Tuesday, March 16, 2010

How much is enough?


Tiger returns to sex.
I'm sure that will make all the bimbos happy. Now they get another chance to milk him for extortion money. Raises the question how much is enough sex? I'll let you ponder that one yourself.

Oil companies make billions. We know the reason for this but our only choice is to drive less.
Insurance companies make billions while dropping laid off workers and saddling those with coverage with the bill or should I say ever increasing profits.
Banks are flush with cash and don't seem motivated to lend money to business even after we bailed them out.

Contrary to what Gordon Geko said Greed is not good. In watching a documentary about where our tuna comes from I saw first hand about things we don't give a second thought. The worker who caught that fish made about 1 cent for the effort. The worker who cleaned and boned it made less than a penny. Their average income per day is between $5 and $7. Even in a country with a very low standard of living that is a very small amount barely covering food and shelter. They work 10 to 16 hours a day for those meager wages. And I can just imagine how the CEOs wonder just how they can cut those costs by a penny or less so that they can make yet more in bonuses and look good at the next stockholders meeting.
And there we stand at the fridge door wondering if we'll have the fish, the chicken, the beef or maybe order out. We sit there watching the latest trinkets, gizmos and thingamabobs plastered across our oversized flat screen TVs and just must have the latest and greatest because you can make 3 easy payments and if you act now they'll double your order. Then when it sits in the closet collecting dust you'll pull it out give it to a relative or friend or charity and the process will start over. But gee it was so neat when I first saw it. But we never think about the poor shmuck who has to sleep on the ground or on the floor of the factory (yea they let them do that over there). And they get to work long hours in hot factories just so you could have some cheap dodad that you won't use anyway.

But I digress, this is about enough. How many homes does a CEO need? And how is it that a CEO makes 400 times what the average worker makes while in other countries that figure is more like 4 or 5 times. But they weren't satisfied with having all that loot. They've taken over our government to prevent competition making it near impossible to even get on the ladder. They've raped our educational system cornered the market on insurance and bet on company failures to make even more. Our jobs went overseas so they could make yet more.

But you haven't seen anything yet. When the underlings were defeated and robbed of their jobs and retirements the big boys will have no choice but to turn on themselves. Conditions are now being set for that to happen. We saw it first hand with residential subprime mortgages. Now you'll be seeing it with corporate real estate loans. Right here in the Northwest we have a 76 story building that's 20% vacant. It won't be long before their mortgage won't be covered and just like with a home the place will go on the auction block. And the vultures will swoop in and buy up the leftovers of dead or dying companies and properties becoming bloated with yet more cash and assets.

So how much is enough? In my opinion only a bit more than is necessary and not massive profits of assets or cash. Anything more is just plain greed a lust for things and money that never ends well.

(In looking for a graphic for "lust for money" up popped pics of womens clothing shoes and purses)

Keep hold of your drums you might need a place to live.

7 comments:

jmsjoin said...

Man it's depressing reading that, you should have titled it This is what you call Justice?

BBC said...

Well, I have all I need to get by, and a free and clear place to get by in. And I can't fix any of that other shit.

MRMacrum said...

Because as a collective unit, people tend to be stupid, "enough" will only be reached when enough people finally stop being afraid and take from those who have. Legally or otherwise. This story is the story of our species. We humans seem to have been trapped in this cycle ever since someone started keeping track.

Demeur said...

The problem is if we don't fix it now it's not going to get better. With an aging population there's not enough younger people to support this Ponzi scheme they set up. And I'm talking about Social Security and Medicare that will collapse.

S.W. Anderson said...

Many good points, Demeur. I tip my cap.

One of our problems is that no one teaches any concept of "enough." Parents don't instill it in their kids, although a few kids acquire the notion on their own. Public schools don't teach it. Business schools that churn out MBA's like McD's churns out burgers wouldn't be caught dead mentioning such a concept to the next generation of free-trading profiteers, gougers and various forms of white-collar criminal.

". . . just like with a home the place will go on the auction block. And the vultures will swoop in and buy up the leftovers of dead or dying companies and properties becoming bloated with yet more cash and assets."

Of course! Those of us who aren't rich and wise to the ways of high finance loathe recessions, bubble bursts and depressions. We assume everyone does, but that isn't the case.

The rich and super rich are OK with economic downturns and collapses because: 1, the rich have the wherewithal to ride them out; and 2, downturns present terrific buying opportunities for adding to their wealth — the vultures you mention.

"Greed is not good." Amen, but unfortunately, it's only true for most of us. For a few, it pays handsomely. Just ask health insurance executives and Wall Street bankers.

Randal Graves said...

Ah, newly constructed office space that sits vacant for years is one of my favorite things!

The Blog Fodder said...

You raise a good question. The human animal seems to accumulate shiny trinkets like a raven. Some, like those you mention, are more successful accumulators than others. They do that by accumulating POWER. The rich love government because that is how they can control the rest of us and the competition as was pointed out. But all of us accumulate. Why? Any answers?