Deregulation of the banking industry has promoted a lack of basic economic ground rules and trust. The U.S. government failed to intervene in the looming situation while the Federal Reserve Bank simply looked on.

Even though President-elect Barack Obama has enormous potential, he is only one man. His obstacles are our obstacles. We need to help make his potential become the successes we need.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt started this thing called the New Deal. It was a social contract between Americans and a provision for a social safety net for retirees. Roosevelt established ways to provide liquidity (cash flow): Businesses who benefited as American enterprises were expected to employ people as the economy recovered. Still, the integrity of the New Deal began to erode when major manufacturers claimed that American workers were paid too much for them to compete in global markets.

Since the post-modern era, corporations have systematically moved manufacturing out of the U.S. economy to other countries in the name of profitability. This move has gutted the job market while increasing the executive pay of CEOs. Some things simply haven’t changed.

U.S. corporations are not stepping up to help Americans with good jobs. They are just selling us goods made by foreign workers. America once had a reputation for manufacturing high-quality goods. This is how the United States became wealthy. When corporations eliminate jobs, they eliminate consumers who can afford their goods. Henry Ford priced his cars so his employees could afford them. This was just common sense understanding of social responsibility.

If we leverage the coalitions built for Obama’s election we can rebuild the United States. It is the lack of a public taking an interest in its own economic interest that has resulted in these failures. The alternative would be living in a country that has nothing to offer the world but our consumption. This is unsustainable.

Mark Morrill is a University employee. Please send comments to letters@mndaily.com