Steal a Little

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I'm trying to get into the Christmas Spirit here, but seven feet of freaking snow has put a damper on things. Bing Crosby and his cute little White Christmas song - I'd like to kick his ass.

Yet what really frosted me this morning was the news on some of the companies involved in the bailout and the bonuses they still distributed to their top executives.

The headline screamed: Banks involved in the bailout awarded their top employees $1.6billion in bonuses.

Now I have always had a soft spot in my heart for people who can't afford to live or buy a house. A lot of people explain that they should just get off their asses and go to work. Agreed - but these people? These people accepting bonus money from the taxpayers when they know they bungled the whole mess?

Bob Dylan once sang - "Steal a little and they throw you in jail; steal a lot and they make you a king."

Let's break it down a bit - perhaps I'm misunderstanding how hard these guys really work:

The Chairman of Capitol One received a $17 million bonus. Capitol One had to be bailed out to the tune of $3.56 billion. He must have received his bonus because he did such a good job in keeping them from hitting $4 billion in the red.

Another top executive received $846,000 in relocation expenses when he was forced to move from Pittsburgh to New York. Isn't that about an 8-hour trip? What did they move him in a gold-covered caravan?

The poor fellow from Bank of NY Mellon received a $7.5 million bonus - guess the kids can get that PSP they had their eye on - to top it off - his car and driver expenses for the year totaled $180,000.

The CEO of Merrill Lynch received an $83 million bonus. Now, I've worked with laborers who've had to dig a ditch a mile long, plumbers who were covered in crap to the elbows, roofers who burn in the summer and freeze in the winter - unless they had this guy in a dungeon somewhere, strung up by his toenails, I'm thinking the $83 mil was overkill.

And isn't that the crux of the problem? Wasn't the bailout supposed to help us - the common men - how do you have the gall to award yourself such a tremendous windfall - and this is after all the shit went down! How many people used their parachutes before the market collapsed. How many people cry that if the rich are allowed to keep their money they will make it easier for the rest of us idiots to get a job? Redistributuion of the wealth? I'm all for it after hearing this crap.

Bob Dylan saw this coming way before the rest of us.

Please! Don't tell me the homeless are lazy people unworthy of our pity - these CEO's are disgusting people who wouldn't know hard work if it bit them in the ass.

That's just my opinion today - this snow has me cranky.

Comments

deafjeff said…
I think tomorrow, I need a rant on the state of the state! You better think a little longer on not wanting to go to Bloagovichvannia. At least there you can buy a job.
22 December, 2008
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