The Niles Star

Editorial: No time for bonuses

Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2009

Here in Michigan the effects of the recession are everywhere. Symbolically, in the lack of raises or salary increases, pay cuts and layoffs.

They are effects that are shared by communities large and small across the country.

Which is why a disconnect between the average American and those steering the finances flowing through the country is so alarming.

Recently the federal government once again took the nation’s most influential financial institutions to task when it was announced that several executives would be receiving performance bonuses at a time when many Americans say they don’t believe the recession is over.

The line between governmental control and influence is a thin one at best. It is important for our political entities to continue to govern the people without losing sight of the boundaries that have been set upon them so as to avoid the threat of an oppressive and intrusive government.

But boundaries are the point in the government’s actions to see those bonuses, handed down to the very same executives who sat in posh offices as they ushered America into one of the most debilitating financial eras in its history – taken away.

It is a scary societal era that America would find itself in when those who manage the money of hardworking citizens, parents, families across all economic spectrums can not see their failure in the rising unemployment, the still struggling housing market and the decrease in consumer spending, the depletion of savings accounts the struggling of a shrinking middle America.

They are but one variable in the country’s current situation – yet in no way a variable worthy of becoming an exception.

Washington should not merely suggest these bonuses be revoked – but encourage the action until action is taken.

There is a shared culture to be repaired here.

For America was not destined to be a country of the privileged presiding over the poor.
The question is not whether the government should be allowed to tell any business how to pay its employees – surely such an action would seem excessive.

But this is not an action with no context. In such a matter, where American tax dollars have gone to bailout these financial institutions, one would think that the pay off to those Americans, who are carrying the weight of the recession on their shoulders should come before the financial executives who have dropped the ball.

If such financial institutions doesn’t want the government taking an active look at the way they dole out their money – maybe they should take an active look at themselves.