The Economy, AIG, Socialism, and YOU (American execs)
I'm just having some thoughts boiling up about the whole "government bailout" and "economic stimulus" spending, and how it's all coming to a head with the news about AIG. I'm no macro-economics master, but I'll share my political opinion. These are trying and extraordinary economic straits the world is in - never in my lifetime have I heard of businesses seeking, even demanding, assistance from the government. And why? The heart of it is free-market capitalism vs. realms of government regulation. I refuse to go so far as to say capitalism is dead, but this clearly shows the biggest gaping weakness of the system : how utter, blind greed can take hold and dictate unethical, imaginary business practices. (To say nothing about how the US $$ are being paid out to foreign banks).
The biggest outrage, and rightly so, has been sparked by the news of AIG executives taking tens of millions of dollars to pay out 'bonuses' to themselves. AIG execs make ridiculous claims, 1) "these contracts were in place before we got the stimulus dollars", and 2) "this is how the free market system works - we need to compensate our leaders appropriately, or risk losing them." Allow me to address each of these, and hopefully in doing so, exemplify the whole gov't stimulus argument.
1) - If you didn't get the stimulus dollars, you would have no money to pay out obscene bonuses anyway! They claim that if they didn't get the gov't charity, they would need to file for bankruptcy. How in hell would they pay out the bonuses then??
2) - to quote the NPR show, "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" : "If we don't pay adequate salaries to our executives, they'll leave their jobs & go into other businesses... and destroy them, as well." Funny, but sadly true. I, as a believer in capitalist philosophies & libertarian freedoms, agree that business leaders can be rewarded for doing well. But, let's be honest - if they cause such mayhem & disaster as they have the last few years - they must own up to it & take a greater share of the blame and hardship than even their employees. (This thinking is in-line with my disgust about how GW Bush betrayed fundamental Conservative values in his imperialist, dishonest reign as Prez). Consider theJapanese airline CEO who, when business is suffering, will take a salary well under 6-figures, and eat in the cafeteria, and give up his private SUV and jets.
Bottom line - the rules have changed, and you can't have it both ways. You can't slither on your serpentine stomachs to suckle at the teat of the federal government, then dictate how that assistance is doled out. You can't weep & whine and claim your world is crumbling, only to patch it up with funds given to you, then claim your world is fine and should work the way it always has. You can't be greedy with your ill-gotten gains which are evaporating in the harsh daylight of reality, and also be greedy with the money that belongs to the American public, which must be accounted for. This is like going broke & needing to move back in with your parents, then demanding to them "how things will be run around here." I don't want to say this is socialism, but if the government's paying for it, government (ideally, in the purest form, as a 'voice of the people') gets to say how it works. (OK - the argument about how this will balloon the federal deficit has some merit, but I won't go into here)
That's why I support the New Deal-like guidelines Obama has decreed for how the federal dollars can be used at the state and local level - and I have deep respect for those Republican governors and mayors who are declining the payments, because they don't want to be obliged to the gov't rules. They are walking the walk - they are not taking the 'charity', then moaning about it. It's called integrity, not hubris - pay attention, all you bloated American CEOs, you might learn a little something.
The biggest outrage, and rightly so, has been sparked by the news of AIG executives taking tens of millions of dollars to pay out 'bonuses' to themselves. AIG execs make ridiculous claims, 1) "these contracts were in place before we got the stimulus dollars", and 2) "this is how the free market system works - we need to compensate our leaders appropriately, or risk losing them." Allow me to address each of these, and hopefully in doing so, exemplify the whole gov't stimulus argument.
1) - If you didn't get the stimulus dollars, you would have no money to pay out obscene bonuses anyway! They claim that if they didn't get the gov't charity, they would need to file for bankruptcy. How in hell would they pay out the bonuses then??
2) - to quote the NPR show, "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" : "If we don't pay adequate salaries to our executives, they'll leave their jobs & go into other businesses... and destroy them, as well." Funny, but sadly true. I, as a believer in capitalist philosophies & libertarian freedoms, agree that business leaders can be rewarded for doing well. But, let's be honest - if they cause such mayhem & disaster as they have the last few years - they must own up to it & take a greater share of the blame and hardship than even their employees. (This thinking is in-line with my disgust about how GW Bush betrayed fundamental Conservative values in his imperialist, dishonest reign as Prez). Consider theJapanese airline CEO who, when business is suffering, will take a salary well under 6-figures, and eat in the cafeteria, and give up his private SUV and jets.
Bottom line - the rules have changed, and you can't have it both ways. You can't slither on your serpentine stomachs to suckle at the teat of the federal government, then dictate how that assistance is doled out. You can't weep & whine and claim your world is crumbling, only to patch it up with funds given to you, then claim your world is fine and should work the way it always has. You can't be greedy with your ill-gotten gains which are evaporating in the harsh daylight of reality, and also be greedy with the money that belongs to the American public, which must be accounted for. This is like going broke & needing to move back in with your parents, then demanding to them "how things will be run around here." I don't want to say this is socialism, but if the government's paying for it, government (ideally, in the purest form, as a 'voice of the people') gets to say how it works. (OK - the argument about how this will balloon the federal deficit has some merit, but I won't go into here)
That's why I support the New Deal-like guidelines Obama has decreed for how the federal dollars can be used at the state and local level - and I have deep respect for those Republican governors and mayors who are declining the payments, because they don't want to be obliged to the gov't rules. They are walking the walk - they are not taking the 'charity', then moaning about it. It's called integrity, not hubris - pay attention, all you bloated American CEOs, you might learn a little something.
Labels: AIG economic stimulus obama CEO
posted by pegasusgiraffe at 1:07 AM
1 Comments:
Righteous rage! While disagreeing with the baseline premise that there is such a thing as pure capitalism, I agree with the moral stance behind your argument.
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