Monday, March 16, 2009
...bilking the taxpayers.
A populist movement is sweeping the country. Aimed against the rich. For their extravagance. Living in too much luxury. I like the movement. I've complained for a long time about the ever-widening gap between the rich and the poor. But many Americans have long thought that it's perfectly all right to be rich. To be a billionaire. Maybe even a trillionaire. But some common folk now are wondering if it's wrong to be obscenely rich. Especially when there are so many dirt poor and destitute people in the world. Just seems like the common good isn't being served. But so many of the rich insist on getting richer even in tough times. For instance, banks that received bailout money from the government still paid many of their executives millions of dollars in bonuses. Yes, the executives virtually bankrupted their banks, and still they walk away with enough moola to last them for several lifetimes. Doesn't matter that the economy is hurting. It's just that the rich bankers don't want to be hurting. Ever. Even if their banks go kaput, they want to keep living on easy street. Even if that means bilking the taxpayers. --Jim Broede
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5 comments:
It is perfectly alright and legal to be filthy rich. What is not alright is to not make sure these billionaires/trillionaires are held to the law. The current administration should create a commission to investigate the financial records of all of them.
As for the bonuses, it has been reported that those executives were under contract to receive those bonuses, and NOT paying them would have cost the company double in penalties. Too bad the Government didn't investigate more fully, before opening up MY pocketbook.
Anonymous too
We too often put the onus on government. Blame the government. But we often don't want to give the government the power to intervene. To run the show. Because that's naughty socialism. But if the rich capitalist did the right thing in the first place, we wouldn't need government intervening and regulating. It isn't in the nature of a greedy capitalist to do the right thing for society as a whole. Instead, it's an everybody for himself mentality. Corrupt. Greedy. There has to be something wrong with a system in which the rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer. --Jim
So, how would you get the money from the filthy rich to the poor? They certainly aren't going to give it up freely. The Government is to blame, to the extent of not policing their own laws.
Another morsel on AIG. It now comes out that many of those execs are foreign nationals, who can't even be taxed on those bonuses?
The esteemed Senator Dodd DEMOCRAT-Connecticut, actually added an amendment to the stimulus bill, exempting bonuses contracted before Feb. 11, 2009, from restrictions to executive pay. Hmmm...seems Dodd received $103,100 in campaign donations from AIG in 2008.
We'll see how that all turns out.
Maybe the government simply needs to clean house a bit.
Anonymous too
You know as well as I that money talks. Money is power. Our congress is beholden to rich people and to big corporations. Obama knows the problem. He's trying to narrow the gap between the rich and the poor. Little by little. By allowing the Bush tax cuts for the rich to expire. And by lowering taxes on people that earn less than $250,000. But one man won't dramatically change the system. We need a revolution. Fomented by the 'have-nots.' The people in power won't yield. They'll put up a fight. But they have to be overthrown. Some day, they will be ousted. I'd like to live to see that day. Means I'll be a very old, but happy man. --Jim
Maybe I missed something...but...I don't remember reading anything about the AIG retention bonuses before Sunday. This entire fuss looks like a classic case of "Closing the barn door after the horse escapes”.Those retention bonuses were mailed on Friday.
Could it be part of an effort to draw attention away from the fact that Fannie Mae plans to pay retention bonuses of at least $1 million to four key executives... and...Freddie Mac is planning similar awards.
Fannie recently requested $15 billion in federal aid...Freddie has sought a total of almost $45 billion. If I were a 'key employee' of either of these companies, I would be grateful to have been spared a job hunt and ashamed to cash my bonus check.
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