On my soapbox

An article on MSNBC today discussed the potential end to American-style capitalism related to what they called “The worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.”

Well, they gave their opinion now I want to give mine on a related topic.

What caused the financial debacle that is threatening the American way of life and jeopardizing my retirement?

GREED

Greed led to unethical, immoral, and corrupt business practices.

Let’s start with the wage gap between many of America’s CEOs and the workers. There is a gap between a company’s executives and their workers. There’s nothing inherently wrong with the executives making more money than the workers. It’s the American way to work yourself up from the lowest job to the top spot and make more money with each promotion. Money (as well as power) is a great incentive. Few Americans will argue that the boss shouldn’t be making more money.

However, ----- in too many companies today the current gap between an executive’s pay and the average worker is obscene, even immoral. The following articles give startlingly and infuriating facts and figures as they warn of the economic dangers about the disproportion pay.

2007 - Pay Gap Between CEOs and Workers Now a Chasm, Carl Levin, United States Senate

2005 - U.S.: Pay Gap Widens Between CEOs and Workers, Common Dreams

And it’s not just in America. This article from the United Kingdom, “Commitment of workers 'undermined' by huge salary gap with management”, warned in 2003 that “failure to resolve [the pay gap] issue could damage long-term economic growth.”

1999 – Responsible Wealth urged companies to set a ratio between the top executive and the lowest paid worker, thereby linking the executives’ pay to the workers’. This article also points out that huge pay raises for CEOs often follows layoffs and cuts in benefits.

Greed often comes from a sense of entitlement which is the belief that “what I want is what I get, and you have to give it to me.”

SENSE OF ENTITLEMENT

Many executives have a greedy sense of entitlement that makes them keep increasing their benefits while stomping on the workers. They see their peers getting more and more and they feel they’re entitled to more and more and more. Even when they fail they feel they deserve a multimillion dollar severance package and SOME FOOL gives it to them.

But you know this is where the workers share something with the bosses. They also have a sense of entitlement. I’ve heard fellow workers express the belief that their supervisor doesn’t have the right to tell them what to do, I’ve seen smokers who think they’re entitled to a break at least once an hour just because they smoke, I have a co-worker who thinks he should stop working when his work is “done”, but still get paid for 8 hours (our work is never ending so how does he know when he’s “done”?). This same co-worker thinks he should get a raise and/or bonus every year just because he comes to work most days and stays most of the 8 hours.

Don’t get me started on politicians and their “sense of entitlement” for themselves and the people who vote for them. It’s what adds billions of dollars for weird local projects onto good bills. It’s what made their heath care and retirement benefits so enviable while many of their voters have neither. They do get higher taxes to help pay for the politician’s perks!

I’m tired. These people make me tired. What ever happened to “An honest day’s pay for an honest day’s work”? Does nobody but me (and Peter Bower) remember John Wayne’s “We’re burning daylight”?

Do I have a solution?

Nobody will listen to me. I’m just a worker. But I do have a big foot and a nice pair of clodhoppers that might get things started in the right direction if applied to the right place.