He's gone too far.

FromTheSouth

You don't want it with me.
This morning, on his radio show, Neil Boortz was talking about a plan in the works to limit executive compensation at ALL publically traded companies, even those that take bail out money.

First of all, while I don't agree with limits on ANY compensation, I can see how it plays well politically. People who choose not to work hard have been cpmplaining about how much the rich make for years. People who have jsut lost their jobs feel that their more educated boss should pay their salary out of his. I find this all hogwash. Someone worked harder, became more successful, and gets paid more, then good for them. They should not be the target of everyone's petty jealousies and scorn. Limiting the compensation of companies who took bailout money is more reasonable, but I still feel that it is anti-American. In this capitalist society, it is everyone's right to horde all the money they want to. The bailouts are loans, and loans that many companies, such as Ford, were pressured into taking by the government and unions, whether they were needed or not. If I take a loan out from Wells Fargo, they cannot tell me what to do with it. Before you tell me that the bailouts are taxpayer money, let me tell you that I don't care. The money loaned to me by Wells Fargo is the money that hard working Americans put into savings accounts. The bank takes this money, and invests it to gain five percent, then draws it out of that fund, and loans it out to gain 7%. If I don't pay back this loan, then someone's savings have evaporated, but the bank still made their money. Whether it be a corporate bailout or a business loan, someone else's money is being used. Does the fact that it is tax money make the bailout more important. I would argue no, in that a bank uses people's savings to give out loans. In niether instance, no one should be telling the recipient how to use these funds. If the company goes bankrupt, or the loan defaulted on the money is gone. The risk is the same, only Wells Fargo risks other people's money. Now the executives have to take pay cuts. Meanwhile, the union head still gets to siphon millions form member's dues. These dues are paid by the guy who gets $50 an hour to screw on lug nuts. If I were an executive in search of economic solvency, I would hire non-union labor only. Paying a guy $15 an hour to install radios in cars seems a lot more reasonable than demonizing the top guy.

But an even more grotesque abuse of power is the feeling that Geither and Obama can limit the salaries of anyone who works at a publicly traded company. Once again, the jealousy felt by employees toward employers is being exploited for political gain. The blind masses of Obama followers seem to get behind every plan he has. Let's see if he gives people "free cut" passes in the breadlines he is working toward. The problem with limiting salaries at any company is that it turns away the best and the brightest. Why would someone who went to years of school on the hope that their work will be rewarded properly want to work in a country where everyone splits the pie evenly? This is a ridiculous idea. I don't want my money going to crackheads, fast food workers, and others who don't want to improve themselves. No offense to fast food workers, just those who don't want to move up. If my company is successful, and I am returning a dividend to my shareholders, then I want to compensated for the guidance I provided to that company. I don't see Obama trying to limit salaries of athletes or musicians, most of which voted for or look like him. The only people who will be allowed to make money in this plan will be people who own their own business (except for the crippling capital gains taxes he is using to crush small business in order to put the government in charge of every industry), and trial attorneys, who oddly enough are another major democratic voting block.

All of these moves are jsut Obama's push for socialism. He grew up poor, so he wants to make sure that no one, except his supporters, can be rich again. He is trying so hard to put every industry in so much debt, that they can never recover. If they can't recover, the government takes control, and suddenly, we are Russia, circa 1975. Get ready for breadlines, thugs exploiting government greed, and a giant Red Army used to steal resources from any country it can take over in order to fund the giant machine of fascism. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the CHANGE you voted for and can believe in. I just HOPE that this process takes more than four years and can be reversed as soon as the next guy is in. At least Obama is doing everything he can to be a one term President.
 
My theory is this: if you needed bail out money, you shouldn't make an obscene salary. Now I'm not sayign you should make $12 a week, but why should people that ran a company so far into the ground deserve a ridiculous salary or bonus? Better yet, why do they have jobs still? You can't expect me to believe that such people are still assets to their firm. Why should I, as a tax payer, have to pay for their big bonuses? I have no issue with the bailout, but I have issue with the bonuses and the big salaries. People can talk all they want about the contracts demanding they get these big salaries. I'm also assumign that in the contracts there's something about level of performance. From what I've seen, the level of performance is awful. Why should they get a big salary for doing a terrible job?

Now I know that not everyone at these companies are responsible for their downfalls, and they shouldn't be punished. It isn't fair for everyone to have the same punishments, but some people definitely should have a limit on what they can "earn". If a person does something good for the company, reward them. If they do something that hurts the company, punish them. Why should the dollars that the taxpayers pay have to go to give these people such bonuses and salaries, when the companies are so far in the hole we can't even see them?
 
Blaming the executives at most of these companies is not an accurate place to point one's anger. The people at AIG who received the bonuses, for the most part, worked on the insurance side of the building, not the investments side. The insurance portion of the company is why they were able to survive with bailout money. Without these executives, AIG would have folded, and thousand more jobs would be lost. These executives saved many jobs, and should be rewarded. Plus, that was compensation written into contracts. Whether or not you think it's right, it's not legal to seize this money. If they want to repay it on their own, good for them. If not, then you think they're greedy bastards. I think that they don't care what you think of them. The fact is, this "crisis" came from community action groups pressuring banks to lower their credit standards. Freddie and Fannie used their quasi government status to promise banks that they would back these loans. Then, once those institution were found to be led by incompetent and corrupt Washington insiders, banks had to raise interest rates in order to recover as much of their debt as they could, as they then found out they backing for their loans was in jeopardy. At this point, there was a massive round of foreclosures, which led to disappointing earnings reports, which led to less credit, and a slowdown in the market. All of this led to a massive sell off which caused half of the publicly traded wealth in the country to evaporate. Less capital meant less people could be paid.

And once again, the idea that these are tax dollars is ludicrous. The money being used for the bailouts is borrowed, by the federal government, from China. If all of these companies are in fact saved, not one cent of tax money will ever be used.

The government is working an a tightrope. If this plan works, then the companies are saved, and thus the power of the dollar goes through the roof and we dominate the world economy like never before. If it fails, then we fall into socialism and get passed by China.

I am on the side of letting GM, AIG, and all the others fail. We will be left with only the strongest companies. Those whose leaders are truly visionary. Those with leaders that saw into the future and avoided toxic debt.
 
That's true that it's being borrowed from China, but at the end of the day, who is being asked to pay the deficit? Us. We're the ones that have it hanging over our heads while the previous generation makes all of this mess. While I don't want socialism, I do think that the government needed to intervene here. It's clear that the way things were being done weren't working. As you said, it's possible that these plans could work and I certainly hope they do as it would save a lot of huge problems. However, I refuse to believe that without the government running thigns that these companies would pay back the debt themselves. They've shown already that they would do whatever it took to make themselves profit. At the end of the day, the deficit is getting so ridiculous that we can't even begin to fathom it. There isn't one thing that can be blamed for it, but things like this certainly aren't helping.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Members online

No members online now.

Forum statistics

Threads
174,851
Messages
3,300,884
Members
21,726
Latest member
chrisxenforo
Back
Top