I am listening to NPR. They are talking about the current economic crisis. They sited a statistic in which they said that prior to 2000, the amount of personal debt in the US totaled to below 50% of GDP. From 2000 to 2008, the amount of personal debt rose to equal 100% of GDP. “The problem is us.” they said. While I agree and I agree in personal responsibility, I also protest that the message we continually heard from our leaders was that it was patriotic to spend. If you don’t spend, the implication was, you are un-American. I am sure there is plenty of blame to go around. Frankly, I am a little sick of it. Let’s take our lumps and start living in the solution. But while we are at it, let’s plug the leaks that allow the hedge fund managers and other top executives to live unreasonably high on the hog.
In recent months, GM has been losing $100,000,000 per day. Those upper tier executives with their bloated salaries and private planes have been asleep at the switch. So, how exactly did they earn their high salaries? I really want to know. What exactly were they being paid to do? If it was to gut their company, they were very effective and earned that obnoxiously high remuneration. The truth of it is, as a tax payer, I don’t want to give them any of my money. It looks like a bad investment to me.
