Topic > The causes and effects of the financial crisis

Financial collapses are always frightening and catastrophic events. It's even worse when barley after a decade has passed since the last one, experts are already saying another one is imminent. Michael Sandel, is a very interesting political philosopher and author of the book “Justice”. Chris Hedges is an award-winning journalist and author of "The Coming Collapse." Both essays intelligently discuss the causes and effects of the financial crisis, but with key differences in what they specifically focus on based on their opinion and perspective on the topic. While Sandel's essay is more of a philosophical argument, Hedges' essay is more practical as it delves into finding ways to prevent this from happening again. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayThe arguments in Justice begin by explaining the cause of the financial crisis and the congressional actions that followed soon after. Congress had no choice but to bail out with $700 billion the banks and financial institutions, which had grown so large and so intertwined with the economy that their collapse could bring down the entire financial system. Shortly thereafter, reports emerged of companies that had been bailed out, and were now handing out millions of dollars in bonuses to executives with that money. Then came the outrage and discussion about why this was wrong and unfair. Sandel presented two arguments regarding the reason for the popular outrage. One was about greed and the other about failure. Failure was the most accurate, arguing that it is because "a failed job should not be rewarded", as this is the exact opposite of the American dream. Hedge's article begins by explaining how he thinks the country got to where it is today. . Blaming the failed political system which, according to him, is "dominated by the power of multinationals and the mandarins of the two major political parties, in which we do not count." He claims Trump is the result of this. He goes on to criticize the Democratic Party, accusing it of refusing to address social inequality, of not fighting to pay workers a living wage, of not eliminating corporate and dark money from politics, and, instead, of playing on the sidelines by focusing on narrow cultural issues. Hedges says that's how Trump got to where he is, by exploiting the hatred people have for the media and a political system that stabbed them in the back. He states that “financial collapse will soon be added to this.” The statement follows by referencing the 2008 financial crisis, the fact that bailout money carries almost zero percent interest, and how the money was used for executive compensation. It is emphasized that the system is designed so that people can never be debt free. And then say that the next financial crisis will be even worse because this time there will be no backup plan. He concludes his article by advising ordinary people to invest in parallel institutions and many other ways to prevent the next crisis from ruining their lives, and telling them to "get ready" because he knows the warning signs. I found that Sandel's essay had some very interesting philosophical points, but I believe that in all the philosophical discourse he went too far and missed, in part, the source of all the outrage caused by the collapse. I think Sandel, wanting to understand the deeper meaning of it all, got lost in the moral aspect and the theory of what the American dream is. I concluded that people were mostly pissed off about the millions in bonuses given to the executives who were.