Corporate Socialism

We have been told, for the past months, that we needed to bail out (insert industry) because if we didn't the world would collapse around us and we would all die. Pretty dramatic. And, if you're standing there watching the economy implode, it also sounds pretty credible. What the hell do we do next?

Then, out of the intertubes comes this little gem from Rachel Beck and Joe Bel Bruno. "Despite the Wall Street meltdown, the nation's biggest bans are preparing to pay their workers as much as last year or more, including bonuses tied to personal and company performance."

WTF? A couple of things jump out here. First, the same as last year? Second, based on performance? How in the hell do you reconcile those two? Why would a business who is collapsing be paying employees at any level anything like last years salary? Or, if the bonuses, (bonuses?) are to be paid on performance, why aren't the employees paying the company?

Now this should be obvious. Even if you're a dyed in the wool Friedman capitalist. When the Government (read you and I) bales out a company, it is corporate socialism. If we bought the company, then why in the hell are we paying people for work they did not do?

Let's start with socialism. At this very moment, Mr. McCain and Ms. Palin are screaming at the top of their lungs that Mr. Obama is a socialist. By the way. In my world, that is a good thing. Yet, they have given away billions to corporations of all sorts in the way of tax breaks and the like, to make them viable. How in the hell is that not socialism?

The second sentence is for me, what he thing is all about. The bastard's cheated and lied and stole from other people. You don't pay such people. You incarcerate them. For those who are of the Republican Reich wing variety, ya put the fuckers in jail.

We may be able to pull ourselves out of this mess. But, I for one, am going to start planning my exit strategy. There is on-going discussion in this family about farmland. It is beginning to appear as though the time is drawing near for us all to start bringing those discussions to a close and act upon them.