'Bloody Monday' and the death of the American dream.

Today 71, 400 people lost their jobs. In 2008 alone 2.6 million million jobs were lost. Unfortunately I was part of one of those 2,600,000. Twice I was laid off in two years and this growing number of 'cost cutting initiatives' doesn't help one find work. Losing a job is hard enough but when you are young it's a little easier to swallow. Some of the people today who were laid off have been doing their jobs for 20+ years. That is a harder pill to swallow, especially when 20,000 thousand of those employees got to watch the CEO of CAT James W. Owens gift himself 1.38 million dollars worth (current stock price 32.67) of stock just before Christmas.  

Now I don't know the circumstances of each employee at CAT or James W. Owens, I just know what I see and read. Giving yourself +42ks shares of your companies stock and then laying off 20% of your company in a months time doesn't seem very kosher. Actually it seems down right nasty. Companies use excuses like 'harsh economic climate' and remedy solutions as 'adjustments'. Just call it what it's a 'Grab and Run'. 

I use to deal with with 'Grab and Runs' all the time. You see I worked at a recently deceased department store where people would come in grab as much expensive merchandise as they could carry and run out the doors. I would then go try to stop them. Sometimes I wasn't working or just plain busy and people would eventually get away with merch. Owens isn't really a villain or a criminal. His pay seems moderate. He's just grabbing as much as he can get away with.