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American Spunk

Tuesday, March 19, 2013
By Ken Cohen, S.B.

Teachers pink-slipped and Wells Fargo CEO gets $19.3 million a year were news headlines I saw in different news sources on the same day last week. There is a lack of good business sense in both cases.

First, the firing of teachers means a less-prepared work force in the not-distant future which is, decidedly, bad business for the country. The economy has been so skewed as to make

middle-class existence difficult to maintain, so that both parents often work, a lot. This means they have less time and energy for their children. Fewer teachers also means less attention – poor child! This is an unhealthy social situation.

In the second case, of the Wells Fargo CEO – it seems pretty dumb, business-wise. After all, the average fulltime worker at Wells Fargo makes about $40,000 a year. The CEO is getting 500 times more! Do you mean to tell me that Wells Fargo can’t shop around for a CEO that would do the same job for two million a year or even one million? Which is 25 to 50 times more than the average fulltime worker instead of 500 times? That would save them eighteen or nineteen million per year which could be paid, in part, as dividends to share holders and, more importantly, in better salaries to the employees. When the middle-class is solid, the country prospers.

Then there are the corporations like Wal-Mart, which pay less than a living wage to their fulltime employees while making billions in profit each year. They encourage their workers to take advantage of government aide and a high percentage do just that to survive. So the U.S. taxpayer is paying to supplement the low salaries that Wal-Mart and fast food corporations pay their workers. I’m sure the Walton family is grateful for everyone’s help in their billions-of-dollars per year income.

We are being abused, severely abused. In many countries children get good educations and plenty of attention. CEOs make eleven times more than the average full time worker in Japan, about 25 times more in Denmark, etc. Where is American spunk?

I would suggest boycotts of companies where the CEO’s make ridiculous amounts and/or pay cruelly low wages to their workers.

Concerning education, I’d suggest that the military designate a part of their annual budget to education which will assure a strong secure nation.

Election campaign reform and lobbying financial restrictions would help considerably. Long live democracy! Long live freedom in the United States and everywhere else!

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