greedy 400

What better act to follow the 300 Spartans than America's "fortunate" 400 ? And what exactly makes those 400 so fortunate you may ask ? Let me give you a hint: this was published in the Wall Street Journal. You guessed it, these are the people who make the most money. The 400 or so taxpayers who report incomes of over $100 million a year. Why on earth anyone would need that much money is beyond me. Sure it is good to be richly compensated for one's efforts and to be "valued" by society. But at a rate of $100 million plus ?

One reader from Texas was quick to point out that "fortunate" is a bad adjective to use. Because it implies luck and does not recognize the "hard work and enterprise" that go into amassing that much money. The letter goes on to congratulate the drivers of the US economy, the creators of jobs, etc. etc. In short, it is a prayer of worship to the gods. The letter could not have been better if it had been written by the wizards of Madison Avenue. Although I do agree that the reader has a point. The adjective "fortunate" is clearly misplaced. Greedy would be my first choice.

No doubt one of those fortunate individuals is the former CEO of Countrywide, who convinced his company -that is to say his equally greedy board members- the he deserved 100's of millions of dollars in compensation and even more in equity for all his good work and efforts. That good work we learned recently, consisted in peddling mortgages and loans to people who could ill afford it. How is that for creating wealth ?

And then there are the CEOs of banks, investment businesses, and financial "services" companies, who also walked off with millions in wages and bonuses. These are the guys responsible for repackaging the loans into various "financial instruments" that could then be sold to unsuspecting investors. The repackaging was certainly a creative act and one that disguised the problem in a clever way.

Not to mention the famous hedge fund operators, some of whom were "leveraged" 30+ times. Gambling with upwards of $22 billion, when they only held a few hundred million. Hard work for sure. And very enterprising to boot.

These are surely the creme de la creme. The people "who are the engine that drives our capitalist society." The "creators of income and wealth for all Americans." Have another glass of kool-aid, my friends.