Guest Author - Cynthia Phillips

I saw a title for a video on MSN called "CEOs Gone Wild,"--such a clever title, it made me chuckle. CNBC had a panel of experts discussing the matter of extravagant spending of certain CEOs. There was actually one person on the show defending John Thain's $35,000 toilet (this must a be magic commode of some sort) and 1.2 million dollars for office renovations, saying that it is only 10 minutes of revenue for Merrill Lynch and making it out to be no big deal--unbelievable! I am glad another guy stepped in and made the excellent point that the company was losing money while Thain undergoes his shopping spree.


I cannot believe this guy had the gall to defend that kind of action at a time when others are getting laid off, losing homes, barely getting by, etc. When companies are supposed to be cutting back and they do it by cutting hours and laying off people, oh but wait--a $35,000 toilet is a need?!

We cannot forget the automakers' bailout a few months back and they nonchalantly rode in their private jets asking for a bailout. I wonder what the mindsets of these CEOs are; do they look at us as peasants? "Oh look darling, it's a group of peasants riding in one of those--what do you call it--minivans?"

What are we doing here? We are bailing out failing companies so the "fat cats" on Wall Street can purchase golden latrines? More and more people are losing their jobs and it's only going to get worse. Is the bailout helping the unemployed? Don't you see the bailouts are not helping the economy? But, it sure is helping somebody. Oh, but "they're too big to fail," is an argument I always often hear. Maybe they are "too big," is the problem; this game of monopoly is making some CEOs stupendously greedy.

I had watched Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory the other day and I was thinking about Veruca Salt who had everything but wanted more. She had wanted a goose that laid golden eggs. A quote from Mahatma Gandhi comes to mind: "Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed." I suppose Thain had everything except for a "golden" toilet. If I paid $35,000 for a toilet it had better lay me some golden eggs!