Living in the Age of the Shark

We are living in the age of the shark. Most Americans, both the employed as well as the unemployed, are bleeding money, and the feeling grows ever stronger that as our economic life’s blood issues forth, the sharks have begun to circle, and, in many cases, have already taken big bites out of us. It is the subject of conversations taking place everywhere. In spite of the fact that we are told that inflation is under control, still at historic lows, the price of everything seems not just to be going up, but going up a lot. Wholesome Americans, ever prone to being trusting to a flaw, are beginning to blink. Put aside Pilgrim’s Progress ladies and gentlemen, and take out Melville’s The Confidence Man. That characteristic wholesomeness, bordering on naïveté, actually leads some of us to believe that those who set prices will proceed gently, taking into consideration the impact of The Great Recession on the average man and woman and their families. Instead, we have begun to notice that when prices rise—on everything from bananas to well, you name it—it is not by a percentage point or two but in double-digits. Without wanting to single out any one sector of the business world, this phenomenon seems particularly outrageous among service providers—whether it is a plumber, a carpenter, an electrician or even your bank or your gas and electric providers. Relationships with service providers are often of long standing and the (apparently illusory) feeling has long existed that these people are almost family. A family member, one would hope, would show some sympathy for one’s plight, but charges have become so rapacious that the suspicion grows that many business people are convinced that tougher times inevitably lie ahead, and that it is imperative that they get as much as they can while the getting is still good or even possible.

Needless to say, the fear that this has produced has played into the hands of Republican policy makers whose constant agenda it is to blame government spending for our economic plight. No mention is ever made of the wholesale profiteering that goes on in the private sphere for the obvious reason that it is the private sphere that butters their bread. And, while this panic is on, might as well at least try to take down such small-ticket items as National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting service, especially since NPR and PBS, (though they are not as free from business interests as some like to think they are), are still just independent enough to alert the public to the existence of sharks and their unique focus on eating. Sharks don’t attend ethics seminars.

One working girl who seems now to especially need God’s protection is Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard Professor who made a name for herself exposing the exploitative policies of such as the credit card companies. Consumer advocates were pleasantly surprised when President Obama called on Professor Warren and Brooksley Born, a former Clinton appointee who tried to alert the nation to the dangers of derivatives trading, to important posts. With Republicans now heading House committees, however, these ladies get essentially mauled by cranky Tea Party types, treated more or less the way Senator McCarthy related to individuals he suspected of being Commie traitors.

Yes, I am afraid we are in for it. And while we’re waiting for the sky to fall, anyone in a position to set a price on a commodity or a service must feel they would be foolish not to take advantage of this window of opportunity. It may not last forever. Joe the Plumber may soon find that most people will have no choice but to snake out their own clogged pipes. No choice at all. Get it while the getting’ is good, Joe.