Greed, this is the word that keeps coming to mind as I’m trying to get my mind wrapped around where we’ve come as a nation, and what we need to do in order for “the good times” to return. And, I suppose there could be a spirited debate just on that. What constitutes the “good times?” Trying to put myself in the shoes of the business people who have so lavishly benefitted from the previous administration and the past 30 or so years of trickle down economic theory in vogue with our leaders in the federal government – I would guess more of the same. In fact, we’ve proven in the last 6 months (at least from the perspective of our government leaders) how valuable these people are. As taxpayers, we are replacing their losses from bad “gambles” virtually dollar for dollar, because they are supposedly “too big to fail.” We – and by we, I’m assuming there are a lot more people besides myself – have discovered how much money many of the people on Wall Street and the Corporate elites (remember these people referring to Barrack Obama as an elitist during the last election – laughable then, pathetic now as I look back) actually make. The CEO of GM was recently “fired” by the government because he’s led GM into what for all intense and purposes amounts to bankruptcy – and he walked away with a severance package worth over $23 million. And, of course while it’s still fresh on anyone’s mind who might happen by this site, the AIG bonuses for executives who created a large part of the so-called economic meltdown receiving “retention” bonuses in the millions because they are too important to “fixing” what’s wrong with the company.

What makes these CEO’s and Wall Street bankers so important? I “get” that many of the multinational corporations are huge with hundreds of thousands of empoyees in some instances and that a few people can have a large impact on the “bottom line” of these corporations. I’m just wondering what has brought us to the place where the guy at the top is worth hundreds, maybe thousands, more than the guy at the bottom? In my younger years I played lots of sports, mostly basketball. I managed to continue playing basketball for several years after my college playing days ended. One of the things that sticks out more than most others from that experience is remembering how the good coaches I played for always emphasized that the team was no better than the guy who sat on the end of the bench. Even if his job was just making the “starters” better by working hard in practice, he was an important part of any success the team experienced. That seemed to be the business attitude in America in the 60’s when I graduated from high school and entered the work force. The guys at the top of the corporations made maybe 5 to 10 times what the guy at the bottom made. In those days peple who had very high salaries paid a much larger percentage of their income – I believe once it went over a certain amount – in income taxes. There were incentives, in the form of tax write-offs which encouraged these people to invest in churches and other non-profits with their excessive incomes. Of course, this led to many illegal tax schemes, but the point was that there wasn’t this desparity between the “haves and the have-nots” as it exists today.

I have watched over the years as the Republican party has become virtually sold out to the large corporations and the executives that lead them. They (the corporations) figured out how to give money to the politicians as an investment that paid exponential returns. This has led, in my view, to a society that is being destroyed by GREED. I have wondered over the past 20 years or so, how much is enough for these people? I have personal friends who I feel are caught up in the same cycle of GREED and don’t even have a clue what is happening to them. And, the one thing that is common between all the people I know in this “cycle” – they are all, 100%, Republicans. When I talk to them they sound like the Republican politicians in Washington DC. Any discussion relating to politics ends up with complaints about paying taxes. I’ll give you one example. I have a very good friend (I know a few details about this person because I used to have a Real Estate business and helped him buy some properties) who is a very successful businessman. And, I’ll give him all the credit he deserves – In my mind, I actually worry about him because he works too much – he is very good at what he does, but I actually pray for him that he won’t work himself into an early grave (I’ve never told him this – probably should, but I don’t think it would do anything except strain our relationship – which I value). I’m guessing that his business brings him a profit in excess of half a million each year and I helped him purchase several properties many years ago which he still owns. One of them, a 10 acre piece of land, was purchased for the then absurd price of $9,000 per acre – based on my advice (I’m only including that part because I could never follow my own advice due to the fact I couldn’t afford to) – and today he is selling it for something in the neighborhood of 60 times that amount. I’m only pointing these things out because everytime we get together he complains about all the taxes he pays.

Now, I get that a small businessman such as my friend does pay a lot of taxes. I look at my paycheck and see all the payments my employer makes “matching” my FICA and Medicare payments, the Labor and Industries taxes, retirement (I’m certain my friend pays into a retirement account for his employees) and expenses for health care which I’m sure seems like another tax for him (he is a very honorable man – despite being a Republican :o). But, the bottom line to me is that the people who are in this position (and I do agree that there needs to be tax incentives to encourage people to have small businesses) benefit more than guys like me from all the services that our taxes pay for. We need roads, we need police and firemen, in general we need organized functioning communities with vibrant “mini” economies for these small businesses to flourish. Right now, all across America, we are witnessing the result of what happens when the GREED factor puts too much money at the top of the “food chain” and these businesses start running out of customers who can pay for their services. Now, in the case of my friend, I’m not at all suggesting that he’s greedy – in fact he’s just the opposite in the sense that he performs an important public service, very professionally, at a far better price than his competitors. It’s just frustrating for me, in this instance, that he believes that the Republicans are the “answer” because of their annual push for tax cuts for the wealthy (he’s a Christian so maybe part of his rationale is the Republican’s disengenuous use of the abortion issue for the past 30 years). I, personally, look at it more like my basketball coach. When the guy at the bottom can purchase my friend’s services the economy is then flourishing and he will make even more money!

