What do you think ?

[.... callchet ....]

I read this quote in a discussion about the government taking taxes. It called the government a parasite and here is the quote :

"A successful parasite draws maximum advantage from the host while not affecting the health of the host. Unsuccessful parasites draw too much and

kill the host ". I think this describes Wall Street and the Executive Compensation Committees to a tee. What do you think ?

[ixion]

1. I believe it does describe Wall St.

they don't actually produce anything. They make their 'profit' in a parasitic fashion.

So I believe that's an accurate statement.

[Veritas_et_Aequitas]

2. I agree with you.

At least with taxes we get things like the military and roads to show for it.

[.... callchet ....]

3. Stan O'Neal

How on God's earth could they decide to give him $180 million. I am serious. What do they base the decision on to give him a 180 million dollar package? Surely I believe it is based on how much money is there to divide up.

[CoffeeCat]

4. Worse than parasites...

It's scary to acknowledge this, but what we're seeing from Wall Street psychopaths and the neocon psychopaths
in government---who are one in the same---are far worse than parasites.

Parasites, as your OP describes, are incentivized to keep the host healthy--so the parasite can further enrich itself.

The psychopaths who have their talons in our economic and political apparatus are more like serial killers. They get a high
when they inflict misery, and they relish being in a power position that gives them the opportunity to inflict enormous
amounts of pain and suffering.

That's what these people are about. They're economic and political serial killers--Hannibal Lecters with rigged voting
machines.

A parasite needs a host to survive. The neocons psychopaths don't need us to survive. However, it does give them pleasure
when we squirm, suffer, become unemployed and are enslaved with credit-card debt. The $700 billion-dollar bailout was
probably an unprecedented high for all of them.

Make no mistake. This has all been orchestrated. The relaxed mortgage and banking regulations, the unlawful way credit-card
companies have been allowed to treat us, the bankruptcy bill that leaves us all vulnerable (and the corporations enriched),
the credit-default swaps that they all knew would implode.

They're enjoying this. They'll enjoy it further as unemployment skyrockets, the retail sector crashes, the next housing bubble
pops and more people become destitute, homeless and bankrupt.

[GliderGuider]

5. In that case, we're dealing with unsuccessful parasites

because the host is dying.

Think of these guys as Ebola viruses. America is now bleeding from the eyes...

[catnhatnh]

6. Do you know the difference...

...between the IRS and a blood-sucking leech?

When you die, the leech drops off, but the IRS hangs on for probate.

[Warpy]

7. It better describes the upper financial class

than it does Wall Street, per se. Wall Street is just a marketplace. The real sucking goes on through a bought government that does exactly what they want when it comes to lowering their own taxes while raising them on the host, holding the host's own sustenance down by depressing wages, and making it impossible for the host to mount a response by unionizing.

Government has become the tick's mouthpiece, sucking on the host but wholly for the benefit of the parasite class.

When things are reversed and the government works for the people, government tends to spend its time and revenue on public works projects, creating the infrastructure upon which real wealth instead of just numbers can be built.

If anything, Wall Street and the shenanigans of banks and hedge funds have shortened the parasite's lifespan by filling it up with air instead of the wealth that was promised.