12/12/2008 09:19:01 AM EST

Auto bailout : let them keep their private jets!

posted by moogly81

People are angry about CEO pay. But they are even more angry about CEO's standard of living. They don't understand why someone who leads a company to bancrupcy should get paid 21 million $ a year. They think it's absurd to ask for a bailout while flying in private jet. These are very legitimate concerns, but we often deliberately let the most important part aside.

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If we can drive a car for so cheap, have cheap cloth, cheap food, it's because people on the other side on the planet are producing that wealth for us, and are not retributed to the same extend as we would be. If every country had american-like wages, computers would cost ten times their actual price. The people who make our computers can't afford to drive a car. When they see us driving to work everyday, they do feel the same way we feel about GM's CEO flying his private jet.

This is an important fact to take into account, if we want to bring our economy on the right path. It's fair to say that a CEO who is bad at his job does not deserve the huge salary he's getting now. But it's also fair to argue that someone who does the same job I do, with the same productivity, should be paid the same. And yet our whole economic system is based on consumption of foreign ressources, and on manufacturing these ressources with cheap labour from abroad. If we raeally want more fairness, we should apply this fairness the people economically above us (big CEOs) but also to people economically below us (about 90% of the world).

Let's not forget that we are all a Rick Wagoner (GM's CEO) for someone else and that the car we drive is our pirvate jet. And that your mobile should cost 5'000$. If we are not ready to accept that change, we're better off letting CEO's fly in their private jets.

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Auto bailout : let them keep their private jets! | 4 comments (4 topical, 0 hidden)
socialist utopia (none / 0)
I tend to agree with this sentiment, but the implications of it would be revolutionary in a way that the world has never witnessed.  But there won't be any revolutions. Just gradual evolution. This current crisis will pass, and some changes will be made in society and the economy, but mostly we'll be back on the same course as before.

David

by yturks on 12/12/2008 12:14:03 PM EST

one ending is a new beginning (none / 0)

It's not an argument for jets, its an argument against cockiness. The points about labor are completely accurate. We consume cheap, replaceable bullshit over and over again made possible by the horrible work conditions existing in other countries. Welcome to free trade in a global economy. The article you present illustrates the very reason regulations are needed in all aspects of the markets. When sole decision authority is left to the company in hopes of self regulating we as consumers assume the role of the sucker, or fool. Exploitation on all levels not only occurs but becomes the new way of doing business as clearly demonstrated by the fallout of the banking and auto industry.

However in the instance of the CEOs and their private jet planes I believe that is a separate point. We may also be mini CEOs in our everyday purchases but the cockiness of these executives is appalling and different then they way we represent our selves as consumers in the market place. We may purchase plastic nonsense from Asian countries, built by individuals making slave wages but at least we don't travel to their country in fur coats and demand they gives us money to buy more of their plastic toys that are slowly killing us. The so called Big 3 is failing not because of "big labor" or whatever other ridiculous fox news model anchor slogan in being drilled into our skulls day in and day out, they are failing because they built shitty cars, mismanaged their money, effort and ideas, are cared more about making cars for music videos than producing a quality vehicle. After failing so miserably at running their companies and causing colossal collapses they should be down on their hands and knees begging the Amercian people with tears of true remorse streaming from those beady eyes. These men took American Icons and ran them into the fucking ground with their stupidity. They knew 30 years ago, if not longer, that they could produce more fuel efficient cars but they didn't want regulation, they knew how to regulate themselves and produces quality. These companies didn't need bureaucracy to interfere. So they took control and dug their own graves. The jet plane is just one small example of these attitudes where these CEOs think the American people answer to them and if they demand a bailout, then by god we should give them one and be thankful for doing so. They can all kiss my ass as far as I'm concerned.

Overall your point is more important for people to concentrate on, we all need to take a look at all the items we purchase on the backs of those across the world. Change starts at home, responsibility is knocking, you don't have to speak you just have to answer the door .

by gargantuen on 12/12/2008 12:42:15 PM EST

fuel efficient cars (none / 0)
One standard refrain from the "environmentally-friendly left" is that the Big 3 are in trouble because they didn't build fuel efficient vehicles.  I don't know what to think about that accusation or explanation. In the 90s, when the Big 3 were building SUVs and small trucks, they were making a ton of money on those sales.  Making fuel efficient cars at that time would probably have been bad business.

David

by yturks on 12/12/2008 03:07:24 PM EST

Toyota became the no 1 auto maker (none / 0)
before the meltdown. The US auto industry was obviously on the wrong track by opting to produce bigger gas hogs because they make more per unit than on smaller more fuel efficient cars.

Instead of trying to make cars that made more sense.. the U.S auto industry fought tougher CAFE standards as if their life depended on it. Well.. now it does.

Republicans portray the government as the enemy. Then when they take over, they prove it.

by Chinese Democracy on 12/12/2008 09:20:16 PM EST

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Auto bailout : let them keep their private jets! | 4 comments (4 topical, 0 hidden)
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