How to cut megabanks down to size

The people in charge are too afraid we'll go all "Lord of the Flies" on them without the banking system to motivate us into productivity.

>small institutions must submit to the rigors of the free market.

>market discipline has worked to keep smaller institutions on the straight and narrow, it has been ineffective with megabanks

>market participants have proved [in]effective in monitoring risks at these [huge banks].

>They know they will be protected by a taxpayer rescue should a large institution teeter.

How is this not obvious to everyone involved?

We already know how. The political will just isn't there.

Bullshit. If you're talking about the American people, the political will is there in spades. But thanks to gerrymandering and the filibuster, their voices been successfully nullified. The GOP holds the House by a wide majority, even though their members in it received fewer votes than the "minority" in opposition. And while the GOP has a numerical minority in the Senate, they still control the chamber since it (alone in the developed world) runs on a self-imposed Supermajority rule, not a simple majority.

These two departures from basic democratic control have freed the legislative body from proper accountability to the people, rendering the will of the people increasingly irrelevant to the operations of the government. Saying political will "is just not there" like this is some sad but immutable fact of life ignores the reality of the situation: America has suffered an unofficial coup. We are now suffering under an intrinsically illegitimate government that preserves its power thanks to very clear, very precise structural problems that have been magnified enough to effectively hinder the legitimate will of the people.

These are facts, and they are neither debatable nor acceptable. The situation must resolve itself and it must do so in favor of the people.