I'm watching a few extremely well-off people fret with unease, sadness, and empathy. It must be hard seeing your universe shaken to the root when you are not expecting it.
The thought came about when Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, Ivanka Trump, I am not sure what she does, and Rometti, who sits on the board at IBM came out and misguidedly asked Americans to go get another job and or another career. The video is difficult to watch as the three make a convincing point that they are very out of touch with reality. But what was even more painful to watch was how they felt to me as slave drivers watching their fortune dwindle and asking the common Joe to go out there again and get working.
The problem with these people is that they are not good stewards of the economy. The average US CEO makes thousands of dollars compared to their employees. I am not saying they should get paid more or less, but to understand the reality of everyday life before asking the good people to go out there and find another job -- as in by magic. What is needed is a fertile ground where a smart economy can happen. And the current one is anything but smart.
This link can bring you up to speed. Here are a few snippets:
...CEOs get paid a lot. For the companies on our list, the average CEO salary in 2018 was $18,669,849—or just under $9,000 an hour. Disney’s Robert Iger highest-paid CEO making over $65 million in 2018, while Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos made the least (a paltry $1.6 million).
...employees, on the other hand? Well, their average salary was a much lower $15.37 an hour, or about $32,000 a year.
You get the gist. To give you an idea of how odd the "system" is, Boeing ex-CEO, Dennis Muilenburg walked away with an estimated $67 million last year after the 737 MAX accidents that claimed the lives of 346 people. It is extravagances like these continue to create a schism that separates these two realities, those sitting on top making millions and who are shielded from those working below, making that reality. No one is to blame. All have their responsibilities to stop and rebalance the careful act.
Again, it is not to say: "Down with the man!" and start a revolution. A revolution has been started and is about to end. The balance is off and most of these people on top have no idea what is going down below, enjoying the fruit of those working below. That is always a very dangerous situation as the French and American revolution of a few hundred years ago can show.
It feels as if the revolution has ended and there is no way but to a more balanced system. Seeing those three asking people go out and get another job in the middle of a COVID-19 pandemic and an economy on like support shows a complete lack of understanding of what people are going through right now.
Maria Shriver just wrote this morning:
A new study from Everytown for Gun Safety finds that the economic downturn caused by Covid-19 could cause about 20 more lives lost per day by suicide, this year alone. According to Census Bureau data, a third of Americans are feeling severe anxiety right now and a quarter of Americans are showing signs of depression. And a recent poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that the pandemic has negatively affected the mental health of 56% of adults. Think about those sobering statistics.
Indeed, it is time to think about what is important to us and continue setting the balance back.
As the French saying goes, to he who listens, I salute you.
