Closing Arguments: Bonus Season Expectations

A bonus? For what? You have got to be kidding–they should give back their salaries.

Absolutely….taxpayer money should not reward these executives for their bad business decisions

This is a no brainer. Everyone has to sacrifice. News flash to the corporate officers and the sports people: NO ONE IS WORTH THAT MUCH MONEY. This country has got to stop worshipping greed.

No bonuses unless they start making money. Cut emissions with more electric cars, and hybrids that really work

The destruction/greed that WallStreet has caused, no bonuses should be given. Millions of us have lost our jobs and we are not being compensated.

I’ve always thought a “bonus” was something “extra” a person received for doing a job exceptionally well, that is, performing above the expected level. NO BONUSES!

Yes, I truly believe Fat Cats who are executives of struggling companies need to be in touch with the average struggling American family and consider them first since they are already receiving a much higher unrealistic salary compared to the rest of the world. Greed is not good and let us tell the producer of “Wall Street”!

Executives should absolutely give up their bonus if their company is struggling.

Yes all the executives of these firms that TAXPAYERS are bailing out should forgoe their huge salaries and bonus’s. I am appalled that these people are so damn arrogant and think WE should bail them out without them giving up a damn dime. I say let them all fail if they can’t do something for the greater good.

absolutely. if they are keeping it, they should be ashamed. they make enough during the year, usually 10 times what a normal american makes.

It is absurd to even ask if the executives should forego their bonuses! Bonuses are typically given when a company does well… and to those who do a particularly good job. These executives have none neither. In fact, they should be fired!!! All of this makes me sick! They do a terrible job and then reward themselves?!?! Then they are going to lay off workers and give themselves more bonuses? This needs to be stopped! In fact, they should be paid on a commission basis… if the company doesn’t make a profit, they DO NOT get paid!

Not only should executives of Wall Street corporations not take a bonus any company that canceled employee bonuses should not take a bonus.

Absolutely. Those Wall Street execs should not only forego their bonuses, they should take what they would have made in bonuses out of their own personal fortunes and donate that money to the thousands who have lost their jobs since the start of the recession.

I think they should not get any bonus when the company is going bankrupt. They should be fired. They are not doing their jobs correctly or they wouldn’t have to file bankruptcy or ask for bailouts. They do not deserve their hugh salaries.

YES, they shouldn’t be getting their bonuses. Why should we be rewarding failure?

most definitely!!! The companies many of those individuals ran, and are supposed to be responsible for, are getting bailed out by the government, and yet, people like me, who go to work every day, to get a salary that covers basis and nothing else, are not getting any help from any one, let alone bonuses. It is ABSOLUTELY unfair and offensive to even talk about them getting year-end bonuses.

Absolutely! They are already wealthy men to begin with and they do not need it. Why should they be considered better than everyone else and continue to amass money they will never spend while the Fathers of small children are reduced to collecting aluminum cans to
sell for scrap, or even worse, just to feed their children.

Not one of these crooks should get one red cent of bonus money. None of them are going to go personally bankrupt if they do not receive any extra money. Plus, isn’t a bonus given if the company makes its yearly budget and predictions. Obviously, these idiots didn’t accomplish thier goals. In any other profession, if an employee fouls up this badly they get fired. I’m still waiting for people to get fired. But, I won’t hold my breath.

Should every executive from struggling Wall Street firms be expected to volunteer their annual bonus?
Absolutely, they squandered are investments, IRA’s, you name it, they mis-managed it. How about firing the whole lot of them along with the most corrupt government I have ever seen in my 46 years of living! I look forward with dread on the change we can believe in. I will miss the United States of old.

By definition, a “bonus” is paid to those having demonstrated extraordinary effort in achieving the success of the company’s goals. It is beyond belief that these greedy managers would even begin to consider a bonus in a year when they rode heard on the failure of the free market system…and in most cases the failure of their companies, either literally or through lack of goal achievement.
Not only should these managers not receive a bonus, they should return a portion of their base pay (which is also extraordinarily high for the awful performance they have shown)…or face criminal charges for defrauding the country of its very core economic security.

