Accountability & Ethics

The other day BBC America World News interviewed a mortgage professional (that was her function if not designation) in Baltimore, MD. According to her account, she used to work for Wells Fargo. During the heady days of housing bubble, she won awards year-after-year for both quantity and dollar amount of sub-prime mortgages she closed. She was quite proud of her achievement. So far so good.

But when the reporter asked her if she felt guilty or in some way responsible for lending money to people at sub-prime rate or for the current housing debacle specially in Baltimore, MD. Her reply was quite simple - that was part of her job.

Hmmmm... Can anyone please explain why we had Nuremberg Trials? Most of the Nazis were just doing their job. Now you can of course say that there is a difference between the two. That difference being that Nazis killed over 6 million Jews and what we now have is a Great Recession. My answer to that this Great Recession has killed (figuratively if not literally) far more than 6 million people around the world.

And that's what is missing today in America. Lack of accountability and ethics. Not just from that mortgage professional in Baltimore but also from a lot of other people elsewhere. We are all just doing our jobs without understanding or even attempting to understand the consequences of our actions.