Hostess Brands, the maker of sweet snacks like Twinkies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last week, will ask a bankruptcy judge today to approve a plan that will allow it to pay $1.75 million in bonuses to 19 of its executives. Hostess’ decision to file for bankruptcy came amid disputes with its union workers, who threatened a strike that Hostess said imperiled the company’s finances. The unions are now protesting Hostess’ request for the bonuses, though they are unlikely to prevail….
Yeah, so Hostess Brands is going out of business, the victim of its own ineptitude, callousness, and malfeasance…but we all know who’s to blame, right?
If only Hostess’ 18,500 workers hadn’t been so damned greedy….
All those jobs will go the way of the buffalo; don’t let the door hit you in the butt on the way out, ‘kay??
Since Hostess is in bankruptcy, it’s unlikely that workers will get anything resembling a decent severance package. Yet the company was somehow able to find the funds to pay 19 of its executives a total of $1.75 million? This would seem to be one of those “How do you sleep at night?” moments, but the executives appear to suffer the pangs of moral conflict when it comes to accepting the bonuses even as their workers are getting pink slips.
The 1% may have lost the battle that was the recent election, but they’re clearly winning the war, and they’re rapidly and eagerly creating a two-tier society, where the lower tier will exist primarily to cater to the needs and desires of the Masters of the Universe. Say hello to the rebirth of the Robber Barons.
Who says history isn’t circular?
There are, let’s face it, some people in our political life who pine for the days when minorities and women knew their place, gays stayed firmly in the closet and congressmen asked, “Are you now or have you ever been?” The rest of us, however, are very glad those days are gone. We are, morally, a much better nation than we were. Oh, and the food has improved a lot, too.
Along the way, however, we’ve forgotten something important — namely, that economic justice and economic growth aren’t incompatible. America in the 1950s made the rich pay their fair share; it gave workers the power to bargain for decent wages and benefits; yet contrary to right-wing propaganda then and now, it prospered. And we can do that again.
I care not a whit about Hostess. Their products are crap- packed with sugar, devoid of nutrition, and largelessly tasteless- but 18,500 Americans had jobs making these products, for which their was a sizable demand. 18,500 Americans…people with families, mortgages, car payments, and mouths to feed will soon be in dire straits, but 19 Hostess executives will get bonuses for doing little more than running their company into the ground.
Man, how do I get in on that action??
I’m not sure when economic justice went out of fashion, but American capitalism these days seems built on the premise that the way to riches is trampling those on the very bottom of the corporate food chain. Far too many CEOs and corporate executives really do see themselves as Masters of the Universe, and their driving philosophy is a Randian disregard and disdain for anyone not in a similar tax bracket. The 99% exist to support and enable their lavish, outsized lifestyles, and if they don’t like that arrangement…well, they’re just shiftless, lazy welfare mongers.
Remember when America used to be the land of opportunity?
