Posted on 01/11/2007 6:22:55 AM PST by Quilla
You make too much money! And you make too little!
Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., put it somewhat differently. But the new chairman of the House Financial Services Committee vowed to tackle the growing, festering problem of "income inequality." "Government doesn't have to interfere with the free enterprise system," says Frank, "but we can work along with it to reduce inequality."
Railing against Home Depot's $210 million severance package for its fired CEO, Frank called it "further confirmation of the need to deal with the pattern of CEO pay that appears to be out of control."
What does Frank propose to do about the "income inequality" in, say, baseball? New York Yankee Alex Rodriguez several years ago signed a contract for a quarter-billion dollars. That's "b" as in "bodacious." Pity the teammate who toils at the league minimum of $380,000 a year. Will Smith reportedly gets $20 million per picture. Most members of the Screen Actors Guild work at other non-acting jobs just to make ends meet.
What exactly is the appropriate gap? How wide should it be? Presumably Mr. Frank possesses the divine wisdom to know when the gap is jus-s-s-st right.
Understanding Frank requires understanding the deep recesses of the Democrats' psyche about wealth and its creation. Recall former House Democratic Leader Dick Gephardt of Missouri, who once said people of wealth in America are "the people who have won the lottery of life." Obviously, Messrs. Frank and Gephardt consider the old hard-work formula dated and dysfunctional.
A friend told me a story of an executive, "Bob," who works with her at an insurance company. During a golf outing, Bob told her his life story. His dad abandoned him shortly after his mom gave birth. When he was 3, his mother, in a fit of anger, broke his arm. Social services investigated, but found no wrongdoing. Shortly after he turned 8, his ever-angry mother broke his jaw. This time, social services removed him from her custody, and he lived in a series of foster homes and group houses. In school he constantly caused trouble, made poor grades, and grew angrier and angrier as he found himself shuttled from one temporary custodial place to another.
One day, a priest visited the house where Bob, now a teenager, was staying with other "unwanted" kids. The priest gave a motivational speech, telling them about God's love, and that despite their circumstances, they should value their lives. The priest said that each of you possesses a special gift, a gift you must find and use. Bob's eyes rolled toward the ceiling as the priest spoke -- after all, he'd heard this before. "If I'm so special," he thought, "who values me? Please, what 'gift' do I have?"
The priest noticed Bob's indifference, and after his talk, approached Bob quietly and asked him why he appeared to pay no attention. Bob asked the priest the very questions he'd been thinking, including, "Where's my gift?" He told the priest about his absent father, and the abuse he suffered at the hands of his mother. The priest said, "Your gift is that you survived. What you endured requires strength, a strength that a lot of people do not have. That is your gift."
For whatever reason, the priest's words sunk in. Bob began to work harder, and his grades improved. He went to college, got a degree in business and joined a large corporation, where he began to work his way up. He is married and has two children. He now earns a high six-figure salary and loves his life.
To Messrs. Gephardt and Frank, Bob is merely a winner in "the lottery of life." To them, Bob occupies the wrong end of the "income inequality" scale. Never mind that America remains the most upwardly mobile country in history. Or, that most rich did not start out that way. Or that, of all the qualities that go into income success, hard work remains the most important.
A great man from humble circumstances once said, "[T]here is not, of necessity, any such thing as the free hired laborer being fixed to that condition for life. . . . The prudent, penniless beginner in the world labors for wages awhile, saves a surplus with which to buy tools or land for himself; then labors on his own account for awhile, and at length hires another new beginner to help him. This is . . . the just, and generous, and prosperous system, which opens the way for all -- gives hope to all, and . . . improvement of conditions to all. If any continue through life in the condition of the hired laborer, it is not the fault of the system, but because of either a dependent nature which prefers it, or improvidence, folly, or singular misfortune."
Barney Frank, meet Abraham Lincoln.
BOHICA!!!!
For those who don't understand that acronym, bend over - here it comes again.
I am beginning to wonder if Rangel's stint in the US Army was ordered by a Judge. Jail or the military?
One of my partners is a nice guy, but was a real red-diaper baby. He's now a Ralph Nader voter for whom the Democrats are not liberal enough. He is always going on about this "redistribution" business. I tell him there is nothing stopping him from redistributing his own hefty paycheck, but leave mine alone.
-ccm
If someone who did such a poor job that he got fired gets $210 million, where is the competition?
Was Michael Ovitz in any way qualified to run Disney? Was he worth the severance package that worked out to $300,000 for every single incompetent day he worked at Disney?
No.
That is why Disney shareholders sued the Disney Board of Directors.
Corporate officers and the Board of Directors have a fiduciary responsibility to their stockholders. If they have rigged the game so that even a screw up gets $210 million for playing the game, then major corporations have just become a legal means for members of the Board of Directors Good Ole Boy's Club to fleece the average investor.
"Demercats continue to be THE problem"
Did you see that the Dems are trying to unionize the TSA employees? LOL. There's votes to be had.
Class warfare and fanning flames of economic insecurity, despite all the labor force statistics, will also garner them votes. Its what got us Slick Willie, and it could work again in '08 if the economy slows.
The DemoCommies want equal outcomes, they say. I'm waiting to see Chappy Kennedy, the Klintons, et. al. waiting in line with a few hundred other suckers for their government medical care.
If they day comes when we are all equal in outcomes, then we will all be slaves. The DemoCommies oppose capitalism just as much as Stalin did.
When you hear that phrase, you know the speaker is far outside the (more or less) reasonable, patriotic, pro-capitalist Democratic mainstream.
"Redistribution of wealth" is the mantra of the far Left, from European-style socialists to Trotskyites to Maoists to Stalinists. Such people must NEVER be allowed near the levers of power.
-ccm
If Nardelli got $210 million for failure, I wonder what he would've received for doing a good job ?
I always ask them, "When was the last time you were offered a job by someone on a government handout program?" That usually shuts them up.
I use your argument as well. They believe in the redistribution of wealth as well. One day after a long debate, I asked them to bring the amount of their last paycheck to work, and I would "redistribute" that money as I saw fit.
I told them, I could "redistribute" their money better than they could, since they were expecting the government to be trusted. End of argument.
---Ronald Reagan
I would simply ask them how motivated would they be to go to work in December, if they knew that everything they earned that month would be given to the government, because by the end of November they had exceeded their allowed income for the year?
OK, start by cutting my taxes. Next, put up a wall on the border. Then, deport all the damn illegals.
It would do wonders but neither party has the balls to do it.
So sell your Home Depot stock if you don't like the way YOUR company does business.
A better question is why a lawyer earning $500 an hour spends like ONE MEEELION DOLLARS to become a congressman paying 84 an hour?
There's a parable about the workers who start at 5:00 getting the same as the ones who started at 8:00 in the morning and Jesus saying, how does it hurt you that I gave them the same?
I like "tax cuts for the rich" for sheer head-exploding sanity shattering.
They can't.
The socialists know that "Vote for me! I will get you someone else's money " is a winner all over the world. - Tom
I celebrate "Tax Independence Day" every year, just to p*** them off. I tell them I am buying the best bottle of scotch on the way home and have a few drinks. That really gets to them, and they usually quit arguing. They use all the DBM talking points, but buckle when faced with facts.
That is a great line, taglineworthy.
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