| Our Wonderful CEOs I found it interesting that so many are making such illusionary remarks concerning executive salaries. It is a well known fact, if you read history, that in all societies, the rich and ruling class always get richer, be it socialism, facsism, naziism, capitalism, dictatorship, or monarchy. I believe it is often referred to as "Greed". It recently cost Bhutto her life in Pakistan.(I don't know why she thought Musharif would give up his opportunity to increase the $10 billion he has gotten from the U.S. since 9/11.) As working middle-class Americans, just try to remember, "YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU WHEN YOU DIE". In this country, it would take nothing short of a revolution to change the quagmire our politicians have ingeniously fabricated. Even those politicians have created golden parachutes for themselves. They have the best retirement plan, excellent salary, and best health insurance taxpayer dollars can buy. The real irony is that they don't even pay social security taxes on the salaries that we pay them. They exempted themselves from the system years ago. They're not STUPID, they're just GREEDY. Why would anyone want to invest their income in a system, which thanks to Richard Nixon, now resides as part of the General Fund, so politicians can steal more of your money, and you have no recourse, because you have to pay into it, but odds are pretty damned good you won't be getting your money back. Great investment, Huh.
I think we all need to understand that the stock market is grossly over-valued, but please try to remember that if it wasn't, you wouldn't be getting that good return on your 401k or mutual fund "investment". We also have to be thankful that we are paying over $3 a gallon for gasoline, which is projected to go even higher, [since our good buddies the Kuwaities now only accept Euros for their oil(By the way, the Euro has increased 40% in value in the past seven years) and other Middle Eastern exporters are expected to eventually follow suit], even though we've had the technology to produce electric cars in this country for at least 15 years. The fact that Chevron bought majority stock in both Cobasys and Ovonics and basically stopped the production of high-capacity nickel metal hydride batteries, and lobbyed good old Congress to stop their import from the only overseas manufacturer Panasonic, seems to be, I guess you would say, a Congressional Oversight. That is precisely why Tesla and other electric car manufacturers are forced to go with lithium ion batteries. The patent lawyers for the oil companies can't buy up all the lithium ion battery patents, because, strangely enough, the technology was originally licensed to thousands. Thank goodness "Corporations" didn't think lithium ion was important a few years ago.
Probably the smartest thing I've seen in Corporate America lately is GM's new contract with the UAW. They managed to dump their healthcare program, a $50-60 billion dump, which is greater than all the mentioned CEO salaries combined, and in my opinion, they will eventually dump their retirement program as well(or at least I sure hope so), because thanks to the boys and girls in Washington who federally insured GMs pension plan, the U.S. taxpayer will have to pay the retirement for GM employees if it isn't dumped on the union. You can't have a retirement program where 375,000 are retired and only 72,000 are employed (Thank God for NAFTA and OurSourcing). Damn, that sounds a lot like Social Security. I guess the government is going to have to continue to try to evenly distribute the income amongst the masses, and just remember, if it becomes a problem, just print more money. The solution is easy. It's the ramifications that are difficult.
I really cannot understand why many Americans feel that we have no socialistic, societal tendencies. Hell we alreay have "Social Security"(even though the account is empty), various "Social Service Agencies" throughout government, and most current politicians who are trying to gain admittance to the White House, are advocating "National Health Insurance". Where is capitalism in all that?
I think it is high time that we try to wake ourselves from that deep sleep that we are in and have been for the past several years(but that may take a pill from the drug companies). Just think, they could get another patent for 17 years and charge us all a small fortune for the drug, which would be manufactured in Mexico, or India, or China, or somewhere else in this global economy. Maybe the CEO of the company that developed it would get a larger salary and a few more bonuses. It's just the democratic way. I guess it would be better if we just had a strong cup of coffee, but where is the profit margin in that! Hell, Starbucks charges $2 or so for something that costs about a nickel to make at home. Damn, I forgot, lots of people no longer have a home. They have been foreclosed on by the lending institutions, ie. banks, who as it just so happened, got $20 billion from the U.S. government last week to help offset mortgage losses, (which means for the banks to buy up all the foreclosed property they can get, so they can sell it back to all those homeless people who can't afford the loans anyway, when prices are driven back up and property is further over valued). I think it's called "Constructive Financing" or something like that. I guess that is precisely why good old Ben B. has lowered interest rates twice now.
We all must realize that even now the Canadians and Mexicans are both pissed at us. The Canadians, because the U.S. dollar is now so worthless that the Canadian dollar is at an all-time high(I guess that is why Chrysler is considering ceasing their minivan production in Canada for at least a couple of years), and the Mexicans are upset, because even the peso has risen against the dollar, so that the money they are sending home is worth even less. I recently heard that a lot of them are considering returning to Mexico, but they want to get their kids in school in Mexico and that requires them to have "Mexican" citizenship, unlike to good old U.S. of A., so now we are creating a lot more dual citizens south of the border. I guess that is better though, because now they can migrate, legally or illegally, back and forth as needed when currency values vascillate.
I am certainly impressed with CEO salaries and perks these days and have tried to comment on the rationale for making those salaries justifiable. It is just called democracy. Even our leaders practice it. I am certain that everyone knows that one of the last bills that William Jefferson Clinton(our former CEO) signed into law before leaving office was to increase the President's salary from $200,000 a year to $400,000 a year, and surprisingly enough, one of the first bills that George W. Bush(our current CEO) signed into law was a Presidental Pardon for William Jefferson Clinton. Look at it this way, Mr. Clinton saved millions, and Mr. Bush got a $200,000 raise.
Don't you just love "Democracy"! It makes you feel downright patriotic.
"The Patriot"
P.S. God bless the men and women of our military, who are in Harm's Way in various countries throughout the World!!!!!!!! |
