ON FAIR WAGES FOR PEOPLE IN A COUNTRY LACKING REASON

As reported by USA Today, Bank of America announced last week that CEO Brian Moynihan was given an 89% total compensation hike in 2013, from $7.4 million to $14 million. Bloomberg News quoted Jeanne Branthover, managing director at Boyden Global Executive Search, regarding the increase.

"They felt justified giving him a raise because the bank's performance improved, but they didn't give him an outrageous raise. They're also looking at how the outside world views this, and so they were relatively conservative."

The New York Daily News reported that Miguel Cabrera, the 31-year-old first baseman with the Detroit Tigers, agreed to a contract extension. He is now signed for a total of 10 years.  His new contract will pay him a total of $292 million. Torii Hunter, Cabrera's teammate, was quoted in a story in The Detroit Free Press.

"The young guys coming up in the organization should see how loyal the Tigers are to their players. This organization is A-1."

Also in baseball, the Los Angeles Angels announced the signing of a contract extension with 22-year-old outfielder Mike Trout for an additional 6 years at $144.5 million, according to the Tampa Bay Times. The San Jose Mercury News printed this quote from Angels' Manager Mike Scioscia. 

"I think everybody is obviously thrilled that it got done. He's a special player and a special person."

In his 2014 State of the Union address President Barack Obama announced he wanted to raise the Federal minimum wage for American workers to $10.10 an hour. FOX News later quoted Bob Funk the CEO of Express Employment Professionals. His company recently published a survey of 1,213 business and human resource professionals.

"...based on this survey, there's no denying that raising the minimum wage will result in layoffs, reduced hiring, and higher prices at a large chunk of American companies."

Really! Why? 

If American business is so fragile that a $2.85 per hour wage increase will force businesses to layoff or fire employees, then how can they afford to pay CEO's like Moynihan 89% more than they paid him last year? The bank CEO has an Ivy League education, but does that equate to such a year-to-year increase? 

Cabrera and Trout both can hit baseballs, seemingly at will, but does that translate to salaries of more than $24+ million per year each? 

And, why do these pay raises draw praise, while the mere request for a $2.85 an hour increase draws condemnation?

The Social Security Administration estimates the average American's wage was $42,498.21 in 2012. The U.S. minimum hourly wage, according to the Department of Labor, has been $7.25 per hour since 2009. 

Cabrera will be paid an average of $180,246.91 for every game the Detroit Tigers play the next ten years, whether he is penciled into the lineup or not; Trout, under the same obligation regarding appearances, will take home $148,662.55 for each game the Angels play during his contract tenure. 

Unlike the over-compensated employees mentioned earlier, those earning the minimum hourly wage, or the average American salary, actually have to show up for work every day, rain or shine, and provide labor during their 8-hour or more shifts...every...single...day.

Priorities regarding fair wages? Maybe we should step back and think about ours.

ON OPENING DAY AND RAYS OF HOPE

It is Opening Day in baseball in the city of St. Petersburg, Florida.  The Tampa Bay Rays meet the Toronto Blue Jays for the first of a 162-game schedule. The action begins at 4:10 p.m. EDT.

Hard throwing southpaw David Price will meet the right-handed, knuckle ball slinging, R.A. Dickey. Both are former Cy Young Award winners. One hits the mid-90's consistently, the other is barely able to exceed 80 mph with his pitches. Your approach to hitting when you are in the opposing batter's box could not be more different.

Today no one, save the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Los Angeles Dodgers, and the San Diego Padres, has a won-lost record. March 31st is the first game of the year for most teams. All have a shot at first place in their division, and spots in Divisional, League, and World Series games.

All true baseball fans are hopeful this year will be THE year for THEIR team. Whether your team spent more than $235 million on payroll in 2014, like the Dodgers, or less than $45 million on payroll, like the Houston Astros, you have a shot at the pennant.

