That was a question asked of me at work. Actually, the question was “Why is my kid a Socialist"?
I try very hard to keep my politics separate from my work life. I hypocritically lecture some of the younger workers to keep their mouths shut on their political views. I remind them that they don't know the beliefs of our clients, or their bosses. I say "hypocritically" because every so often, I just can't help myself.
I guess today was one of those times.
I mentioned in a previous post that I work in the defense industry. It is very conservative. Most of our offices have Fox News playing in the lobby, and the word “Obama” is considered an expletive. It is with this in mind that I relate to you an exchange I had with a co-worker of mine.
He was having a complete meltdown over his child being a Bernie booster. He was worried that it was more than teenage rebellion. He told me that he thought his kid might really be a Socialist. (I really didn’t want to get into a discussion on the difference between Democratic Socialism and Marxist Socialism.) He was horrified. Who would ever want that?
I decided to answer him. I only said one word: "Yahoo"
Actually, it was two words: "Google Yahoo". (Yes, I'm aware of the oxymoron.) I asked him to type Yahoo into his search engine. He did… and here were the headlines that came up:
Yahoo's 8 Billion Black HoleYahoo CEO Marissa Mayer's Compensation Soars 69 Percent to $42.1 Million Marissa Mayer: A Case Study in Poor LeadershipYou'll Be Surprised to Learn How Much Marissa Mayer Will Get if Fired from Yahoo!All of them dealt with the recent news of Marissa Mayer's disastrous tenure as CEO of Yahoo! To be blunt, she sucks at her job. As the managing director of SpringOwl Asset Management put it, “I don't think she has any management skills." He based this on a 99-page litany of her mistakes, to include:
$2.8 billion spent on failed acquisitions $450 million on free food $9 million on new phones $7 million on a Great Gatsby-themed holiday party.His review was frankly more kind than others I have read. Forbes wrote an entire article on her poor performance: having no strategy, being dismissive of other opinions, and her bizarre insistance of keeping the spotlight on herself.
Here's the kicker: Mayer's compensation soared 69 percent year over year, even though Yahoo shares sunk 34 percent in 2015.
Wow. She should be fired. All the better. If she gets fired, she gets EVEN MORE money. She’ll receive $55 million... for failing!
As Robert Reich puts it, Mayer can’t lose. This is yet another perfect example of what's wrong with our nation and why so many people are angry.
You see, the wealthy in our nation already enjoy getting winnings regardless of performance. That’s actually the worst stereotype of what socialism is all about, and the 1% are living it—and loving it.
But the rest of us? Reich called it "Cut-throat Capitalism."
I see it every month in my industry. Good people are getting laid off in droves. They do their jobs, perform extremely well, put in long hours, and make a ton of money for those at the top. Then they get thrown out on the streets when the contract is over, or when an upper executive thinks it time to cut costs. The work gets shifted upon the few remaining workers, who are supposed to work long hours and weekends to get the project done.
Othertimes, the higher-ups royally screw the project up. The dirty little secret is that if they are high enough to have stock options, it doesn’t matter. Large bonuses will still occur for whatever reason, but everyone else will get the shaft.
The worker bees don’t have it quite so good. There is no more union to protect us. There is hardly any labor protection at all, in fact. Here in Florida, a “right-to-work" state, they can throw us out on the street at a moment's notice, with nothing. And as you should well know, pensions are non-existent.
Marissa Mayer doesn’t deserve hundreds of times more pay than her mid-level employees, because she doesn’t work 100s of times harder and is certainly not 100s of times better than they are. She is actually god-awful at her job. I get sick of the conservative argument that she deserves her pay because her tenure is during a rough time. So what? Anybody can drive a company straight into the ground—hell, I'll do it for HALF of her pay if you'll let me!
The CEO should only get big bucks if he or she succeeds. Even then, it’s not too much to ask to share a few crumbs with those responsible for actually turning the company around, which would be the employees.
To be fair, I'm picking on Mz. Mayer a lot because this is very recent news. There is certainly no shortage of examples of incompetent executives that I could use. The point I’m making is that the worst form of socialism already exists in our nation, and it’s the rightwing who fiercely defends it. I don’t recall any teabaggers protesting George W. Bush and the republicans when they bailed out Wall Street in 2008 to the tune of 700 billion dollars, but give a little help to the victims of Wall Street—or give a poor man healthcare--- and hooo-boy!
I told my good friend if he hates socialism so much, he should join his son. In our current plutocracy, it’s socialism for the 1%, and cut-throat capitalism for him and everyone else. Democratic Socialism, however, works within a capitalist structure: it just means that everyone should be playing by the same rules. This is what his kid is fighting for in this election, and I only wish more people would follow his lead.
I told him he should be proud of his son. I know I am.