Solice in a time of Greed

You might look to religion to find greater meaning in life, or solace in a time of grief. Just about 3 minutes ago I had a moment of enlightenment. My moment of enlightenment is well overdue, after many days of deep thought and reflection, I was listening to a tech ticker video online about what capitalism's role in society is. I think they hit the nail on the head here. Let's talk about why you invest in the marketplace of businesses. It's simple. Not so your money grows, compounding until the day you need to rely on it. Not so you have a 'break in time of need' fund. Not so your blood pressure can stay at healthy levels. The whole premise of investing in Wall Street is to put your money in the hands of a greedy, unethical, immoral person who is willing to do anything to make you a buck. I have moral limitations which limit my money's ability to compound. If I invest in Company X, I am trusting the CEO and senior management to do anything they have to do, including but not limited to laying people off, reducing benefits, eliminating annuities, and/or breaking contracts, to give themselves large bonuses and make me money. The largest argument/complaint in the news these days is how large the bonuses for CEOs are. The only reason this is an issue is because of the immoral actions of these CEOs, if they had corporate accountability they wouldn't even be asking about bonuses. It will be interesting to see in 5 years if anything will actually change.

If you look at historical employment lengths at companies over the last 40 years you will notice turn-over rates have increased. This is because companies have not fulfilled their responsibilities to society of creating and providing jobs which pay fair and livable wages. When companies reintegrate those goals into their companies is when things in the economy will look better. Proper treatment by the company to its employees creates loyalty within its workforce. We're seeing the beginnings of capitulation on behalf of the Senior Management Monopoly on American workers. I relate it to the cereal industry. A few years back the government had to implement stringent regulations on the cereal industry because companies weren't competing, they collectively raised prices. It's a lack of competition between companies to pay their workers livable wages. Corporate management has squeezed their workers and raped the coffers of the companies which are built on the backs of the hard-working staff level employees. Does capitalism work? I think it does for awhile, until you need some government intervention to defend Joe the Plumber.

I blogged a few weeks back about John Thain, the former CEO of Merrill Lynch. On Monday he had the balls to ask for the $10 million bonus that he was DUE, then on Tuesday he retracted his request after some public grumblings. John Thain is a ball-less pussy. Have we raised a generation of ball-less pussies? I guess we'll have to see how many more CEOs ask for bonuses this year. If he truly thought requesting a bonus was the right thing he would have fought for it. On the other hand, $10 million would pay for 200 employees at $50k a year salary. Does John Thain really think his productivity in the past year was worth more than 200 other employees combined? Possibly he thought so, but obviously he wasn't sure about it. Pussy.

This quite possibly was my most confusing and disjointed blog yet. Now back to the title. . . If I could offer some solace in a time of greed, what would it be, you ask? Government is the only entity that can fairly reallocate monies within a society. I'm not talking about hand outs, I'm talking fair taxes giving relief to those who need it. I'm looking forward to the greatest president in my lifetime to take office this January, mark my words. That's my solace.