Hostess, IBCIQ on the market, was delisted a while back so the financials are a bit old, but here they are going up to 2008. The place was grossing $2.5B a year, so the CEO was bringing in 0.1% of gross. I dunno, that doesn't seem like a death blow to me and I'm sure the guy had other opportunities. It seems stupid to expect someone to go through the trauma of trying to work a turnaround for free.
That's not quite the point of this post, but it's illustrative. My friend and his lefty buddies couldn't read a financial statement if you held guns to their heads, but they all think they should be able to get the government to force corporations to do what they want. There's lots more of that kind of thug thinking at AMERICAblog, the source of the guy's rage.
 |
| Screencap from AMERICAblog. Race and envy, 24/7. |
It's all pretty much the same kind of thing and a good read if you want to get a line on the intellectual foundations of such thought. As Jeff Burton said in a comment on this blog, "This is not an exercise in math or accounting. It's the satisfaction of envy." They're not even trying to understand things, they're just drunk on power - the power to elect goon squads of politicians who will go out and punish the people they hate.
Something for a future blog post: There's a serious risk deliberately cultivating racial tribalism in a time of an impending, massive fiscal crisis. When the checks start to bounce or the prices are being raised on a weekly / daily basis, people will fall back to the way they've been taught to think. If you've culturally carved up the country on the basis of skin color, don't expect a financial collapse to bring people together in racial harmony. See also: Yugoslavia, breakup of.
On another blog I read, thelawdogfiles.blogspot.com , one of the commenters stated that the CEO had been taking a $1/year salary until the company emerged from it's 2004 bankruptcy. That 2.5 mil was back pay, essentially. Not sure how reliable the source was, but I'm thinking if it's true, then that money was well deserved.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=22957834&postID=6927193112402879888
Corporations are in business to make a profit. Otherwise, there is no incentive to continue producing. The quicker people understand this concept, the quicker we can stop all this "Evil Rich CEO" blather.
ReplyDeleteEven your local EMS agencies work on a "for-profit" basis. Should we now go after firemen and EMT's for daring to want a paycheck capable of supporting a family?
I had a frind of mine crave me up on facebook quite publicly for poking fun at the union/Hostess thing.
ReplyDeleteOf course I'm sure he's former union. I say former, because he is currently unemployed after the company he worked for shut down.
I wonder why they had trouble turning a profit? I'm sure it must have been all the greedy guys at the top.
Whatever. Vote with your feet. My boss makes a lot of scratch, but I think he does a darn good job. If I don't think I have a fair deal, I go somewhere else.