Good thing I inherited my dad's strong teeth. Otherwise I would've ground them down to powder by now.
As pointed out to me by Harlock:
WorldCom Inc.'s chief executive moved quickly today to reassure customers and shareholders that Sunday's Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, the biggest in U.S. history, will produce a stronger, more competitive company. "We fought hard and frantically to avoid this, but ultimately the board thought that taking this action was the best way to help the greatest number of people," chief executive John Sidgmore said during a press conference this morning in Manhattan.
In Harlock's words "the massive concentration of BS in that statement should implode on itself, forming a black hole inside his head."
These buggers also must have a black hole in their heart, allowing no emotion to escape. A former manager of mine developed the theory of The Executive Lobotomy, whereby those who have be promoted to the executive level have all shred of humanity cauterized from their lobes.
So I listen to the inquiries, I watch the meetings of committees that serve as grandstands for political careers, and I wonder why these greaseball executives are still allowed to slither and squirm.
After a little research, I confirmed an impression of mine:
"The corporation is a mythical person created by the laws of a particular State or Possession or other legal jurisdiction. Such a person, being a creature of law, is known as an "Artificial Person" (which term includes others such as partnerships, estates and trusts) to distinguish it from a "Natural Person" who is presumed to have sprung from the loins of man. The corporation is treated, under the law, as if it were a real person, separate and distinct from its shareholders."
http://www.danvi.vi/laym.html
So let's have the government pass the death sentence on these corporate entities, break them up into their component bits, hand them over to competitors assuring positions for the hard-working folks who really know how things work, distribute shares in a swap arrangement with the new owners' stock, and send every executive to jail where they can have their butt reamed in the same fashion that they've been reaming millions of others.
The whole "I heard no evil, saw no evil, spoke no evil" defense adopted by the executives really burns me as well. They all sound like your typical double homicide/rapist: "I didn't know what I was doing. It isn't my fault. My parents called me bad names." As far as I'm concerned, you are responsible for your self and if you lose control of your self (for any reason) and do something bad, then you are responsible. Being an individual conveys great advantages, privileges, and opportunities, and I feel that you can't get all that good stuff without paying your dues by taking full responsibility for your actions. If you were born with a chemical imbalance that makes you rape people, too bad. If we can fix the imbalance, then we will, after you've been punished. If we can't fix the imbalance, then you should be taken out of society until we can or until you die.
Why should executives be any different? As mentioned before, a corporation is an entity, a person in the eyes of the law. Incorporation is a privilege allowed a business by the state that limits the liabilities of the "natural" people in the business. In exchange, the state enjoys the advantages of the business operating under its sway (tax revenue, employment, etc.) The executives are supposed to be the "brain" of the corporation. Whatever the body does, the brain is ultimately responsible. For that huge weight of responsibility, in theory, execs get huge compensation.
So according to my belief in an individual's ultimate responsibility, if the corporation does bad things or even if one part of the corporate body, say a rogue trader or group, does bad things, then the execs as the ruling group of the corporation need to be held responsible. Either they were complicit and deserve to be punished or they were lax in their responsibilities and deserve to be punished.
I say "off with their heads"!
A typical exchange might be:
CEO: "I had no idea that such things were going on in the company."
Omniscient/Omnipotent Me: "Well then, either you are lying and evil or incompetent and evil. Either way, your lifestyle is forfeit. Your wife and daughters are to be sold to white slavers in Eastern Europe and your dog is to be shipped to North Korea. All monies resulting from your liquidation are to be held in trust and distributed as I see fit. Remember, I am omniscient. And you, pal, are going to spend the next 20 years of your life having your ass reamed by Bubba and his bitches."
I know that no one would worry themselves one whit if everyone was making money hand over fist. If the stock market were still a giant ATM, execs could sponsor mass executions of disadvantaged children imported from Kazakhstan and analysts would merely chuckle at their "exuberance."
One thing I know for sure is my retirement savings have shrunk by 40% and the buggers who did it are still building their vanity, hilltop mansions. That just doesn't feel right.
grrrr.
Pakeha