Hi
Everyone!
My
blog has been centered on positivity and trying to keep an upbeat, humorous
slant on everyday problems that most of us encounter. I try to be optimistic
and I certainly do NOT support or even have a hint of hate on my site. I’m
pretty upbeat in “real” life (sometimes, slightly “snarky”, right, Bran?), but
as a whole I think my attitude towards day to day living is pretty good. I
teach MUSIC and most of my students are CHILDREN. My SEASPAR students are certainly NOT
children, however, my age does say I could conceivably be their Mother J
My focus is ALWAYS on how to promote well-being, acceptance and respect with
ALL of my students. I support Equality. I supported President Obama in BOTH
elections. I also wholeheartedly support ANYTHING that benefits the citizens of
our country, with an emphasis on keeping us healthy and providing the best
education possible for our children. I am a HUGE proponent of the promotion of
Girls and females in general. And I would stake my life on the fact that MUSIC
can help solve ANY problem that exists.
With
that being said, I want to know…When is enough ENOUGH? When will this madness stop? A few things
happened in the span of two weeks that pushed me into this topic/blog.
The
company my husband works for has recently (in the past couple years) had a
merger with another pretty large company. Most of you know that these types of
business transactions never, EVER, go smoothly. And his company is no
different. The management got themselves all settled, but have yet to work out
any significant details of the majority of union contracts. While the CEO of
this company takes in $975,000/year(that’s NOT a typo) and over $7 MILLION in
bonuses and “other” compensation, most of the workers are still working at the
company’s BANKRUPCY salaries, where they took up to a 30% cut in pay to keep
the company running. This was TEN YEARS AGO. Since coming out of bankruptcy his
company has merged with another and seems to have enough money to pay its CEO
over $7 MILLION as a bonus but my husband as well as the rest of the people
working for this company have not had a raise in 10 YEARS.
So,
I ask again, when is enough ENOUGH?
Below,
I am listing just a SAMPLE of some salaries and compensation made by big
companies. Yet, we STILL have people working in companies for a minimum wage
that even at 40 hours/week you cannot live off. Take a look:
WALMART
Michael Duke…Salary with compensation (stocks,
bonuses etc…) $17+mil
Average worker salary: $22,100…Takes 57 employees’
salaries to match his BASE salary
TARGET
Greg
Steinhafel… Salary with compensation…$19 mil
Average
worker salary: $29,500…51 employees’ salaries to match his BASE salary
WELLS FARGO
John Stumpf…Salary with compensation $17.9 mil
Average worker salary: $44,000…66 employees’
salaries to match his BASE salary
EXXON MOBIL
R. W. Tillerson…Salary with compensation…$27,229,300
Average
worker salary…N/A
DELTA AIRLINES
Richard H.
Anderson … Salary
with compensation…$12,575,572
Average worker salary…N/A
I believe I have hit on a nice
variety of the services that we, as average citizens, pay an enormous amount of
money to have. We’ve got banks that tanked our economy, we’ve got gas companies
that not only gauge the customers, but cannot clean up their messes, leaving
irreparable environmental devastation because of their negligence and greed,
and airlines who pay their executives (NOT their workers who shoulder the brunt
of all their horrible decisions and actions) so much money that it’s almost
IMPOSSIBLE for any average American to fly anywhere reasonably. (The budget
airlines do not count. They nickel and dime you to death or treat you like
cattle.)
WHY do these executives need to be
paid these salaries and “bonuses”? While most of us are working our butts off
trying to make ends meet, these guys are sending their kids to private schools
and taking vacations to places most of us only dream of going to.
When is enough ENOUGH?
And now…we have a government that
cannot seem to function. We have parties spewing hate throughout the media. We
have a media who LOVES this because they can sensationalize ALL of it. How
about ignoring these blowhards who only want a bit of press time, and interview
some of the 800,000 people who were furloughed because our government couldn’t “get
along” long enough to actually DO THEIR JOBS????????
When is enough ENOUGH?
I don’t know about any of you, but I
have had enough. I have had enough with my husband’s company. I have had enough
of Wal-Mart (strong arming our city so they could become “super”? NOT cool.). I
have had enough of Exxon Mobile(clean up your messes!), Wells Fargo and Target.
I want to ask these CEO’s how can you take so much money and your workers are
suffering? What is wrong with them?
My last questions to all of you is …
When is enough ENOUGH and what are
you going to do about it?
I appreciate your reading my blog
this week. The regular “Nancy” will be back next time…but I will still be
wondering, when is enough ENOUGH???
Illustration by Hana Urban
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