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Friday, February 19, 2010

The US government handing over more of our money in the form of executive pay

The US taxpayer in saving capitalism from collapse also saved General Motors.  The company has announced that its chief executive, Ed Whiteacre will get an annual 


GM boss Ed Whitacre
             Ed Whitacre 
salary of $1.7 million plus $7.3 million is shares at a later date.

The salary was approved by the US Treasury acting on behalf of us, the US taxpayer.  The previous head man at GM, Fritz Henderson, is being paid $59,000 a month as an adviser to Mr. Whiteacre.

This is quite a deal.  What advice is worth $59,000 a month? That's almost $2000 a day. Could me Henderson have connections in the racing industry?  Does he pick good winners for Mr. Whiteacre?
Or does he have a background in astrology and can predict the future?

GM received about $60 billion from the US taxpayer.  The US government now owns a 62% chunk of GM.  But it shows that the government, or the state if we would prefer to call it that, is not devoid of class content as Marx pointed out.  The state, our state, is a capitalist state; our government a capitalist government, serving the economic interests of capitalists. 

I was at a Union meeting of the NUMMI workers in Fremont California just a week or two ago.  GM pulled the plug on this operation, the government made this decision on our behalf,  forcing the elimination of almost 5000 job.  The closing of numerous plants, laying off thousands of workers, decimating whole communities; this has been done on our behalf by political representatives who claim they act on behalf of the "people".  Which "people" is the issue.

Working people had no say in these decisions made in our name.  Capitalist democracy means that we get to elect their representatives every few years so that they can manage the economy in their interests.  

The capitalists have used our money to save GM, or more accurately, a major part of social transportation in order for it to be profitable.  The real solution though is somewhat different----the public ownership under workers control and management of mass transit. This would be a major step in providing cheap, environmentally sound mass transit, shifting production away from the inefficient, wasteful and environmentally destructive automobile.

Advice like that doesn't cost $59,000, it's free.



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