Recently there has been a lot of controversy concerning large bonuses paid to CEOs and other top executives at the nation's largest banks. Ordinary people and politicians alike have been loud in their criticism of these bank executives taking large bonuses, especially in the wake of their recent bailout by the federal government (and thus, ordinary people) that saved them from certain collapse. I have long been a critic of executive compensation practices in America's largest corporations. Too many executives think that they are solely responsible for the success of their company, reaping huge windfalls at the expense of the ordinary workers who are actually responsible for generating corporate profits through their skill, hard work and dedication to that enterprise.
But what can an ordinary citizen do about this situation? PLENTY! In our free enterprise system we all have choices as consumers and those choices have real impact on the profitability of corporations. If you, like myself, are disgusted by these bonuses, you have options.
If you have money in these large banks it is as simple as withdrawing your money and taking it to another financial institution. There are scores of small local/regional banks, savings and loans, and credit unions where you can deposit your money safely. I personally moved my money several years ago to a local credit union with 8 locations, all within one state. These institutions offer the same or similar insured safety as the large banks. In addition, because they are local, they tend to lend money to those in your immediate community, so your deposits help locally rather than in some metropolis hundreds of miles away. In addition, few of them engaged in the kind of risky investment and loan practices that brought so many of the national banks to the brink of collapse. In fact, a suprisingly large number of them reported record or near record profits even during the recent financial meltdown, thanks primarily to their adherence to traditional and secure financial principles.
If, as these "too big to fail" banks seem to believe, money talks, then let yours talk by walking down the street to a local bank that cares about and supports your community. If enough people heed this call, it will send a loud and clear message to the "Wall Street banks" that business as usual will no longer be tolerated and failure to change will result in lower profits.
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I am not saying that I disagree with you per se, however, we are supposedly a capitalistic nation and have equal opportunity to make as much money as we want (to and extent we have equal opportunity). When the government gave those ridiculous bailouts, they did so as part of their own stupidity. The made no allocations for proper or timely repayment as well as no real accountability system in place to monitor what the banks did with the money. The problem is they did this at the tax payers expense. We are the ones left to pay back this bailout in the form of taxes among other things. Now, the disagreement I would have with this is the fact that this is America. We are able to make this kind of money if we so chose and are capable of making it happen. I agree that the CEO is NOT the sole responsibility of the corporation and it is usually the ordinary worker that has contributed his blood, sweat, and labor to corporate profits. But as the saying goes, the poop rolls downhill. The CEO has the burden of the company, stockholders, and boards sitting his shoulder-not the ordinary employee. That is the structure of a corporation in America. Now, let me make one thing clear, there is an ethical issue involved here-should the CEO have taken outrageous bonuses during this time of financial crisis? Absolutely not! But it most likely was greed that got them in the mess to begin with and greed that will (not) get us out. Some things just don't change: greed and power. And America gives you the opportunity for both.
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