At Times of Financial Hardship, Company Executives Sitting Pretty

Last Tuesday I was utterly disgusted to learn that throughout all of the economic hardships that have plagued this country for the past month that the CEO’s of Ford have been asking for government money while they themselves are flying private jets. The real aspect of this story that really angered me was the fact that Ford is cutting so many jobs and this mean that countless number of people have lost their source of income. I believe that if the CEO’s sold their private jets, which go for hundreds of millions of dollars a piece, this would enable countless numbers of people to hold onto their jobs.

After I learning about the whole Ford incident I was naïve enough to believe that Ford was the only company which had executives that did not give two cents about the blue collared workers. The fact of the matter is that blue collared workers are the backbone of a company, without them a company would cease to exist. I was all too disappointed to learn that Ford is just one of many companies that have grown careless towards their hardworking employees. The main company I will talk about is the local bus company by the name of Pace.

The main difference between Pace and Ford is that Pace is not running to the government asking for money; on the other hand Pace is actually reporting earnings. The issue I have with Pace is that they are increasing the amount of money it will take to ride a bus. Why this fact is an issue is because Pace top executives are seeing a major increase in their paychecks. Some executives are seeing an increase of as little as 4% but a good amount of executives are seeing increases as large as 35%. All of these people make over $100,000. With regards to Pace, my main issue is not the pay increase for top executives because of the fact that regular paid employees are still keeping their jobs. My main issue with Pace is simply that people should not pay more money to ride a bus, especially with our flailing economy.



Americans are already hurting financially because of the fact that the price of living is still on the rise. Combine this with the fact that many people do not have a real strong sense of job security, and you suddenly realize that a simple bus fee can really start to make people nervous. An increased bus fee as well as an increased price on food starts to add up for people who live their lives from paycheck to paycheck. Instead of increasing the salary of top executives and as a result increasing bus fees at this moment couldn’t Pace have waited long enough until the economic troubles blow over.



I know that this is America, the free capitalistic society of the world, and with all the riches that come with this society there are also the lows that this economy goes through. I also realize that in America hard work and time often result in a person succeeding in life. But never have I ever heard that it was okay to sit back and relax as the poor get poorer while the rich get richer.

And that’s just my take on things.