Who is going to bell the cat?

Someone asked me to elaborate on my comment "who is going to bell the cat" on the previous post, and this post is in response to that request.

To start with one example, we've all heard about people getting rewards based on closing mortgages, without regard to the ability of the mortgage recipient to actually pay back. Anyone willing to spend a few minutes on the web can find a lot of material that supports this statement. The question we've to ask ourselves honestly is this: if I was a mortgage broker, would I stay with the company that will reward me only for high quality loans that are closed, which means I'll need to work a lot more, and turn down many loan applicants, or would I go work for a company where I can make a lot of money closing loans without worrying about which borrowers can really pay back? It is easy to get on a high horse and say everyone should do the right thing. Very few people would have the courage, character, and fortitude to turn down personal gains in the interest of something larger than themselves. In some ways, everyone of us is the cat. Are we willing to put the bell around ourselves?

For the sake of argument, let's say that company X in a certain industry, feels that the current compensation structure is not fair. Either the rewards emphasize too much of short term thinking sacrificing the long term benefits, or the efforts/benefits of someone's work is not clearly tied with the rewards they receive. So this company lays out the "right" policies and rewards people based on long term value of the employees, tying the rewards to the value created by each employee, assuming there is an easy way to do this. At that point, would a "superstar" employee be willing to stay on long enough to be judged fairly and paid accordingly, when other employers may be willing to pay rewards sooner rather than later? Every company may feel the need to do things a certain way, but may be afraid to be the first one to take the step. Every company may be waiting for someone else to take the lead.

I'm sure you can think of examples where status quo prevails regardless of intentions, because of the same basic question. Who is going to bell the cat?

Given the amount of tax payer money shelled out to pull the economy from the danger of a free fall, the logical  thing may be for the Government to set up the rules. In fact, that's what any honest Government should do. Whether it is the Federal Reserve, Treasury Department or Congress that needs to act here, is there enough political will/courage to do this? I hope so.