The New York Mets won the World Series in 1969 against the powerhouse Baltimore Orioles. The Arizona Diamondbacks had to beat the perennial favorites the New York Yankees in 2001, the same team the Florida Marlins had to beat to win the World Series in 2003. Each of the winners in those years was not supposed to walk away with a World Series ring. 

When the baseball season opens fans from all over the country have hope. My hope is that Joe Maddon, two-time Manager of the Year of the Tampa Bay Rays, gets to win his first World Series. In his words, he gets to "Eat Last."

The opening of the baseball season also reminds me why I get up in the morning and why I write this blog.  I have hope beyond baseball.

I have hope that my fellow Americans will show more empathy regarding their less fortunate cousins and that will cause them to elect politicians who will work for all Americans, not just the rich.

I hope the world will become a place where religion becomes a vehicle of peace rather than a reason to hate other people and murder them. Finally, I hope the world is a much better place to live for Elizabeth, Maddie, Evan, Grayson, Landon, Matthew, Tim, Sarah, Zack, Nick, Greg, and all the other children of the world.

Play ball!

ON THE WOMAN DRIVING GM AND HER VEHICLE RECALL

Mary Barra now knows what Barack Obama felt like when he first took office. Barely on the job long enough to find the ladies room she has learned her predecessor handed her a disaster.

President Obama inherited two wars and an economy that was so bad Ms. Barra's employer had to be bailed out financially by the Federal government. The 52-year-old Barra, on the other hand, has learned many of the cars made and sold by her company during the ten years' prior to her promotion were defective.  They were so badly made they appear to have caused hundreds of deaths.

The daughter of a former General Motors tool-and-die maker, she has been the Chief Executive Officer of GM for less than 4 months. But, in that short time, according to a Reuters story, she has recalled more than 3.1 million of her company's vehicles. It appears that not only does GM have a defect in their ignition systems, a safety issue the company has known about since at least 2004; they also have issues with the deployment of air bags, a problem that began occurring in their 2008 model year.

According to USA Today, the estimated number of deaths for the ignition failure is 12 dead in 31 crashes.  The New York Times has reported that figure may rise as 14 additional deaths in accidents involving GM vehicles are still under investigation.  Also reported by The New York Times is an estimated 303 deaths blamed on air bag failures in GM vehicles involved in collisions.

Both failures combined span the organization's makes and models...Chevrolet, Pontiac, GMC, Buick, and Saturn vehicle owners have received recall notices. The list includes owners of Buick models manufactured in China.

Last week the Justice Department announced that Toyota will pay a $1.2 Billion fine for not reporting safety issues. The corporation, where men govern worldwide, will also be subject to Federal supervision for three years, according to The Wall Street Journal. 

Toyota not only covered up the product safety issues, but also made product upgrades they did not report to the National Highway and Transportation Safety Administration. Evidently they hid these fixes from dealers in order to keep the information from the NHTSA. If Toyota had reported these design changes it would have forced a recall of vehicles.

In my opinion, GM has shown wisdom in choosing a woman to run their company. The new CEO has already apologized to the public and, according to the Associated Press, told her employees that an intense review of the recall process is underway and its system will change. "The bottom line is we will get better as a result of this tragic situation if we seize the opportunity," she stated.

She cannot take back the terrible deaths most likely caused by her colleagues not reporting problems with the vehicles they manufactured. Her speedy apology and quick action, however, especially so soon after assuming her position, should go a long way to prove she is serious about solving GM's problems and forcing change on its misguided policies.

If she can quickly and amicably settle the hundreds of lawsuits that will soon be brought by the families of those killed and injured, Ms. Barra will go a long way to making it clear that large corporations cannot hide their problems forever.

Hopefully, free of male ego, this car executive can lead her company out of this horrific mess. And, another male-dominated industry, automobile manufacturing, will benefit from a woman's touch.

