Their own bubble....

Source

The "bubble" that high corporate executives have inhabited in the past few years is becoming more and more apparent. Their separation from everyday people’s needs has permitted them to justify personal lifestyles and corporate practices (private airplanes, elaborate office installations…) at the expense of the jobs and well being of just about everyone else. For example:

1. Bailed-out Wells Fargo plans Vegas Casino Junkets: http://news.bbc.co.uk/
2. Obama action due on executive pay: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7869265.stm
3. Fannie-Mae's overpaid board: http://www.truthout.org/020209A

Why should I write about this here if everyone else already has elsewhere?

Because the bubble is not just an Alice-in-Wonderland lifestyle. It is a way of life that separates "them" from “us” in almost every possible way. And since they are powerful, they can affect us in pernicious ways.

Here is an anecdote that can describe this separation. I remember years ago when traveling through México's northern desert region in a small, non-air conditioned car with three children and my husband. It was so hot we traded water-soaked towels to keep our temperatures down. The dust was everywhere. We stopped at a gas station where little, skinny, bare-foot boys were selling Chiclets and dry candy. Everyone was exhausted. Suddenly a silver motor-home pulled in and stopped; a door pulled open (sideways, like in a space-ship) and a small stairway emanated. From that apparatus, and accompanied by a puff of cold air, two slightly drunken couples that spoke English descended carrying frosty whiskey glasses tinkling with ice-cubes.

For all of us, including the barefoot kids, they could have been Martians. And I suppose we were sweaty-hot little creatures from Venus in their eyes.

At any rate we were incommensurable.

And that’s the danger. These corporate guys live somewhere else, and that is very dangerous.

Image: cartoon about CEOs: http://www.time.com/time/cartoonsoftheweek/0,29489,1876053_1839199,00.html