Recently a bankruptcy judge heard from executives
at a Sears and Kmart, same company at this
point, um, were the executives and their lawyers
argued that even though these stores are bankrupt,
we're going into bankruptcy, we're shutting
them down.
We should still be allowed to pay our bonuses
of $25,000,000 to executives and shareholders
with these companies.
By God.
These people deserve that $25,000,000 even
though yet they destroyed these companies
that have been around for decades.
I mean health.
Sears is older than most people in this country
and these guys were so bad at it that they
couldn't keep a company running that had been
in existence for decades, probably decades
before they were even born.
They bankrupted it, destroyed it.
Stores are closing left and right, and now
they want $25, million dollars for doing that.
Same story with Kmart.
Sears owns Kmart, and so that was part of
the bankruptcy liquidation and chapter 11
and all of that.
These stores are going to go out of business.
Thousands of people in this country are going
to lose their jobs and instead of saying we're
going to take money out of that pot, you know,
out of your bankruptcy pot and give it to
those employees to make sure they get a good
severance or that they can get good benefits
for a few months while they find a new job.
No, the bankruptcy judge said, you know what
executives?
I agree with you.
I think these wealthy people who destroyed
these companies because they're so bad at
business, deserve another $25,000,000 and
this ladies and gentlemen is the biggest failure
of capitalism because this isn't just a story
that happened with Sears.
This happens with companies all over the country.
Every single year people come in, hedge fund
managers, typically they buy up a company,
buy up the real estate, charge them out the
Wazoo.
These companies end up going bankrupt.
They have to shut down all their stores across
the country, but the hedge fund managers get
huge bonuses for destroying these companies.
Same thing that happened with Toys R Us David
Dayen has done a phenomenal investigative
piece on this.
Actually, a year or two ago where he explained
how this little scam works and that to me
is one of the biggest failures of capitalism
here in the United States, that we reward
failure, that we give ceos who can't run a
business tens of millions of dollars for no
other reason than they're called a CEO.
They have no talent, they have no vision,
they have no direction, and yet they get tens
of millions of dollars while we have teachers
in this country giving a brighter future to
students all over the place, inspiring them,
teaching them, educating them, and they're
having to take second jobs because they can't
pay their bills.
The real heroes in this country are not sitting
in board rooms.
They're not a corporate shareholders and their
name isn't followed by the title chief executive
officer.
They're standing in classrooms.
They're standing in courtrooms arguing for
consumers.
They're first responders and there are people
who are out there every day trying to do the
best they can to provide a better life for
their family and their friends, but they're
damn sure not sitting in board rooms yet.
Those are the people who get the biggest rewards
because capitalism in the United States as
it is right now, is a complete joke.