ON VLADIMIR PUTIN: THE DON ON THE ROSTOV

The President of Russia reminds me of the egotistical Don Fanucci in the movie the Godfather II. The character, played by actor Gastone Moschin, tells a young Vito Corleone he expects kickbacks. "Just enough to wet my beak,"  he proclaims.

Don Vladimir Putin-ucci looked under his hat sitting on the table in the Kremlin and saw the Ukraine had been taken away. He lost the kickbacks he received from the government of Victor Yanukovych, the former Ukrainian President. So, to be sure he got something to keep his beak wet, he took Crimea. He took it like a gangster might, by strong arm. 

Years ago I studied Russian and Soviet history at University. The role of corruption in the Soviet Union was explained to me this way by my Kiev-born Russian Professor, "I buy cigarettes so I can trade for a place in line to buy shoes, which I will trade for a place in line to buy bread, which I will trade for what I really need, a winter coat for my daughter." 

As an example of how petty and pervasive this corruption can be, a friend of mine was traveling to Poland through East Germany in the early 1980's to witness the ordination of his cousin. He was told to be sure to purchase and carry with him several cartons of Kent brand cigarettes. This brand was the preferred bribe for a passport stamp at the border, from West to East Germany, then East Germany to Poland, and back again.

He did it.  It worked. And, with the exception of a bit of delay in his return at the Polish-German border caused by a border guard who wanted more, my friend was able to return from his cousin's elevation to the priesthood for only two cartons of Kent cigarettes.

Putin reminds me of a mob boss.  He gets a taste of everything. When the rich do not want to play, like Mikhail Khodorkovsky, he puts them in jail accused of not paying taxes or theft or any other reason the Russian Don decides. He evidently does not take enough from them to make the tycoons truly angry, only a "taste." But, the President understands his country's history and takes full advantage. Rather than take a pack of cigarettes, however, he takes only rubles.

Paraphrasing Everett Dirksen, the former Illinois Senator, Mr. Putin might be saying, "A few rubles here and a few rubles there and pretty soon you're talking a very comfortable retirement."

According to a recent New York Times article, Vladimir Yakunin, head of Russian Railways, said Mr. Putin is, "a very difficult person." Mr. Yakunin stated in the interview that Putin refuses to bend when he feels under pressure. In other words, Mr. Putin is "stubborn."

The Russian President says he annexed Crimea because he needed to protect native Russians from abuse by right-wing zealots?  I think, as Mr. Yakunin implies, he did so because the European Union enticed Ukraine to look West, thus putting pressure on the Don on the Rostov? He looked under his hat and saw his retirement plan diminishing.

As a side note it is interesting that two of the world's super powers, China and the United States, are out searching for a lost airplane and its passengers in a multi-nation humanitarian effort. The other supposed super power, Russia, is spending its resources on invading Ukraine.

While Crimea's well-known corruption was probably the reason Khrushchev gave it away to Ukraine in 1954, Putin sees that corruption as a guarantee his retirement plan has continued funding. His additional support for Iran and Syria shows the Russian, like any Mafia Don, is a cold-blooded killer as well.

ON THE MOST SELF-ABSORBED AMERICANS: THE LIFESTYLE LIFT GENERATION

I am buzzing along through life thinking progressively...you know, drugs should be legal, women should be equal, skin color does not matter, religion is the opiate of the masses, war solves no problems, the poorest of us deserve a hand...when all of a sudden my generation completely changes philosophy as we move into the 1980's. No memo sent or received. It is as if all the rhetoric from the 1960's and 1970's was just that, rhetoric.

One day my generation seemed to care about our fellow human beings, the next day we appear to hold nothing save disdain for them. Worse, it appears my fellow boomers began believing the darker an American's skin, or the poorer their circumstance, the less they deserved kindness, compassion, love, and support.

I first took notice of this phenomenon with the election of Ronald Reagan as President of the United States. This man told us that, "Government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem."  Granted we were in the middle of one of the worst inflationary periods in our history, but simple solutions, to me, are only for the simple-minded. Sound bites fit easily into a newscast, but rarely solve complicated social and economic problems. Glibness is not smart, it is simply glib.