NO CEO should expect a single dollar in a bonus. We have the worst ecomcoy in forthy years and the nerve of them to ask taxpapers to struggle while CEO “s enjoy bonus monies is truly a slap in the face to the people struggling to just get by

Every executive SHOULD volunteer their bonus. Tax payers should not support their lavish lifestyle while so many do not even have the money to live on.

I certainly expect them to. Expect meaning that is what I would expect of them as an authoritative figure, which I am not. As an observer, I don’t necessarily expect that they will, but I certainly hope they will.
I think only in exceptional cases, for justifiable reasons, should someone receive a bonus at a company that didn’t turn a profit.

Comparing the working conditions and perks of Wall Street CEOs to those of the average person, who wouldn’t want to be one? They should show their gratitude by working for $1 a year.

Not only do we believe the Wall Street mucky-mucks should indeed forego their greedy, undeserved, unearned “bonuses”, but so shall all the CEOs and “celebrity” members of boards of directors!
Earn? No one can “earn” that kind of money respectably and honestly!

Absolutely they should be expected to volunteer their annual bonus!!! Don’t fly $30,000,000 jets or drive your $500,000 cars and complain that you need a bailout because your company is struggling!! How much do these executives have storied away? I think the only reason they WOULD NOT want to forfeit their annual bonus is because their bank account will only say 32 million instead of 35 million!

ABSOLUTELY not!!! Abonus is for a job done exceptionely well. Bankrupt, bailout, forced mergers/sales are indicators of a job done well. In fact, salaries should be reduced and perks of office lost.

YES!

Yes they should we as tax payers are asked to bail them out, thire own empolyies are let go if they can not make payrole so why not. It is time the the big wigs to put up or stop asking for gov. help. If you are in a failing compamy, you are not entitled to a bonus. 33 billion is insane in todays world, it was insane last much less this year.

Capatolism is taking risk and getting rewarded for it as well as taking risk and suffering is the risk does not pay off. Why then are we bailing out pricate companies for their losses..This is not capatolism, it is socialism. It is a slap in the face, when they give thenselves bonuses with OUR money. The government is doing us a hugh dis-service by doing this. These companies should have taken their lumps when their bets failed like we are doing. The average person is not getting a bail out or a bonus for making bad decisions.

It is amazing to me that this discussion of bonuses and the executives that would consider it as their right to accept that money is thought of, as it seems, theirs! People have lost, are lossing or are looking for jobs and they would consider receiving or requesting the BONUS!
When I worked in a position that offered the employees a Bonus for the hard work that was done to keep the company ahead of the competion, that was truly a Bonus, but in today’s economy, GIVE THE AMERICAN PEOPLE A BREAK!!!

YES!!!! They should be fired, not rewarded. They were at the helm when their companies went down the tubes!! Why should they be rewarded for that??

Not only they should volunteer to do that, they should all be fired for mismanagement and for failing their companies. I found it cocky that some of these guys believe that they deserve a bonus in term of millions while street people are being laid off. Why should taxpayers money be used to pay for their vacations and bonuses when in the same time they are laying off white collars? Yes they should give up those bonuses and stop mocking main street people.

no bonuses and help out the big three we help the banks

Here’s an idea: Eliminate all CEO positions and use the money saved to hire more low level workers.

YES. The reason these companies are in trouble is because these owners and CEO’s are greedy. Prices keep going up so they can continue to live their lives in luxury while the rest of us struggle. Boscov’s is a good example. The owners are willing to put up a MILLION(S) of their own dollars and the state of Pennsylvania is going to help them with the rest of the money they need. How does a bankrupt owner come up with millions of dollars????

Do I think the big guys should forego their bonuses?? Yes, yes and a thousand times YES!!

Yes they should give up their bonuses as well as being fired without severances just like any lower level worker would be for failing to do their jobs. CEOs don’t think twice about jerking the little guys bonus or donating to charity in the workers name who was already counting on his/her bonus for their own families needs.

