Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Class Warfare

So...A.I.G. (and their ilk) needs "retention" bonuses to keep such skilled workers at the company, even though these are the same employees that ran everything into the ground?

One can only assume that it would be perfectly fine for the auto industry to lavish lucrative bonuses on their workers, too. They also need to keep their skilled employees happy and productive in these hard times. Right?

Or does this simple question of logic and fairness cross over into the gist (and idiocy) of our modern-day bizarro world?

One where the wealthiest are subsidized, given tax breaks, and have all their risk insured by taxpayers. While the majority of Americans, everyday workers, are told to go without - where their wages stagnate, where their health care premiums continue to skyrocket, where pensions are a thing of the past, and where retirement is now having a job working the counter at Walgreens for many in their golden years.

The auto workers (along with all unions workers) have seen their wages and rights steadily dismantled over the last thirty years. They have taken pay, health care, and pension cuts. They have continually renegotiated their contracts cycle after cycle.

I haven't heard someone demanding setting limits on executive compensation (other than a few mumblings and labor advocates), yet they are the ones responsible.

Auto workers don't design vehicles. They don't make the company's investment decisions. Plus, executive labor costs, proportionally speaking, cost these companies a lot more than the assembly line workers (if it's just labor cost we're supposedly irked about). It's these higher-ups whose reckless greed and poor management destroyed the economy and their companies.

This is class warfare. The Haves are continuing to pick our pockets. We need some Change to believe in more so than ever.

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