Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Why the Rich Aren't Like Us, part 2





Gotta love it. His platform is get rid of the inheretence tax so more can be like him. If my dad were to die tomorrow, his inheretence would not make me a memeber of the lucky sperm club. Why not just say I was born into a rich white family and we protected ours and you can be that way too. Oh, wait, you don't have money. Too bad for you. My sperms is lucky. This guy must know GW. Without his daddy, he would never even made it to grad school.

rojo
Why the Rich Aren't Like Us, part 1

It was just one of those days when things were making emotional impressions on me. I heard that Williams of the Cowboys, in an attempt to get back at Dez Bryant (rookie) for not carrying his pads invited many to his rookie dinner. I guess this is an NFL tradition and the dinner tab runs maybe $10,000. Gack! Well, in this case it ran damn near $55,000. Expensive lesson in rookie ethics. It is also bullying. I am sure that the camaraderie of the team will be fine after that! No devisiveness there. By the same token, that amount of money spent on one meal could feed 25 families of four with careful shopping for two weeks. Every now and then professional sports and salaries depress me.

But not so much as the fabled You Tube video of the crash of a $1,000,000 Ferrari. Totalled. Enough to feed 5,000 familes of four for 2 weeks. Another thing is that one car purchase may have employed 10-12 people for two weeks. Maybe two months. In normal car terms, that is 50 new cars and jobs for 30-40 people for a month or two. The toys of the rich really don't power economic engines.

rojo

Friday, September 24, 2010

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Polka Sunday





and Cleveland style


add hip hop


and then they rock it!


rojo

Friday, September 10, 2010

Wednesday, September 01, 2010

Well, Dang!

The company I worked for, following the lead of many other companies, quit giving raises for two years. Also, no bonuses to lower level managers. The economy was just too tight and none of our competitors were doing it either, so if we did we that, we would put ourselves at an economic disadvantage, so the story went. Most of us tugged our forelocks and went ahead with business as usual--all did except one or two who found a competitor to work for. I knew it was a pile of gob at the time.

But our bottom line got so much better we were purchased by one of the big boys. O yes the CEO got a rather steep 2.7 million dollar bonus for all his hard work. Not rumor, it is in the 10K. Well, to say the least I trust nothing that comes out of his mouth. We went from an extended family run business to being bought by the big boys on Wall Street. The sale is final in two weeks and we are told to hold on to our hats, we are going to grow!!!

In my brain I look at that 2.7 mill bonus. When you break that out over 2800 employees that comes out to maybe a $0.35 an hour raise for one year, without benefits. So basically everybody got held back for $0.35/hour so the big guy can make his. That is maybe $1,000 annually per employee. A small vacation, or maybe dental work for someone. Sad. They may have wanted that.

But, we are told today that this happened all across the country. Notice execs did not lose pay, they got bonuses. I am betting that many of the bonuses were over what my CEO made. I bet some of the layoffs lost their homes, dreams and futures, all for bonuses. Being a boss is not easy, but people rely on you to lead and to keep them employed.

rojo