If I, as an employee performed my job the way the CEO’s have, I’d have been fired a long time ago. Should they get a bonus? HELL NO!!! They should be on their way out to pasture because their usefulness is no longer needed. Let Gov Blago and all the CEO’s join Gov Ryan in adjoining cells.

The term “billion” is thrown around so regularly now that I am led to believe that Americans really do not want to comprehend what that numerical amount really means because true comprehension would require the reality of riots in the streets.
Spell out $1 billion dollars in zeros and it is $1,000,000,000 or $1000 million dollars. $35 billion in bonuses is $35,000 million ($35,000,000,000) dollars in bonuses handed out last year to the lucky few simply because they worked in the financial sector where people use money to make money. Most of us simply cannot comprehend that amount of money, we just accept the monetary terms in shorthand without the zeros.
It has been reported that the stock market lost almost $$3,000,000,000,000 this year in value and the government and quasi-government agencies – the Congress, the Treasury, the FDIC and the Federal Reserve – have injected almost as much into the seized financial markets to keep the whole system alive.
I lost my job yesterday due to the financial mess created by these Wall Street executives. To utter the word bonus should be an insult to the intelligence of the ordinary person. How could anyone receive a bonus for losing so much money and by extent undermining the economy? This couldn’t possibly be the intent of the bonus system or of capitalism itself.

Yes, I believe that they should not only give up their bonuses but also atleast one months salaries. I don’t think that any company should give anyone CEO or not a bonus this year. We are in a resession and the companies should keep their money so that they will not have to ask the Government for HELP! I do not get a bonus and I work hard all year. I do not just sit back and let everyone do the work for me and then expect a bonus and a fat raise at the end of the year and neither should the CEO’s.

I had already turned off my computer when you possed this question at the end of your show, I got up immediately to respond. I am appalled that CEO’s and Senior Managers of organizations, who already make millions in salary & bonuses, year after year, would hesitate for a second in agreeing to this suggestion. I’m willing to bet you that in companies where the CEO’s and Senior Management KEEP their bonuses that there are some layoffs of the little people to make it possible. As my stock and 401(k) slowly disappears during my first 5 months of retirement, I now need to go back to work! I can assure you that they are not concerned like the rest of us, except to protect their bonuses and salaries.The grilling the Big 3 got from Barney Frank’s committee should be applied to ALL banks & CEO’s that took government money, making sure that they understand that we are watching them closely and we, the American people & stockholders, expect changes in how they do business.

ABSOLUTELY! Nobody should be getting a bonus this year!

I feel that executives that are slated to receive a bonus should not take them. They should make sure that the hard working employees stay employed. I just don’t understand why they feel they need a bonus. They are not the ones busting the tails everyday in the trenches. Happy Holidays.

Are they smarter than a 5th grader?
Doesn’t look like it!

i wonder when they were linning their pockets with millions of workers retirement and health money how they sleep at nites. they should work for low wages no one is worth that amount of money even ball players, between our goverment and run away farm welfar which is in the billions no wonder we are are broke once they get in office they line their pockets and have the best health coverage on the planet and gosh i wished i worked for a few years and had tons of money when i retired its a crime we let this go on with our coes and elected goverment members farmers you have senior citizens living off nothing and they get 10 20 dollars for food stamps and at their ages they have more expensive diets or more health problem where they need different food heck they might want to cook a meal for their kids and cant afford it but you have kids you get it and lots of it car payments insurance utilities rent medical money and they think we dont need help with food come live at my house for a few month after that high gas we are broke and can not recoupe it doctors visits it takes it all we have to many greedy self center coes and govermnet people who are the worst crooks ……

