So Osama bin Laden is dead. The brave sacrifices of those socialized government workers (Navy seals) and the socialized medical team waiting to save their lives if needed and the socialized flight team who flew them in and out in government vehicles tell us there must be something other than greed that makes people do great things.
Only last week, many on the right, especially in the Tea Party, were claiming that without greed as a motivator, the titans of industry - CEOs and hedge fund managers - will not be motivated to do great things, producing lots of jobs in the process. Unless of course you're a teacher, fireman, or cop, earning $50,000 a year, in which case a reverse sort of motivation occurs in which under-performing teachers will improve their performance if their pay and benefits are slashed.
This successful military strike was just the most recent reminder that public servants with no hope of personal enrichment can really amaze us all.
That was my first thought actually when I saw the rows of white crosses and occasional stars of David at the American cemetery at Normandy - all these guys who laid down their lives for us but all of them public workers, none of them well-paid, but financed by taxpayers who did not flinch at paying 90% top marginal tax rates to support the war of their time. Greed and materialism simply could not explain this massive human endeavor, this tremendous sacrifice, and it can't explain the far lesser sacrifices we are asked to make today. I guess that's why we call them the Greatest Generation and although there are few of them out there, that spirit of shared sacrifice and a common community is dying outside of the military.
I support brilliant businessmen and women, but from what I have seen of those in charge of Enron, Worldcom, Healthsouth, Citigroup, Lehman, and AGI, I am not so sure they are as brilliant as their obscene pay packages should indicate.
What exactly did Pfizer CEO Henry McKinnell do in a recent year (2002) to take home $33,912,294 in compensation? According to Barrons (no left wing publication), Pfizer could have replaced Mr. McKinnell with 400 researchers to come up with new products.
I'm not sure what value UnitedHealth Group CEO Stephen J. Hemsley added to justify his $98.6 million in exercised stock options in February, 2009. His company doesn't make or do anything; it just collects premiums, lots of them, then he helps himself to $100 million of them, and pays out what is left out for pap smears and mammograms. He didn't help the soldiers in this operation. I'm sure he works hard, but so did the Navy seals and they are not taking home $100 million of other people's money.
And are CEOs that much smarter than they were when we were kids? The average CEO made 531 times what the average worker made in 2001 versus 26 times in 1965.
I'll bet a number of the people risking their lives in this operation have family members on public assistance, public assistance being gutted in many cases to finance tax cuts for CEOs and hedge fund managers. Many will need help re-adjusting upon their return and that will cost money, lots of it.
Every returning veteran from World War II got 18 months of unemployment insurance benefits, no questions asked. It just seemed the right thing to do.
These things are all linked and it seems those who hate the government and its workers so much in one week that they think it must be slashed to finance tax cuts for a wealthy elite (most of whom have not served in the military and do not have children who will serve), should not turn around the next week when that government has done something brilliant and claim to have supported them all along.
I am frankly tired of fantastically well-compensated infotainers who make a living jabbing at teachers, firemen, cops, and public servants of all stripes. I think it's time we jab back a little and ask them to pay their fair share.
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