On TPM's front page,  in a post headlined "Just What is a Bonus?" reader TR points out that a big part of the outrage on the part of the public is that people commonly see a "bonus" as a reward for a job well done.  Thus, in the case of a bankrupt company being rescued by Uncle Sam the common understanding of the typical American is nobody at that place deserves a bonus and certainly nothing in the millions.  This is unquestionably true.  He also points out that in the world of high financial thievery that many people are paid most of their salary as "bonuses" at year's end for tax purposes highlighting that the word "bonus" is simply being  manipulated so that people who make too much to begin with can dodge as many taxes as possible.  Of course, this also pisses off the public, most of whom don't get any "bonus" of any kind and who are just barely making it economically if they've been amongst the lucky who haven't lost their jobs, etc...

This whole matter highlights the obscene disconnection between the world of the executive business class and the rest of our society.  We have all known for many years now that the people on Wall Street and those who are in the executive ranks in corporations make astronomical sums of money.  Now that government involvement is giving the public a much closer look at what goes on in the business world the revulsion and disapproval of how business is done in this country grows on a daily basis.  I think this is extraordinarily healthy and long overdue. 

For decades accolades and honors have been heaped upon business people for essentially reaching new heights in greed, dishonesty and a "profit at all costs" mentality without regard for the negative human costs and consequences these practices often cause.  More than anything else they have been rewarded financially in ways that most people can only dream of.  Nowadays, everyone who makes less than $100,000 annually is pretty much considered a chump and a loser in the business world.  A huge majority of Americans would be included in that category of course.  According to a census bureau report from August of last year, median household income in the US is $50,233.00 http://www.census.gov/prod/2008pubs/p60-235.pdf.  That means half of the households in the US are making due on less than that, many on much, much less than that, many more on not a whole lot more than that.  During the period 2005-2007, only  3.7% of all American households had income in excess of $200,000.00 annually.  That number is only 4.7% of "families" according to the census http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/STTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=01000US&-qr_name=ACS_2007_3YR_G00_S1901&-ds_name=ACS_2007_3YR_G00_

I mention these figures to remind others that the average American has virtually nothing in common with the people who are the immediate beneficiaries of this massive government rescue of the financial sector.  The life of the average American is a completely different world from that in which executives are paid vast sums even when their actions have literally contributed to world economic collapse.  I repeat: the average American has virtually nothing in common with the people who are being rescued by them in this massive bailout of the banks and financial industry. 

The average American has far more in common with the people who were victims of the great Christmas Tsunami in the Indian Ocean than they do with the American execs who sank the world financial system.  How grotesque is it to ask the average American who has been struggling literally for decades, just to make ends meet, to save the jobs and businesses of the people who live lavish lifestyles and who are the recipients of incomes and perquisites that cannot be justified on any logical or sensible scale?  I think that the number one thing going through most American's minds when they hear about these absurdly self-serving situations the "masters of the universe" have setup for themselves is "how dare they!" 

How different is the world of the average American worker from that of the thieves, conmen and crooks on Wall Street?  The average American is literally economically punished if they don't punch in on time every day.  The typical American worker's wages are meted out by the minutes they put in on the job.  Most modern time clocks measure in units of less than a minute and if you aren't there on time or take too long at your break you get docked.  No questions asked.  In the typical American workplace if you are late more than a handful of times in a year you are liable to get fired.  No questions asked.  The average American is subject to termination at any time, protected ostensibly by state and federal employment protections but in reality has none that an employer is, to coin a phrase, "bound to respect."  Absolute, iron clad authoritarianism characterizes the workplace regime of the typical American worker.  Anyone who works in the real world or remembers what it is like but who has escaped it, understands that employers rule the roost in absolute fashion and in the typical American workplace workers are routinely treated poorly, improperly disciplined and terminated, subject to all manner or restrictive rules that are often harsh and that do not allow them to attend to family responsibilities or anything else outside of the workplace during hours where attendance at work is expected and required without negative economic consequences.  A century ago this state of affairs was often reffered to, and quite accurately, as "wage slavery".  If a typical, nonunion worker is fired in America they are basically shit out of luck except in the most egregious circumstances and the burden of finding any sort of justice is on them personally which means they have to pay a lawyer themselves if they want to seek it.  But since they're unemployed at that point and have little or no savings as is the case with most workers,  relatively few pursue any sort of justice.  Most workers just take whatever is handed to them.  This has been going on for as long as I can remember and I've been working for well over 30 years now.

Contrast that with the world of rapacious financial wizards who receive hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars whether it's called salary, a bonus or whatever!  And the average American is being told he/she must bear the weight of bailing these people out in return for what?  What do "we" get out of this what most Americans think and they know the answer which is little or nothing and probably nothing.  The average American knows the best they can probably hope for is that the economy will restabilize and most of them will be able to get back to work.   They understand that the people at the top see the real "crisis" as being the one impacting Wall Street and the major crisis for the little people of low wages, lack of health care, employment instability and/or joblessness is secondary.

