Jen Sorensen for December 22, 2020

It’s good to read some ’toons addressing this issue. Corporate officers salaries began to pull away from reality during the Reagan years, and they continue to rise, even when a CEO is doing poorly.

47 % aren’t going to vote for a Republican anyway and they have a safety net , , , ,a voice from the past ?

I have worked for 3 major corporations. In one the CEO cut everyone’s pay and benefits during his “rationalization” process and the board gave him an additional (yes additional) bonus of nearly 6 million dollars for his cost cutting. Trust major corporations as far as you can pick them up and throw them. They would use slaves if we let them.

Now… do we NEED business Leaders? Yes, we do. Do we NEED corporate level executives? Yes, we do. BUT… do they NEED to make TRULY OBSCENE AMOUNTS OF MONEY at the expense of their workers, you know, the people WHO KEEP THEM IN BUSINESS??? HELL NO!! They need to remember that happy, well paid workers are usually much more productive, which increases a business’s earning potential, which increases profits, which should be distributed to the people who actually do the work, which will continue to help build profits. It’s a continuous cycle, and if done properly, EVERYONE BENEFITS!

Hold it, and another thing………… Blue collar Republican kinda guy: “And don’t you dare make that rich guy pay his taxes or raise ’em either!”

Sad, but true. I’m a life long capitalist conservative Republican, but things have gotten too skewed in favor of the rich. The true middle class is disappearing. Without intervention, the rich will simply use their economic power to grab more and more.

When I graduated from high school in 1962, my husband and I bought a three bedroom, two bath house and two cars within the next few years, on what he was making on a job he got right out of high school. Most of the guys I graduated with did the same. I didn’t work, few women did, and those who did usually chose to do so. Now, it isn’t really a choice for most women, unless they don’t mind living in poverty. When I decided to become a teacher, my first quarter’s tuition at Southern Illinois University was $79, and we rented any books we needed for $20. Anyone could go to college with just a part time job to pay for it, and without piling up a lifetime of debt. Since that time, the GNP has skyrocked and the American worker is acknowledged to be the most productive in the world. But, all of the value they are producing is going to the top 1%. who use that money to buy politicians who make laws that insure that they keep making most of the money, which they can use to buy more politicians, who will write more laws so they can make more money to buy more politicians and etc etc etc.The Middle Class standard of living is declining, and a college graduate hasn’t anywhere near as easy a time as we had with just high school. We produce the highest quality goods on earth, and we can’t afford to buy them. A young person told me a while back that I couldn’t really understand why their generation was so angry. What I actually don’t understand is why they aren’t rioting in the streets.

The left and the right square off against each other as if it’s WWlll and the rich sit in their mansions and laugh and laugh and think “Mission accomplished” .

The President of a company I once worked for (it is now defunct) used to crow about how he deserved all of the pay and perks that he paid himself… he would sleep in his office all afternoon… at the end of doing the company’s books for the year he gleefully announced record profits, but no bonuses or raises would be given… on Friday, while he was sleeping, we took his phone (all land lines back then) and pennied shut his door, and everybody went home for the weekend… first time in years that he ended up “working extra hours”…

The convection theory of wealth. Money rises.

We’re being kept poor on purpose. They want us to blame each other for the meager job market and the starvation wages.

Every time a Republican barks “Socialism!”, the 1% say “Who’s a good boy?”

The greatest redistribution of wealth in the history of mankind has been going on for 30 years. UPWARD

Read an article (which I wish I could find) several months ago that addressed much of what is happening in corporate America. For years, economic theory held that corporations owed their loyalties to their stockholders, their employees, and their communities. About 20-30 years ago, some economist turned this on its head. He espoused the view that corporations only exist to server their stockholders (which usually includes top management). That is when it all started going downhill as more companies began to share this view.

The ‘new’ generation gap…“Me” versus “Us”.