Waterloo/Cedar Falls Courier

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The tea party hates big government.

Occupy Wall Street hates big business.

The tea party advocates fiscal responsibility, constitutionally limited government and free markets.

Occupy Wall Street blames the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans and financial institutions for most of the nation's and world's economic woes.

Both sides see the other as reactionary. They're really arguing the same point from symmetrically different perspectives.

The point is this: The institutions we used to trust, or at least some of the people running them, seem to have let us down. Gas costs more, health insurance costs more, a college education for our kids is gradually slipping out of the grasp of an increasing number of Americans and those who make it through a postsecondary education come out with slim employment prospects on the other end. And we don't understand why. We're hurt, angry, upset and watching our economic security, mainly our 401Ks and college funds, melt away like road salt on ice. The feeling may be worse for those who have been called to serve their country in recent conflicts.

Some may view this as an “entitlement” mentality. But it may just be frustration that the institutions that used to safeguard our well-being and prosperity - our financial institutions and our government - aren't working, or at least they're not firing on all cylinders. The people we vote for are supposed to work for us. Hard work is supposed to be rewarded with return on investment. Neither seem to be happening, while the system seems to be working too fast and too easily for a select few.

Author and former University of Northern Iowa College of Business dean Robert Waller gave voice to that frustration.

“They're making fools out of us small people,” he said during a recent visit to Cedar Falls. “We're important only two times: tax time and elections.”

Meanwhile those running those institutions seem largely unaffected while the rest of society floats economically adrift. Politicians and investment bankers sit atop the food chain. And even when one or two of them fall from grace they seem to find a place to land. Disgraced politicians get television talk shows. Ousted investment bankers get golden parachutes instead of prosecution. Many of both groups seem to be able to land book deals.

Both the tea party and Occupy Wall Street movements are justified in their sense of frustration, even betrayal. It was perhaps summed up best in a movie line 40 years ago.

“Senator, we're both part of the same hypocrisy,” ruthless crime boss Michael Corleone says to a corrupt Nevada senator in The Godfather, Part II.

The lesson here for tea partyers and occupiers alike can perhaps be found in another quote paraphrased from Don Corleone:

Keep your friends close, and your politicians and investment bankers closer.

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