Here's a question for everyone... obviously I am stupid...
I was driving and listening to NPR's All Things Considered and a story about John Thain came up. For those who do not read or listen to news here is a short background on him from Wikipedia:
John Alexander Thain (born May 26, 1955) was the last chairman and chief executive officer of Merrill Lynch before its merger with Bank of America. Thain was designated to become president of global banking, securities, and wealth management at the newly combined company, but he resigned on January 22, 2009. He is considered a hero to Merrill stockholders for his timely sale of the company. Bank of America lost confidence in Thain after he failed to tell the bank about mounting losses at Merrill in late 2008. The Associated Press identified him as the best paid among the executives of the S&P 500 companies in 2007. On December 8, 2008, Thain gave up on pursuing a controversial bonus of $10 million from the compensation committee at Merrill. The NPR story eventually came to this part: Thain also decided to accelerate payments of bonus to employees at Merrill, giving out between $3 billion and $4 billion using money that appeared to come directly from the $15 billion Bank of America and Merrill Lynch had received from US government taxpayers (via the Troubled Assets Relief Program). Thain has additionally become infamous for spending $1.22 million in corporate funds to decorate his office, even as he was asking the government for a bailout of his troubled company
He used taxpayer's money... your money, my money, our money to give out fucking bonuses and redecorate his office? Does this ever bother anyone anymore? Or are we so numbed by our TV's, Cell phones and all the other pacifers modern corporate society gives us that we have forgotten that this is our country, our money and our elected officials.
It would be easy to solely blame Bush but that would be unrealistic. Perhaps we should drop our party blindness and start believing in the people for a change! I say it is more that our system is flawed but several of you, especially family will disagree and really I do not want to divert from Thain. Several people in my immediate family are: jobless, losing houses, losing jobs, didn't get huge amounts of money that was owed to them... where is my bail out? where is yours?
John Thain made 84 million dollars a year giving out loans that they knew could not be backed... collapsed an already stressed system... then took 3 to 4 BILLION dollars given to him by US, the average working joes of the world and gave out bonuses. He took 25% of what the government gave him to sure up his bank (Bank of America and Merrill Lynch) and gave out bonuses. Does that bother anyone else?
To quote a responder on NPR's website about the same article: "I think it was Genghis Kahn who got rid of the rich as soon as he conquered a region because they hoarded all the resources and provided nothing of value."
One of my favorite songs right now is by the band UB40... read the lyrics... "HERE WE GO AGAIN" (featuring Astro) 3:34 ORIGINAL
(Writen by: ? and composed by: Ali Campbell)
LISTEN
We’ve lost our way and don’t know which way to turn
Here we go again
We put trust in great man and still we get burnt
Here we go again
Why do we fall for the same old lines?
Why do we fall for it time after time?
We’ve lost our way inadvertently
Get in the dark
So dark that we can’t see
Get in the dark
I’m talking you and me
You’ve lost your pride and don’t know when it began
Here we go again
You sit in judgement over your fellow men
Here we go again
Why do you fall for the same old lines?
Why do you fall for it time after time?
You’ve lost your pride inadvertently
To scared to talk
Too scared to look and see
Too scared to walk
Too scared to run to me
To scared to talk
Too scared to look and see
Too scared to walk
Too scared to run to me
We’ve gone too far and don’t know where it will end
Here we go again
We’ve eaten up nature
And were gonna get burned
Here we go again
Why do we choose to leave no warning signs?
Why do we do it time after time?
We’ve gone to too far inadvertently
No where to run as far as I can see
Nowhere to run
No end for you and me
Too scared to talk
Too scared to look and see
Too scared to walk
To scared to run to me
To scared to to scared to to scared to talk
To scared to to scared to to scared to talk
here's a link to the NPR story http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99919369
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1 comment:
Hey!
What's up hippies?! Yep, I think the system does need changing. The blame inevitably falls on us though. First we must breath down the necks of our local officials (voting, getting involved, voicing your opinion, etc), and even those beyond local (again voting etc.), and then hopefully they will breathe down the necks of those above them, and direct the government the way WE want it. But we, myself included aren't willing to get so involved, or force ourselves to get involved... It also comes down to the cashola too. Americans are speaking out to a certain extent now- when I hear on the news that "consumers (that's American citizens by the way- that's all we are now) are putting away their credit cards, in fear of this recent economic downturn", I think to myself GOOD! Save some money people! In our Grandparents generation if a company was ripping people off, or they made a crappy product, they got offed! People stopped buying from them. But no, we are all cows now! Let's not even talk about our food chain in America. We might as well just set up troughs for people instead of plates! Give me strength...
But I digress. Great comments Francois. Long time no chat. Hope all is well. Hi Lisa. I'm doing sales at Vermont Quality Meats. They've got a web site.
Doug
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