Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for February 01, 2009

Many businesses pay their people on a bonus or similar incentive basis. Sort of a high level version of the waitress with a paltry salary who has to hustle for her tips. I’ll bet those stats on bonuses that certain congressmen are bandying about include everyone, whether CEO or lowly sales rep.

The more fundamental issue is that government has no business setting prices, wages, interest rates, or any other evaluation that should be left to a free market. It’s government’s job to arrest criminals, not to make innocent people prove they aren’t crooks.

(And don’t whine that this crisis is a failure of the free market. The industries in the most trouble were among the the most heavily regulated and politically manipulated all along. To fix the economy, start repealing laws, not passing more.)

A Republican bozo named W just finished putting future generations in debt paying off the cost of his stupid war in the wrong place. Talk about ripping off tax payers. He payed so little attention to domestic affairs involving his buddies on Wall St that we have the current disaster. At least the Dems will spend it here.

One company that received TARP money paid out something like 40% of it in bonuses, with the AVERAGE being over $100,000. I actually agree that there were probably a number of people who received bonuses of only a couple thousand, and that it might be a significant part of the compensation, like the tips to a waitress.

HOWEVER…

As the “service” was provided to the shareholders, the shareholders ought to have a say in the size of the tip. In this case the waiters (darn few waitresses in that business) not only got the order wrong, but ate the customers lunch. I certainly didn’t want to tip ANY of the people handling any of my retirement accounts. But the people taking the biggest tips were the ones desiding how much they should get.

AND for every couple hundred lower level types who were just doing bad work there was an upper level type who was making bad policy, and THEY didn’t have a “a paltry salary” (unless your definition of “paltry” and mine differ by several decimal points). And THEY were the ones who had to get the multiple millions in bonuses in order to keep the average up in a respectable range.

pschearer says: “…The more fundamental issue is that government has no business setting prices, wages, interest rates, or any other evaluation that should be left to a free market.” . Right, then. So you’re saying that the Federal Reserve System shouldn’t exist, shouldn’t require banks to hold cash reserves, and shouldn’t set the Fed Funds Rate at which banks make overnight loans among themselves? Actually, you’re saying the government shouldn’t print money, right? . PS - this crisis isn’t the failure of the free market. It’s more like the free market being being ruthlessly efficient, and responding to manipulation with a major correction. The free market works, make no mistake. It’s just that people always assume it will produce a desirable outcome, even though it sometimes works like a forest fire.

yep to the last comment.

An unregulated free market economy works amazingly well in that it maintains itself and allows a relataively small number of people who understand the market and have exceedingly good luck coupled with exceedingly small consciences to make huge profits. An unregulated free market economy demonstrably does NOT serve to maintain a relatively stable economic environment, employment, or reliable income for the vast majority of the populace. That’s why regulation is needed. It’s not a socialist plot, just a safety factor to compensate for the apparent lack of conscience or ethics in the typical CEO.