The poor and middle class seemed to have paid down debt with the second wave of cuts. I'm sure that was an honest error on your part and not an attempt to ignore the obvious. Guess you missed the news articles stating that.

I never said all the money was invested over seas, simply that that factor was not taken into account. Every where I have worked has been investing in China.

You must have also missed the news about Buffet chastising other wealthy individuals for the shenanigans that got us here. He has long been a critic of hedge funds and derivatives. Gates and Buffet are obvious exceptions. There are far more Al Dunlaps out there. Gates and Buffet can also afford to give away fortunes and still be richer than almost everyone else. I applaud their actions and don't feel it's reasonable for anyone to expect them to do more or even as much as they have, but they are not the type of people who have brought this economy down. The power corrupts rule is not absolute. It's like smoking and drinking. Some develop cancer or become alcoholics and others don't based on their individual constitutions, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't worry about the behavior. And come on Tom, how do avoid knowledge of the lavish habits of all these industry Titans that regularly make the news?

I've stated this over and over Tom. Everyone who built their own business like Gates and Buffet (sort of but close enough) or grew a business tremendously deserve huge pay. Most small business owners have gotten modestly wealthy through hard work and innovation. That is definitely not true of those that have brought this country down, at least not in the way I mean innovation (new value or better productivity). Developing new ways to scam people is not a positive trait or one that should be rewarded. Being a caretaker CEO that does nothing to grow the business beyond the basic economic growth of the country does not deserve to reap huge increases in pay while wages are held below inflation level for almost everyone else. There is no moral difference between an embezzler and an overpaid CEO just because he has handpicked people to OK his lavish pay packages while he cooks up short term profits at the expense of long term corporate viability. They are grabing what they can get without regard for the long term welfare of the company's true or other owners. You keep ignoring all the massive scandals we've had over the past decade and act like nothing is rotten inside our system. This is obviously false.

I've been in this cauldron of buyouts and spinoffs and private equity and the average worker has often evaluated the events more accurately than highly paid executives. It has been a huge shell game in many instances with "one time charges" being waived off in annual statements as abnormal when this crap is going on almost on an annual basis. I know what real innovation is because I've been doing it my whole career and have made improvements in productivity (doubling it on multiple occasions at minimal cost) and quality (> 99 % FPQ)well beyond average based on responses to my resume, yet have only been paid average for my profession. I've also been told by a head hunter that pay corresponds more to how many times you've changed jobs than what you've accomplished in one. You want to tell me I've been paid for my contributions with raises of a few thousand dollars and 2 promotions in 16 years when I made the companies I've worked 10 to 100 times that in improvements annually while doing my basic caretaker production role at the same time? I'm not unique either. I don't work in a vacuum and the other key performers I've worked with feel similarly. The people who were rewarded the most where I worked the longest were ones who excelled at pleasing their superiors rather than at making the company money. It was the same at my father's company. Your work in small company environments gives you a rose colored picture of what industry is like. Small companies have to work live by the ideal rules of capitalism or they die. High volume can cover a lot off ineficiency until the economy heads south.

You really need to look at the big picture of what's going on in this country Tom. You tell me why someone can steal 50 billion and only get house arrest when a poor black kid stealing a car or a first time assault defendent gets far harsher treatment. People get their lives ruined by DUI's yet wealthy celebrities get slaps on the wrist. A wealthy rapper can beat the crap out of his girl friend and not even get jail time yet a middle class mom can be thrown in jail for waiving a knife at her husband. You have got to be blind not to realize how much concentrated wealth distorts both economic and social justice in our country.

Regards,
Mark