Of course they should not receive bonuses. Bonuses used to be a way to reward exceptional performance — not performance that has decimated Wall Street and taken Main Street with it, further eroding the overburdned middle class now saddled with bailing them out. I cannot believe the level of greed and lack of conscience from these Wall Street executives who show no remorse and no empathy for the suffering they have caused with their excesses. They are proving themseles to be the sociopaths (the hallmark of which is no remorse or empathy for others) depicted in the documentary that was released a few years ago about the corporation as psychopath (an old term for sociopath). Not only should bonuses go, but CEO and other senior management remuneration should be substantially decreased. For the top dog at Lehman to run his business into the ground and walk away with close to $500 MILLION over 8 years is insanity. He should be forced to give $492 MILLION of that back to the bail-out fund (the $1 million a year he would get to keep is extremely generous). And so should the others donate to the fund, including Paulson who walked away from Goldman Sachs with $50 million (a little like the fox guarding the hen house, don’t you think?). There’s something wrong when a CEO can make $5 million, $10 million and more in a single year. No one is worth that. If their pay and bonuses totaled in the $300k range, then there would be an incentive for them to behave responsibly. If their livelihood was tied in with the success of their businesses, as it should be, then they would work for the betterment of the business rather than for their personal short-term gain and the agrandizement of their insatiable egos. When they can make in one year more than most of us will ever see in a lifetime, they have no personal stake in the success of the business they are ostensibly employed to serve. If it folds, they can walk away wealthy. Ben and Jerry’s had it right in the way top pay couldn’t exceed a reasonable percentage over bottom pay. I’m sorry for the tone of this, but I am irate and feel it’s time for the masses to rise up and take this country back (and start to pay a living wage to teachers, psychotherapists and others who care about society and are investing in people rather than using their intelligence to come up with the next selfish money-making scheme like sub-prime mortgages and ninja loans). Let’s face it, if this economy folds, these fat cats can purchase their own islands and bail out of this country on their yachts and private jets, leaving the rest of us holding the bag.

There should be no “bonus” and the outrageous salaries must go way down. The same is true for sports figures. Companies who cannot pay their employees and their creditors should not pay the outrageous costs for advertisement that allows sports players to draw rediculous fees for their services, including signing bonuses.

You’ve got to be kidding! Of course, they should all forfeit bonuses.

Not only should they not get bonuses, they should forgo their paychecks. I did hear that one CEO said he would reduce his annual salary to $1.00. He’s not the first one ever to have made such a move, but more of them should take a humble lesson. I firmly believe that any bailout should explicitely stipulate that absolutely no bonues or outrageous severence packages be awarded any of them. How could they even consider using any funds so when their companies are on the verge of collapse?!!! Any “worker bee” would have been fired outright for having been so incompetent. Haven’t the tax payers already lost enough? How far down is your 401K because of this?

Yes,Yes,Yes are they kidding they should all give back their yearly salary and see what the rest of the unemployed people are dealing with at this time. STOP THE GREED!!!! Get Real

Yes! Imagine how much money those companies would have if they had not given out all of these ridiculous bonuses in the first place. Maybe they wouldn’t need a bailout.

Why should they get any kind of bonus when they have allowed the car companies to be in such financial downfall. I have probably cared for them in the hospital and their families and cleaned up their vomit and wiped their butts but I am not even getting a free turkey this year and don’t even make as much as auto workers and I have a college education. How is any of this fair?

LET’S CUT TO THE CHASE!!! DO YOU KNOW WHAT GOOD OLD FASHION AMERICA DOES WHEN MONEY IS TIGHT??? SELL, AUCTION, DONATE, OR FOR HEAVEN SAKES GIVE. EVERYBODY WHO DOES IT KNOWS ” GOOD THINGS COME BACK WHEN GIVEN. IT WILL COME BACK SEVERAL TIMES BOUNTIFUL AND BETTER” AND THAT IS OH-SO-GOOD. I’M SO SICK OF SEEING WALL STREET CRY. THEY LOOK SO UGLY AND PITTIFUL WHEN THEY CRY. WALL STREET, JUST CLOSE THE CURTAIN YOUR ACT IS DONE IT’S TIME FOR THE REAL PEOPLE TO GET REAL REWARDS, REAL RECOGNIZATION, THE REAL BONUS. SO WALL STREET ” SAY HELLO TO MY LITTLE FRIEND… REALITY” SEE YA REALITY IS CALLING FOR THE DESERVING WHICH IS YOU TOO BAD