Nothing brings a tear to my patriotic eye like cheap plastic American flags flying out the window of a gas guzzling SUV. Flank that with a Support Our Troops magnet and I may just be moved enough to vote Republican.
Now if you're as smart as our current president you may not have noticed that was dripping in noxious sarcasm. In reality I vacation in communist countries and am planning a move to California to lead a movement to secede from the union. Despite my favorite uncle's best efforts I am a bleeding heart liberal and I resent the fact that the Republican Party has stolen the idea of patriotism. Liberals are in fact the real patriots because we are striving for a better America.
Why is it that in the supposed greatest - and certainly the richest - nation on earth, people want for food, work and opportunity? I am envious of those who pin a flag on their suit lapel and think they have done their patriotic work. Thanks for your effort, leave the mess to us. I cannot be proud of a country that, as Ralph Nader says, "has far more problems than it deserves and far more solutions than it applies." Just one of these problems is the excesses of business today and its effect on the average citizen.
The salary ratio of the average American CEO to that of a factory worker is 301:1, according to United for a Fair Economy. This is salary alone. Reuben Mark, CEO. of Colgate-Palmolive, made over $10 million in pay and bonuses in 2003 according to AFL-CIO.
When stock options are added to the package, Mark's total compensation rises to over $147 million dollars! OK, now, deep breath. Wipe those dollars signs out of your eyes. Let's put this in a real working person's perspective. An average wage earner would have to work 407 years to earn what Reuben Mark makes in one year.
This is not to say the job a CEO performs is not a difficult and demanding task but these compensation packages are rarely tied to performance. Forbes magazine ranked Reuben's overall performance at a 'C' level. Excessive executive pay not only shortchanges stockholders who depend on performance but it has financially pinched the average worker already in a tough economy.
Had the average worker received a 300 percent increase in pay as executives have since 1990, their salary would be $75,388 instead of the paltry $26,899. Average salaries however have remained relatively stable as the cost of necessities like health care and education has risen beyond the means of many hard-working American families. Taxpayers pick up the tab where the companies left off, paying for free or reduced school lunches, Section 8 housing grants, energy assistances, tax credits and deductions.
Gee, Mr. Haughty Republican, sure seems like less regulations and that smaller hands-off government plan isn't working so well. Why do you insist on subsidizing business with government funding when profits can clearly cover these costs?
If there's one thing Republicans hate, it's welfare. But man, do they love handing it out to corporations. It is just one more way corporate abuse drains American families.
Take everyone's favorite store, Wal-Mart, with $9 billion in profit last year. The government still provided Wal-Mart with $1 billion in economic development subsidies. This is independent of the support taxpayers provided for Wal-Mart's wage slaves. Now I'm no economics major but it seems to me that Wal-Mart can handle their own with $9 billion in the bank.
I am not a religious person but I do believe in a moral code and I think such a self-proclaimed noble society should follow one. The pay these executives are receiving on a yearly basis is astronomical. It is impossible to spend the kind of sums they are accumulating, which leads to me to ask, what for? Wouldn't it be a more righteous thing to more equally distribute pay? Take the burden off hard working families and the government?
A great patriot, Teddy Roosevelt once aptly said "the things that will destroy America are prosperity at any price, peace at any price, safety first instead of duty first, the love of soft living and the get-rich-quick theory of life." Love of one's country and willingness to sacrifice for it is what defines patriotism. Ensuring equal opportunity to pursue the American dream rather than superficial flag-waving is what real patriots do. Republicans should take stock in their ideology and how patriotic it really is.
