Wealth of the Nations? How about the wealth of the few?

Although the wealth of the nations activities brought up some great points about the stuggles of the "have nots" vs. the squabbling between the "haves," I think that we can bring this into the context of people in North America. One of my daily activities includes reading the news from different outlets such as CBC, CNN, the New York Times, The Los Angeles Tribune, and others. Today on CNN.com I came across an article that made me cringe when I read it.

So often we think of how lucky we are as a nation with respect to the other nations of the world. We are wonderfully blessed with resources, clean air (sometimes), fresh water (depends on the time, tofino ring a bell?), and blessed with the competancy and wealth to be able to utilise the resources to our advantage. What about the dividde of wealth in our own backyard? Now I wouldn't expect that any of us in the class are overly wealthy but I don't want to assume. What I do know is that some people struggle to get the basic essentials for a good life in Canada and the United States while others are more than privileged.

While reading this article some grave atrocities were brought to the foreground of my thoughts. I suppose that they are always in our face but quite often we as society choose not to think about it. Reporter Ethan Trex describes the [North] American Dream: "Work hard, get promoted, succeed in your new post, and eventually you'll start earning the big money. This progression seems like a firmly ingrained part of the [North] American Dream, and it's certainly worked for a lot of people." True, this does work for many people and too well for some. "When WaMu failed and was seized by government regulators, [Alan] Fishman [CEO] had been on the job for just 17 days. However, he was contractually guaranteed $11.6 million in cash severance on top of the $7.5 million signing bonus he got for taking the job." The North American Dream brought Alan Fishman nearly $20m in two and a half weeks, not too shabby considering this would take the average teacher about 300 years to earn!!

How is this possible, a failing bank in the United States pays out the CEO of only 17 days $11.6m and he still gets the signing bonus!! Sign me up!! But how many people in economic despair, especially the customers of Washington Mutual (WaMu) are entirely put off by the whole situation. I think the situation is tragic. If Fishman only ever worked those 17 days in his life, he would still be more than set to retire! Again I'll say sign me up!

From this I just wanted to shed a little more light on the economic situation that is currently at hand. The only sense I can make out of it is that the work of the many will only benefit the few.

The link to the article can also be found by clicking on the post title. Just incase though:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/10/01/mf.easy.money/index.html