17 September 2008
Class, regulation, blame
Get Your Class War On is an interesting article on campaign strategy in relation to the current financial crisis. Thomas Franks' suggests that the Democrats should highlight the crisis in terms of rich vs. poor (us vs. them) to combat "the public vs. the liberal elite" schtick of the Republican campaign.
Frank says:
I'm not an economist, nor do I really understand the workings of corporate America. Part of me hates the billionaire leaders of corporations who only seem to increase their haul while we get stiffed. As in the rising profits of oil corporations as our gas prices rise, and the multi-billion dollar salary of the CEO of my health insurance company while they raise our rates to "meet costs".
But in these publicly traded companies, are there not also Board of Directors who are elected by the shareholders? And don't these same BoDs hire the CEOs, create their pay packages and golden parachutes? Where is the ire of these stockholders? Why isn't there sweeping change in the make-up of these boards, as well as in the make-up of the CEOs pay packages.
Seems like part of the same old-boys network at work here - they are all too close to each other. If they take a swipe at someone, it might come around and hit them in their job, too.
Yep. Looks like a class war risin'.
Frank says:
On Monday, John McCain blamed the disaster on "greed by some based in Wall Street." It's a personal failing of some evil few, in other words, and presumably capitalism will start working again once we squeeze the self-interest out of it. In the weeks to come, maybe Sen. McCain will also take a bold stand against covetousness and sloth.
But the structural changes of the past 28 years that have made all this possible -- the waves of deregulation, the takeover of government itself by business interests -- these haven't made too much of an impression on him. In March Mr. McCain actually called for more deregulation in response to the crisis
I'm not an economist, nor do I really understand the workings of corporate America. Part of me hates the billionaire leaders of corporations who only seem to increase their haul while we get stiffed. As in the rising profits of oil corporations as our gas prices rise, and the multi-billion dollar salary of the CEO of my health insurance company while they raise our rates to "meet costs".
But in these publicly traded companies, are there not also Board of Directors who are elected by the shareholders? And don't these same BoDs hire the CEOs, create their pay packages and golden parachutes? Where is the ire of these stockholders? Why isn't there sweeping change in the make-up of these boards, as well as in the make-up of the CEOs pay packages.
Seems like part of the same old-boys network at work here - they are all too close to each other. If they take a swipe at someone, it might come around and hit them in their job, too.
Yep. Looks like a class war risin'.