Reagan used terms like "welfare queens." Then, he described them driving to the welfare office in gold-colored Cadillacs to pick up their checks.  We knew he meant "black women" when he spoke those words, but we convinced ourselves we lacked racist thought because we were the same generation that walked side-by-side with Black Panthers and our other "brothers and sisters."

This smooth-talking former B-movie actor looked like a President. He swaggered, unlike the peanut farmer he followed. Who could trust a President who elected to carry his own bags onto Air Force One? Every boomer now "knows" that style beats intelligence any day.  For me this was the beginning of our march down the path of selfishness and hate.

The 1990's came and the boy from Hope, Arkansas, ran for President. Finally, we could vote for one of our own. Despite being a Democrat William Jefferson Clinton was a southerner who bent to the right, not the left. He brought welfare reform that forced poor people to work for their supper vs. offering programs to help them grow out of poverty.

He let the banking industry break free from regulation to make more money. Banks were no longer banks, but insurance and stock brokers. Yes, the economy spurted into overdrive. However, speculation ran the economy. Building things was passe. Trading futures and derivatives was where the money was generated now.  

Who won?  The money changers won, not the citizenry. Oh a few people saw their 401 (k) plan values rise, but the rising tide raised only the yachts not the row boats. And, lord help you if you did not even have a boat to row. The Federal budget had a surplus.  Evidently, that was very important to Baby Boomers.

Worse was foreign policy where lack of action allowed more than 100,000 people to be slaughtered during the Bosnian War.  Atrocities and murder not seen in Europe since World War II occurred, while we and the UN stood on the sidelines and watched. Was it because Muslim men and boys were the ones led to slaughter in Szebrenica?

Maybe we were too focused on making money to think about others? Like cats our attention is easily grabbed by the next shiny issue. Monica Lewinsky got on her knees and riveted our attention. Our President needed to be impeached! Massacres in Europe interested us no more.

In the next election cycle we got to vote for another of our cohorts. George W. Bush and his compassionate conservatism, along with a boat load of oil money, won the day. He took every dollar Bill Clinton added to the Federal coffers and proceeded to flush it down the toilet. Tax cuts were the order of the day, especially for the wealthy.  Then, tragedy struck.

What happened on September 11, 2001, was godawful. However, attacking Afghanistan and Iraq because 15 Saudi Arabians attacked the United States was just plain dumb. To have cabinet members tell Congress the war would take 6 months and would be paid for with oil money taken from Iraq moved it to a fairy tale.

The generation whose parents witnessed the Pearl Harbor sneak attack was angry. It wanted revenge. But, we get oil from Saudi Arabia and Daddy Bush is good friends with the King. The Bush administration understood Americans would not care who was bombed, as long as we bombed someone. After all, an Arab is an Arab is an Arab.  But, do not tax us to pay for it. We are baby boomers; we can have our cake and eat it too!

Then, however, the banking de-regulation given to us by the first boomer President proved the "free market" was anything but free.  The economy tanked during these two wars.  That money we had saved was now gone. The money we gave to our richest citizens was tucked away nicely in the Cayman Islands or in Swiss bank accounts. The rest of the 99% saw our savings wash away like sand from a beach in Florida.

And, term limits being what they are, and without even a "sorry about that," Bush and Cheney walked away from two wars and economic catastrophe. We now needed a new President with big shoulders.

To make us feel like we ended racism, we did the "right thing." We elected Barack Obama our first African-American, and third boomer, President of the United States. After we did this, and with no apparent shame, we then blame him for everything wrong with the world.

We make it so hard for him to govern we "prove" to ourselves he's a Socialist, not a true American.  We set land mines for the man, then shout when they go off.  We cut the funds for embassy security, for example, then scream when an Ambassador is killed by an unruly mob. "He is weak on terrorism," we shout.

