Re: $1.6B went to bailed-out bank execs FIRE THE BUMS

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren () vortex com>
Date: December 22, 2008 5:59:05 PM EST
To: dave () farber net
Cc: lauren () vortex com
Subject: Re: [IP] $1.6B went to bailed-out bank execs FIRE THE BUMS


Dave,

You say "FIRE THE BUMS" -- I'm with you, but easier said than done.

I've never flown on a private jet.  I assume that they're very nice.
I have flown in a small private prop plane once many, many years ago.
I felt like I was in an original Volkswagen Bug with wings.  I didn't
enjoy it.

I also flew several times in Digital Equipment Corp's helicopters eons
back, when they had their own gate labeled "digital" at Logan.  You'll
recall DEC used the choppers to bounce people between their various
local facilities.  It was fascinating.  DEC of course made some bad
business decisions and no longer exists (twice removed!)

The news channels are all abuzz about how the banks who received the
bailout billions are still paying and perking their execs like happy
days are here again, and their fleets of corporate jets are still
criss-crossing the skies.  Meanwhile, many in Congress wanted the auto
companies to file chapter 11 -- as if most people would buy a car from
a company that had done so -- fat chance.  Today we hear that the
Japanese auto firms, which Congress kept pointing to as their example
of doing things right, are also in trouble.  Darn it, there goes that
talking point, Congressman Blather.

For those of us who live hand to mouth, for whom a trip to Target or
Walmart is a somewhat special treat, and just keeping the utilities
running is a continuing nightmare, the attitudes of the "privileged
class" with their limos and chauffeurs are as far removed from our
daily existence as Alpha Centauri.

Don't get me wrong.  If someone has earned their money in a useful way
they should be free to spend it in any legal manner that they wish.  If
they want to buy a 767 and convert it into a flying techno-party
platform, more power to them.  Their money, their choices.

But it's a different story when corporate funds are involved,
especially at companies who are not doing well, not to mention firms
who have had to beg the taxpayers to keep them from drowning in the
muck of their own bad decisions.

The behavior of the banking industry in the current financial crisis,
in league with Treasury and Congress, is perhaps the best recent
example of how a certain class of persons feel that they have special
positions of entitlement, that they're just *better* than the hoi
polloi with whom they mix as little as possible.  Particularly
noteworthy are the excuses made that even as their very existence has
come to depend on the government bailout, these firms are still flying
their jets, claiming that "security requirements" make that necessary
for their execs.

Of course in most cases that's a flat out lie.  They simply don't want
to rub shoulders with the unwashed masses in overloaded security
lines, cramped terminals, and commercial jets.  At least be honest
about it, for goodness sake!  And if you can't stand flying with the
ordinary folks, at least use your personal money to escalate into the
private jet regime.  Now we, the taxpayers, are paying for those
private flights for the banking elite -- and don't buy for a split
second their new excuse that they're using "different money" for the
planes.

The spending of corporate monies in such wasteful manners is difficult
to condone even in good times.  It's impossible to condone in
"ordinary" bad times.  And in times like today, it's simply criminal.

We need to convert some "perk talk" into "perp walks" ...

--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren () vortex com or lauren () pfir org
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
http://www.pfir.org/lauren
Co-Founder, PFIR
  - People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Co-Founder, NNSquad
  - Network Neutrality Squad - http://www.nnsquad.org
Founder, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com




-------------------------------------------
Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now
RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/
Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com