The Twinkie Saga continues. Hostess filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy, which means they must liquidate their assets and sell off the company. In order to liquidate the company, the brand is seeking permission from the court to pay 19 top executives a $1.8 million "bonus" to help oversee the liquidation. This means that each executive will receive a little less than $100,000 for a few months of work (if that). While I'm sure that is significantly less than their usual salary, it is not chump change.
Many conservatives appear to be divided about whether bankrupt corporations should give their CEOs bonuses. When it comes to corporate bankruptcies, CEOs and management are last in line to be paid according to the SEC (Security and Exchange Commission). Only if there is money left over from the liquidation of assets and payments in full to creditors would it be okay to pay out bonuses. If, however, some creditors do not get paid in full due to renegotiation of terms, it should NOT be okay for those company executives to take a bonus.
I have absolutely no problem with executives making loads of money when they are in charge of successful companies - that is called capitalism. The problem is when those same executives keep giving themselves loads of money at the expense of others, whether that is due to price gauging, slave wages, cheap materials, or not paying debts. That is when capitalism turns in to corporate greed.
In my conservative opinion, if you borrow money you should pay it back. Bankruptcy is really not a conservative principle. As conservatives, we believe in paying our creditors in full, no matter how long it takes and what happens to us. The concept of declaring bankruptcy to get out of paying our debts is relatively new, just as using food stamps and applying for unemployment is for short term financial problems. My husband and I had to deal with six months of joblessness, and never applied for unemployment, food stamps, or personal bankruptcy, and instead incurred massive credit card debt and personal loans from family members we are still paying off. While using government welfare programs would have been a much simpler solution to our financial problems, we took our personal responsibilities seriously.
This is the cultural problem we have in this country - very few of us take our financial responsibilities seriously. Bank lends you a mortgage you can't pay - it must be the bank's fault! The government lends you insane amounts of money to go to college - the government must forgive the student loans! If you can't afford a cell phone, the internet, or cable - the taxpayers must pay for them. If you can't manage to save your money to retire at 65 - the government must pay you to retire! If you can't find a job that provides enough money to pay for health insurance, the government must pay for that too!
Do you see the pattern here? Personal responsibility vs greed! This is what we are teaching our children. Do ask what you can do for your country, but what your country can give to you! The baby boomer generation has done an excellent job teaching all future generations how to mooch off the system. We must start reversing this mentality. We must start teaching our children how to be responsible by becoming responsible ourselves and not giving in to our greed!
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