The Pessimist

I quote most of an article I tripped across while I was browsing grotesque salaries.

Severance packages By Eve Ggem

I read in The Union that Mr. Nardelli, CEO of Home Depot, resigned. However, he gets a $210 million severance package.

Yesterday, after seven years, my son was fired from his landscaper job with a big Grass Valley subdivision due to cutbacks. Severance package - zero.

For seven years he did backbreaking work, often in miserable weather with no paid holidays, vacation or benefits. In wet, winter months, his young family got by on a smaller paycheck.

Two years ago, after eight years working since age 15 for a local inn/motel in housekeeping then front desk clerk, his wife was fired because of "slow season." Severance package - zero.

...

Life isn't fair, heartbreakingly so - Wanna share your secret and your $210 million, Mr. Nardelli?

Eve Ggem, Nevada City

(I've copied most of the article here because TheUnion, a Nevada newspaper, may require you to register to read it.)

I thought the above was a fairly reasoned argument -- the rich play by different rules than everybody else. You'd think that that argument would receive fairly wide tacit support. But you'd be wrong.

There were 17 comments attached to the article. Here is a sampling of the first few:

• Don't forget, the government will take maybe $60 million of Nardeli's nest egg in taxes. With their cut, the Gov can pay some aerospace company to build one cruise missile to shoot at some rocks in the desert somewhere near some oil reserves.
• Ms. Ggem, severance pay is not the issue, and focusing on it in this case is a distraction from the real problem. Both your son and daughter-in-law need to develop more valuable skills so they can get better paying jobs
• Sometimes people have to make the tough choices and relocate to improve their personal finances.

Can you see the problem? I tried to post my own comment, even registering for the site, but the moderators would not post it. They wouldn't tell me why, but I'm guessing that you can't use the words "damn" and "Americans" in the same post. So, I'll post it here:

I wanted to comment and offer my sympathy and best wishes for your family. But in reading the comments that follow, I can clearly see the root of the problem: American hobbsian capitalism.
No American would restrict the avarice of their ruling class, because they all aspire to that same American dream. Fabulous wealth: the law, morality and the common good of "other" be damned.
ThePessimist

I did manage to post a reply to the first commentor; I repeat it here for completeness:

This is a unrelated right-wing argument.
If the CEO hadn't stolen the "severance" money, the corporations income would have been 210 million higher and the corporation would have paid the tax, or it would be paid out in dividends and the shareholders would have paid the tax. Or the company would have been worth $210M more, so the share price would be higher, and capital gains tax paid there on.
What the "government" does with the tax money isn't related to the issue at hand. Corporate CEO robber-barons and their Board member friends are stealing money in unearned severance and unjustifiable salaries; while common people, like Ms. Ggem's children get the shaft.

Americans won't control corporate greed, because they think it will limit their potential to achieve similar wealth. The CEO got the money because he "earned it" and the government should keep their corrupt noses out of it. Let capitalism take its natural course unfettered. But this dream is as unrealistic as the dream of all those black youths who avoid education, jobs or other responsibilities to play hoops. They think they're on their way to a multi-million dollar NBA contract. Well, their odds of making it to the NBA (or their white confreres becoming CEO of a Fortune 500 company) are less than the chance of being struck by lightning.

Anybody can grow up to be president (as George W has proven). But it helps if you come from money, get an ivy league education, and know the right people. No amount of education available to Ms Ggem's children would track them to the top. But that doesn't reduce the argument that severance from any job should be a requirement, not just for the Executive class.