It never fails to amaze me the way we’ll hassle some poor family about how they divide up their household income, but any attempt to tell Armani-suited white boys they maybe shouldn’t be snorting their government handouts up their noses is looked upon as radical market intervention.
I’m sorry, I just don’t have a lot of sympathy for somebody making 20 times more than my household income, the same way plenty of people don’t have any sympathy for somebody making 20 times less than theirs. If we’re gonna get self-righteous as a country every time somebody makes a purchase of which we don’t approve, I’d like us to start that righteous anger off at the top, not the bottom.
Granted, I’d much rather we just completely quit bothering everybody with how they spend their paychecks, but not being nosy gossipy carping assholes doesn’t seem to be in our national DNA, not with the Today show tut-tutting over every tidbit of Octuplet Mom, so let’s begin with the people who, if you hack their salaries in half, ain’t gonna starve, and probably already HAVE all the bling and big-screen TVs their houses can hold.
A.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090203/bs_nm/us_citigroup_mets
I love how they say “exploring the possibility.” It’s like, “Hmm… Should we have fish or chicken tonight… The possibilities…”
You slash jobs and make a run at as much government money as possible but that $400 million on the Mets stadium? Money well spent?
Take that money, buy a brain and run your company better.
At least in this jurisdiction, when you’reactually on welfare, they more or lessdo tell you how to spend your money. You get a maximum such-and-such “rent allowance,” plus “basic needs allowance,” which has to cover everything else, and a chit for a bus pass.
Oddly enough, even though they put you through umpteen many “workshops” on how to live frugally, I never heard any of them tell anybody to have their cable tv shut off. (How anyone can actually afford cable tv actually on what they give you is another question, but god, never question the sacred television!)
NYT: “That is pretty draconian — $500,000 is not a lot of money, particularly if there is no bonus,” said James F. Reda, founder and managing director of James F. Reda & Associates, a compensation consulting firm.”
Why is the NYT going to a “compensation consulting firm” for a quote on executive greed? It’s like going to a guy wanking at a peep show to get a quote on what makes a marriage work.
I’d love to see one of our senators get up and do a visual presentation a la Thune, only with pictures of that guy Thain from Merrill Lynch and a real person on welfare, and ask everybody, “Who do YOU think has wasted more taxpayer dollars?”
(Thain, Thune–what is it with the rhyming fucktards?)
For that last comment, I love joejoejoe
The Wells Fargo retreat is most interesting to me. They wanted to hold this big party for their top mortgage writers.
But, by simple logic, wouldn’t it be highly likely that the top mortgage writers for the past few years would be **ONE AND THE SAME** as those who wrote the most subprimes?
In general, I’m shocked that the average guy is asked to economize and cut back, but the ones at the top don’t see where they should.
the masters of the universe will have to feel pain for once. reality is a bitch.