Random thoughts

Friday, July 8, 2011

You’re struggling to make ends meet. Perhaps you have no job. Perhaps your unemployment has run out. Perhaps ... Well, you know.

But cheer up. All is right with the world.

According to a study conducted for the New York Times, and reported by that newspaper on July 2, “the median pay for top executives at 200 big companies last year was $10.8 million. That works out to a 23 percent gain from 2009.”

Relieved? We are. We were concerned, fearful that top executives might have to deal with economic life in the same way as you. But no, the news (for them) is wonderful: Pay is up, workforce numbers are down, and unions are under fire.

It works out so well for executives: They get more money and you get thrown out of work.

Why isn’t the Tea Party up in arms about that? Does it make any sense that so many people are hurting while a few get richer and richer?

Isn’t it time that some legislator somewhere, national or local, sponsors a bill that says this: “Any firm doing business with (federal or state) government must agree to cut pay 2 percent the pay of everyone making more than $250,000 a year and by 5 percent the pay of anyone making more than $500,000 a year.”

No, it’s not the free enterprise system as we know it, but the free enterprise system as we know it means you’re out of work and a few people are raking it in. It just seems weird.

Here’s some more fascinating news:

For years, fireworks were illegal in Maine. Suddenly, the Legislature passed, and the governor signed, a bill making them legal. Why? You know why: To raise more state revenue.

And Massachusetts is considering doing the same thing for the same reason.

Right: It’s all about money.

Here’s another way states can raise money: Sell the advertising rights to the state capitol building. Or corporations could sponsor legislation: The Schnooga Corp. Clean Water Act. The Phragmantasm Corp. Highway Repair Bill. Or they could just borrow some money from any American CEO.