Bailoutpalooza
I owe one of my friends a ton of money. I took out a loan to pay him back, but decided to buy a corporate jet instead and hand out bonuses to people I work with instead. Is this a scene from the movie Dumb and Dumber? Remember when Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels finally get the Mary Swanson ransom money suitcase open and discover all the cash? They said they would pay it all back, but left IOU’s inside the briefcase instead. They spent the cash on cars, clothes and one sweet suite in an Aspen hotel.
Welcome to the corporate bailout of 2008-2009. As a communications person, I’m amazed one of my fellow spokespersons inside one of the oft mentioned companies did not apparently clear his/her throat and say “Uh, um….Sir…Madam…I don’t think it would look good if the government is bailing us out and we decide to spend money on jets, cars, apartments, buyouts and bonuses, especially since there is a huge problem with unemployment in the country right now and thousands of businesses are going under.”
The people who run these major banks and corporations are supposed to be the best and brightest. Ivy League educated, Wharton School of Business at UPenn etc. etc. Yet, like some doctors, they really lack a good bedside manner. In this case, it’s called common sense. Are they so out of touch on the top floor that they can’t see the reality of what our nation is facing?
Perception is reality they say. As far as the current Bailoutpalooza ’08-‘09, it’s time for corporate America to take the bailouts and use them to make our nation, its people and their opportunity to do business, stronger. Anything else is a public relations disaster.
It’s gotten so bad that my 11 year old son asked me for a bailout the other day. I gave him the money. He immediately went out and bought a Lego corporate jet. The Lego crew on board was last seen heading off to Hawaii to spend the bonuses my son had also awarded them.
Tim Gray
Director of Communications
Rhode Island General Treasurer
