Why "Sharing the Blame" Is Wrong

March 7, 2002

Here's one for the record books!

http://www.msnbc.com/news/719595.asp?0dm=O14PO

It's called....

Sharing the blame
Aren’t ordinary Enron employees part of the problem too?

It was written by David Perlmutter. It was such a hoot, I wrote a letter to the editor at MSNBC which follows:

I am writing in response to "Sharing the Blame," written by David D. Perlmutter.

Is he kidding? Or is he naive?

I have no problem with personal responsibility (mine included). I think it is a good thing. In fact, I would hazard a guess that the vast majority of people think it's a good thing.

But David, the "little guys" always go to jail, they always get snagged. In this country, the little guys will always do hard time for a whole variety of crimes, both large and small. And sometimes being innocent doesn't even count.

Money buys votes and justice. You know this David, or you should. There are people on death row who are there because their public defenders had no capital crime experience. Some were appointed lawyers who actually napped during their death penalty cases. I'm sure this happens all the time to the "big guys."

But let's look at corporate executives who knowingly dump hazardous substances where they shouldn't. Over time, people become ill, and some die. What happens to the perpetrators of such crimes (be they large or small fish)?

We have people who, by dumping these toxic materials, are intentionally committing murder or attempted murder and the corporation pays a fine. Why don't these good folks serve hard time? And not in a white collar crime facility either. I would bet if we started throwing the "fat cats" in jail for ten or twenty years with no chance of parole there would be a lot less illegal dumping going on. What do ya think, David? Maybe give some of these execs a lesson in "personal responsibility" and the "little guys" will follow suit.

The "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" monkeys from Enron who reaped their financial windfalls at the expense of investors, and (worse yet) off their own employees, well they did more damage than your run of the mill burglar and petty thief or con man...much worse.

How many of these executives and board members will see hard time in a prison? I'm sure lower and middle management concocted these schemes, right? Maybe it was even the receptionist or janitor. Perhaps you feel the average employee who lost most of his or her savings should do some hard time also? Just so they will show a little more "personal responsibility" the next time and not work for such a corrupt organization again.

Situations such as the Enron scandal start at the top or very close to it. Otherwise those schemes would not go very far would they? Enron chose to give their execs some pretty significant bonuses just before the collapse, did they not? Did the "average Joe" share in that windfall? Ken Lay managed to sock away millions by buying an annuity for himself and his family and that money cannot be touched. Was the "little guy" able to do that?

The "higher ups" were privy to information that allowed them to divest themselves of their soon to be worthless holdings. Did the "little guys" have this info? Nah, I don't think so. In fact, David, the poor guys at the top hid information and discouraged and prohibited those "complicit" little guys from selling off their junk stocks.

And David, what typically happens to whistle-blowers in this country? C'mon, you're a smart guy, right? The system, whether it be public, private, military, etc. can really wreak havoc with a whistle-blower's life.

And we all know that drugs is a demand side problem. If no one used or purchased drugs, we wouldn't have to be pressuring other countries to stop growing the stuff. If people didn't buy "hot" items, there would be no market for stolen property. These ideas are not new.

What about the Tyson Food executives that were allegedly smuggling illegal aliens in this country to work at their production plants? You don't even hear about this story now. Should we blame those foreign workers who want to make a buck? Or do the executives have some "personal responsibility" in the matter?

One of the biggest problems with personal responsibility (and I think we do have problems), is the notion of the corporation as an entity whereby the directors and top executives don't have enough, well "personal responsibility" attached to their actions. They enjoy a certain freedom from personal responsibility that a "union boss" or a crime boss does not. Perhaps we should treat corrupt unions and crime families as corporations, so, we could slap the "fat cats" on the wrist and levy a fine on the crime family, just like we do with corporate executives.

You know, if there's corruption and moral bankruptcy at the top, it permeates the entire organization. It sets the tone for the whole organism. Corruption at the bottom doesn't go very far. The "good guys" above them will ferret it out quickly. Now if the guys on top aren't "good guys," then the whole system will be corrupt.

So, with all due respect, blaming ordinary employees at Enron, while I am sure it would excite the hell out of Ann Coulter, is pretty ridiculous. The corporate culture was corrupt from the top down; otherwise there would have been no Enron scandal.

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Contributed by BuzzFlash Reader Joe Randazzo, New Hampshire