But some are more equal than others.
The more I hear Obama rail about Golden Parachutes, the more I keep waiting for someone to ask him if those of his friends Jim Johnson and Franklin Raines are exceptionally acceptable. It smacks of hypocrisy.
I think some of the packages, particularly the massive separation packages for failed CEOs and even those of successful CEOs ($400M for departing Exxon-Mobile CEO) are obscene.
However – and this is important here – it is more obscene, nay unconstitutional, for the federal government to be entertaining the directing pay and compensation for private sector employees not on its own payroll. Laws on minimum wage are one thing, but putting a government imposed ceiling on earnings in a capitalist free-market economy smacks of class warfare and incremental socialism.
(Has anyone ever argued the Constitutionality of socialism? They can’t. Because it is not. Powers are enumerated specifically to the federal government from a starting point of zero, not barred from the federal government presuming it has all others. Imposed socialism – as an economic/governmental structure – is an affront to our own Constitution.)
Consider that the desired governmental restriction of these earnings packages, obscene as some are, is brought up within the context of the perception of what brought the current financial crisis upon us. It is a deceptive distraction in the 3 Card Monty being played for us by the men and women of the very bodies of the two Houses of Congress which forced bad business practices down the throats of American banks and financial institutions.
And that financial system has now broken under the burden. Not from Raines’ $50 million from Fanny Mae, nor from Jamie Gorelick’s $27 million from Fanny Mae, nor even from Lee Raymond’s $400 million from an energy company. It was government directing business.
Would you lend $100 to some Joe on the street without knowing he at least had a job? Well, our financial sector was compelled to make such stupid moves as award mortgages via ‘no income verification’ loans.
Forget this Golden Parachute nonsense from either side within the context of discussing what is broken and how to fix the current financial crisis. It’s not the card to follow in the 3 Card Monte.
