If we're going to give departing GM CEO Rick Wagoner the golden parachute he has earned, the United Auto Workers are going to have to seriously make a sacrifice for this country and chip in. Twenty million dollars has got to come from somewhere people, and it's time the middle-class paid their fair share to the upper class that is destroying their lives.
PAYDAY: GM's Rick Wagoner Drives Away With $20M Retirement Package
Rick Wagoner will leave his post as CEO of bailed-out General Motors with a $20 million retirement package, the company's financial filings show.
Although the Treasury Department has barred GM from paying severance to Wagoner or any other senior executive, Wagoner is eligible to collect millions in retirement benefits from his former employer, according to the documents reviewed by ABC News.
The Obama administration asked for Wagoner to resign Sunday, as part of its restructuring of the auto industry. President Obama said this morning that forcing Wagoner out indicated it was a time for new leadership.
Under Wagoner's leadership, GM lost tens of billions of dollars, took billions in taxpayer-financed aid, and cut tens of thousands of jobs, including announced plans to cut 47,000 employees by the end of 2009.
Any faux populist outrage today at Wagoner being ousted is coming from lower- and middle-class stone throwers who need to think about the hardship that Mr. Wagoner would face if given less than $20 million in retirement. Hell, it might bring down the whole economy if he couldn't spend that money on yachts! What would the UAW workers spend it on? Food? Clothing? Staying in their homes?! Pffffffffft.
This is how America works, folks. Wagoner earned his bucks there at GM, and he's going to get that money he earned. The slobs on the line are expendable - all they do is build the damn cars. It's jealousy, plain and simple, and a misreading of free-market economics, to think that people who suck at business shouldn't make off with millions.
Now that's got to be worth $20 million big ones as a thank you! Unless you're a socialist auto worker or sympathizer! In which case, love it or leave it suckers!