Pretty good line in a recent USA Today story: "The golden parachute is evolving into the platinum kiss." About the recent exit packages that CEOs are garnering from companies across the spectrum in the US. It's this sort of thing, among other outrages, of course, that have spawned the nationwide "Occupy" movement. Is there a better example of pay inequity out there than this? To wit: IBM CEO Sam Palmisano will get $170 million when he steps aside; Gene Isenberg, $126 million from Nabors Industries. Google's Eric Smith got $100 million in stock when he departed as CEO. Smith is a real interesting case. The man had an equity stake in Google of over $5.5 billion. He remains chairman of the board, which could get him $7.25 million a year.
Are you kidding me? Surely in the face of the widespread suffering across this country, this is damn near criminal. But we have lost our capacity for outrage in this country. People ought to be out on the streets in thousands. But we are as supine as sheep in the face of the grossest kind of injustice. Whereas once some sort of solidarity among sufferers apparently existed, it is impossible to discern today, aside from the often inchoate occupiers scattered across the nation. It's almost as if people have decided to cower in their misery. It's a pretty good indication that people have essentially given up. Which makes the charade of selecting a president next year as if the choice will actually make a difference in the lives of ordinary people such a joke. I told Susan tonight that I'm actually sick to death already at the media feeding frenzy over the campaign for president. It's eleven months away, and it's overwhelming in its irrelevancy already. But that's another rant altogether.
2 comments:
yep. but 2 caveats. one is, don't write of the occupation too soon. they've done the impossible, and i think and hope they can do more of the impossible. more people are fighting back b/c of them. they may even be responsible for obama's apparent aquirement of a spine these days, those admittedly he talked a good talk once before and it didnt get him far.
but i'll vote for him, unless there's a better candidate the dems get, and i don't think bernie sanders is running for president. [i like to pretend that's why barney frank is retiring]. and except for their use as a comedy-revue troup, the current crop of likely republiocans will do us far more damage than obama has. the only 2 who seem to have triple digit iq's are, each in his own special way, total lying scumbags who will do their best to destroy us. [i like hte idea of simultaneously putting janitors out of work while bringng back child labor....] i have only a shade more optimism than you do, given to me by hundreds of thousands of young and old who like sleeping in the cold......
Karen, I certainly don't mean to disparage those brave and hearty souls all over the country who are "occupying." But what I fear is the police state that we have become. We have already seen what the response is places which determine that "safety" and "health" concerns necessitate clearing the occupiers out. Listen, I don't trust the cops, and I don't trust the latent impulse for "order" among those who govern us. Do you doubt that we have seen the worst of the oppression?
I will not be voting for Obama. I cannot abide the lies he has foisted upon us. He has been a weak reed for three years, and now with his reelection on the line, he appears to be growing a pair of gonads. Sorry. I don't buy it. I seriously doubt I will be voting for either of the major parties ever again. But it will not make the slightest difference here in Oklahoma which will be declared for the GOP within 30 minutes of the poll closing.
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