Rep. Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said the system of hefty bonuses does not make sense.
Now, I can actually understand his confusion. Like so many members of our Governing Caste, including our current President, Rep. Frank has never had to toil a day in the private sector. All his adult life, his jobs have paid the same no matter how badly his performance sucked. The only performance incentives in his circles are called "kickbacks" or "bribes", so it really shouldn't come as a surprise when a lifelong apparatchik like Barney is utterly clueless as to incentive-based compensation packages.
And yet he certainly feels qualified to monkey with the control levers. God help the people who find themselves in an operating theater or passenger jet cockpit with the man, because he'd probably happily kibbitz a heart valve replacement or night instrument approach the way you or I would give unwanted advice to a solitaire player. Except I can't send the solitaire player up for five-to-ten with time off for good behavior if he doesn't put the three of diamonds on the four of clubs...
I cringe every time I see Frank on TV or read article that quotes him. I know it's going to be a WTF moment.
ReplyDelete"...no matter how badly his performance sucked..."
ReplyDeleteKind of a bad choice of words when referring to Barney ("I don't have male hookers in my apartment") Frank.
Heh.
ReplyDeleteI realized what I'd typed after I'd typed it, but I figured that rather than edit it to turn it into snark, I'd just play it straight.
I mean play it as it lays.
I mean...
"You get hired for this very prestigious job and you get a salary, and now we have to give you extra money for you to do your job right?"
ReplyDeleteHe ought to have asked that of pro sports athletes, when they had those guys up there testifying about steroids. Wow, get paid more for doing your job better. For a life long government employee, that's fighting words.
Every time I hear about the elected telling business how to run business, I remember how McGovern said, after his post-Senate career B&B failed, how if he knew what it really took to run a business back then like he does now, his votes and bills would have been vastly different.
wv: spilyco - the company that makes dribble cups
"Firms with under $1 billion in assets would be exempt from these provisions."
ReplyDeleteWell THAT makes sense. Only futz with the large successful firms, you know-- give the little guys a chance, right?
:rolleyes:
Barney Frank should take care of his own house.
ReplyDeleteThe majority of federal workers get performance bonuses.
Link
Barney's had a man-date, so he thinks he's got a mandate.
ReplyDeleteIf Barney wants to end bonuses, he needs to get state governments to stop screwing with employment/employee taxes.
ReplyDeleteBonuses are mostly a product of government tax schemes, and ways companies get around them.
I do have to say that I keep waiting for Nemesis to kick in.
ReplyDeleteThese socialists absolutely hate anything that smacks of a free market. Their mission in life is to destroy it and so far they're doing a pretty good job. Maybe they deserve bonuses. -- Lyle
ReplyDeleteThe closest Barney Frank has come to the productive sector is swapping blowjobs with an executive of a company his committee regulates, and a company which is now at the center of our financial meltdown (Fannie Mae).
ReplyDeletehttp://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,432501,00.html
(wv: howbile. Amen.)
Barney Frank . . FANNIE Mae . . .
ReplyDelete(Take brain out to scrub away mental image).
B Woodman
III
His stupidity is boundless. Apparently it has never occurred to Frank that businesses compete for the services of talented people. One of the ways to motivate and retain those talented people is to pay them money - salary and bonuses.
ReplyDeleteI've collected some bonuses in my time. They are far more useful in paying for stuff than "prestige."