As I've mentioned in many prior entries, I spent most of my career selling equipment financing and leasing services. And while there was significant opportunity regarding income in that endeavor, because the more you produced, the more you earned, the downside risk was huge as well. Because if you didn't reach or exceed your employer's sales expectations, you were out the door before you knew it.
For folks like myself, who accept the risks of having their compensation depend solely on their personal productivity, the possibility of failure looms continually. However, that's part of the equation, and if there were no real risks, there would be no chance for reward.
As time goes by, and if one is successful in sales, opportunities may arise to enter managerial ranks, providing the chance for even greater earnings, but also significantly raising chances of failure because now success depends on the performance of many others. But, for those who step up to the task, so-be-it, because that's how the system works.
Therefore, for someone like me who spends every day clearly understanding the rules and extremely aware of the perils of failure in the real world, I frankly have a very hard time understanding how poor performers survive in the workplace at all, regardless of their positions. Because from my viewpoint, they're either proficient or they're not, and if they're not...case closed, they should be gone without question.
And then, this morning I read this story: On Tuesday at a news conference, Senator John Barrasso, a Republican from Wyoming said, “I am calling on the president of the United States to cancel those bonuses and explain to the American people, the taxpayers who bailed out Freddie and Fannie, why he continues to reward failure.”
He was talking about the president's permitting $12.8 million in bonuses that were approved for 10 executives at the government-seized mortgage giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to pay out, although the two entities received $170 billion taxpayer-funds in bailouts.
Politico originally reported $6.46 million in bonuses for the top five officers at Freddie Mac, including $2.3 million for CEO Charles E. Haldeman Jr., who's stepping down next year, and $6.33 million for Fannie Mae officials, including $2.37 million for CEO Michael Williams, for meeting modest goals.
White House aides say the president took a lead on cleaning up excessive compensation on Wall Street with the Dodd-Frank bill, but those provisions do not apply to Fannie and Freddie.
So, here we have another case of the administration not only protecting it's own, but boldly ripping off taxpayers again without compunction and throwing another twelve million of their dollars down the drain. And for someone like me, I simply don't understand it and have to ask, where does this lunacy stem from?
Because there's something very wrong when someone by the virtue of being elected can unilaterally decide to give away someone else's hard-earned money time and time again out of either sheer stupidity or with the intent of doing considerable financial harm. And for those who still have a few bucks left, they better hope next November arrives quickly, because fiscally, DC's become a bottomless pit.
That's it for today folks.
Adios
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