There are a lot of Americans really hurting right now. They need help with their bills, their healthcare and their future. You know who doesn’t need this help? Any company whose corporate officers received millions of dollars a year in compensation.
Seriously, if they are really worth that much money for running their companies, you would have thought they’d be bright enough to come up with contingency plans to keep the company afloat under the worst of circumstances. Instead, they took their billions and ran off to their private yachts and mansions so as to not have to associate with us contagious peons.
So right now, despite my support for the tourist industry here in Alaska, I am finding it hard to see my tax dollars going to bail out the cruise ship industry, the airline industry or the hotel industry… to just name a few.
Want to take a closer look at that? Well, let’s start with the fact that most companies used the huge tax break they got from Orange Peel to buy back their stock. They did not invest it in their employees or customers. They invested it in poorer service accompanied by higher costs to the consumer and higher paychecks for the executive suites. Trickle down economics, again without the trickle down.
Airlines gave us less space, uncomfortable seats, and exorbitant prices for the simple privilege of carrying a bag on. They gave us bathrooms so small you get way more intimate with an airplane toilet than you ever wanted to be. They gave us a bag with four peanuts and a glass of water. Everything else was a charge. We are so close to our seat partners in our undersized chairs that we are closer with our airplane row mate than we are with many of our spouses. But not to worry. The federal government is actually considering bailing them out so they can continue to provide this wonderful service while their executives make more in an hour than you will make in a lifetime.
Cruise industry – are you kidding me? They pollute our oceans with their discharges and then lie about it. They are floating petri dishes that under the best of circumstances forces you to live in closer proximity to your suite mate that I have to my dogs at night… and they sleep slammed up against me. They rarely end without diarrhea and some sort of contagious bug floating around to everyone. And they never seem to bother to clean up their act since this repeats itself time and time again. The federal government is actually considering bailing them out so they can continue to provide this wonderful service while their executives make more in an hour than you will make in a lifetime.
Hotels – hotels charge you for things you never use in case you may someday use them. I go to Vegas and my cheap hotel room doubles in prices once all the required add ons appear… you get the picture. I’m too tired to rant on anymore.
Bottom line is that Congress should be bailing out small businesses and the everyday American who can’t pay their utility bill because of layoffs. They should not even be considering bailing out a company whose executive suite’s salaries could cover an entire city’s needs for months. Until I hear that they are giving back some of their wealth to help their employees stay afloat in these troubling times, I have no interest in helping them at all.
Most Americans understand this. Why doesn’t Washington?