Democratic lawmakers are joining the chorus of Americans asking how slumping banks could hand out executive bonuses during the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
Following a letter from Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), has opened an investigation into the matter, according to a release from his office.
In letters to the heads of nine major U.S. banks getting propped up with billions of taxpayer dollars, Waxman said he “question[s] the appropriateness of depleting the capital that taxpayers just injected into the banks through the payment of billions of dollars in bonuses, especially after one of the financial industry’s worst years on record.”(ABC News)
A few years ago this would have all happened quietly, we wouldn’t have heard a word about it. Let’s hope the exposure this type of should-be-criminal behavior causes some lucid, honest person in a position of power to stop these payments. It seems that shameless greed is required to be the CEO of a financial institution, not a conscience. Makes you long for the day that people like these, who have orchestrated the theft of thousands of citizen’s money, were run out of town after being tarred and feathered.
I know, I’m a humanist, I’m supposed to understand and accept these situations. So sue me. Some humans behave too badly toward their fellow citizens for easy forgiveness. They don’t even have enough compassion to kill their victims and end their suffering. They leave their victims alive, just barely, some looking forward to decades of just getting by. I cannot find the words to express my utter contempt and disrespect for these creatures. It’s not that they’re criminals that so offends me. It’s that they can ignore the damage they’ve done all of us to one degree or another. They’ve added insult to injury on a grand scale that may change capitalism profoundly. They’ve increased the possibility that your children will experience poverty at some point in their lives. They’ve consigned many former college students to a life of fewer opportunities. They’ve made many of us near retirement age have to face the reality that we won’t be retiring.
We’re subsidizing their recklessness. We are paying poor performers as if they’d done a good job. We are rewarding very anti-social, dangerous behavior. It’s our money they’re using.
All bonuses should be confiscated in the name of the people to pay back toward the 700 billion. If anyone wants to call that “spreading the wealth around”, let them. Doesn’t mean it’s a bad idea. If these guys are the pinnacle of capitalism then capitalism is in need of repair. It is unthinkable to me that anyone would aspire to a life of luxury at such an expense to so many.
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