I’ve been sick for going on six weeks, now, with a brief hiatus while we traveled to see family in the beginning of October. It’s a low-level cold with a lot of flowing snot and coughing, but not enough for me to stay home and stay in bed. Instead, I just wander through my days feeling mostly ok until I need to think. Or, god forbid, blow my nose. Then it feels like my head may just explode and splatter the walls with bits of my brains. Thank goodness we bought easy-to-clean paint!
WTF? We give AIG $80 billion to stave off bankruptcy, and their executives go to a fucking spa? Are you fucking kidding me?
It’s time for us to get real about this problem. Fortunately, I think there’s at least one solution that make a lot of sense:
*All* executives in America — every last person who has “president,” “officer,” “chief,” or “head” in their job title— accepts a ‘pay-for-performance’ model where, if their company doesn’t make any money, they don’t get one god-damned penny. I’m am, however, all for people getting rewarded for doing good work. So it’s simple: If your company makes a profit, and you contributed to that at the executive level, you get rewarded. If your company fails to profit, you shouldn’t either. This pricing model should not, however, apply to middle management nor to labor. Keep your company’s foundation in good condition, and the rest will follow.
This plan avoids the mass confusion and opportunism that’d arise if we just fired every executive in the country (or lined ‘em up against the wall). It also provides incentive as well as a direct channel for feedback for the people in charge (via their bank accounts).
It’s incredibly important in this crisis to separate the wheat from the chafe, and sweeping measures are a way to aggregate, not segregate; just look in your dust pan. We need positive lasting change that sets the stage for America to move forward as a stable, positive player on the global stage, not an opportunistic consolidation of money and power in the hands of a few pampered, Peter-principled pricks.
