As we celebrated our nation’s birthday this Fourth of July, I couldn’t help but reflect on the true meaning of patriotism. I am a veteran of the Viet Nam War, and I was proud to serve my country. Viet Nam was a difficult time for our country. I fear we are in for another difficult time, but this time, the trouble is coming from Wall Street. 

I’m referring to the outrage of company after company lying about their cash flows, their retirement accounts, their profits and losses. The list is getting longer every day. It began late last year when Enron, the huge Texas energy-trading company, collapsed, leaving thousands of workers unemployed, and with worthless company stock in their “retirement” accounts. Enron’s fall revealed the collusion of the huge accounting firm Arthur Anderson, which was recently found guilty by a jury. And the fallout continues. The fiber optic company Global Crossing was next to fail. Three former Rite Aid executives were indicted last month for falsifying the books in a scheme to inflate the drugstore chain’s profits by a whopping $1.6 billion.

Worldcom-MCI, the nation’s second largest long-distance carrier, apparently cooked its books to show $3.8 billion more than it actually had. It’s called one of the largest cases of false corporate bookkeeping… so far. And it joins a long list including Dynergy, Adelphia Communications and Tyco International. Some predict that Qwest Communications International may be next, as the Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating its accounting of “swaps” of fiber optic capacity. Qwest has hundreds of employees in our state providing telephone service to hundreds of communities.  The company has already asked its employees to take unpaid leaves as a way to survive.

Martha Stewart’s ImClone stock trades may result in her being charged with unfair profiting from “insider trading.” But Martha isn’t alone. Now it’s revealed that even President Bush may have done the same thing when he was a Texas oilman serving on the Board of Harken Energy Corporation. It turns out President Bush sold off two-thirds of his stock, $848,000 worth, just before the company had to reveal it was in hot water with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a phony transaction that would force it to “re-state” its earnings. By the way, the President’s alleged “insider” trade was about four times larger than what Martha Stewart has been accused of. It is also worth noting that Vice President Dick Cheney was CEO of Halliburton during the time it is accused of accounting irregularities.

The huge investment firm, Merrill Lynch, was caught red-handed giving bad advice to customers while snickering at the stocks they were recommending people invest their savings in. This kind of cynical business behavior undermines any trust in the financial recommendations of these stock analysts.  

So why get upset about all this corruption, greed and dishonesty? Why do we get angry at a bank robber but not at a corporate CEO or CFO who uses dishonest accounting to rob the company of its assets? Should these corporate scofflaws do some jail time too? Why should we care?

Well for this reason: The fallout of every episode of corporate shenanigans seems to land on the employees who lose their livelihoods, and often their life savings, when the companies implode.  Martha Stewart may have made out like a bandit when she sold her ImClone stock, but the employees are left holding the near-empty bag. Who’s the real robber here?  Retirements are destroyed, families are destroyed, futures are destroyed.

The few in power and in-the-know are getting rich on the backs of everyone else. 

Our economy teeters on the knife-edge of recovery, but consumer confidence is falling. Public trust in our market system is wavering. Uncertainty about all the corporate scandals drags down consumer spending which accounts for about two thirds of our nation’s economic activity. This corporate misbehavior may push us back into a “double-dip” recession.

Many corporations appear to want the benefits of American democracy and freedom but none of the responsibilities or duties. The concept of public service is as foreign to them as the concepts of loyalty or gratitude. Indeed, many of these “American” corporations have actually ducked out of America entirely by relocating phantom headquarters in the Caribbean Island of Bermuda.  Companies such as Stanley Tools and Tyco International moved headquarters to Bermuda to get tax breaks at a time when our country is fighting a war on terrorism. 

Greed on this unprecedented scale looks as obscene as wartime profiteering. That’s why the question of true patriotism is on my mind this month. I put my life on the line for my country. I cannot understand how corporations that lie cheat and steal and use every accounting trick and tax dodge ever imagined can call themselves “American.” Un-American seems a more accurate description to me. 

Rick Bender is President of the Washington State Labor Council, the largest labor organization in the state.