BY RUSSELL TURNER
PIGGING OUT
When I was a child whenever my parents took me to a company dinner or some dinner at church they instructed me to use my manners and not to make a pig of myself when eating dinner. I was told that it was all right to go through the desert line once and leave some of the food for the rest of the people there. Their teaching about being discrete and well mannered has made a huge impact on my values today. Even today, if I decide to dine out at one of the all you can eat buffets, I still take out only what I can comfortably eat and not waste the food just because I can. I guess it is just human nature for humans to pig out if someone else is paying the bill. Recently I read an article about the bonuses that top executives received from some of the now defunct green energy companies that received taxpayer dollars.
Ecotality, a stimulus-backed electric vehicle charging station manufacturer that has received about $141 million in Energy Department grants, increased “executive and director” compensation by 150%. Even with all of the taxpayer monies the company posted net losses of $22.5 million last year.
Another company, First Solar, has plans to lay off roughly 2000 workers even though it received almost 1.5 billion dollars in government guarantees. While this fine investment of taxpayer dollars was going on over a three year period of time, the CEO of the company received 32 million dollars in salary and bonuses. Later he was fired due to the value of the company’s stock falling by 30%.
Even the solar panel manufacturer Solyndra gave their top executives bonuses after the company went belly up. Even with the $535 million federal loan guarantee through the stimulus package the company wasn’t able to stay afloat.
I have run several businesses and I know how many struggling business owners will often work for nothing in an attempt to get the business up and running. The main difference between these overpaid executives and the private businesses, the private owners have their fortunes and necks on the line and they have an incentive to make the venture work. In my opinion the companies I have listed had about as much discipline as a kid turned loose in a candy store. At least the kid would probably have a good tummy ache for pigging out. I feel that it was totally inappropriate to be awarding bonuses to anyone until the company could show a profit and pay back the taxpayers.
While it is easy to blame the CEO’s and the companies for their poor compensation policies, we need to remember that our elected officials are stewards of our tax money and should be held accountable for this example of pigging out.
PIGGING OUT
When I was a child whenever my parents took me to a company dinner or some dinner at church they instructed me to use my manners and not to make a pig of myself when eating dinner. I was told that it was all right to go through the desert line once and leave some of the food for the rest of the people there. Their teaching about being discrete and well mannered has made a huge impact on my values today. Even today, if I decide to dine out at one of the all you can eat buffets, I still take out only what I can comfortably eat and not waste the food just because I can. I guess it is just human nature for humans to pig out if someone else is paying the bill. Recently I read an article about the bonuses that top executives received from some of the now defunct green energy companies that received taxpayer dollars.
Ecotality, a stimulus-backed electric vehicle charging station manufacturer that has received about $141 million in Energy Department grants, increased “executive and director” compensation by 150%. Even with all of the taxpayer monies the company posted net losses of $22.5 million last year.
Another company, First Solar, has plans to lay off roughly 2000 workers even though it received almost 1.5 billion dollars in government guarantees. While this fine investment of taxpayer dollars was going on over a three year period of time, the CEO of the company received 32 million dollars in salary and bonuses. Later he was fired due to the value of the company’s stock falling by 30%.
Even the solar panel manufacturer Solyndra gave their top executives bonuses after the company went belly up. Even with the $535 million federal loan guarantee through the stimulus package the company wasn’t able to stay afloat.
I have run several businesses and I know how many struggling business owners will often work for nothing in an attempt to get the business up and running. The main difference between these overpaid executives and the private businesses, the private owners have their fortunes and necks on the line and they have an incentive to make the venture work. In my opinion the companies I have listed had about as much discipline as a kid turned loose in a candy store. At least the kid would probably have a good tummy ache for pigging out. I feel that it was totally inappropriate to be awarding bonuses to anyone until the company could show a profit and pay back the taxpayers.
While it is easy to blame the CEO’s and the companies for their poor compensation policies, we need to remember that our elected officials are stewards of our tax money and should be held accountable for this example of pigging out.
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