As stated above, most Americans can only dream of what it would be like to make money at the rate executives are paid even for one year let alone year after year throughout a career.  For my entire life there has been a concerted campaign by that top income group, who rule the business world, to keep wages and benefits for the rest of us down as low as possible and to emasculate unions and/or destroy even the possibility of workers joining unions to protect themselves and their interests in the same way executives have lawyers negotiatiate sweetheart employment contracts for themselves.  And they have done this while the productivity of the American worker has consistently risen.  The executives themselves and other wealthy people have reaped nearly the entire reward for the increased productivity of the average worker over the past thirty years.  They have met with incredible success at keeping wages and benefits down and in significant part that success has fueled the runaway growth of income inequality in this country.  When you consider the income numbers overall, the shocking breadth of the transfer of wealth over time from the average American to the very, very few at the top becomes clearer and it is truly obscene.  There's nothing those bastards don't have and they have essentially been robbing the workers of the nation of the benefit of their own productivity for decades.  This is absolutely wrong and unacceptable.

The obscenity of American income inequality is highlighted by things like the absurd AIG "bonus" issue.  So while not at all disagreeing with TR's point that Americans typically consider bonuses a reward for a job well done I would add something.  I think the financial sector bailout has provided a rare opportunity for the American public to voice it's strong disapproval of the sickening inequality that has been allowed to grow in this country over the past generation.  The especially galling nature of this inequality is maximized when you have this tiny class of incredibly powerful and wealthy people sucking, like the parasites they are, off the average American to save their greedy asses without so much as a thank you!  Yes, the Republicans led the charge for this, but few Democrats went out of their way to stop it or do much else about it.  This is an appropriate time for a reckoning.  So as bad as it all is, one positive aspect of the whole financial debacle is that it presents us with the opportunity to completely realign the distribution of wealth and power in this country and level the playing field back to an acceptable point where the idea of prosperity is more than a fleeting hope for the average American.  Now that the Democrats are back in charge let's see if they will really do much to correct this outrageous situation.  And if and when they do you know the Republicans rallying cry will be "Class War!" to which I hope and pray the Democrats and the American people respond, for once,  with a resounding: "Bring it on baby!"  The growth of income inequality over the past 30 years has been a byproduct of the one-sided class war waged on the average American by the bullies in the executive suites and the other wealthy people whose greed and selfishness knows no bounds.  But the time has come for the average American to show those class warrior bullies the contempt and scorn they have deserved all along and to stand up to them once and for all.  The bullies in the executive suites and their allies in American politics (mostly Republicans) are no different than any other and what they hate most is when somebody stands up to them.  Why?  Because as everyone knows, bullies are really cowards.  They make a great show and hope to get their way by initimidation, as they often do, but as anyone who has ever done it knows: all you have to do to get rid of the bully is stand up to him.  It's time the citizens of this country assert themselves by putting the economic and political bullies in their place.

The income numbers alone justify a new New Deal in this country that includes single payer health care, dismantling of the obscene, unproductive and grotesquely wasteful permanent war economy and massive reductions in the annual war budget that now approaches three quarters of a trillion dollars annually even in these hard times, improved educational opportunities for every American, a genuinely progressive tax system that has the wealthy paying their fair share, real and drastic action on climate change that preserves this country and our world for the enjoyment and use of generations to come and serious reduction of poverty in this country among many other things that have been sorely neglected for decades while the ruling class has pursued riches and world domination at the expense of the average American family.

The only way we will see a new New Deal is if we, the people, demand it.  Do not expect even the Obama adminstration to do this unless forced.  Despite all Obama's unique qualities, the people at the helm of his adminstrative ship are still all creatures of the environment that brought us the past thrity years of income inequality, jobs disappearing, growing poverty, idiotic imperialistic wars and the totally irresponsible and unethical thievery we've seen throughout the business world.  

Don't shy away from making the wishes and desires of the common people heard in the halls of government!  Don't listen to the voices that counsel docility masquerading as restraint or "giving them a chance."  The more time we give without demanding our voice be heard the more time we hand to the special interests to cut us out of the deal entirely.  If you don't think that's true look at the debate over health care or even the banking bailout where the lobbyists representing predatory wealth swarm daily like vultures.  The clear lesson of history and in modern politics is that if you don't make demands you will not only not be heard, you will get screwed.  The common people won't be heard at all if we are not shouting at the top of our lungs, making those who say they represent us uncomfortable (as they are now while trying to squirm away from responsibility for the AIG bonuses, etc...), and demanding we get for the common people of this country the things they have deserved for so long but have been denied.  Now is the time for people power.  It's unlikely to come again in our lifetimes, so let's act on behalf of our children, grandchildren and posterity before it is too late.

Whatever you may think of the individual decisions he made, President Truman stood his ground with the Soviet Union in Greece, in Berlin, and he acted decisively in Korea.  It was clear that he was in command.  President Kennedy stood up to the steel executives when they engaged in price fixing and he didn't hesitate to let them know who was boss.

