Not just ANY greed, it's Corporate Greed!

The subject today is greed. But not just any greed - corporate greed! I just LOVE the subject of corporate greed - talk about Science Fiction- corporate greed is so fantastical, so way-out there that it boggles the mind how they even think it up, much less do it. I had originally intended to write today's blog rant on Delphi. A company that keeps trying to break the UAW contracts in court because "it's broke", however they do happen to have just enough money to pay the top 486 executives a total of $87.9 million dollars in bonuses. (Now, why you would even WANT to give bonuses to a bunch of people who just ran your company into bankruptcy is beyond me - but it all boils down to...what's the word of the day??) Then I ran across a little ranty-type article by Paul B. Farrell of Marketwatch. It seems Paul is mad, mad as hell actually. And why is Paul so mad you say? Glad you asked! Paul is mad because Wall Street is GREEDY! Paul is mad that Wall Street's bonuses this year will range from a piddly $100,000 for 1st year brokers, to a diddly $6 million for the Big Boy's. Paul doesn't feel these bonuses are deserved because Wall Street has crapped out performance-wise. But the REAL lovely gem in the ranty-rant is that Paul wants to know why "we" aren't mad too? Now, I'm just going to tangent here for a minute. Bear with me. I have a special fondness for the word "we". Whenever I hear the word "we", I think of this little joke I heard once: One day the Lone Ranger and Tonto were riding along the dusty trail when suddenly up all around them on top of the canyon ledges above appeared Indians! They were surrounded! The Indians had their bows drawn and they were completely outnumbered twenty to one! The Lone Ranger turns to Tonto and says, "Tonto, I think we are in big trouble." and Tonto turns to him and says, "Who's WE, Kimosabee?". That's why I love the little word "we". So, with this story in mind, I say to myself, who's "we" Paul? I thought you might like to see my e-mail response to Mr. Farrell:

"Paul, Where have you been? The past Twenty years have been spent 1) Crippling the underpriveleged citizenry with welfare and other mind-spirit sapping freebies designed to keep them ignorant and passive 2) Gutting the middle-class by systematically shunting their jobs overseas, thereby keeping them scrambling so hard to earn a living they can't find their assholes in the dark with both hands and a flashlight and 3) Deluding the upper class with thoughts of mass riches beyond even their wildest greedy dreams - if they will just grease the wheels of the system a little with some cash. With the average CEO earning upwards of $12 million dollars a year, the average bimbo actress or thug sports player or gangsta rapper earning multi-millions for doing a little dance, throwing a ball or taking off their clothes, where exactly is the citizenry to start being "mad as hell"? They are too busy trying to keep from going under in a Republican money orgy that won't stop until we are either all speaking Chinese or that little old "class war" that everyone talks about every now and then actually does occur."

Geez, and I was all thrilled because I'm getting a $1.85 per hour raise in January.