Recently, our class has been discussing Michael Moore's film "Roger and Me." The film shows how there were eleven General Motors plants in Flint, Michigan, and how they were torn down because they could get cheaper labor in Mexico. Michael Moore filmed the opinions of the laborers who lost their jobs and they were extremely upset, upset at Roger Smith, the president of General Motors. "Roger and Me" was filmed in the 1980's, but even today, there is still complaints being sent to General Motors. Our economy right now is in poor shape and many of the car companies are on the verge of bankruptcy. General Motors is one of those companies, and they have been receiving aid from the government to prevent filing bankruptcy. Fritz Henderson, new Chief Executive for G.M., said, "But the day we took money from the taxpayer was one of the, one of the most difficult days of certainly my career and of the history of General Motors. … And one of the, one of the happiest days of my future career is going to be the day we pay the loans back.” When I read that, I thought that other Americans would would seem happy because he cares about the taxpayers and sincerely wants to pay them back. When I look on the comments I found many angry responses. Many Americans are upset about the whole economic situation so they will get mad at anything that seems unfair. For example, Brian Sussman from New Rochelle, New York, said, " If Mr. Henderson was 'earning' $200,000, that would be more than sufficient. If he has any sense of honor, He should immediately reduce his salary by an additional $1.1 million, and consider that his patriotic duty; or if he is too greedy for that, he should immediately resign his position without accepting any severance pay or other benefits." This man is extremely upset that Henderson is making 1.3 million even though his company is on the verge of bankruptcy. Americans are speaking out against the executives who are making more than enough money even after they are receiving government aid. Sussman's comment reminded me of the angry laborers who sent letters to F.DR.. In this hard economic time, people are becoming angry at any unfair thing and want the government to stop throwing away money to companies who handle it foolishly.
3 comments:
People are always eager to blame in times of economic recession. In this case, people are trying to use Henderson's large salary as the scapegoat for their problems. If he were to reduce his salary, it probably would not effect the people blaming him in any substantial way. Similarly, in the film, "Roger & Me", Roger Smith was the one to blame for all the unemployed in Flint's lost jobs. Although his choice to move factories to Mexico for cheaper labor directly caused job cuts in Flint, it only indirectly caused all the following poverty problems for the unemployed.
It's ironic that now that GM is on the verge of collapse, they start "caring" about the taxpayer. Clearly they had little or no regret in firing thousands of people in an attempt for higher profits. Maybe the people of Flint feel like they are getting their revenge. We'll see if GM will actually "pay us back".
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