Bonus – From the Latin, to Bone…Us

So, by now you’ve probably heard about the shameful bonus situation on Wall Street. The TARP bailout, which may or may not have been necessary, or effective, or even what it was originally sold as, looks to regular folks, like corporate patronage at it’s worst.

The long hard truth of the matter is that you can look at a long list of corporations who have been hit hard this year, and see a whole lot of executive bonuses in the face of layoffs and regular folk pain. So why is it that these guys, who are either running their companies into the ground, or victims of their cohorts actions in other companies, getting bonuses when everyone else is getting the shaft?

They think they deserve it. Performance only matters when it’s a good performance. When it’s bad, well, “we need more because without it we can’t meet expectations”. Of course, “expectations” doesn’t have anything to do with shareholder expetations…no that’s code for executive expectations. They don’t believe in suffering or accountability. It’s a sad state of affairs.

I know I’m generalizing. There are a lot of great executives out there who are really interested in the success of the company, and their employees, but it seems like there are fewer and fewer examples of such people.

I’m tired of hearing about this. I look around me and see neighbors and friends and acquaintances either getting laid off, or losing shifts, which means losing money. These are blue collar and white collar people, all working hard to stay afloat. Then, there are these folks running our financial system into the ground, begging for money, acting like they’ve done nothing wrong, and then, the gall of it all, giving themselves BONUSES! Are you kidding me? The lack of accountability, or even a sense of responsibility is sociopathic.

It’s time to clean up corporate America. It’s time for shareholders to rise up and demand accountability. That’s right, I’m advocating a grassroots shareholder revolt. When corporate America says “Let them eat cake”, it may be time for corporate America to get their heads handed to them.

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