The above is a quote from Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini, who spent over $7 million dollars of Aetna's corporate funds to defeat Obama. You can quite plainly see the utter disregard and lack of basic human compassion this man holds for the public in this one statement, and sadly, it's a stance mirrored by many, MANY other CEO's and corporate executives. They have nothing but contempt for the laborers who work for them and generate their vast wealth.
Now that the Republicans have been defeated and exposed for the demented, conniving assholes that they are, we need to step up our own campaign and work on dumping these people who hold unrestrained greed, unethical business practices, and who despise the middle class simply for not being as rich as they are, as virtues. They're not. They're disgusting and regressive, and they need to go.
I've said before, I don't have a problem with people making money, or being rich. It's how you gained that money and what you do/say with your wealth and influence that make you contemptible or not, and unfailingly, most of these guys are colossal dicks. We need more rich guys like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, and less John Schnatters and Robert Murrays.
I know I'll get asked by my few conservative friends why I demonize these guys. I didn't do it man, they did it to themselves. I'm also not calling for the government to raid their homes and take their money at gunpoint and distribute it to the lazy welfare jockeys (a slightly embellished quote from one of my friends). The wealthy have been on their own version of welfare for 30 years, with the lowest tax rates ever and hundreds of tax loopholes to get out of paying ANY taxes.
Taxes are not bad, guys. They generate revenue that pays for things like 911 services - police, fire, EMTs; for food stamp programs so that people in the 21st century don't die of starvation; and for things like infrastructure: You know, those pesky roads and bridges that are all over the place and keep falling into disrepair.
The minimum wage helps ensure that rich CEOs can't just cut wages on people and pocket the extra (which they're doing already with the tax cuts they get, but I digress), and with that minimum wage, it helps to ensure that taxes are not onerous on the working class. Right now with hours being cut it's getting harder to make sure people have enough to live on, especially with jobs being hard to find (even with the 5 million new jobs created in the last 4 years). The rich have been getting little to no taxes, and instead of re-investing that in their business to help the economy grow, as was originally intended with trickle-down (yeah right), they just pocketed the difference and told all the plebs "if you work hard enough you might get some too! HAHAHAHHAAAA!!!"
This mentality of contempt for anyone who isn't smart/lucky enough to be rich like they are is exactly why nobody likes them, and they wonder why. Here's a little gem from John Schnatter, CEO of Papa John's pizza:
This statement right here just shows how disconnected from reality he really is, in his private castle mansion. You DO have an obligation because those same workers are the ones who GENERATED the fucking profits for you. I am pretty sure it won't kill you to add a nickel to the price of your pizza to pay for health insurance (which is all tax-deductible, by the way), and most people won't give a fuck, and will probably gladly pay an extra 5 cents on their pizza if they know it'll help others get proper medical treatments. Also, don't bitch about having to raise prices and then give away 2 million free pizzas for a fucking football promotion. It makes you look like more of a stupid asshole, if that is even possible at this point.
Bill Gates has been quoted as saying that after the first million dollars, it's all the same hamburger, and unless you absolutely can't live without 22 cars and a private golf course at each of your multiple mansions, I'd agree. We have an epidemic right now of rich people who think that everyone else is just their personal wage slave, and they're entitled to owning most of the money in this country, and when asked to help out and pay their fair share to keep this country going, they start throwing baby tantrums about how we're unfairly targeting them, and if it weren't for us "lazy takers" (in reality, what THEY are), then we'd be fine. I honestly wouldn't even know what to DO with a million dollars, let alone 2.25 million a YEAR (the salary increase given to the CEO of Hostess WHILE they were filing bankruptcy and telling their workers they had to take an 8% pay CUT). I'd probably keep 500K of it to live on for the next 50 years (I can live happily on 10K a year because I'm smart and not greedy), and donate the rest to secular charities and whatnot.
I really envy the Northern Europeans who I'm friends with. Businesses over there are FAR more concerned with keeping workers happy and thus making the company desirable and profitable to work at. I get ONE day off for Thanksgiving, a national holiday, and I'm LUCKY to get it off, as tons of people here have to work on it. I have friends who live over there who get an entire week off from work for holidays and don't have to work overtime ever. I get hit with mandatory overtime whenever the business decides there's a need. Rampant consumerism is also a huge problem here in America, but that deserves it's own post.
If more people followed Wheaton's Law, I think we'd be a lot better off. Don't be a dick!
That will be all.
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