Now comes a huge, but bankrupt and incompetent business in the form of AIG which, but for the recent injection of billions in aid from the federal government would have gone belly up months ago, and with arrogance unmatched, telling the government it "must" pay the executives who wrecked the company hundreds of millions in bonuses.  The response of our highest level government representatives?  Over the weekend, the ineffective Treasury Secretary Geithner and the President's #1 economic advisor Summers who, having been dressed down by their apparent bosses at AIG, tell the nation that "we are a nation of contracts" and the government cannot "willy nilly" just "abrogate" them!  My instant reaction is "Why the fuck not?  We own the company."  But I digress, then today our President comes to the public to reassure us that the government will use "all legal avenues" to prevent the undeserved bonuses from being paid.  Has it really come to this?  Is "we can't promise ya anything, but we're going to use every legal avenue to block the bonuses."  Sounds a whole lot to these midwestern ears like "we are afraid to take on these guys."  I just don't see President's Truman or Kennedy making that statement.

Now with proper respect for the nuances and legalities involved, what kind of half-assed wimpy responses are these?  Do these people discuss what they are going to say about obviously hyperpolitically sensitive subjects?  Sure doesn't seem that way.  Does it cross their minds that these sorts of statements make them look ineffective and timorous?  Any political advisor worth his or her salt would know point blank that in this circumstance the President and his men need to come off as being in full command and control of the situation.  That is the opposite of the impression these guys are leaving the past few days.  When a leader does not seem to be in full command it is natural for people to wonder if they should be in command and are they really up to the job they've got.  I am horrified that the Obama people have not at the very least attempted to look like they were in charge.

The only response, and I repeat the only response that is politically acceptable is the following whether from the President or one of his people but especially from the President is:

"Under no circumstances will anyone at AIG be receiving a bonus as long as I am President and the people of the United States own 80% of that company.  Rest assured that I will not allow those who drove AIG in the ground to be rewarded for what can only be described as their unbelievably catastrophic performance."

Whiners and legalists can nit pick with this but politically it is the only sane response.  It also happens to be the only response that makes any sense whatsoever.  Everything else comes off weak (to say the very least).  Who, after all, is in command at AIG?  I thought it was the government.  Apparently, the government thinks it works for AIG even though it owns the damn company!

Obviously, there needs to be a responsible and reasonable approach to government and especially so during a crisis.  Nonetheless, that is no excuse for hiding behind pathetic, lame arguments and faililng to take command when it necessary.  The statements of the President in particular on matters such as this need to be clear and unambiguous and frankly, coming out and saying essentially "we'll see what we can do legally" is unacceptable.  It should have been unacceptable to Obama himself who should have said to his people they need to come back with something that doesn't make him look like a powerless wimp. 

I am quite discouraged by the apparent inability of the Obama team to take charge of the financial crisis.  I know it has not been long, but part of taking control is appearing to be in control.  Summers doesn't give that sense and Geithner is a disaster.  He is in so far over his head and is so far out of his league it isn't even funny.  Even a casual observer can detect that.  Making matters worse, both of these characters were integral players in constructing the deregulated atmosphere in which all this unbounded irresponsibility and fraud took place.  How they hell are these guys supposed to fix the problems they helped, in no small measure, to create?  It's clear they still think it's about restoring these rotten, corrupt, companies instead of putting things in order for the American people.

It seems that every day with each new revelation of chutzpah and gall that all I can doi shake my head in wonder and say "Oy!  Has it really come to this?"

I just saw this AP article on the predictable metamorphasis of the insurance industry and how they are now suddenly and miraculously making themselves into something they are not: organizations interested in providing the best health care possible to the greatest number of Americans. 

You can read it here: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/INSURANCE_MAKEOVER?SITE=MOSTP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

The well paid lobbyists for the predatory insurance parasites are now lubricating the gears of government (aka campaign coffers of Democrats) with the soothing syrup of the money they have extorted from the victims of their chicanery: you and me.  They are letting the lube flow so they can gorge themselves on the new subsidy scheme the President's advisers are constructing for them and on their behalf.  If successful, this scheme may or may not provide adequate coverage for some Americans who wouldn't otherwise have insurance.  It will, however, definitely allow the insurance parasites to grow even fatter and more malignant as they feed at the now enlarged trough of excessive premiums and minimal care they thrive on.

As this process proceeds it only gets uglier.  You cannot bargain with the devil and expect a good deal.  The "compromise" that will allow any sort of a bargain to be struck, and an insurance company subsidy bill to be passed, will be achieved at the expense of the American public.  What will be compromised is the health of the nation and the idea of everyone being able to get the medical care they need.

Any approach, other than single payer, is unrealistic, needlessly more expensive and fails to cover all our people.  That's the bottom line and we all know it.  Any other approach only perpeturates the rotten system we have in place right now. 

Anyone navie enough to believe that the creeps who have been enriching themselves by denying health care to the people they supposedly serve are ever going to change needs to stand aside and let clearer heads prevail.  A leopard can't change it's spots and the completely parasitical health insurance industry is never going to become a benevolent, customer oriented enterprise concerned about the health of it's customers.  They are about maximizing profits for private gain: period.  They are not in the business of making sure people get the health care they need.  Unless and until we are honest about that we're fooling no one but ourselves.

As citizens we should do all we can to stop the obscene charade that is beginning in Washington where, through a system of legalized bribery, the parasites of the health insurance industry will continue feeding off the body and blood American public.