May 19, 2011
I’m writing because my sole proprietary business suffered huge setbacks as a result of the economic collapse of 2008 and it has not rebounded. I am a psychotherapist with a good reputation and had a healthy therapy practice since 1989. After the year 2000 a sizeable number of my clients' incomes were not keeping pace with the cost of living. Many of them had the quality of their insurance downgraded. Some could no longer afford insurance.
As a result my client load gradually declined. Then in 2008 a sizeable number of my clients lost their jobs. In turn some clients quit therapy or chose not to seek therapy when needed. Others reduced the frequency of their attendance. While most of them have found new employment it is at lower paying jobs offering poor or no insurance.
As the cost of gasoline and food have sky-rocketed psychotherapy has taken a back seat to simple survival. Not only for myself but for my clientspast, present and future, we must not allow the big bonus Wall Street fat cats to run amok anymore. For the very health of the nation as a whole we must stop this in its tracks!
One way to change the incentives so Wall Street doesn’t collapse our economy again would be for regulators to set up a way for shareholders to grab back ill-gotten gains.
If it turns out that the profits in a given year were built on shoddy practices that become clear in the out-years, those bonus payments should be forfeited.
Thank you for considering my comment,
Peg Backus-Wallner