“the country openly and nakedly pillaged by asmall group of oligarchs”
If the government has to bail out and save these companies, then their CEO’s and employees should be getting government/military level salaries, not the high ones the upper levels now are getting.
I was flamed when I first mentioned this thought two years ago, but the chickens now appear to be coming home to roost. Thirty-five years ago, top CEO’s were paid about 40 times the rate of their lowest level employees. Now, they are paid 400 to 1,000 times that rate. While cell phones and PC’s may have increased their productivity a little, it has hardly increased by 10 to 25 TIMES. Some of the people leaving these failed companies are pulling out millions of $$$. I caught the tail end of one news report that I think said one guy was getting $150,000,000 that we will be paying for.
So my proposal is that if banks and other companies want our government guarantees (as separate from actual bail-outs which I referred to in the first paragraph), then they should agree to receive no more than a 50 to 1 (top level to lowest level) salary ratio.
In addition, it would force top executives to be planful rather than greedy if when they receive stock options as pay or bonuses, that they only be allowed to cash in 1/5 th of these holding each year. Knowing that their actions would affect the next five years of company profits and the value of their own stock would encourage more intelligent (and self-interested) actions.
I hate to have to quote Barney Frank, but he was right when he said that under the current system it is “heads I win, tails I break even”. I don’t want my kids and grandchildren saddled with the debt for these guys totally selfish actions. My son is going to Afghanistan next year, where are these guys going—Las Vegas, Martha’s Vinyard, Malibu?
My prayers are with him. As the nature of the beast becomes clearer I think more patriotic Americans are going to have to carefully consider if we continue to encourage our kids to join our military. Why? As you so aptly put it, what are you defending? The right of super connected Wall Street insiders and Fed Bankers to make themselves rich at your expense for two generations? The right of 51% of the electorate to put socialist creeps like Pelosi, Reid and Obama in power? The right to have the Supreme Court controlled by hard-leftists rule from the bench and make a joke of the design of the Republic? The right to be able to use a constantly inflating currency that doesn't hold its value?
I realize these are very hard thoughts, but I think they will begin to be asked more and more in the coming years.