I am a junior at York College. Most of my life I have been impressed by the importance of responsibility to society and the individuals around me. I am aware of how my actions reflect on others and society as a whole. So what am I to think when I see Wall Street investors and corporate officers being awarded public funds for their seeming lack of community and social concern? When they make the right (money making) business decisions, they are rewarded. When they make the wrong (money loosing) business decisions, they are also rewarded by the taxpayer.
I don't suspect the individuals involved are inherently bad people. They have families, pay taxes, and live in and contribute to their chosen community just like the rest of us. Perhaps it is not the individual but the system that breeds this social irresponsibility. I do not think that the system needs to be turned upside but maybe the system should review its lack of irresponsibility to the individual. Should it really take a sit-in at a vinyl window making plant in Illinois for people to receive what they were contracted to do? Is it necessary for someone to die from not having heat in their home during winter because they work and still could not pay the public utility the going rate to make a profit for its share-holders?
No system is perfect. It seems too easy to put a label on someone who disagrees with the system. It's too easy to dismiss an individual because they recognize inequality is too much of a price to pay to perpetuate a system that no longer works quite right.
Megan Barley
York College of Pennsylvania
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