Shoemaker: When governments lie, we all lose - MetroWest Daily News
Why is the U.S. economy so worried about Greece? Why is Wall Street "Europhobic" these days? Why are there so many conflicts going on in virtually every country in the world?
In many cases, it comes down to the simple fact that governments and the people who run them... lie. That's it. They lie; sometimes by mistake, most often on purpose.
TV's doctor, the popular series "House", proclaims it directly, "everyone lies."
Maybe not a revelation, or even a surprise, but it is still hurting everyone.
Look at what is happening in Europe. Greece has defaulted for many years. What makes it different now? For years the Greek government lied - outright lied - about its economic statistics, the state of its economy and plans to fix it. Whether the EU knew it or not, they should have and by ignoring it, they enabled Greece to continue its ways for years.
Finally, it became so onerous that it simply could not be ignored.
The lies could no longer continue.
Finally, European nations had to put their foot down. That caused reforms to be put in place and most are challenged by a culture that is used to government entitlements that the government can no longer afford. As a result, the threat to the European banking community is real and growing each day.
So the ongoing agony is now about whether Greece will correct its ways and address their self perpetuated crisis.
Recently discussing all this with European financiers, some of them offered that Warren Buffet could solve the problem as he has enough money to bail out Greece. Others dismissed all the worry and redirected the subject by pointing out that California is worse off than Greece!
Somehow, the U.S. is drawn into this and I was reminded that we started the economic crisis with our housing crisis and the con men on Wall Street.
Why did we have a housing crisis?
Now this will cause emotional reactions, but quite simply it was about sustaining lies. Our leaders, including Barney Frank for sure, believed that all American's should have the "right" to the American Dream and own their own home. The financial community, with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac at the center, believed they could lend money to any warm body who could mark an X on paper, whether they could afford it or not.
Lies beget lies. The "house of cards" was built and at some point it had to collapse.
Look at other countries. I will only refer to the recent common beliefs as reported in the press time and time again.
Iran lies about the holocaust, the U.S. hikers and 9/11. China lies about patent enforcement, worker safety and civil rights. Pakistan lies about support for the Taliban, harboring Bin Laden and attacks on India. France lies about weapons sales to Arab countries. Japan lies about nuclear power plant safety and security. India is considered the most corrupt democracy in the world with Indians lying to each other.
Countries like Russia, Afghanistan, North Korea, Somalia and many more - well, they lie to everybody.
And in the U.N. there is a forum to promote lies from one government to all others.
Then there is the U.S. Do we have government officials that lie? Of course we do. The real wish for all of us is to find those who can speak the truth and stick to it. Quite simply, we need to stop the lies.
Seems so simple; why is that so hard?
It is so because lying is easy when enabled - even encouraged - by others.
Therefore, it would be refreshing if our leaders would focus on truth and avoid exaggeration, distortion, hype, and all other forms of misleading communication.
The way to combat lying is to hold people accountable for the truth and to practice it every day.
For some crazy reason, we still have people who think they can lie and get away with it. The list is endless, including so many public and private celebrities.
If we allow it, then we are creating something even worse.
We accept lying to ourselves and believing it.
To paraphrase Lady Gaga, maybe we really are "on the edge of Glory, but we are waiting for a moment of truth!"
John Shoemaker lives in Natick.
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