Do you think?

I've heard the liberal complaints about CEOs who lose lots of money, lay off thousands of workers, and draw handsome bonuses for their ineptitude – even drawing bids from other companies. It doesn't make any sense – if you assume that those bonuses are coming from legitimate company funds. I know that you can use “accounting tricks” to survive on very low incomes but those tricks will not transform negative incomes into lavish lifestyles. It only makes sense if you consider the likelihood that these bonuses are a way of laundering illegal drug money.

Thanks to drug policy massive amounts of illegal drugs enter our country and are moved into our low income communities. This can't happen without the active cooperation of our government and business community. Our government craves money not subjected to citizen oversight. Business craves a reliable risk free income that does not need to be shared with workers and stockholders. With obscene profit margins criminal syndicates can share their untaxed wealth with government and businesses willing to expedite drug movement. It's a win-win situation with all the risk assumed by local distributors – usually small ethnic street gangs – and their addict dealers. Police work in partnership with these syndicates to bolster arrest and interdiction stats to get kudos from our media. There is so much money involved that police can crack down on enough locals and independents to justify their big budgets while business and government skim off the profits.

The beauty of this system is that all but the top officers are totally unaware of company involvement. Management employees are recruited mostly for their lack of initiative and inability or unwillingness to think independently or critically. Beginning in schools students in business or people related fields are heavily penalized for independent thinking. The elite are spoon fed geniuses. Only in science, technology and entertainment is talent rewarded. Drugs are moved within business and government, the numbers don't add up and nobody questions the results. Those who do are dealt with; nobody who makes waves is promoted. By the time anyone rises to the top they are so addicted to the lifestyle of wealth they will move drugs without qualms. Isn't that what attracts drug dealers: addiction and desperation?

The DEA catches a lot of local distributors by examination of bank deposits. They don't even bother with corporate bonuses. They search personal vehicles along the border and on interstates. They don't mess with commercial vehicles – other than penalizing drivers for violations. Corporate losses trigger salary cuts, layoffs and lower labor costs for legitimate businesses. That's why the income gap is widening and the middle class is disappearing. Big business executives – even from bankrupt companies – are expected to draw hefty salaries. A lot of that money is deferred compensation – allowing a lot of “cooperative” employees to retire early. This provides incentives to protect company from “independent thinkers” from within and outside the company and fierce gang-like loyalty from beneficiaries.

We will hear a lot of noise bemoaning excessive compensation for executives who cause hardship for loyal lower level employees. We will NOT hear complaints about their undeserved wealth being paid for by the lives of pathetic drug addicts on the street or their crime victims. But then again those at the top of the media ladder are rewarded for lack of critical thinking. They don't think like I do.