octoad
7/31/2010 5:23:00 PM
"Joker" <joker4153@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:47bfd58d-512e-43d6-8f8c-482ce5bda408@k1g2000prl.googlegroups.com...
>
>>
>> Not the same is right; as is already happening all over the place, union
>> contracts are being renegotiated and terminated and modified out of
>> absolute
>> necessity since the local governments simply do not have the money to pay
>> for them; but I'm thinking that the thives in Bell will get away with
>> their
>> contracts fully intact...
>
>
> Am I the only one who still wonders how it is that the Wall Street
> CEOs who crashed our economy could not be denied their bloated multi-
> million dollar bonuses (some paid from bail-out cash) because
> "contracts are sacred and can never be broken", yet, contracts
> involving unions are (and over the past 30 years have been) routinely
> dumped or renegotiated before they expire with barely a whisper of
> protest. I don't recall Tim Geitner protesting the sacred holiness of
> The Financial Contract when that contract was a union bargained deal
> that made it possible for a greasy, sweat-stained union worker to
> support a family and be comfortable and able to retire some day.
> If bailout funds can pay Wall Street bonuses, then taxpayer bailout
> money should be paying the full salaries and benefits autoworkers
> enjoyed before Obama bailed out the auto industry. The autoworkers
> should not have given a nickel back. If it's good enough for AIG
> bosses, it's good enough for the "little guy", too.
> Give back billions in Wall Street bonuses? NEVER! Give back 20%, 30%,
> 50% or more for the guy making $60K per year? Of course. That's
> clearly different and not sacred at all. Nope, no problem there.
Almost everyone agrees that Wall St bonuses paid to TARP receipient
companies because of contractual obligations shouldn't be paid, including
Geitner. That's why Ken Feinberg was given the task of reducing their
contracted bonuses, which he did. The AIG recipients even gave their
bonuses back voluntarily before Feinberg could cut them.
But as is and always will be the case with Wall St, close one door and they
just open another. Now they're all getting paid differently, under new
arrangements. No lawmaking or administrative body will ever be able to move
faster than they do. Another problem is that the owners of private
companies, the shareholders, don't do anything about the excessive pay,
although in the recently passed Financial Reform bill they will allegedly be
required to vote on compensation for certain positions.
The owners of local governments, the taxpayers, already have ways to speak
up about excessive pay. They can vote out politicians who don't cut
expenses when its necessary, and they can vote no on tax increases until
expenses are cut to their satisfaction. Both of which they are doing in
California.
O