Comments for The Collapse of Shame in America | Burbia.com »
Posted By lenseview 1 year, 2 months ago in Business & FinanceReally strong, smart, provocative piece by journalist author (former CNN Sr. producer/writer, Huffington Post writer, etc.)--on blame & responsibility for the current financial meltdown and failure of many (including many individuals) to hold themselves & others accountable. Not an apology for the corrupt, greedy larger institutions (financial, political) but a look at role of individuals & how many of us fell short too.
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Wolfie20071 year, 2 months ago
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FTA
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It might be instructive to know that my friend, I'll call her Amiko, isn't even American. In fact, she speaks very broken English. She was raised in middle-class Japan, where they know all too well about having to cope with a never-ending recession. Scary as it sounds, Americans may have something to learn from radical penny-pinchers like Amiko. And they may need to learn it fast. -
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lenseview1 year, 2 months ago
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Seems to me notions of personal responsibility aren't incompatible with assigning blame to others as well -- e.g., unregulated and greedy financial institutions, as well as asleep-at-the-wheel politicians. Many individuals were just plain victims. But some weren't -- some knew or reasonably should've known they were taking big risks. I know some of these people. I feel bad for them, genuinely bad -- but just because others participated in and encouraged their short-sighted, stupid decisions doesn't mean they (some of them) didn't make the decisions. Did they really need 5 bedroom houses and state of the art kitchens, etc? Yea, lots were screwed over, misled, etc. But too much of our culture then (until right now maybe) seemed to encourage institutional and personal greed...people at all levels feeling entitled to things they shouldn't have, feeling they "need" too many things rather than simply "want" them. IMO it's not an apology of the large-scale corruption, failure of big institutions to also hold some people accountable. There are some grays and, while this piece, doesn't address the other sides of the elements, it does point up a side that sometimes gets a little lost.
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ind061 year, 2 months ago
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I agree lensclear, it takes two people for one person to get fooled. The fooler and the (sometimes willing) foolee. As humans, we all possess greed and just because someone plays on that greed doesn't make us any less flawed, or them any less guilty.
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