I have been watching big companies attempt to control their spending as the economy has gotten weaker. Some of it is a joke.
I see that General Motors, who is on the brink of bankruptcy, got criticized for flying their 20 passenger Gulf Stream Jet to Washington, D.C. to beg for money to bail them out. The cost of flying the jet from Detroit was $20,000. The cost of a commercial flight (first class) was only $800. Needless to say, GM was embarrassed. So now GM is selling two of their private jets. That qualifies as a joke! They have a whole fleet of other aircraft.
Nissan Motors is dropping out of the expensive Detroit and Chicago annual auto shows in an attempt to control costs. My question is "who goes to car shows anyway"? It certainly isn't the average consumer. I commend Nissan (oops, they are not an American Company).
Citicorp is the biggest bank in the world and it was 2 days from declaring bankruptcy. Yep, we taxpayers gave them a loan. Citicorp pays the New York Yankees $20 million per year to be the official stadium sponsor. Citicorp has a 20 year contract for continued sponsorship. So we the taxpayers bail out Citicorp and they pay the Yankees for the right to display their name. I don't think Citicorp gets it. How many more customers does Citicorp get because it is a sponsor of the Yankees? Citicorp also leases luxury boxes at Yankee stadium for $800,000 per year for customers. I guess that gets covered by our bailout.
And it goes on and on. AIG Insurance was bailed out by us and several days later they held an outrageous retreat for executives on the West Coast. Included were spas and whatever pampering is offered at costly hotel complexes. Yep, we taxpayers loaned them the money to do that.
What do you and I do when finances get tight? We drive less miles to conserve gas. We substitute food products and use coupons. We go to rummage sales. We shop at Craig's list and e-Bay. The point is that we sacrifice to "makes ends meet".
The taxpayer is at the bottom of the food chain. Who bails the taxpayer when we are ready to go bankrupt?
I really don't think anybody really understands the total world economic system because it too big and too complex. Common sense tells me that we can't keep loaning money to the world without penalty. Eventually we are going to pay higher taxes, accept lower wages, get less benefits and live more frugually. Dah!
Love,
Dad