When the Stock Market goes up...

When the Stock Market hit the 10,000 level again recently, I thought, "Oh, no. There goes the real economy. There goes the concern by politicians for Main Street America."

It seems like when Wall Street and the Stock Market are doing well, American politicians from the political parties often forget about what has been happening across America--industrial and rural America--in terms of the loss of good-paying, good-benefit, community-building jobs for the past 30 years.

Though I too have a teaching pension that is somewhat affected by the Stock Market condition, I find myself often rooting against Wall Street and the Stock Market, because of its political power and usual selfish nature.

It really aggravates me when we poor and middle-class taxpayers and all of America bailed-out Wall Street mega-banks and businesses, so they then can turn around to enjoy profits and wealth and economic security without, what it seems like, a shred of humility or concern for the rest of the nation.

For example, did the banks, without any demands of the government, decide to allow homeowners to stay in their homes with renegogiated payments in order to avoid home foreclosures? Did the big businesses pass their own in-house proposals concerning the reasonable limit of grandiose CEO pay and bonuses? And many of the "rescued" banks manage credit cards. Did those credit card rates go down in appreciation to the consumers who saved their Wall Street butts? No, probably they went up, in order to screw over consumers one more time before the federal credit card law kicks in for more control of outrageous rates and card conditions. There you have it.

That's Wall Street. That's big business. It's been that way since John D. Rockefeller bought his way out of Civil War military service and used unfair practices to establish a monopoly and control a whole industry. (And though Standard Oil Company might have been called a business "too big to fail," it was nonetheless broken-up because it violated anti-trust laws.)

Lots of people blame the government for providing big bail-outs for Wall Street, though many economic scholars say it was critical for the U.S. and world economy at the time. I'm willing to give government the benefit of the doubt that the crisis needed quick financial response, though I think there should have been many conditions tied to the money, including the aspect of breaking-up the businesses that are too big to fail.

But even more, I'd like to know specifically what Wall Street and big business, in receiving the bail-outs, have done for Main Street America, jobs, workers, and taxpayers. I'd like to see the tally sheet for that. I'd like to know how they have actively worked to pull America out of economic recession and how they have helped people--regular people--deal with their financial problems.

Until I know that federal help for Wall Street actually amounted to benefits for all and not just for a few at the top of the big business ladder, if I sound like I care less about what happens to Wall Street nor at where the Stock Market number arrives at the end of any day, it is because of long disillusionment and lack of respect for the ethics and conduct of big business.