Where the real problems set in is when the small business people like my friend give credence to the Republicans who then pull the strings for the large businesses resulting in damage to the “infrastructure” or fabric of our society. These large corporations have no sense of patriotism – EVERYTHING IS BASED ON THE BOTTOM LINE. I was listening to a discussion today about how a corporate “head” was rewarded for bringing India nationals into the US to be trained to do a certain job and then shipped back to India where they took over a “public relations” part of the business at a fraction of the cost – allowing this person to “eliminate” several US jobs in the process – thereby increasing the bottom line for his company, increasing the unemployment rolls in America, and – most importantly to him I’m sure – increasing his bonus. Words like loyalty, longevity, and community are no longer part of the mantra of many of the large corporations in America. Hewlett Packard was once a very employee friendly company. Years ago one of my friends who worked there said they had NEVER laid off one worker! Enter Carly Fiorina (one of John McCain’s economic “advisors”) – who, over the strong objection of the Hewlett Packard (original) family, created a merger with COMPAQ corporation, a company HP was in direct competition with, for the express purpose of eliminating jobs. Another of my friends who still works for HP said the workers stopped what they were doing and cheared when it was reported that Fiorina was ousted – but the damage had been done – and HP is now a “modern company” where the workers don’t know from one week to the next if they will still have a job. It’s like we have traded the idea of loyalty for the notion of constant accountability with your job being on the line.

And the reality is, just as with General Motors, the American workers are the best in the world. They are the most productive, the most reliable, and the most skilled. It is the executives who usually make the huge mistakes and it is the workers who pay for their mistakes. I wonder what the hard working blue collar men and women of GM think about their former boss taking $23 million away with him while the company is going down the tubes – thanks in large part to his reluctance to make prudent decisions about the focus of the company. This idea of “squeezing” the workers has permeated most of American society at this point. I don’t know how we turn this around without some kind of major change in thinking by the general public (the place to start, in my view, is to get rid of the Republican party and replace it with something more in tune with the needs of the average American – we desparately need an opposition party to the Democrats).

I would just remind anyone who might read this about the theories of Karl Marx. Now, he is a bad word in most of American culture, but the reality is that Marx was a philosopher and his theories about capitalism are ringing quite true in America these days. It is greed that funnels the money upward until you “hit” the breaking point, which is when the “proletariat” rebel. Our economy is getting way too “top heavy” – and there needs to be an orderly redistribution of the wealth. Despite the fact these greedy ultra rich will, in most instances, fight this tooth and nail – what made the United States the greatest nation on the earth was a strong and vibrant middle class. Entreprenuers, Small businesses, and hard workers are the backbone of what made this country what it is – and we need desparately to get back to that “model.” These large corporations have gotten way too powerful and they’ve received way too much favorable treatment from our government. I believe rules need to be put in place which protect workers and cause these corporations to have to participate more in the society that produces their profits. There needs to be caps placed on the salaries of the top executives – even if it’s in the form of higher taxes on the higher levels of earnings. And this idea that people on Wall Street, or across America, can make huge profits gambling on stocks has to change as well. Rules have to be put in place where the stock market is returned to a place where people make long term investments in companies and the people who are gambling as day traders and the like, should be taxed more heavily. What they are doing produces nothing (except grief for the real working class in this country).

And the idea that corporations can do business in this country and not pay taxes has to end. Corporate “tax havens” off shore need to be “discovered” and ended. Companies like Halliburton, who bilk our government for billions with favorable “no-bid” contracts, shouldn’t be allowed to operate in this country if they want to move their headquarters to places like Dubai in order to avoid taxes and government oversight. WE COULD GET ALONG JUST FINE WITHOUT HALLIBURTON – SOMEONE WOULD FILL THE VOID. We live in a great nation, we should all be proud of that and be willing to pay our fair share to keep it that way. I accept that my fair share is more than my son who is young and is just getting started in life. Once he’s more established in whatever carreer he chooses then his “share” will increase. We are sending the wrong message to our children when we complain about taxes, we borrow to the hilt, and we support a government which does the same. It is time for the general mentality to be changed – the old “attitude adjustment” – where we start thinking collectively about preserving and maintaining the infrastructure of this nation (and I mean the physical infrastructe as well as the internal – meaning the institutions, government ideals, education system, etc.) and placing more importance on those who facilitate that than those who generate huge profits for their companies and stockholders. Our schools, our bridges, our forests, our environment, and our principles are all FAR more important than the shareholders of the major corporations in this great nation!