Accountability Is Not For The Powerful

Why is it so difficult to hold anyone accountable these days? Oh, if you or I break the law we will find ourselves being held accountable very quickly. Yet those who are really making the decisions in our world today do not seem to be playing by the same rules as the rest of us. If we have no claim on authority that is either divine, hereditary, or somehow comes with the position one holds we most assuredly will be held accountable. But for the real power brokers all around us, not only are they not being held to account, the notion that they should be held to account is simply not acceptable. Consider some of the examples mentioned below.

Let's start with the Roman Catholic Bishops who have been circling the wagons around Pope Benedict as continuing sex abuse accusations are revealed. Not only is there a lack of accountability, but there appears to be no sense that any accountability is required or even appropriate. Donald Cozzens in a recent National Catholic Reporter article says not to expect accountability from the last feudal system in the West. Accountablility offends the dignity of divinely appointed teachers of the Church. Calls for accountability are seen as attacks on the Church. Also, as princes in a feudal caste system they are answerable only to their sovereign, in this case the Pope. Cozzens further mentions that a well known Protestant theologian, Paul Tillich, pointed out many years ago that those who see fit to judge the world and its standards need to be subject to judgement in the same manner. Yet, because of its adherence to an antiquated feudal structure, it will be very difficult for the Church to allow itself to be held accountable.

Corporate bigwigs on Wall Street have never gotten the message. They are worth billions and don't need to answer to anyone. If you saw them as they sat in front of Congressional oversight Committees, their faces were just dripping with arrogance and disdain as they made no attempt to answer any questions or even suggest that they understood why people were angry. These corporations represent the source of tea party anger as well as anger throughout the electorate. They continue their lack of sensitivity by strongly opposing the financial regulation bill. They seem to firmly believe that the government should give them everything they want even though they have failed to be good stewards of the largesse they have received from all of us in the past.

Oil company executives in the Gulf are another group that don't get it. BP CEO Tony Hayward said the size of the oil spill is irrelevent. His style is arrogant and confrontational. He noted that the Gulf of Mexico is a very big ocean and the spill is tiny in comparison. Apparently BP doesn't need to follow safety regulations. The reports coming out of the Gulf are increasingly disturbing, but it seems to be business as usual for the company. Can people still believe with Calvin Coolidge that what is good for business is good for the country?

The only place I don't see this sense of entitlement is in government. Yet, everyone is angry at government. Is it possible that some of this anger may be misdirected? Of course it is easy to criticize government. They make many mistakes and do many things wrong. Excessive partisanship has made getting things done nearly impossible. There are often unintended consequences even when they try to do something good. But I don't think government comes close to being the problem that the other culprits I've mentioned are.

Let's take a quick look at 'big government' that is so often cited as the problem. I recommend that you read Tom Schaller's article in the Baltimore Sun, dated May 18th and entitled "A Far Cry Indeed from Socialism". Data he points to indicates that of the 31 first world countries, taxes in the United States make up the lowest percentage of GDP. Of these same countries U.S. policies have the least distributive effect on income. Interestingly, those real socialist countries like Denmark, Norway and Finland seem to best espouse American values of hard work, effort and personal ingenuity. It is in the U.S. where who your Dad is counts more than what you personally bring to the table. Of 25 industrialized countries we are actually the least socialist. We have the lowest level of taxation, the lowest degree of distribution of wealth, and the highest level of poverty.

So, I would contend that our government is accountable to us, whereas Wall Street and major corporations are not. In fact our governemnt has the greatest accountability of all - democratic elections. It likely represents our best hope of bringing some accountability to the corporations and Wall Street tycoons who see themselves as above the normal rules of living in an interdependent world. I don't know what hope there is for bringing accountability to the Church, although that is also going to have to come from people in the pews demanding it and even withholding their contributions. As for government it might be helpful to tone down the continuing tirades against it. Destroying government is not the answer. The small government of the Libertarians will not get us where we need to be in the 21st century. The result will only be to give more power to Wall Street, the oil companies, the coal companies, chemical companies and others. That is why these companies spend so much money to prevent serious financial and other kinds of regulations from being enacted. We need to work to make government better so that it can effectively advocate for the little guy instead of the giants of corporate America.