I was alarmed at reading about the bus tour of AIG employee homes that took place on Saturday. While it is certainly upsetting when so many are in financial trouble to hear about people receiving these large bonuses, it disturbs me though that they are being treated the way we saw on Saturday. The employees had contracts with AIG that promised them these bonuses, is this really any different than the many union employees working for our state and local governments that are receiving raises this year when many of the taxpayers are struggling with unemployment and/or drastically reduced retirement portfolios? Or is it any worse than our Congress who just got automatic raises in their salaries?
What really disturbs me is some of the comments by the people on the bus tour. It is clear that what we are seeing and not just in this case but many others, is class envey. Was this bus tour the beginings of something more, it was clearly meant to intimidate the AIG folks who received the bonuses. Isn't initmadation a form of warfar? If so are we seeing the beginings of class warfare?
To me this is a big fear. We are rapidly approaching the econimic situation of the Great Depression. Only the United States is a considerably different place now. We have a great many people who have an entitlement mentality as compared to the time of the Great Depression where people were highly independent and many were too proud to except any kind of welfare. Now we have just the opposite mentality, with large numbers of people dependent on the government. What happens when government does not help these people out, who are they going to go after? I fear that they are going to go after the rich, we are already seeing this with more and more proposal to "tax the rich". The problem is that the rich are already supporting the lower 40% who don't pay taxes. The question is, is this going to lead to real class warfare, where people who are rich (whatever that is) are going to have to fear for there lives and property? The AIG folks are already being warned to not wear there ID's in public, and may have had to hire private sercurity gaurds. Where does this end?
No comments:
Post a Comment