What’s Wrong with this Picture?
Here’s a little something to think about as you start your work week, provided, of course, you’re lucky enough to have a job. Sorry if this bums you out. Actually, I’d prefer it if it pissed you off. It should.
As most everyone not hiding under a rock is already aware, gas prices, food prices and unemployment are rising. A good many folks out there are losing their homes and those that ain’t are finding they owe more for their house than it’s worth. Ditto this last for the SUV owner but I can’t be real sympathetic toward that bunch. Bummer the Hummer. Credit card interest is rising and most Americans are all but buried in credit card debt. We’re involved in a costly, pointless war while the infrastructure in this country deteriorates, the homeless population rises, the number of folks receiving food stamps is increasing and our schools are seeing drastic cuts in their budgets.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, BP reported a 63 percent surge in first quarter net profit to $7.6 billion. Royal Dutch Shell posted a 25 percent increase to $9.1 billion. ConocoPhillips reported a 16 percent rise in net income to $4.1 billion. Exxon’s profits were up 17% while Chevron earned a hefty first-quarter profit of $5.17 billion.
In the midst of the mortgage meltdown, Charles Prince, former CEO of Citigroup Inc., Stanley O’Neal, former CEO of Merrill Lynch & Co. and Angelo Mozilo., chief executive of Countrywide Financial Corp made a whopping $460 million in compensation and severance packages (http://money.cnn.com/2008/03/06/news/exec_comp/index.htm). G. Kennedy Thompson, the recently ousted CEO of Wachovia, will receive an $8.7 million ‘here’s your hat what’s your hurry’ package (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/02/AR2008060200684.html?nav=hcmodule).
While food prices soar, Monsanto reported that its net income for the three months to the end of February 2008 had more than doubled over the same period last year, from $543 million to $1.12 billion. Its profits increased from $1.44 billion to $2.22 billion. Cargill’s net earnings soared by 86 per cent from $553 million to $1.030 billion over the same three months while Archer Daniels Midland, one of the world’s largest agricultural processors of soy, corn and wheat, increased its net earnings by 42 per cent in the first three months of this year from $363 million to $517 million (http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10507919).
While food stamp use rises and the average human’s spending power decreases, in the ten years between 1995 and 2005, CEO pay rose 298.2%, corporate profits rose by 106.7% while the average worker’s pay rose by a puny 4.3% (http://consumerist.com/consumer/executive-pay/ceo-pay-up-298-average-workers-43-1995+2005-250838.php).
If you’re not outrageously angry, you’re not paying attention.