For those who think Barack Obama is "too liberal," you are dead wrong. He is not even close to being a liberal. This man is as conservative a President as Ronald Reagan or George H. W. Bush. When people like Ted Cruz call Mr. Obama too liberal, consider the source. Cruz is not a Conservative. He is at best a Libertarian and at worst an Anarchist. He wants government to fail so we can rid ourselves of government.

Now the "peace and love" generation, using code words like "thugs" and "illegals," has found a way to use words it knows should be banned from use in our society.  I dare anyone of my generation to defend these new code words and convince me they do not replace the awful words "niggers" and "wetbacks." If you do you are being disingenuous.

The "power to the people" generation now chants "balance the budget." Take money away from the poor to force them to learn how to work hard. Do not raise taxes, however, or take one penny away from our Social Security and Medicare programs!

With fewer than 4 million members, the NRA tells the other 313 million Americans we cannot have sensible gun legislation. We need our guns they say. Now they are telling the President who he cannot nominate as Surgeon General of the United States, Dr. Vivek Murthy. He is labeled "an anti-gun fanatic" by the lobbying group Gun Owners of America. Dr. Murthy is one of many citizens who thinks guns are an un-healthy addition to a household.

Baby Boomers say they "are in fear for their life" and must stand their ground. More "good guys with guns" are needed to hold off those "thugs" and "illegals."

Instead of marching for equality of gender rights, boomers are telling Congress that women deserve no family planning assistance and it is okay to pay them less than men.  It took two years to pass legislation supporting the Violence Against Women Act and more than 130 members of the House of Representatives voted against it when it did finally pass.

I belonged to a generation that assured basic benefits flowed to care for the poor, sick, and elderly. Now my generation has become niggardly with its generosity toward those with less. Unemployment compensation is cut in the middle of a recession. About $8 Billion is cut from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for poor children. All the while adding a new code word, "entitlements."

The same people who marched with Cesar Chavez over farm wages now scream, "Send them back to where they belong." Immigration reform sits, while families are torn apart. The children of immigrants now want no immigrants. Could it be boomers do not want these families because many of these immigrants have darker skin?

We are shameless.  We are hypocrites. We, the children of the "greatest generation," may go down in the history of the United States as the "worst generation."  Maybe we should call ourselves the "Lifestyle Lift Generation" after the Debby Boone TV ads.

We reinvented ourselves to protect our fortunes, as easy as a Lifestyle Lift can make us look 20 years younger. We need to pay less taxes to assure we can spend $60 Billion on our pets, not provide assistance to our poorest neighbors. After all, Fifi needs her no antibiotics, free-range chicken bits; her Gucci carrying bag; and her diamond collar.

In 1965 Peter Townshend, of The Who, wrote a song entitled, "My Generation." Among the words, "I hope I die before I get old."

I wish we had too! My generation has grown disgustingly old.

ON THE MOST SELF-ABSORBED AMERICANS: THE PEACE AND LOVE GENERATION

At the time John F. Kennedy was assassinated, we were just reaching an age at which we were old enough to think for ourselves. We were full of energy and hope, like our music. As the 60's continued, we fought and died in Vietnam; and we fought and died to battle "the man" over Vietnam, racism, and more.

In Vietnam we were draftees and volunteers, crackers and brothers, heads and juicers. We smoked a lot of weed and we challenged military authority at every turn. More than 2.5 million of us served in Vietnam. Nearly 60,000 of us lost our lives there.

There were no parades when we came home. After Vietnam I remember shouts of "baby killer" and "war monger" filling my ears. Folks have conveniently forgotten that many local veterans' organizations, like the VFW and American Legion, would not allow Vietnam Veterans to join because we "lost the war." With our hair and beards growing long we were unwanted among the heroes of WWII and Korea. Because of that treatment I have refused to even consider joining one still today. 

