Obnoxious

[oselle]

Congressman Barney Frank tells it like it is regarding executive bonuses (paraphrased because Frank talks so damn fast):

"What I want to know is, what are these guys going to stop doing if they don't get these bonuses? The whole notion that you have to bribe very highly paid people to do their job is nuts...it's very obnoxious."

I'm not necessarily against the idea of incentives for a job well done but first of all, the job wasn't "well done." Anyone who helped wreck their company to the point that it had to be rescued by the beleaguered American taxpayer deserves a pinkslip, not a multi-million dollar bonus. Not even a multi-thousand dollar bonus. Pinkslip. Canned. Bum's rush. Out on their ass. Finito. Buh-bye.

Second, the very idea that these guys just deserve these kinds of bonuses suggests that they are just better than the rest of us. I don't know about you but I haven't gotten an actual bonus in years. I've gotten little raises and I haven't even gotten one of those in years. And yet somehow...I KEEP SHOWING UP AND DOING MY JOB for no more "incentive" than my very average paycheck and insurance. So Frank is right. The idea that these Wall Street "masters of the universe" somehow have to be incentivized on top of their already lucrative salaries just to do their job is nuts. Obnoxious. It's got to stop. It's been more than proven that rewarding these guys does absolutely nothing for the country and anyone who wants to spout some right-wing garbage that shoveling more money into the coffers of richer-than-God executives somehow keeps the economy healthy by spurring American innovation and creativity and oh, it all just trickles down to the rest of us, doncha know, well...just...go away. Go to China. You'll love it there. Your kinda place.

Comments

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

My company does do bonuses--but to everyone. Not to high level people for doing their job. I think they used to do a Christmas bonus too. (And apparently I was the last person who got birthday money before they cancelled that.)

But anyway, yeah, I feel really greatful for the bonuses, but we have a meeting every year where we learn if we're getting them. And like I said, goes to everybody. And if we don't get them, we do our job the same as always. We have no power to demand them.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

BIRTHDAY bonus?! I've never heard of such a thing!

if we don't get them, we do our job the same as always.

Yeah, see, this is what gets to me. I don't know why the rules are different for these very special people than they are for the rest of us. What the fuck do these guys do anyway? Sit there and shuffle money around the world? We'd probably be better off if they didn't get such big bonuses -- it just incentivizes these sons of bitches to come up with ever more exotic speculation schemes that wind up bankrupting the rest of us. I'm so disgusted. At least in '29 some of these fucks had the decency to jump out a window.

[sixth-queen.livejournal.com]

You're not alone in thinking this.



Christmas sales at the luxury stores were way down this year. I heard that these bankers would stop by Tiffany's on the way home from work and pick up a $10K necklace for their sweeties, the same way I'd stop by Safeway for a quart of milk.

What bothers me is -- where do these bankers get off telling me that I need to put away "3-6 months of living expenses" while they live hand to mouth? Would it kill them to put away $20-30K a year? Then, if they absolutely had to, they have a cash cushion to fall back on, either to live on or to move to somewhere cheaper.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

Oh, it all comes down to the plebes like you and me. Don't you know that WE'RE the ones who broke the economy by stuffing our greedy, undeserving, low-income selves with mortgages and SUVs and plasma TVs that we KNEW we couldn't afford but we made the poor widdle banks give us money for them anyway! So now of COURSE we're the ones who should be sacrificing and saving. The John Thains of the world? Well, they're just better than you and me. They deserve that $5,000 wastepaper basket.

[sixth-queen.livejournal.com]

Oselle, I keep hearing about these bankers being unable to live on $180K a year. How expensive IS it to live in Manhattan or nearby? Like, what is the rent on a 2-bed apartment? Subway or cabs for a year? Eating out almost every day? I don't have a handle on New York.

I do know Washington DC. In 2006, I figured I could live -- paycheck to paycheck -- on about $35K/year, single with no car in a 1-bed. With kids house car, probably $80K for minimum and $100-120K for comfort.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

These guys don't occupy the same sphere that you and I do. They only know people who make exorbitant amounts of money and they all have to keep up with each other. When they say they're "unable to live on $180K a year," what they mean is they're unable to live at the level of their peers, which they consider necessary to maintaining their social and professional status. They consider it obligatory to have the right residence in the right neighborhood, to drive the right cars, send their kids to the right schools, eat in the right restaurants, summer in the right places. If they're not maintaining that standard, they're not a "player."

Of course, with the exception of the luxury goods and real estate niche markets, all of this means nothing for the economy and in fact...means nothing. It's all a load of shit. These guys claim they can't do their jobs effectively without circulating in the right environments but that all sounds like a fucking excuse for huge expense accounts and outrageous pay scales. Not to mention they've pretty much proven how much they suck at their jobs, so why keep rewarding them -- with OUR money nonetheless -- for a job shittily done?

What kills me more than anything is thinking about all the blather during the auto bailout about how the UAW needed to be broken in order to "save" the industry. So you're telling me that the future of the entire auto industry hinges on some $40,000-a-year GM line worker sacrificing his health care and pension, but these little Wall Street pissants just HAVE to keep on gorging themselves on our money or they're gonna what? Take their toys and go home. Fuckin' let them. Cocksuckers. Jump. JUMP.