In the Saturday commentary, “Privilege undermining rule of law,” economist Noah Smith suggests the rich get different treatment in our judicial system. One only has to look at Enron to see that, not only do they get unequal treatment on the punishment side, they get a better response when offended against.

When Enron collapsed in a $20 billion financial scandal, a lot of rich Texans lost a lot of money. The Bush Department of Justice perp-walked their way right to the top and threw people in jail left and right. However, when Enron colluded with the Koch brothers and others to defraud every ratepayer on the Western power grid the response was less active. Our president went on record claiming it was just “normal market forces,” and it was not until our own Snohomish PUD handed the Department of Justice and publicized the evidence that Enron traders were happily “Stealing from Grandma Millie” that they did anything at all, even though they had been sitting on the exact same evidence from the start. Millie’s “grandson” got two years. Everyone else quietly wrote a check and walked free.

The claim at the time was that the fines were equal to the theft. You can believe that if you want, but even so, should any shoplifter be able to just pay for the items taken and walk away? Can a bank robber go, “OK, you caught me. Here’s the money back?”

They stole $9 billion in the energy scam. Does anyone think they gave $9 billion back? Does anyone think you should go to jail for stealing billions of dollars? If you are rich, certainly you think that. As for the rest of us, when I see it, I will believe it.

Michael Furr

Marysville