Something To Be Proud Of
During the lengthy time between my posts, I have found some things in our country to be proud of and I thought I’d share them with you.
I should start off by saying that I have been adamantly against any sort of taxpayer bailout of the big 3 American auto makers. That being said, Ford made me very proud today. Instead of seeking aid from the government (and by extension, Joe Taxpayer), they have made some tough cuts in their expenses and tapped into available credit lines in order to dig in for the rough times in 2009. I applaud Ford for going against the grain and NOT taking our money to keep themselves afloat. It is not the responsibility of the government or the taxpayer to keep poorly managed companies above water. Ford has taken the stance that they are going to take the consequences that come with the sub-par management decisions they’ve made in the past. I will be keeping my eye on Ford to see if they can turn the ship around or if they end up flushing our money down the toilet like Chrysler and GM.
The other item I’ve found that makes me proud comes from our new President. For the most part, Obama’s politics don’t align with mine. But today, I’ve found an issue on which he and I see eye to eye. Obama issued a critique today of what can only be described as outlandish bonuses for CEO’s on Wall Street in these dire financial times. And I must say that I wholeheartedly agree with him on this. It is despicable that these Wall Street fat cats needed taxpayer money to keep their companies from ceasing to exist only a few months ago and now they are raking in billions of dollars in bonuses. The most disgusting piece of it all is that these Gordon Gecko’s of the world are getting billions of dollars in bonuses after RUINING THE COMPANIES THEY LEAD!!!! If you were to perform your job at such a level that it completely ruined your department/unit/whatever, you’d be fired. These douche bags are getting rich by running companies into the ground then having you and I pay to fix their mistakes. UNACCEPTABLE.
I really hope that Obama finds a way to combat problems like these in the future. There is no doubt in my mind that 2009 will bring more taxpayer funded bailouts of companies and there need to be measures in place to prevent these CEO’s from receiving a billion dollar pat on the back for a job poorly done.