For those who stayed away from the war Timothy Leary's chant, "Turn on, tune in, drop out," drew many like a moth to flame. Our songs screamed protest as we marched in the streets, held sit-ins and love-ins. We even had an anthem.


[Click: Buffalo Springfield-For What Its Worth]

Candidates for President...Kennedy, Humphrey, McGovern, and McCarthy...ran boldly against the war.  Civil rights icon Martin Luther King, Jr., spoke out against it, as did Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali.

My generation, if anything, was progressive and to the far left in thought, if not deed. We marched for civil rights. We marched for women's rights. We marched for farm worker rights. We marched for the poor. We marched for "free love."

In the 1970's we turned that energy and focus toward the President of the United States, Richard Nixon. People who had never read a page of The Washington Post began reading it daily to learn what Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein were reporting.

Folks who knew Senator Sam Ervin as the racist old guy from North Carolina now thought him a father figure. Claiming to be "just a country lawyer," he relentlessly questioned witness after witness in the Senate Watergate hearings. Lawyer Fred Thompson rode his daily TV appearance as Minority Counsel to a Senate seat and Hollywood career, including a long-running role on the popular Law & Order series.

In the end, Baby Boomers got their way. In 1974 the 37th President of the United States resigned in shame. We sent the President into exile.

We were a formidable bunch, the generation born between 1946 and 1964. We still are. Tomorrow I will discuss how we turned from a generation touting peace and love to a generation of perhaps the meanest and most selfish Americans to ever live.

ON THE MOST SELF-ABSORBED AMERICANS: AN OVERVIEW

In the 1960's and 1970's my generation both fought in, as well as fought to end, the war in Vietnam. We marched in the streets for equality of races, farm wages, and genders. After watching a man try to turn the government into a weapon to punish domestic enemies, our efforts even brought down a corrupt Presidency. Our musicians, especially The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and Jimi Hendrix, changed music forever. Cannabis was our close friend and "high" of choice.

By the 1980's, however, after our "greatest generation" parents had paid for our education, we began earning money and starting families. Suddenly (at least to this boomer), hippies began veering to the political right. We helped elect a man who turned the south into a racist Republican stronghold and convinced many that government "was the problem." En masse we began to vote against our own self interest.

By the 1990's, having begun to save some of that money earned, we elected our first Baby Boomer President.  To aid in our search for more wealth, he stripped away almost all regulation pertaining to the banking and financial industry. The flood gates were now open to all manner of risky enterprise. The rich could generate more wealth for themselves than even they could imagine. We loved the money he put in our pockets, but we were embarrassed by the fact he could not keep his pants zipped. So, we eased over a little more to the right in our next election when we had two Boomers from which to choose.

As we moved into our 40's and 50's, and into the 21st Century, we elected a new President touting "compassionate Conservatism." He and his Cabinet set about making the wealthiest of us filthy in those riches. Because we had no skin in the game with a volunteer military of poor young men and women we began two wars and lowered taxes, a scheme only Walt Disney could understand.

What have we done with all of that wealth generated on the backs of the working class? Well, an Associated Press report says we have decided to give it to our dogs...and cats. More specifically, we spent $55.7 Billion in 2013 on our pets. [See ON PET OWNERSHIP]

According to American Pet Products Association President and CEO Bob Vetere animal owners are expected to spend about $60 Billion on their critters in 2014. When asked why such a boom in spending for the AP story, Vetere said, "What is feeding a large part of the growth now are the baby boomers who have become empty-nesters and are looking for some other ways to find the love and affection they used to get from their kids."

Really!?! So selfish we would rather give our money to Fido and Fifi than to help the poorest among us? This is where we have gone? Literally to the dogs?

Let me muse on my generation before we all "f-fade away," in three-part harmony so to speak. Tomorrow I touch on the 1960's and 1970's when it appeared baby boomers...the Hippie Generation...had a heart. Wednesday I will discuss what I call the "dark side" of the boomer force, the 1980's to the Present.